We are running.
Rapid Learning and its complement, Rapid Teaching, have become recurring slogans in the formation of our day.
The great revolution produced on an operational, but also social and psychological level, by the new Industry 4.0, has opened infinite new 'tracks' where running is the dominant imperative. Like the great revolutions of the past, starting from the first mechanization of human work, and like any radical change in knowing and doing, this revolution also needs to produce and build, alongside the continuous changes it proposes and generates, a new balance internally for the well-being of all people who are directly and indirectly involved in the process. Human progress is a complex phenomenon, which implies positive but also negative elements, if the equilibrium just mentioned is not composed. A first essential element of necessity, for the generation of this new desired and necessary balance, is the correct and complete integration of the human factor, which remains an essential element for common growth, which must remain the main objective to be pursued. Even running.
The continuous, rapid and effective training of women and men, young and old, for new knowledge and new methodologies, is the center of the current needs of growing businesses, and of people who live, grow and work within them.
To generate new, effective and rapid training methodologies, Rapid e-learning today becomes a new keyword, increasingly widespread and recurring in the world of training. It allows you to build quick, simple, online training cheap and attractive, responding to the needs of producing an extraordinary quantity of training contents, usable without difficulty online, with our computer, but also with easier mobile tools still in everyday use, such as our mobile phones or tablets.
We talk about tools of common and daily use, which have become essential elements of our life, of our work and social communications, and are today also our main channel for new learning and new acquisitions.
The process, now definable as classic, of building e-learning training processes is known by the acronym ADDIE (Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation).
Simplifying, the methodology provides a linear cycle that starts fromExpert of the subject, which transmits the didactic contents toInstructional Designer (or Didactic Designer); he elaborates a didactic strategy, creating a document called storyboard, which constitutes the backbone of the training project. From this moment on, the developers, which give life to the actual teaching module. The conclusion of the cycle is given by Responsible which tests the form, approving it or returning it to the previous stages if anomalies or inaccuracies are detected. The 'cascade' process of this methodology requires relatively long implementation times, especially for educational contents pressed by what we can define as 'time-critical e-Learning', where very fast processing and dissemination is required, in relation to the ever faster life cycles of many products, or new ideas and methodologies to be introduced in the production cycle.
We need to have constant and fast information on an ever-increasing quantity of products that have a short life and development cycle, and we need to have information always up to date on them to move properly in any sector of the world of work in which we are inserted and operate.
Rapid e-Learning is identified at the same time both with a rapid and continuous learning method, but also with a set of software tools that allow to produce or make available on line easily and at low cost content previously made and subject to continuous updates. .
Quick tools often use the most common Office Automation applications, such as the well-known Microsoft Power Point (or from other similar office suites), providing a series of functions that can simplify and speed up the realization of the Learning Object, capable of building easy elements for navigation and, last but not least, to allow a simplified possibility of updating the educational contents themselves, if necessary.
The subject matter expert, in the accelerated process of rapid e-Learning, works in very close contact with the instuctional designer in the creation of an educational document (mostly a presentation), which is the substantial basis of the work itself, eliminating the realization storyboards.
Very often the two professionals end up coinciding in the same person and this further reduces both the time and the costs of producing the final Learning Object.
Simplifying does not necessarily mean neglecting the quality of the product, an element that remains at the base of the training project, inserted, thought and implemented within a complete and complex didactic architecture.
In short, Rapid e-Learning becomes one strategic solution which fits easily into the training tools, especially working in training areas that have medium-low levels of complexity, without a high need for high content structuring, and subject to continuous and constant updates. For what you can imagine, observing the general trend, one should be expected in the near future growing demand of this kind of training; one of the answers to this question seems to come from Bersin & Associates which states that in the coming years we must expect an increasing demand for e-Learning, but this request will increasingly focus on rapid and effective learning formats in development times and of fruition (Bersin, O'Leonard - 2005).
This new direction, therefore, quick, simple and captivating, joins and does not exclude the other training methodologies, where the level of complexity of the contents requires a different approach and an otherwise consolidated methodology.
Time is running out. Everyone knows or says they know the value of time, and the ability to use it positively is of great importance both for businesses and for people themselves. This importance has grown exponentially and the concept of the correct use of time also impacts distance learning projects.
The fact that distance learning was just an additional modality compared to classroom training has already passed and there are more and more companies that use it daily and e-learning is used in many different areas.
What has been happening for some time, until becoming everyday life, is that updating people's skills can no longer be delegated and relegated to scheduled periodic training events, but must be a constant and continuous process, in which access to training resources must be rapid, continuous, possible and available to all.
Is what we are experiencing a positive path? It is difficult to give a complete answer, as always it is difficult to analyze the phenomena in the moment that they occur and that find a true validation for themselves only with the passage of time and with the continuous improvements and growths that take place over time.
The speed and simplicity of delivery and use are certainly the strengths of Rapid e-Learning, and are not only upstream (creation and networking), but also downstream (use), and this element deserves not to be overlooked.
Returning to the previously desired need for the correct and complete insertion of the human factor into the world that runs, we remember a Latin American proverb that reads: 'there is no medicine that cures what does not cure happiness'.
Much of our happiness is linked to our correct and complete insertion into the world of work, which has a fundamental importance for our life and our personal fulfillment. The possibility of being able to increase our training continuously, simply, captivating, through tools that, like our smart-phones, are familiar to us and are constantly in our hands, is an element of great importance for our general and personal well-being . Running can be a good thing if we can run happy.
Claudio Del Conte