Web-based learning versus traditional management development methods. (Research Note).

In 1995 it was observed that there was an important relationship between learning styles and the use of learning technology, yet most applications did not seek to exploit that relationship. At the time, the Internet was in its infancy, but it was believed that it would provide a constructivist and collaborativist environment for future learning, which would significantly change traditional management development methods. However, it is apparent from this research that any current or future application of learning technology, whether Web-based or otherwise, that cannot adapt to learning styles risks rejection of that technology by both individuals and organisations alike.

Introduction

In 1995, comparisons of available technologies against learning models of objectivist and constructivist learning concluded that there are a variety of opportunities for implementing IT in management education, but that many implementations did not use technology to match the appropriate learning model. Seven years later on, it is appropriate to ask whether these conclusions still hold true, and whether the learning models presented still apply. One such change in technology over the intervening period offers a reason for a fresh look at these conclusions, the evolution of the Internet. This boom of a new medium of communication focuses further research on the existing and future use of Web technology. How will this technology be used, and how will it apply objectivist and constructivist theory? Furthermore, will learning technology continue to be used to automate existing learning methods, or will the evolution of the Web bring about a transformation in learning methods and in management education specifica lly? The assumption is that Web-based learning can change traditional methods, but will it replace them and, if so, how? To what extent will individual and organisational learning preferences impact the use of learning technologies? This paper considers the question: How will web-based learning replace traditional management development methods?

Growth of Learning Technology

Curtice and Lipoff (1997) saw organisational learning as an aspect of the broader knowledge management trend, through the establishment of a knowledge repository and then making that knowledge available for sharing across the organisation. They saw four main technological developments as key to realising this vision: networks, data management, artificial intelligence and multimedia. Bassi et al also saw four main technological developments as the key. They regarded these as the Internet, object-based learning, intelligent tutoring systems, and voice recognition (Bassi et al, 1998).

The views are similar in many ways. Clearly the Internet is the network of choice, although the expected decrease in cost and ready availability of hand-held computing devices, and developments in mobile phone technology to use the third generation wireless systems (3G) and Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), may change this in time (Naisbitt, 1994; Lewis, 1999; Nordan, 1999; Zohar, 1999; Jones, 2000). Data management is not a new concept, but when combined with object-based programming techniques allows object-based databases to store explicit and tacit knowledge (rather than pure data), storing information and context together with specific issues ("aggregating data with context for a specific purpose", (Cook, 2000). However, building a knowledge repository that is broad in context must allow that knowledge to grow and spread to be of any real value, which requires an ability to search many databases, diversely spread. This need in turn requires an access standard that is no longer tied to any one specifi c database. One solution in progress is the Extensible Markup Language standard, XML (Cook, 2000; Gates, 1999), allowing searches across multiple PCs and multiple databases as well as integrating distributed applications.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) require the use of artificial intelligence (AI) techniques to determine the correct learning needs, and to decide on the best way to present that learning back to the user. Until recently, the desired flexibility for ITS was not possible, but the evolution of AI technology makes it a very real proposition. One of the possible developments that can assist in applying AI is the evolution of AI 'agents', which collect information about the user to be later used in tailoring the learning (Maule, 1998). Maule's (1998) view was that the guiding framework for the progression and integration of Internet, multimedia, artificial intelligence and cognitive reasoning tools, should start with the user. So whilst ITS may apply 'intelligence' to the self-paced, interactive capabilities of CBT systems, to make them more dynamic and tailored to the learner's preferred style and context (Bassi et al, 1998; Murray, 1999), such systems must first learn about the user before offering a tailored solution.

Because the output of ITS is adaptive, solutions can be, at their most basic, merely an integration of basic text and PowerPoint style presentations with multimedia graphics, animation and video into an interesting and stimulating training programme, in effect a CBT system. Yet at their more complex level, Intelligent Tutoring Systems can generate the material at the point of need, adapt the context, and style the learning to the most appropriate for the learner using the most advanced virtual reality systems and voice-interactive interface. Such technologies are already available, many available commercially in game form or in off-the-shelf software (Angehrn & Nabeth, 1997; Gobel, 1998; Macedonia, 2000), but a number of 'corporate universities' are also already making use of this technology to facilitate corporate learning (Meister, 1998). Some consider that the limitations of bandwidth across the Internet will restrict the virtual options available to the user and therefore a fully versatile virtual realit y system would be unfeasible (Glaser, 1997). However, Maule saw a system whereby 'search and filter agents' would extract the knowledge needed from the Internet via the web server, but 'intelligent user agents' at the client would use cognitive variables to build the learning environment dynamically (Maule, 1998).

