Guest Post: Is social care now ready for the e-learning revolution?
Colin Paton
Yes says Colin Paton Senior E-learning Project manager at SCIE who gave a presentation at the Learning Pool London Social Care Briefing last week. The new research from Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE) explores E-Readiness in the Social Care Sector and there are some fascinating findings.
In 2006 SCIE commissioned Ipsos MORI to undertake a research programme with the following objectives:
To establish whether the social care sector in England was ready to maximise the use of e-learning in terms of technical and organisational infrastructure and in terms of the availability of e-learning content for social care
To provide an assessment of the capacity of the social care sector as a whole to use and produce e-learning, in particular in Internet-based learning, and to exploit its full potential in pursuit of improved services for users and carers
SCIE and Ipsos MORI ran the e-readiness survey in 2006-7 and again in 2010 that looked at the following areas across the social care sector:
• Access to IT
• Usage of e-learning
• Attitudes towards e-learning
• Barriers to uptake of e-learning
• What is good e-learning
• Support for e-learning
Both surveys polled social care employers and employees from local authorities, the private sector and the voluntary/charitable sector.
From an e-learning perspective it is heartening to see that usage of e-learning as a training methodology has increased across the board since 2006-7. Attitudes from employers are much more positive towards the potential effectiveness of e-learning. They are much more aware that there is good e-learning available out there and feel more confident in supporting the take up of e-learning within their organization. It is worth noting that in both the 2006-7 and 2010 surveys employees demonstrated that they are much more willing to take e-learning training than their employers may have assumed. There is, of course, still a lack of access to IT in the workplace (in all but local authorities). The 2010 survey reveals that personal access to IT is much higher and this may offer opportunities for e-learning undertaken at home.
The survey will be carried out again in 2011-12 and one can assume that e-learning usage to continue to increase. Key to this however will be a greater awareness of where to find good e-learning resources, greater support for both employers and employees on how to use e-learning most effectively and to select the best resources and a mature policy on home training.
The full 2010 report can be found at: http://www.scie.org.uk/workforce/getconnected/Research.asp
Definitely worth looking at the presentations from the Learning Pool Briefing which included Safeguarding Adults in Warwickshire (Carol Judge) From data protection to dementia (Ed Schrager), Social Care in the 21st Century (Lynn Meaden) with a mention of the Richmond Adult Social Care Workforce Strategy.
About the author Colin Paton has worked with e-learning inC Latin America and the UK since 1998 and is now Senior E-learning Project manager at SCIE responsible for the development for a range of national e-learning programmes for the social care workforce.
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Tags: e learning, online learning, social care, social learning
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January 25th, 2011 at 2:22 pm
Whilst the idea of e-learning in social care is a good one and certainly cost effective I am concerned as to whether is an effective learning tool for many individuals.
The lack of interaction with a trainer and/or others taking part in the learning can mean that the concepts taught my not be reinforced. It also means that while a person may have an outline of what is required in the e-learning they do not have the opportunity to question the concepts offered, again for deeper understanding.
I welcome e-learning as an additional tool but I think care providers need to ensure it is effective for each individual they are putting through the course
January 25th, 2011 at 3:03 pm
Hi Tony,
Research over the past few years has shown pretty consistently that e-learning can be at least as effective as traditional methods. However, its effectiveness for each individual depends on a myriad of factors such as:
a) the quality of feedback
b) the quality and degree of support
c) degree of learner independence and intrinsic motivation
d) the quality, user friendliness and relevance of the resources themselves
e) the degree to which e-learning is integrated with the individual’s work
and so on….
Good e-learning addresses some if not all the issues above and poor e-learning (of which sadly there is a lot around) offers nothing more than a ‘cost effective’ means of delivering training to large numbers of people with little or no support.
But I do agree that e-learning perhaps is not for everyone and that is why I think blended learning (combining e-learning with face to face delivery) is a good model for many social care institutions – and may allow learners a gentle way into e-learning and allow them to gradually take more responsibility for their own learning.
January 26th, 2011 at 10:20 am
I would certainly agree with what Colin says. Effective, well-designed learner-centred e-learning can be at least as effective as traditional materials – allowing learners to progress at their own pace, access learning as and when they need it and take control of their own learning (they can skip content they are familiar with and focus on areas of particular relevance/or that are new to them – making the most of their time). In many cases e-learning will work at its best when blended with other approaches – and support and feedback is critical. At Learning Pool we have worked with our partners Ophira to design and develop a suite of e-learning content around compliance and the ‘care pathway’ . We have built all of our content using an Authoring Tool which allows customers to tailor material, if they wish, to ensure it fits well with, and supports, a blended approach.
January 27th, 2011 at 1:04 pm
I think one of the important aspects in making e-learning effective is managers and supervisors understanding the content of the course and using development activities such as supervisons to check understanding of the particular learning and how it applies to the working practices of the company.
I suppose I have a concern that in many settings staff will be sat in front of a computer told to learn and then have no follow up support with managers/supervisors working on the assumption that the teaching has been done so the staff member needs no further support.
January 27th, 2011 at 8:26 pm
I could not agree more Tony! Among the most frequently overlooked aspects of the implementation of e-learning are systematic support systems for learners and genuine integration of this learning with day to day working processes and recognition of learning by organizations. There sometimes seems to be an assumption that it is sufficient to make e-learning resources available to staff and somehow learning will happen on its own and this learning will have a positive effect on working practices. This is what sometimes worries me about glib claims that e-learning is almost by definition a cost effective training solution for large numbers of staff.
It certainly can be a cost effective and effective solution, but only if the programme is well designed, is marketed well within the organisation, if the right support mechanisms are in place that provide the conditions for success and if learners genuinely feel that what they are doing is relevant and recognised within their organisations.
Effective e-learning is no easier that other forms of training – it will not happen by osmosis – it needs active nurturing!!
January 30th, 2011 at 3:16 pm
I don’t think anyone would agree that e-learning can be or purports to be a panacea for hard-pressed individuals or organisations. It can, however, be an effective and efficient way of promoting learning.
I would agree with factor ‘d’ in Colin’s post. There are some very dull e-learning materials out there that don’t really engage learners. The same is true of course of some traditional classroom-based teaching. The trick for e-learning (indeed for all learning) is to develop materials and content that is both relevant and engaging.