On-Demand Learning: Training in the New Millennium. - Review - book review

By Darin E. Hartley

Introduction by John Cone Reviewed by Saul Carliner

On-Demand Learning: Training in the New Millennium by Darin E. Hartley hopes to "increase awareness of the coming autonomous-learning movement and to provide examples of successful autonomous learning in action," in Hartley's words.

Its seven chapters explore

* highlights of learning history

* the characteristics of on-demand learners

* how to enable on-demand learning

* technological considerations for on-demand learning

* best practices of on-demand learning intended for employees and customers

* a list of resources.

Hartley begins by capturing the essence of life in the new millennium: a world of tight scheduling, constant interruption, ceaseless change, and an ongoing need for new knowledge. This ongoing need for new knowledge--when and where increasingly impatient learners request it--is called on-demand learning. Hartley contrasts it with traditional classroom-based learning, whose history begins with Plato in ancient Greece. Hartley characterizes the on-demand learner as a results-oriented person who takes initiative, seeks information, needs to demonstrate self-efficacy, is flexible, and typically learns on the fly.

To design learning for those people, training professionals must prepare materials that are easy to use, accessible, and built for the lowest common denominator; that provide plenty of opportunity for practice and feedback and present content in small chunks; and that use assessments to direct learning (rather than punish learners) and get learners what they need as quickly as possible.

Regarding technological considerations for on-demand learning, Hartley advises trainers to work closely with their information technology staffs. He also identifies a number of practical considerations to address, such as limitations on content that can be posted on an intranet site. Hartley points out that it's important to make sure the software and hardware that the trainers want to use are supported by the IT networks. In design considerations, he de scribes the issues involved in determining whether to develop online, on-demand content internally.

Next, Hartley gives several examples. The first several are job aids that have no technology component but do offer learning on demand, such as a poster for showing employees at Einstein Bagels how to make sandwiches. The others examples include computer-based materials such as chatterbots, online agents that use speech technology to answer commonly asked questions. Hartley also describes Dell Computer's strategy for technology-enhanced learning and a template for preparing the functional specifications (detailed designs) of an online learning program. The last chapter lists resources, including magazines, Websites, and marketing information about learning management systems.

The strengths of this book are its easy tone and the examples, which represent ingeniously designed and effective on-demand learning, and are described well. The research underlying the book, however, could be more complete. For example, the brief history of learning excludes the centuries-honored apprenticeship system of training, which is a form of on-demand learning. The history also omits several developments in on-demand learning from the past century--that I think are relevant...such as the development of instructional systems design at the American Institutes of Research in the 1940s, the programmed instruction movement of the 1960s, and the development of human performance technology in the 1970s and '80s.

Hartley could have contrasted on-demand learning and performance support, a similar concept and a term that's more widely used in the training community. On-demand learning is easier to understand, in my opinion, but performance support is in wider use.

Trainers typically use personal war stories as an effective way to explain ideas, and Hartley does as well, though most all of the stories in the book are from the author or one of his colleagues. There are more sources of practical experience to be found in the many magazines describing real-world challenges in developing and implementing on-demand learning.

When describing on-demand learning, Hartley explains the characteristics of the learning, but not so much the delivery, just a few examples. I would have liked more examples and a discussion of several important types of on-demand learning that stray from traditional models--such as wizards, online help, and Webzines. The book focuses on asynchronous on-demand learning, in which the learner and the instructor are not online at the same time. Hartley provides several examples of best practices, but without the criteria.

In the technology discussion, Hartley uses some computer terminology that might not be familiar to corporate trainers--such as, "powerful client-side application." The types of technology resources listed are mostly learning management systems and streaming video-based training, rather than the usual authoring tools (usually the first product on most lists), collaboration tools, and testing tools.

Overall, the book focuses on what's happening with regard to on-demand learning in the United States. And there's an interesting analogy involving a boiling frog that seems to contradict the point that follows, but you be the judge.

More important, Hartley's book achieves its primary goal: To increase awareness of on-demand learning and illustrate some examples. Readers can go from there to determine whether they're in a position to implement it.

On-Demand Learning: Training in the New Millennium, by Darin E. Hartley. Amherst: HRD Press, 171 pages.

Circle 290 on reader service card.

Saul Carliner is an assistant professor of information design at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, and the author of An Overview of Online Learning (HRD Press, 1999).

COPYRIGHT 2000 American Society for Training & Development, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Gale Group