When asked to review some E-Learning software, Ryan Healy tells it like it is:

Eventually, I replied and told her that I hate all e-learning.

She said that most millennials she works with dislike e-learning. So, she only designs e-learning tools that are coupled with personal teaching and discussion.

After mentioning my desire to write a post about doing away with e-learning, J.T gave me some great insight. She told me, “It helps save companies thousands in training costs.”

E-learning doesn’t help companies save money, it helps them lower costs. There’s a difference, because e-learning is effectively wasted dollars. It lets HR and corporate training departments fill their checkbox requirements (”Look, so-and-so should know that, they took the e-learning). Most e-learning programs are just a booklet divided up into sections that they make you click through, followed by an inanely simple and irrelevant quiz. Better to just make a web page and let people read it how they want and when they want. The most effective e-learning I’ve ever seen wasn’t even traditional e-learning. It was just a group of links that said “Want to know more about ____? Click here.” For people who needed more information, it gave it to them, and for everyone else, it didn’t waste their time.

Ryan is right, it’s not just Millennials who hate e-learning, everyone does. It’s a waste of time. Putting a generational qualifier there is a cop-out, and it sounds like the consultant peddling it is using it as an excuse. “Yes, some people hate e-learning, but those are Millenials and we don’t understand them anyways.”

Note: After writing this, I realized I used on-line tutorials for computer programming, like those at http://www.w3schools.com, fairly extensively, but I don’t think they fall into what people think of when they hear ‘e-learning’.

Categories: Education, Generations