Vive la difference

On International Women's Day, Operations Director Virginia Barder, inspired by the contribution Brightwave's women have made over the last decade, considers the significance of gender equality in e-learning design.

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You'll be aware of Brightwave's 'what a difference' campaign - celebrating our tenth anniversary. It has made me realise that means it's been nearly ten years since Brightwave's first women full-time employees - Seffy (our magnificent quality manager) and I joined within a month of each other. We like to think we've made a big difference - so much of how we work now is still based on some of the processes and systems we implemented in those early days.

The presence (or otherwise) of women in the boardroom has also been a hot topic in the news recently with nearly three-quarters of women saying they still face barriers to top-level promotion in the UK. However, it's gratifying to know that Brightwave has recognised the value of women at every level of the organisation. But of course one reason that women are valuable is because they are different from men. Not better (well... some are...) and not worse (well... maybe not) and not always - but on the whole, yes, they are different.

So if we recognise and value that difference within Brightwave, are we recognising and valuing that difference sufficiently in our learners? I have a suspicion that our industry is so anxious not to be discriminatory we're not properly considering gender differences when we design our e-learning.

As my favourite feminist anthem from the 70s says:

"I am woman, hear me roar, in numbers too big to ignore..." ©Helen Reddy

I think that the numbers are big, but are being ignored...

Statistically, there's evidence that some women don't do as well in multiple choice questions (mcqs) as men. (See for instance this University of Nottingham study.) This feels right to me - I know that I often struggle to find the right answer in mcqs - so often I want to say 'well, it depends...' and pick an answer somewhere between a and b. I see the fuzziness and grey areas. Little boys play at sorting and categorising and collecting - they have a lot of practice at putting things into a or b.

We had dinner with some experienced trainers the other night - people who have delivered some of our e-learning as part of a blend in a classroom. They've observed their learners, and confirmed that men tend to be much more confident about answering mcqs - they'll select an answer (quickly, less thoughtfully), and not mind about getting it wrong. That's not better - nor is it worse - they're just different in how comfortable they feel. But it matters when we are designing assessments which matter.

We also talk a lot about adding competitive elements to our learning to encourage interest and engagement - but is that really as engaging for women as it is for men? Or indeed for older users? Are we targeting the vocal and identifiable (and sexy?) GenY male learner and neglecting what must be a good %age of our audience?

Don't get me wrong, the e-learning we're producing is making a positive business impact - we have the evidence to prove it. But, perhaps as an industry we should all address gender more explicitly in learning, so that we continue to help everyone perform better and make even more of a difference.

You might also like:

• Learner centric design - a new frontier?
• What a difference 10 years makes

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