New Directions

Why would someone start a DPhil at the time that most other people are retiring? I’m still reflecting on exactly why I felt that the time was right, and no doubt all will be revealed at some stage during the history of this site. So what am I doing?

Stimulated by a course in e-Learning design and particularly the course tutor, I seriously considered taking some time out from a very satisfying career as an executive coach and management development consultant to do some research. I was doing some work with a progressive organisation that was encouraging self-directed learning and was looking for new ways to support their staff. Naturally, considering what I had spent so much of my professional life doing, I was interested to see how well e-Learning could cope with what are commonly called the soft skills, (despite the fact that they are actiually quite difficult for many people), skills such as assertiveness, dealing with conflict, negotiating, skills that we might also describe as interpersonal skills. In addition to coaching managers at all levels, I also ran workshops for managers to learn how to use a coaching style of management, so it seemed an appropriate subject to tackle.

Workshops in coaching skills have a number of problem areas, especially in finding enough time to practice – because practice makes perfect, or more realistically, practice provides the manager with enough confidence to try his or her new skills in the workplace and not just in the workshop. The other major problem is role playing. Most people going on courses dislike role plays intensely, and yet it’s usually necessary as a means of realistic practice. You can only really learn to coach by coaching. So on two counts it seemed to me that coaching skills is an area that would benefit from an e-Learning package.

I have a number of questions that I’m interested in but the core one concerns effectiveness. What is the most effective way to help someone learn coaching skills using some form of e-Learning. Flavour of the month in e-Learning are approaches based on games. Why? Because games seem to have the ability to keep their players fully engaged, something that we want for learners. So, I’m going to compare an approach using a game with one using a simulation. I’m still considering what aspects of a game should be included or are relevant and you’ll learn about my thinking in a later blog on this site.

Considering that my first sally into this area will be in a company promoting self-directed learning, I am also very interested to see what level of support will be necessary. After all, one of the concepts behind self-directed learning is just-in-time learning. Fine, the learner can pick the DVD off the shelf and start working on it, but will they need external support or can it be built into the package? How about concepts such as collaborative learning?

How far have I got? Well, I started this programme in October 2007, and I’m about to produce my prototype simulation. Oh, and I’m also just starting a brief course in advanced technical communication. Watch this space.