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Features

Published February 2009

Recycling Learning

  

  Bill Perry

If we’re recycling everything from plastic packaging to software, isn’t it time to reuse learning, too? Smart use of technology and increased collaboration can save money and extend the life cycle of learning solutions.

The list of products we try to recycle ranges from cell phones to water bottles. The length to which manufacturers will go to recycle a product is a function of cost and time, of course. Take learning for example. If you consider the cost of creating training courses, the requirements for developing training modules continue to grow, and the amount people expect to spend is on the way up.

In July 2008, IDC published a report on the Chief Learning Officer magazine Business Intelligence Board survey examining the state of learning. Sixty-seven percent of all respondents to the survey believe that during the next two years, spending on design and development of in-house training will grow by at least 15 percent. Sixty percent see the same level of investment over the same period for learning technologies.

While recycling often is associated with environmental practices, manufacturers, including software developers, also see it as a way to keep costs in check while they increase the functionality of the products they produce. According to IDC research, companies spend approximately $300 million annually on authoring tools and systems for developing training content.

So if we’re recycling everything from plastic packaging to software, isn’t it worth looking at ways to reuse learning, too?

The Product Called ‘Training’
“Conceptually, when you think about training you have to think about it as a product, and like any other product, you need to think about the development life cycle,” said Massood Zarrabian, chief executive officer for OutStart Inc. “So as the product evolves, you have to invest in keeping training products up to date and create a collaborative environment for making changes. And upon deployment, communicate its availability to end users.”

Zarrabian isn’t necessarily suggesting people spend more on learning technology, although in some cases that might be necessary. Rather, he said people should put in place the strategies and marshal the technology to bring efficiencies into the development process and extend the life cycle of training.

“The most common form of reuse is leveraging the same content for instructor-led training, as well as some version of e-learning,” said Cushing Anderson, program vice president for IDC. “So every course that is offered either online or in a classroom could benefit from reuse.”

Anderson calls this “content parity,” wherein the same content is used across a variety of media. “Content parity is assured by the use of some form of content management system,” said Anderson.

Some companies are just beginning to put effort into how best to recycle learning. Others, such as Xerox, are ahead of the pack.