News and Views

The content crisis

By Clive Shepherd

Coming to terms with content
In the days when most, if not all, corporate training was delivered in the classroom or by sitting next to Nellie (which in many cases is still the case), trainers never needed to bother themselves with 'content'. Their training had content, of course, in the form of subject matter, activities and exercises, but much of this was carried in the trainer's (or Nellie's) head. Content only becomes an issue when you wish your employees to be able to access learning materials on their own initiative, or when, in order to improve the quality and consistency of delivery, you would like trainers and on-job instructors to be able to make use of common materials.

Content is an ambiguous term, which means different things in different contexts, but in general terms it relates to that which is contained in something. In the context of training, 'something', the container, could mean a handout, a PowerPoint presentation, a video or a self-study module. The contents could take the form of explanatory text, questions, exercises, tables, illustrations, photos, diagrams, animation, sound or movies. Each of these media could be used for a myriad of purposes and to portray and convey any number of subjects. What is certain is that content does not happen by accident. It has to be conceived, structured, created, assembled and tested by human beings; hopefully those who know something about the subject in question and more than a little about adult learning.

The importance of content
Content is important because there aren't enough instructors, trainers, teachers, lecturers, coaches or mentors to provide people with a fraction of the information, knowledge and skills that they require to survive in such a fast-moving world. Information and learning material has to be packaged up in some way so employees can access it when they need it, whether that's on paper, on disc or tape, over the phone, on the radio or television, or online (and let's face it, when we're at work, this will nearly always be the quickest and cheapest method).

The packaging of content is a cost-effective way of delivering information and learning materials because, once constructed, it can be delivered at very little cost and to a consistently high standard (assuming it's created well - more of that later). And when instructors, trainers and all those others are freed up from the tedious task of delivering content, they can be exploited to much greater advantage by providing personalised support to individual learners, fostering collaboration and discussion between learners, and providing ingenious opportunities for learners to practise and reflect on what they have learned - much more fun for all concerned.

Who produces content?
Content creation is not why many trainers entered the profession. They expected to be doing what most teachers and trainers have done through history - deliver learning material verbally, in a face-to-face setting, to one or more learners, hopefully who are showing a great deal of eagerness and deference. It is not surprising, therefore, that there has been more than a little opposition by trainers to the concept of e-learning, much of which is self-study and none of which is face-to-face. It isn't said very often, but e-learning definitely is a threat to those trainers who want to do nothing else but face-to-face training, because there will be less trainers doing that. Although the percentage of training delivered online is typically quite low, and certainly under 20% of the total, the trend is upwards. At IBM, for example, 47% of training is now delivered online, providing far greater reach and accessibility, and realising a not inconsiderable cost saving of $579m over two years. All major corporations and public bodies are planning to make a much greater use of e-learning and you can see why.

The trouble is, someone has to produce the online content, and if trainers are unwilling or unable, the first place that organisations will look is outside, whether that's for off-the-shelf content or bespoke production by specialised content developers. Something like 40% of the e-learning spend is on off-the-shelf packages, another 40% goes to outside developers and 20% is allocated to internal development. However, according to a learndirect survey, more than 70% of respondents are now developing, or planning to develop, content in-house.

As any trainer knows, as they take a quick nap after lunch while the John Cleese film is showing, off-the-shelf packages do have their value - because they reach a very wide audience, much more can be spent on their development and they are available right away for relatively modest amounts. The trouble is, they very rarely are exactly what you want and they are difficult to customise. Some vendors allow you to re-brand the materials and to supplement them with your own material, but few allow you to get inside them and shape them precisely to your needs.

Then there's the option of outsourcing. In theory, at least, an external developer is going to have the skills, the tools, the processes and the capacity to create really knockout e-learning materials precisely to your specification. The normal advantages of outsourcing apply - you get to 'stick to the knitting' while specialists employ those non-core competencies as and when you need them. This can and does work, but not in all circumstances. First of all, the development processes are often lengthy and expensive (each hour of interactive, self-study material will cost you between £5000 and £50000), not least because the developers do not have your subject-matter expertise and have to wait for you to pass it over. Secondly, you will typically remain dependent on the developers to maintain your content in future. And don't believe that you'll be happy to keep your content exactly as it is ad infinitum; this will never be the case.

One also has to question whether the creation of e-learning content really is non-core competency. Sure, some of the more exotic skills of programming, illustration, animation, sound and video engineering are not what you find in a typical training department, but most e-learning needs very few of these, and they can be bought-in piecemeal as and when required. The rest of the e-learning process, including analysis, design, writing, authoring, the creation of simple graphics, testing and deployment, can be coped with quite happily by the majority of trainers (given some training and encouragement). If these activities are not core-competency, then the same has to be said of all other forms of training. If that's how you feel, outsource the lot.

