It's a funny old industry

The second in a series of three blog posts, inspired by a recent workshop held for people new to the e-learning industry, with a particular emphasis on the design side of things.

More thoughts following our recent workshop introducing the e-learning business for people new to the industry with a particular emphasis on the design side of things.

We kicked off with a brief history of e-learning from the 80s to the present day starting with the Nebraska scale of interactivity, Computer Based Learning (CBT), Laserdiscs, CD-I, multimedia and e-learning.

And the striking thing was, on reflection, that the one thing that's changed throughout this time is the technology (also the main driver) but not design. Sure the process has perhaps changed; there's very little TNA - Training Needs Analysis with associated objectives and the whiff of Skinner and his behaviourist rodents, but fundamentally, interface design, instructional design per se, has pretty much stayed the same. Which is a shame really.

But to be fair, perhaps this lack of change in design has been caused by the very technology that has led it, and changed so quickly; not least HTML, the internet and corporate intranets which enabled distribution and tracking to be the kings and which killed off multimedia just as it was finding its feet.

And now all the talk is of mobile, or m-learning. So, once again will this be a case of the technology wagging the tail of the dog just when multimedia is clawing its way back into the e-learning mainstream with video and audio making a welcome comeback with attendant design opportunities?

Will m-learning give with one hand in terms of mobility and flexibility, and take away with the other, restricting content, layout and interactivity so it can be coded across the different operating systems and scaled to fit the small screened handheld delivery devices?

Perhaps this time, as designers and commissioners of e-learning, we will learn to play to the strengths of the medium by focusing on its suitability for learning games and testing and assessment on the move, and get the content out through other channels - like books (e-books of course!).

Also in this series:

• Shedding light on the dark side - dispelling design myths

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