There are three distinct technologies already in existence that the education and training industry needs to take advantage of if they want to be competitive in 2025: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS), and Microlearning.
Article Author:
By Scott MacFarlane, MSM, CWDP, Instructional Designer, Newport News Shipbuilding
The world we live in is, indeed, getting smaller. The 20th century saw immigration increase on a massive scale, first with traveling by ship in the first part of the century, commercial air travel by mid-century, and finally virtually through the Internet toward the close of the century. As we continue into the 21st century, globalization is moving faster than ever, with mingling cultures and languages, political differences, and technology being the main issues. With these issues, education and training are beginning to suffer across the globe. Challenges abound, but there are just as many opportunities available. As technology increases, trends on the horizon also will need to be identified and taken advantage of. This article will focus on some of these opportunities and trends the training and education industry can use to help them prosper in the next decade.
Top Issues and Challenges
1. World Culture: The first issue trainers and educators should be aware of is different cultures around the world and the emergence of new ones. Two results of globalization are what George Ritzer calls cultural hybridization and cultural convergence. When global and local cultures mingle to the point where they represent a new culture, cultural hybridization is the result. When globalization leads to “increasing sameness throughout the world,” the result is cultural convergence. Both of these have helped in the development of a world culture model existing in various political, business, and educational domains. Theoretically, people have come to feel as though they are empowered by and have become members of a world culture.
2. Technology: Technologies including the personal computer, smaller storage media such as DVDs and USB drives, and the Internet have made cross-cultural and global communication easier and faster and are all major contributors to globalization (Ritzer). The Internet specifically has helped permeate the once distinctive cultural and global borders, and more recently, has helped to create social networking technologies such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, resulting in global networking, business partnerships, and friendship.
However, technology also has its challenges, which have caused global inequality (Ritzer, p. 410). Called the “global digital divide,” people living in underdeveloped countries often cannot afford a computer let alone an Internet Service Provider (ISP), and in some extreme cases, the electrical infrastructure is not even in place. Productivity is being wasted at the cost of $10,000 per employee because of a “digital skills gap” of insufficient digital and technological skill sets (Grovo). Technology also has made training and education a challenge for organizations. In their undated article about Electronic Performance Support Systems, or EPSS, Jan McKay and Walter Wager posit the following:
“A basic premise of the EPSS approach is the notion that training is ineffective and inefficient for many performance problems facing companies today. With the rapid pace of change in the business world, training is often too slow and too expensive to meet constantly changing performance needs. Time devoted to training becomes extremely costly both in terms of salaries being paid to trainees and the decrease in sales while workers are away from their jobs.”
Grovo confirms this, arguing that technology has accelerated so fast that training cannot keep up with it. The lifespan of any given skill in the workplace has decreased to just two-and-a-half years due to this “technological turnover,” and this means that what employees learned on the job will have to be relearned every three years. Worse yet, what a college freshman currently is learning will be obsolete before graduation.
3. Language: According to Ritzer, the Internet even poses language inequalities because more than 80 percent of Websites are written in English, while less than 1 percent are in other languages such as German, Japanese, and Spanish. The gap, and, thus, the challenge is with those countries where these languages are not spoken…so even if the disadvantaged countries mentioned before can afford and do have access to the Internet, they are unable to use it. So there are some challenges, but it is with these challenges that the opportunities lie, where consultants and training organizations must use technology to their advantage.
4. Training: While traditional classroom training and education has its benefits, it also has been said to be ineffective (Grovo). Organizations spend more than $160 billion annually on training and education, but this training is time-consuming and often boring to the learner because it is too lengthy. In fact, in 2005, the average time any given organization spent to train one employee was 25 hours, whereas today it has increased to 30 hours. The time spent to develop the training paints an even grimmer picture in that every hour of classroom training requires developers to spend more than 180 hours creating it. Worst of all, fully 80 percent of the content learned in this training is forgotten within a month. The good news is that with all the challenges the training and education industry faces, there are many opportunities to overcome them. Global consultants, trainers, and educators need to harness these new opportunities and implement them.
Main Opportunities: Harness the Technology
There are three distinct technologies already in existence that the education and training industry needs to take advantage of if they want to be competitive in 2025: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS), and Microlearning.
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs): Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are small chunks of training located online and can be in the form of short video segments or computer-based training (CBT) (Macleod, et al.). At one time MOOCs were thought to become a trend that would make brick-and-mortar universities obsolete. They were also thought to bring a wealth of free higher education to those who otherwise would not have access to it, and typically have been learners from all over the globe. Some have argued that MOOCs (along with most online learning) are inferior to traditional training and education courses and do not encourage critical thinking or support a quality education (Callaway). But the result has been otherwise; as data show the “majority of learners are well-educated and in employment” (Macleod, et al.). Today they are seen as more of a blend, supporting traditional curriculum, and traditional colleges and universities still stand. However, MOOCs have proven themselves, and it is foreseen that they will continue, especially once translated into many different languages across the global learning community.
Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS): Along the same lines as MOOCs is the Electronic Performance Support System or EPSS, a system where members of a learning organization can access various tools such as:
Help wizards
Interactive computer training
Computer-based training and simulations
Learning management system (LMS)
Intelligent coaching tools
Online reference material
Customized business applications (McKay & Wager)
An EPSS can offer much of the same information as a MOOC but is housed on an organization’s intranet. The goals of the EPSS are also advantages. First, it provides members of an organization immediate access to whatever learning and training they need to perform a task, which ultimately increases efficiency and effectiveness. Second, an EPSS helps support novice employees and trainees with the information they need to perform their jobs as if they were already expert employees without actually being trained by one. Last, an EPSS provides just-in-time training, in which the employee or trainee can learn in the context of the task and in the exact time it is needed.
Microlearning: Microlearning is another technology similar to MOOCs in that it allows people to learn by way of short, focused units of information (Grovo). Microlearning engages the learner by using visual and interactive sessions, games, and videos that are usually less than seven minutes long (Grovo). By breaking massive information down into smaller chunks, the training content can easily be transferred into long-term memory and, thus, enhance retention. Microlearning can be implemented into an organization’s LMS through the use of EPSS, so learners can learn on the job, alleviating the need for travel to a training site or disrupting an employee’s work schedule. Thus, time and cost are reduced significantly.
Emerging Trends by 2015
An organization should be aware of emerging trends and which of them to utilize or ignore. According to a report in the Education Journal, one trend identified in a recent study shows a decreasing number of available teachers. The same study indicates that between 2012 and 2015, there has been a 23 percent decline in the physical locations of where training is conducted. Could this trend continue? If so, it provides additional justification for why the training and education community should invest in Microlearning, MOOCs, and EPSS technologies.
Because of increasing technology, training of a practical nature seems to be trending toward the use of simulators (Strachan). Another reason for this trend is it costs much less than training on the actual equipment. If the current economic recession continues, training and education organizations will continue to watch their budgets and cut costs where necessary, making simulators a viable trend for years to come.
Conclusion
Globalization has allowed people all over the world to get closer to each other. It also has contributed to mingling cultures and languages, as well as advances in technology. While globalization has caused concerns due to rapid technological advancement that is outpacing our educational and training organizations, there are still opportunities to take advantage of. Global living standards have improved, but since people themselves are the key component in this, it is proposed that organizations in both wealthy and poor countries should increase their budgets and spending when it comes to training and education (Marber). In the next decade, it is critical that organizations use these budgets toward MOOCs, EPSS, and Mircolearning technologies.
References
Callaway, S. (2012). Implications of Online Learning: Measuring Student Satisfaction and Learning for Online and Traditional Students. Insights to a Changing World Journal. Iss. 2, Pp. 67-94. Retrieved February 20, 2013 from http://0-ehis.ebscohost.com.library.regent.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=3b43abe6-761d-440f-b29e-3ab79109d5df%40sessionmgr13&hid=4
Grovo (2015). Bite Size is the Right Size: How Microlearning Shrinks the Skills Gap. Training magazine whitepaper, pp. 1-16. Retrieved April 1, 2015 from http://whitepapers.lakewoodmediagroup.net/sites/default/files/Grovo_Corp%20Microlearning_Whitepaper_Final.pdf
Macleod, H., Haywood, J., Woodgate, A. & Alkhatnai, M. (2015). Emerging Patterns in MOOCs: Learners, Course Designs and Directions. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, Vol. 59, Iss. 1, pp. 56-63. Retrieved April 4, 2015 from http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.library.regent.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=8&sid=aea55268-4060-42a6-9cca-d9c7025ec469%40sessionmgr198&hid=114
Marber, P. (2011). Globalization and Its Contents, from Global Issues: Annual Editions 10/11, pp. 76-81. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill
McKay, J. & Wager, W. W. (n. d.). Electronic Performance Support Systems: Visions and Viewpoints. Human Performance Technology, Ch. 15, pp. 147-155. Retrieved April 4, 2015 from http://www.mahara.at/artefact/file/download.php?file=190645&view=30317
Report Reveals University Teacher Training Trends. Education Journal, Iss. 214, p. 8. Retrieved April 4, 2015 from http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.library.regent.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=5&sid=aea55268-4060-42a6-9cca-d9c7025ec469%40sessionmgr198&hid=114
Ritzer, G. (2010). Globalization: A Basic Text, pp. 44-47; 244-294; 410. West Sussex, UK: John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Strachan, I. (2013). Training Trends. Military Technology, Vol. 37, Iss. 12, pp. 38-44. Retrieved April 4, 2015 from http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.library.regent.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&sid=aea55268-4060-42a6-9cca-d9c7025ec469%40sessionmgr198&hid=114
Scott MacFarlane is completing his Doctor of Strategic Leadership degree at Regent University’s School of Business and Leadership. A retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, he worked as a first-line and mid-level leader, and taught leadership curriculum at the Center for Naval Leadership. His credentials include a Master of Science in Management from Troy University, a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology from Roger Williams University, Navy Master Training Specialist, and Workforce Development Professional Certification from the University of Virginia. He currently works as an instructional designer for Newport News Shipbuilding and is an adjunct professor for Strayer University. He can be reached at carrmac@mail.regent.edu.