In-house content development
According to the CIPD e-Learning Survey, in November 2004, 69% of those surveyed believed that e-learning demands an entirely new skill set for those in training and development. Any trainer reading these results would be forgiven for feeling that e-learning was not for them - if it's that difficult, then leave it to those nerdy 20 year-olds that were brought up on the Internet. E-learning demands some new skills, but let's be clear, it also utilises a lot of what trainers are supposed to have now, for example, the ability to analyse learning needs and find appropriate solutions, the ability to design engaging learning experiences, the ability to deliver live events (albeit using a virtual classroom and delivered online), the ability to create clear, concise and readable learning materials, and the ability to provide one-to-one support to learners.

If trainers feel that e-learning is a job that's just for full-time professionals, then they'll avoid it. They'll also resist it, more often covertly than in public. They are quite capable of ruining an e-learning strategy. This need not happen. The key is to make existing trainers the driving force of the change, full and active participants in all aspects of the process.

Now, to be realistic, trainers do need some new skills to make this happen and these skills are trainable. Not every trainer will have the interest, nor the aptitude, to acquire all the needed skills and to carry out all of the possible roles in e-learning, but they can all go some of the way. Those that most like content development can concentrate on it. Those that get all their fun from interaction with learners can still do this.

So what are the skills? Well, focusing on content developers - who are of course the focus of this paper - the key skills lie in the design of engaging online learning materials, the sort that learners love to use and which help them to reach their learning objectives. Poor e-learning materials are often described as mere page-turners, and yet page-turners, in the literary sense, are exactly what is needed: content so interesting, so challenging, so captivating, that you can't wait to turn the next page and the next, until there are no more left. You've learned everything.

Engaging learning materials may include rich media, such as animation, audio and video, although this will largely depend on the nature of the subject matter, and what is required to bring this to life. More often than not, clear and concise writing, backed up by sufficient, relevant and appropriate illustrative materials, will be compelling enough. Much of the imagery, in particular charts, screen shots and photographs, can be created easily. Others may require some hunting down or have to be commissioned externally (possibly your only direct expense).

What you do with these words and pictures is also vitally important. Learners thrive on the concrete and struggle with the abstract, so good designers use plenty of stories and examples. Learners also need to work with the material interactively, so frequent, meaningful and challenging questions and other activities are vital; particularly those that lead the learner towards the learning point (inductive questioning) rather than simple memory tests after the material has been presented.

A number of training providers and educational institutions provide training in content design, but only a small proportion of trainers have received this. The changes that are being made to the way that training is delivered demand that most, if not all, trainers are able to develop engaging, interactive content (or at least to effectively customise off-the-shelf content). Trainers that do not have these skills could be marginalised within five years. Organisations with their wits about them will solve the content crisis by up-skilling their existing resources, rather than starting again from outside.

New tools for content development
One of the reasons why content development was considered a job for specialists, is that the authoring tools on the market were designed for specialists, which made them both complex and correspondingly expensive. In addition, these tools were installed on individual computers, making it difficult for teams (including those responsible for project management, subject-expertise, writing, reviewing, graphics, authoring and testing) to work collaboratively on the same materials at the same time. Luckily, we are seeing the emergence of new online, database-driven tools, which facilitate team-based authoring, allow assets to be shared across projects, and provide everyone in an enterprise with the ability to get involved in the creation of interactive content. In most cases these tools are embedded in content management systems forming part of large-scale enterprise learning management suites.

We are also seeing tools that can be used over the Internet, which allow content to be developed independently of any enterprise or across multiple enterprises. These tools will be particularly valuable when the content is to be shared by many organisations, which may be using different learning management systems or no system at all. Imagine being able to log in to an online authoring tool, that you can learn how to use in minutes, customise some generic content so it exactly meets your organisation's needs, and then output that content in standards-compliant format so that it will work on whatever management system your organisation employs. This is all just around the corner.

There is a content crisis. The demand for information, knowledge and skills is growing and traditional methods cannot meet this. In response, more than 80% of larger companies are already using or planning to use e-learning, and e-learning itself is forecast to treble in usage over just two years (learndirect survey). The creation of e-learning content requires some new skills, but skills which existing trainers are quite capable of acquiring. Look no further; the answer to the content crisis lies in your own training department.

Clive Shepherd
April 2005