United States Distance Learning Association

concerning barriers to elearning and a few
recommendations to help ameliorate them.
DISTANCE TRAINING IN THE
WORKPLACE
Managers in organizations are usually
effective at managing projects and programs.
Additionally, in successful enterprises,
much of the overall strategic level
planning is well done. However, what I
have suggested is that there are stages or
levels of technological capability within
the organization with regard to technology-enhanced
learning and distance education
(Berge, 2001b; Schreiber & Berge,
1998). Once managers become aware of
these levels of technological maturity, and
aware of the relationship among project
management, program management, and
strategic planning, a better understanding
may be gained concerning the need for
change management to link these elements.
TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY
The same technologies that are fueling
changes in the global economy and driving
the growth of what is called the learning
organization are also fueling the need for
lifelong education for both organizations
and individuals. Not surprisingly, this
trend is also transforming how we deliver
training in the workplace (Bachman, 2000;
Moe, Bailey, & Lau, 1999). Technologybased
learning and distance training can
help to solve business problems. Trainingat-a-distance
can improve the quality of
learning and worker performance in an
organization in a cost effective way while
taking advantage of opportunities to
increase competitive advantage in the marketplace.
The power of training-at-a-distance is in
its use of models different from the traditional
approach to training. This traditional
approach usually involves a “stand and
deliver,” in-person presentation by a
trainer, who is located in the same physical
space as the trainees. With elearning, adult
learning principles are often used to
design and develop an active, authentic
problem-solving learning environment that
often focuses on collaboration and teamwork.
WHY ALL THE FUSS
Why all the fuss Why should changing
culture, economic conditions, and theoretical
stances influence the way education
and training occur Specifically, why
change how training is done and why do
so now In today’s economic climate incremental
improvements are often not
enough. Significant changes within an
organization ultimately come when the
chief executive officer feels enough pain.
Such pain can come from several sources:
external mandates, often from government;
corporate mergers; economic competition;
and self-awareness/education
regarding how organization can better
meet goals (Berge, 2001a). Simply put, for
companies and corporations to remain viable
and profitable, the marketplace will not
allow “business as usual” with regard to
talent management.
It is possible to significantly improve
much of the training and education that is
done by using a learner-centered, collaborative,
social, constructivist approach. To
do this can mean improvement in performance
and employee competencies on an
order of magnitude that exceeds what can
be achieved by didactic methods. It is this
order of magnitude change in the workplace
that necessitates changes to the
expectations, roles, and responsibilities of
instructors, students, and managers as the
organization builds capacity for technologically
enhanced learning of mission-critical
problems. Technology is a catalyst for
change in society, the marketplace economy,
and a cause for changing how training
must occur.
2 Distance Learning Volume 4, Issue 4