Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB)

Farewell to e-learning?

Angela Fogolin, Klaus Hahne, Gert Zinke

Although there was a real hysteria surrounding e-learning at the end of the 1990's, today this term has become virtually unmentionable. The one state of affairs is, however, just as incorrect as the other. Current results of work done and publications of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) provide evidence that the new media and technologies represent an important potential resource for vocational education and training and for the promotion of the transfer of knowledge and technology.

They provide support for learning and knowledge management: individually and informally (for example, through the use of online communities), formally (for example, through the use of net-based course provision) as well as in terms of organisation. (Figure 1)

Figure 1: e-learning action field ⁰¹

Scientific study of the use of information and communication technologies for teaching and learning arrangements and the issues arising in connection with these is a central task of the vocational and educational research carried out at the BIBB⁰² . A particular interest here is how the deployment and use of PC or network-supported media and technologies (e-learning) can support skills acquisition in workplace-related learning and contribute towards process orientation in initial and continuing vocational education and training.⁰³

Network-supported learning infrastructures, manufacturers' information, learning platforms and online communities are central pillars in this process:

• Network-supported learning infrastructures
  Network-supported learning infrastructures consist of information, instructions, learning contents and their related elements which are defined thematically and in a target group related way, incorporated on a learning platform or server and to a certain extent ready-structured.
• Network-supported manufacturers' information
  Manufacturers frequently produce "intelligent products" which crafts trades or service providers have to advise upon and sell, install, make operational, apply, adjust and maintain for the end customer. Appropriate handling and repair in respect of these products can only be guaranteed if access to electronic documents (information, instructions, planning software etc.) can be made available during the planning and implementation of the customer orders in question.⁰⁴  To this end, manufacturers are increasingly providing network-supported assistance which can be integrated into learning arrangements.
• In this process, learning platforms are the software tools which can be made available in the Intranet/Internet and which provide an appropriate interface to store contents, certain functions, such as access to and administration of learners, learning content and practice tasks as well as communication tools.
• Online communities are informal groups of people or networks communicating and cooperating with one another over a longer period of time, predominantly via Internet or Intranet, exchanging knowledge and experiences, creating new knowledge and learning from one another at the same time, by reason of their common interests and/or problems faced. Central issues related or relevant to occupation are of particular interest in this process.

Network-supported learning infrastructures make both formal and informal e-learning possible. Within the framework of formal e-learning, groups or individuals, often with tutorial support and partly combined with phases of classroom teaching and self-learning, learn within a stipulated time and contents framework with the aim of achieving a qualification or certificate.

Informal e-learning, on the other hand, refers to a more spontaneous, individual and self-directed form of learning in connection with current problem-solving tasks.⁰⁵  Such issues, requiring a rapid and precise response, continually arise, especially in the work process. Within the context of fulfilling a work task (order and working process related), support is sought in information, instructions and working software provided by product manufacturers and not so frequently in documents which have been prepared with an educational purpose in mind. Furthermore, online communities, which can be set up in an intra or inter-organisational way, and in which know-how is communicated according to the give-and-take principle, offer valuable assistance and suggestions. This is confirmed by an online survey of user patterns in occupation related online communities (in German)  carried out at the end of 2003. In order to support the use of this learning opportunity, largely neglected by in-company vocational education and training up until now, checklists and planning recommendations (in German)  were developed for its organisational deployment.

Investigations as to the actual extent of order-related informal e-learning in crafts trades and in small and medium-sized companies with network-supported information, instructions and qualifications provided by the manufacturers showed that the use of such provision is dependent upon the company learning culture, the self-learning and media habits of the skilled workers, their position in the company hierarchy and the branch. E-learning with manufacturers' software, servers and communities has already become part of modern order and specialised work in the buildings systems technology sector and in engineering in particular ⁰⁶.

In summary, this means that manufacturers information and online communities represent an additional possibility for work process related learning. In addition, they are an important organisational element within network supported learning infrastructures.

The linking of formal and informal and authentic and virtual learning arrangements is currently being investigated within the framework of a BIBB research project. In March 2005, the workshop "Net and community based learning infrastructures as instruments of process-oriented vocational education and training in small and medium-sized companies and in crafts trades" was held as part of the above-mentioned project. Light was shed upon the topic from various academic and practice-related perspectives and experiences, concepts and visions with regard to network-supported learning infrastructures were put up for discussion. One central issue was how training places and workplaces in the electronics branch could be used as autonomous learning places and what role virtual learning infrastructures can play in this process. It once again became apparent that virtual learning infrastructures can be linked with and integrated into work processes. The description of this possible link can be expressed in terms of the following criteria:

• physical proximity of workplace and learning infrastructure,
• content proximity of learning contents and working processes,
• time proximity of learning process and learning requirements arising from work processes.
  

Network-supported, process-oriented learning infrastructures are already available for trainees in some occupations within the electrical branch. The central point of reference here is the processing of customer orders. In this process, each respective customer order is viewed as a complete action⁰⁷  and is prepared in a didactic way. It can be placed in a network-supported learning infrastructure as a virtual customer order and can be linked with other software tools (communication and cooperation tools, for example) and further link suggestions, for example manufacturers' information, which are relevant to the processing of the order. This makes the virtual customer order a didactic and exemplary preparation for a real customer order typical within the field of activity or work tasks.

In occupational fields such as the chemical industry, engineering and the automobile industry individual skilled workers only perceive a segment of each respective work task due to the increasing complexity of production processes. In order to be able to take action within the context of the production and business process they need, however, to have the necessary process skills at their disposal as well as the specialist skills. This is because in modern production concepts everything depends on the employees' ability, despite their various occupations, to agree amongst themselves on process optimisation. Process skills may be defined as the ability to take part actively in this optimisation.⁰⁸ 

The increased penetration of such industries with information and communication technologies ranging all the way to the digital factory makes possible the realisation of process-integrated learning infrastructures.

The Workshop documentation presents initial concepts for this and indicates research and development requirements.

There is, then, a recognition that the term "e-learning" has certainly been overworked in recent years, what remains, however, is the learning potential which can be opened up by using information and communication technologies.