Perhaps the most pertinent question to ask about voice recognition systems, is why are they seen as so much more important than any other aspects of multimedia functionality? The ability to enter data without use of a keyboard or mouse is a common theme (Bassi et al, 1998; Goette, 2000; Milheim, 1993; Creech, 1995). But a more telling comment, in regard to the use of voice recognition as a learning technology, is that natural language is regarded as 'one of the most fundamental aspects of human intelligence' (Attaran, 2000). Integrating the human voice with artificial intelligence and adaptive contextual learning has the potential to change asynchronous interactivity to comfortable conversation. Even so, are people truly ready to change from keyboard to conversation, and are people ready to 'talk to their computers' despite the availability of the software? Background noise disrupts the software's ability to 'hear' and interpret the spoken input, and the need for headset microphones (to avoid this problem) r estricts movement. There are also doubts over whether voice recognition really improves productivity, firstly because it can take time and patience to 'train' the software properly, and secondly because the work environment does not typically permit the luxury of time to train the system (Attaran, 2000; Goette, 2000). It seems that voice recognition systems have created a great deal of interest and excitement about their potential 'humanising' of the computer interface, but there is still a way to go before they will achieve a ready acceptance in the work environment.

Applicability of Web-based Learning Technology

A number of authors have chosen the same theme to illustrate what they believe is a flaw in thinking of how successful are the Internet and E-commerce. "Build it and they will come" is cited as a mistaken belief in B-commerce, in that having a Web-site assumes that people will search for and access it (Patel & McCarthy, 2000). Likewise the same theme is cited as a mistaken belief in the assumption that establishing a knowledge repository means that people will add knowledge to it and take knowledge from it (Dixon, 2000). It is also the subject of a study by the Masey Center in conjunction with American Society for Training and Development, ASTD, under the title "If we build it, will they come" (Masey Center, 1999), which is researching whether Web-based learning technologies will be used once developed. "Is anybody using this stuff?" asked Forrester Research (Dalton, 2000), concluding that not many were. Although all touching upon slightly different aspects of Web development, they address the same point, whi ch is that having the technology available and accessible is no guarantee that people will find it useful, find it easy to use, or even find it at all.

The desire to use the Internet to support tertiary study has raised questions about the approach of universities, who are being forced to reconsider their traditional pedagogical teaching models against the andragogical learning models used in corporate training and education (University of Illinois, 1999; Corporate University Xchange, 1999; Jonassen et al, 1999). Adults learn better by doing and will remember best by receiving immediate feedback (Senge, 1992; Driscoll, 1998). The differences between pedagogy and andragogy were highlighted by Knowles (1975) and later revisited by him in considering the design requirements of computer-based training (Knowles, 1984; 1998). The basic tenets of adult learning that Knowles proposed, and the application of andragogy to CBT, have been tested to a degree and appear to hold true. For example, his observation that adults have a short attention span was measured at about eight minutes for the average manager, and perhaps by illustration, Barron (1998) observed that user s spent an average of six minutes at a time using eight-hour multimedia CD-ROM program for sales training. This example highlights why the dimensions of adult learning should be included in any learning program designed for the Internet.

The Internet is very suited to offer the learning environment needed to challenge and retain the interest of adults (Driscoll, 1998), and the flexibility of the Web provides the individuality that adults require. These links between pedagogy and andragogy can be combined with earlier thoughts on objectivism and constructivism, so that the different perspectives of adult learning can be applied to the use of Web-based technology.

* Pedagogy, objectivism, and CD-ROMs. The traditional pedagogical teaching methods of academia are fundamentally objectivist in nature and are based on the principles of leading the student through to a predetermined answer. It is largely a passive process and knowledge is considered to be 'given and absolute'. The CD-ROM has typically been used to automate this teaching process, by providing an interesting self-taught medium to deliver a predetermined subject.

