Elearning defintions or ..elearning is dead – long live elearning

I was talking to a couple of people recently about elearning.

I had to explain that we don’t use the word elearning we prefer the words ‘online training’

Why?
Elearning conjures up all sorts of images and means many things to different people. Different people have different definitions.

One of the people I spoke to when I mentioned elearning imagined “comic sans” fonts and cheesy Clipart.

Another said they couldn’t get past the idea of an American styled
‘smile training’.

Elearning has a wide variety of definitions – to listen to a ‘podcast’ is classed as elearning and that is seen as sexy and sophisticated but watching a ‘Youtube’ video (depending on the content) is also elearning but is seen as a waste of time by many.

It all comes down to – definitions – when you ‘pays ya money’ you ‘takes ya choice’

As soon as you say “elearning” to someone – be they prospective client or someone at a networking event, they put on the definition they have in their head and play the record. It’s a hard job once people have pre-conceived notions in their heads to change them.

Although using the phrase “Online training” is fraught with dangerr.

Almost without exception, people these days want knowledge but don’t want to do anything and sometimes nothing at all, about acquiring it.

The words ‘training’ and ‘learning’ imply that you will have to spend some time taking action.

However – Online training is what we do and our definition of learning is clear.

To see what it is like – click www.sharp-end-training.net