In Anne-Marieâs post, âWhy we need learning technology developersâ, she discusses issues around learning technology in the education sector where learning technologies are considered as tools or efficiency mechanisms. As a learning technologist, she recognizes the need of having higher level of data handling and programming skills, expanding the role of learning technologist in the wider view of learning technology ecosystem, and bringing a diverse set of perspectives to meet new challenges. She highlights the concern of outsourcing all the educational technology and the risk of being restricted by a âgenericised view of learning technologyâ that the market provides. Most importantly, the students are not sufficiently prepared for the future ahead of them.
The urgency to outsource technology changes and training to an external provider due to budget and resource constraints highly resonates with some projects at my workplace. Reducing the intellectual content of technology in corporate learning and training to make it accessible to a larger audience do not adequately prepare employees for agility and resiliency during unprecedented events like the COVID-19 pandemic in 2019.
For sustaining technologies at the workplace, I agreed with Anne-Marieâs suggestions to âlook beyond efficiency and cost savingsâ, and âensure that a move to outsourcing doesnât end up depleting your own skill-baseâ. Although technology development and training require significant capital investment and resources, it is important to retain the capacity of internal technology developers to drive innovations. Increasing synergistic opportunities can also cultivate employee satisfaction and retention at the workplace.
Another vital element of planning for change is to understand that technologies are crucial to complement change processes, but they do not deliver all facets of change. Organizations need effective change management at the project level to lead the people side of change to sustain learning technologies (Prosci, n.d.).
References
Scott, A. M. (2019, June 30). Why we need learning technology developers. ammienoot. https://ammienoot.com/brain-fluff/why-we-need-learning-technology-developers/
Prosci. (n.d.). What is change management? Retrieved February 10, 2023, from https://www.prosci.com/change-management
By: MLi
Great post! I completely agree with Anne-Marie’s perspective on the role of learning technology developers in the education sector. The reliance on outsourcing and genericized solutions can limit the potential of learning technologies and hinder the growth and development of students. It’s important to focus on developing internal skills and retaining the capacity for innovation. Thank you for highlighting that technology is only one aspect of change and effective change management is necessary to sustain and optimize the use of learning technologies.
Thank you, Shazia! It sounds like outsourcing and genericized solutions are quite common in different sectors. With time and resources pressure, I believe those are probably easier choices for the business?
Megan
Hi Megan,
You make a really good point about the issues that can arise when we outsource technology support and development externally – employees (and learners) are missing out on developing important digital literacies and skills development. What does this look like in your context? If you were to advocate to bring some of those opportunities within the organization – what would you focus on (ie what kinds of skills do you think your colleagues might be missing out on?). In your sector are there data and privacy concerns with outsourcing? Thanks for the post.
Hi Michelle,
Thanks for your comment and questions. In my context, user training on new technology platforms such as Microsoft 365, SharePoint and SAP were outsourced to external vendors. Although outsourcing technical training can be a quicker process to educate a larger target audience on new skills, employees are missing opportunities on developing their critical thinking and problem-solving skills. Most importantly is finding what digital skills they really need from these new technology tools to improve their job performance and productivity. Each department has its own unique business objectives, therefore, these âone-size-fits-allâ technical trainings from external vendors might not be suitable for long-term skill development and sustainment. If I were to advocate to bring some of those opportunities to within the organization, I would focus on a mix of technical skills and soft skills for employees to cultivate a collaborative learning culture. The data and privacy concerns are fairly low in my context as all external vendors would have to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) or other forms of confidentiality agreement as part of their contract.
In unit 3 activity 1, we are tasked to think back to the issue in the initial post and consider how data might have helped inform my perspective. The issue I considered in my context was that outsourcing user technology trainings to external vendors might not be suitable for long-term skills development and sustainability of learning technology in corporate setting. Anne-Marie also argues in her post that there is a need for expanding the role of learning technologist and preparing the students for their future with a tailored view of learning technology rather than a âgenericisedâ one.
Zettelmeyer (2022) claims that âanalytics needs to start with a question or a problemâ such as the examples listed above. From a planning perspective, I consider the collection and analytics of data help providing insights for queries such as 1) the value of hiring external vendors for providing user technology training programs vs in-house training (e.g., cost and time in a 3-year training plan), 2) the capacity and ability of internal technology developers within the organization, and 3) the relationships between training and employee satisfaction and retention.
With these data available to me as a leader within the organization, the most relevant factors that would influence my use of data for making decisions would be:
a) The quality of data â the acceptance of the data depends on its accuracy and validity (Marsh et al., 2006).
b) Timeliness of data â delays in data results affect the ability to use the information and the relevance of data for decisions (Marsh et al., 2006).
c) Organizational culture and leadership influence patterns of data use (Marsh et al., 2006). When leaders use data and analysis for supporting and managing change, it motivates others to follow what the leader is proposing.
To conclude, âdata and analytics are powerful tools in corporate training, but only if they are used strategicallyâ (Oesch, 2017).
References
Marsh, J., Pane, J., & Hamilton, L. (2006, November 7). Making sense of data-driven decision making in education: Evidence from recent RAND research (RAND Occasional Paper). https://doi.org/10.7249/OP170
Oesch, T. (2017, June 12). Data and analytics 101: Tips for success in corporate training. Training Industry. https://trainingindustry.com/articles/measurement-and-analytics/data-and-analytics-101-tips-for-success-in-corporate-training/
Zettelmeyer, F. (2022, April 19). A leader’s guide to data analytics. KelloggInsight. https://insight.kellogg.northwestern.edu/article/a-leaders-guide-to-data-analytics/