There is a lot to
be said for keeping things simple, and Anita Rosen’s e-Learning 2.0: Proven Practices and
Emerging Technologies to Achieve Real Results certainly achieves
that objective. While this isn’t a definitive textbook on the design,
development, and management of e-Learning, it provides some of the
fundamentals. There are many more things it could have covered, or covered
better, but on the other hand, that would have made it a totally different kind
of book.
Here’s my quick review of what this book does, what it does well, and what it doesn’t do.
An overview of e-Learning
Anita Rosen is the president of ReadyGo, Inc., which offers an authoring tool of the same name. She has spoken many times at The eLearning Guild’s events, and brings a combination of entrepreneurial and management experience, knowledge of technology, and a background that includes e-Learning and project management. This experience shows in the way her book is put together.
Her intent is to help e-Learning practitioners avoid two problems that unfortunately are common events:
- spending a lot of money without getting the desired results; and
- failing to obtain the benefits of e-Learning because of using the wrong model.
To do this, Rosen put together a practical guide to defining an e-Learning strategy that is integrated with business direction and goals, identifying the correct technologies to implement that strategy, and managing often-complicated e-Learning initiatives. In addition, she provides suggestions intended to help the person in charge of the initiative to get buy-in from management, trainers, and learners, and to measure and evaluate the results achieved by e-Learning. Finally, she supports these aims with a number of case studies, some long and some that are simply to the point.
The strengths of the book
I would describe the resulting content as a high-level run through some of the major things a new, would-be practitioner or manager of e-Learning needs to know. In places, it dips down closer to the detail level. A new project manager, or a student, would also benefit from e-Learning 2.0, especially if that person has a more experienced practitioner that they can call on for help and explanation.
The target audience for Rosen seems to have been managers, designers, and teams whose focus is on asynchronous, “course-based,” linear e-Learning. She does a good job of showing how to adapt or convert existing classroom courses, content, and media to “Web courses.” At the same time, she avoids the trap of modeling the Web courses on traditional classroom practice.
The first five chapters are a very fast briefing on the business aspects of e-Learning, on e-Learning strategies and types, and on Web 2.0, its technologies, and trends. I would have to say that, while a great deal more could have been said about all of these, Rosen isn’t teaching a graduate course in business here, and the level of detail was appropriate for a busy reader.
The most useful part of e-Learning 2.0 is probably in four of the last five chapters, namely Chapters 6 through 9.
In Chapter 6, Rosen discusses some strategic decisions that a course producer will have to make. The most significant of these discussions deals with the uses and limitations of smartphones as delivery platforms, authoring and formatting e-Learning content for these devices, and testing learners who take a course via such a mobile delivery system. Although the discussion of smartphone operating systems is already outdated, her quick survey of what was available in 2008 will give new developers a good idea of the challenging diversity that their solutions will have to address.
The topic of Chapter 7 is “Components of an Effective Course.” This is a good tutorial on one way to design an asynchronous e-Learning application. It will be most useful for readers who use Rosen’s proprietary authoring tool (ReadyGo). Those who choose other tools will have to make adaptations, but it shouldn’t be too much of a stretch.
Chapter 8 is a walk through graphics and multimedia. As with much of the rest of the book, the information on graphic file formats will be of most value for new practitioners. There are short sections on using stock photographs, on the basics of copyright law, and guidelines for employing graphics, audio, and multimedia. These latter sections will be of value when you need something basic in order to explain the elements of multimedia production to traditional instructional designers, instructors, and training managers.
Chapter 9, on standards and integration, is a high-level overview of SCORM, AICC, and the included topics of Sharable Content Objects (SCOs) and reusability. It also provides a critique of some of the issues around Learning Management Systems (LMS) and ADA/508 compliance (accessibility standards). These are more introduction than instruction on these topics, but they will be useful to the book’s target audience.
The down side of the book
Most books have a down side, and this one is no exception. In spite of the book’s strengths, there are a few things that I wished the editors had caught, or that the author had addressed.
First, there are some typos and errors of fact. While these are not numerous, some of them will confuse readers who are new to e-Learning. For example, Rosen mentions a tool that supports adding avatars to Web pages, that is, talking cartoon figures that can provide narration. The text identifies this tool as “NOHA.” Alas, the correct name is “NOAH” (a product of NOAHx, which is a unit of TelSim Software, Inc.). As another example, the text also refers to “Macromedia’s Flash and Dreamweaver;” these tools have been part of Adobe’s offerings since Adobe purchased Macromedia in 2005. Knowledgeable readers will have to be patient with these errors, and less experienced readers should check much of what the book says about products by looking them up on the Web.
I could wish that the book addressed more than course-based, linear e-Learning. E-Learning includes other approaches, including synchronous e-Learning (which is addressed only briefly, and not very well, in my opinion), games/simulations/immersive applications, and other models, such as collaborative learning. Given that the author wanted to keep it simple, to stay focused on the basics, and to give priority to the modalities that her proprietary tool supports, this is understandable. But readers should be aware that they are not getting “the whole story.”
Another wish would be for at least a modest presentation of traditional instructional design models, in addition to the rapid design model where Rosen concentrates. Her paradigm mostly centers on the project flow typical of Web development, and of projects in which the goal is to convert existing classroom content into a Web-based format. Again, this is fine, considering the book’s objectives, but there are well-known problems that happen when taking shortcuts around the systematic approach to instructional design. Readers should understand this: rapid development leaves out important steps.
In my opinion, Guild members will find it very helpful to supplement the contents of the book with articles selected from the Learning Solutions archive. Look for articles that address design strategy, development techniques, and management topics, especially those dealing with return on investment (ROI).
Summary and recommendations
If you need to know in detail how to deal with a Learning Management System (LMS) as part of your implementation, this book is not going to help you. If you need to find out how to create Flash animations, use social software, or apply any of the more common e-Learning 2.0 approaches or technologies (RSS, wikis, Podcasts, and so on), you are going to need more help than this book provides.
On the other hand, as books on e-Learning go, especially those designed for the beginning producer or manager, e-Learning 2.0 is adequate to its purpose. It may help to think of what it presents as “e-Learning done Lite.” In spite of the book title, it pretty much stays solidly in e-Learning 1.0 territory, which means that it will be hard for the reader to go too far astray. This is especially true for readers who are doing their first project, or a project that must be done quickly (and by people who have not previously done rapid development). In such a case, e-Learning 2.0 is a good reference. It’s also a good reference if you are going to use the author’s proprietary authoring tool, ReadyGo, and if your other main tool is PowerPoint. I would even say that, if you are a “one-person e-Learning shop,” this would be an acceptable guide that may help you save time and get a usable product out the door. There are many e-Learning developers and organizations that fit this description.
Bibliographic details
Rosen, Anita. e-Learning 2.0: Proven Practices and Emerging Technologies to Achieve Real Results. (2009) New York: AMACOM Books. 236 pages. ISBN-13: 978-0-8144-1073-8. $29.95 Hardcover
