Learning the e-learning - Terminologies and Lingoes

As I try to settle down in the newly created e-learning training environment, I often come across new things that keep unfolding with every passing day. Sometimes it is the reaction of people who are using e-learning and sometimes it is the contentment of senior folks who see a huge cost saving in the process. All in all it is truly a mixed bag of emotions that I go through sitting on the ‘Hot Seat’ of the training head, who also happens to be the agent of change for my organization.

While e-learning has really enticed me over the past few weeks it has also provided a substantial learning curve to me. I came across some really interesting terminologies and lingoes. Some of them I already knew, while others were totally new. So, I thought of sharing it through the medium of my blog. So in future if anyone wants to implement e-learning in his/her organization, he/she can have an intelligent conversation with the vendor using these terms.

So here are few most commonly used lines by the Masters of the game:

Custom (Bespoke) Courses: Custom courses as the name suggests are courses which are created specially for you based on your business requirement. The content used in this is created specifically for your usage. For example, if there is a new product that you have launched and want to train your team, then the training material will be custom created for you.

Off-the-shelf Courses: Off-the-shelf courses are the standard courseware written and provided by subject matter experts. For example, these could be your Java courses, .Net courses, Communication courses etc. As these courses do not have any new business specific content specially created for a particular organization, these are called off-the-shelf learning courses.

Learning Management System (LMS): Learning Management System or LMS is a platform on which courses are launched. This is nothing but a software through which users access courses and undergo desired training modules. LMS also helps in tracking users and course related data such as the usage, tests taken by the user etc.

Scorm/ AICC Standards: Now this one has some sort of history attached to it. In the past everyone used to create e-learning content which at times used to fail to run on a LMS. This was primarily because there was no standardization in the way the content was coded making it incompatible with the LMS. So in order to ensure compliance in all the training material that is created; Scorm/ AICC standards were created. A courseware that is Scorm/ AICC complaint can run smoothly on any standard LMS.

Behind the Firewall: Though it sounds like a term straight out of a Harry Potter flick but in reality it has no connection to it. To run any e-learning training program it is essential to have a LMS. This is sometimes also purchased by the customer. Since purchasing an LMS is like purchasing software, the organization also has to invest on hardware and other support things. These include purchase of servers, computers, getting a team to manage the LMS etc. It makes the entire learning happen within the company on the intranet. Thus, making it ‘Behind the firewall’ learning. This kind of solution is used in organizations which have proprietary information, work on products or have an internet bandwidth issue.

Hosted Solution: Hosted Solution is just the opposite of ‘behind the firewall’. In a hosted solution, a third party takes care of all the hardware investment and back-end support. This reduces the cost phenomenally making it a much cheaper training option. The third party uploads the course on its LMS and the same is accessed by your user through the internet.

Software as a Service (SaaS): This is also hosted. But SaaS is sold as a service. In this the third party takes responsibility of providing an end-to-end solution to the customer. This includes training people on how to use/ access e-learning, hosting content, providing usability reports to the organization etc. In SaaS, the third party also continuously updates the content servers ensuring a minimized in the downtime.

Learning Path: Learning path as the name suggests is a custom path which is devised by the organization for growth of an individual based on his as-is and to-be competency level. The learning path is made in order to facilitate the individual to do his job better.

Blended Learning: Blended learning is an amalgamation of two different types of learning solutions to achieve organizational training goal. The two type of learning solutions are Instructor led training (ILT) and e-learning.

A blended model works in two ways:
A) When ILT is the primary mode of training and e-learning works as a support to it. In this case e-learning is looked at as a medium to provide a continued training after the ILT session is over.
B) When e-learning is the primary mode of training and ILT works as a support to it. In this case there are some one-on-one interactions with the subject matter experts are organized to contextualize the session basis the requirement.

Well, for now this is all I have come across. Hope the information comes in handy to you for your future e-learning endeavors. I will keep sharing more as and when I come across interesting, less known terms.

Till then you can use these to e-mpress your people and vendors :)