Using Technology to Create a Collaborative Training Environment at a Distance

Dilemma:  how does the Instructional Designer accommodate staff who are spread out through many locations and are unable to come together for meetings, collaboration and document sharing?  Which technology tools will work best to enhance training workshops?  Tools that are highly participatory and promote collaboration, networking, and sharing have extraordinary potential for education and learner-engaging functions (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012, p. 129).

In the organization for which I am a training specialist in the Education Department, we utilize WebEx meetings for staff who cannot attend an onsite meeting.  This tool allows participants to enter the meeting and provide feedback to a presentation or discussion that is occurring onsite.  All that is required for the participant is a computer with web access, as well as a phone by which to interact in the meeting.  The meeting documents are shared, and the meetings are recorded for those who are unable to ‘be present’ in real time.   

One challenge that can be met with a different tool is the participants’ sharing of documents and screen shots with one another.  All of the staff can create an account with Dropbox to submit and review each others’ material.  I have found Dropbox to be useful in various committee work as well as church service planning. 

Beldarrain indicates that technology enables learners to access education at any time and from any place (2006, p. 139).  There is especially a need in the workplace to allow individuals to collaborate within time and place constraints.  This is a need that can be met by tools that create a learning community where members can build expertise, develop problem-solving skills, and foster a sense of connectedness between the members of a group (p. 150).

References: 

Beldarrain, Y. (2006). Distance education trends: Integrating new technologies to foster student interaction and collaboration. Distance Education, 27(2),139–153.

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Defining Distance Learning

Distance learning took a while to enter my life.  I attended a traditional K-12 private school, and went on to attend a four-year traditional college.  The college was distant from my home in Seattle – all the way to Iowa – but involved face-to-face classroom and lab environments.  For my first couple of employers, I was asked to provide on the job training to several coworkers.  This education was all provided in face-to-face environments.  Any certification courses that I attended were completed at a specific location; again, face-to-face.

When I was employed in a larger healthcare organization (not until early 2000), I completed online modules for compliance training and in 2008 became instrumental in administering the learning management system.  Somehow, I didn’t associate these courses with distance learning as they were provided at a specific location, plus, the concept of distance learning was not in my vocabulary.

In the video presentation, Distance Education:  The New Generation, Simonson mentions correspondence study and European open universities as part of the history of distance learning (Laureate).  Although I did not experience either of these environments, the value of these trends and services is great in the evolution resulting in today’s online learning advances.

Currently, I am the administrator of the learning management system at a large healthcare organization.  I appreciate the accuracy of the education that can be delivered in this system as well as the convenience that it is instantly available once it is in the system (Moller, Foshay, & Huett, 2008, p. 70).

What I have come to conclude is that distance learning is an environment of collaborative and interactive learning among instructor, students and technology that can be accessed at any time from anywhere. 

I would like to share a quote that speaks to the benefit of distance education:  “Distance education provides the opportunity to widen intellectual horizons, as well as the chance to improve and update professional knowledge.  Further, it stresses individuality of learning and flexibility in both the time and place of study.”  (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2012, p. 39).  My challenge is and continues to be to deliver not just information, but learning that emphasizes knowledge building and problem solving skills in the learners (Moller, Foshay, & Huett, 2008, p. 74).

References: 

Huett, J., Moller, L., Foshay, W., & Coleman, C. (2008). The evolution of distance education: Implications for instructional design on the potential of the web (Part 3: K12). TechTrends, 52(5), 63–6 7.

Laureate Education, Inc. (Producer) (n.d. b). “Distance Education: The Next Generation.” [Multimedia program].

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2012). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distance education (5th ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Not so joyful start to my Distance Education course

Well, I totally missed the application assignment when it was due.  Thanks to one of my fellow colleagues, I received an email reminder that I was missing information for my classmates to complete their assignments.  Boy, this won't happen again :(  My apologies to everyone for the tardiness of this blog.