* Andragogy, constructivism, and WBT. The guiding principles behind andragogy are that adults like to learn, not be taught, and are therefore fundamentally constructivist in nature. Adults prefer to explore, conceptualise, experiment and practice in their own way and in a relevant context. The nature of the Internet is an amorphous environment of information, useful or otherwise, that allows the individual to search at will and draw connections with information that suit the personal problem or interest being explored.

However, Leidner & Jarvenpaa (1995), not only considered objectivism and constructivism, but also considered collaborativism and cognitivism as dimensions of constructivism. Simply put, the cognitive-oriented constructivist prefers to explore concepts mentally as an individual, whereas the socially-oriented constructivist prefers collaboration in exploring and testing concepts in a sociocultural context (Wilhelmsen, Asmul & Meistad, 1999; University of Illinois, 1999). Kolb's behaviour types of Accommodator and Diverger match closely with the socially oriented constructivist, and the behaviour types Assimilator and Converger link closely with the cognitive-oriented constructivist (Kolb, 1984). We can therefore see that the various models hold true, that different people learn in different ways, and in different social environments. Therefore any learning technology must be adaptive to these individual styles or will only be appropriate to those whose learning style matches the style used by the learning mediu m.

Conclusion

That information technology can offer much to the new learning environment would not seem to be at issue. Development of learning technologies is rapid and broad. The Internet and other network architectures will be essential for knowledge sharing, and the Internet is likely to lead the options available, simply because it will allow access to more knowledge on a broader, global basis. The technologies for searching that knowledge repository will also develop, using artificial intelligence, to sift the good and pertinent knowledge from the irrelevant and make that refined knowledge available to the learner.

However, this research has also concluded that the learning environment must be adaptive to the individual and their own preferred learning styles. Not doing so will not actually encourage self-learning or team behaviour, and attempts to enforce learning against a preferred learning style will most likely result in poor attention and poor retention. Organisations that wish to encourage knowledge sharing and team behaviour must therefore provide learning technology, and a learning environment, that is collaborative and constructivist. But, they must also recognise that some individuals may prefer an objectivist or cognitive learning environment. The challenge then is to establish a learning environment and learning architecture that promotes the organisation goals, but also encourages and adapts to the personal preferences of the individual.

A further conclusion though, is that learning technology will not replace classroom learning entirely, and face-to-face learning will continue to be a significant part of corporate training for many years to come. It may be practical to use learning technology to achieve some goals, and traditional methods to achieve others. Most likely, organisations will have to decide what their learning architecture will be in order to meet their primary corporate objectives, how much will be automated and how much will remain traditional.

From these conclusions, the following statements can be made regarding the prospective fit of technology 'architecture' solutions to learning styles:

* The Internet is primarily constructivist and andragogic and is therefore best suited to adult learning and knowledge creation. The Internet is a self-learning medium.

* CD-ROMs are primarily objectivist and pedagogic and are therefore best suited to specific and simple imparting of knowledge. CD-ROMs are a self-teaching medium.

Conclusions on the use of the Internet as a constructivist medium can be summarised with the following statements:

* Cognitive oriented learners will prefer an isolated and individual approach to Internet and Web-based learning.

* Socially oriented learners will prefer a team-based and knowledge-sharing approach to Internet and Web-based learning.

Clearly, Web-based technology has the potential to replace traditional management development methods in many ways, with the use of intelligent tutoring systems. From the research in to the technical aspects of learning technology, the trends were quite clear in showing what systems will be needed to make web-based learning a reality in the future. There are likely to be six components that will be required, shown in Figure 1. None of these systems have yet been developed sufficiently to implement such architecture, and this model reflects learning technology, as it will be in a few years.

This model has not been implemented yet in the commercial world, but once developed and available will provide the personalised and flexible environment that both organisations and individuals will need to be truly 'Web-enabled'. However, although technology appears to be capable of replacing just about any current practice in learning with automated solutions, there is no guarantee that it will. Now that we have answered the original question How?, perhaps a more telling question is:

Will Web-based learning replace traditional management development methods?

Will people adapt to using technology? Will they find it easy to use and will they find it suits their preferred learning styles? How varied are these learning styles in an average company and do they differ across geographic boundaries? If these questions are left unanswered, organisations risk significant investment in learning solutions that, at the end of the day, simply will not be used by the individuals in that organisation.

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Roger Byrne *

* The author is an independent Singapore-based consultant specialising in career and talent management, and pursues an interest in management development technology.