In the early days of e-learning, proselytisers suggested teachers and trainers were no longer necessary. Learners would directly interact through computers they predicted. Artificial intelligence would provide individual learning programmes to be pursued by learners at their own pace. The computer would provide feedback to learners based on their performance.

Needless to say, this vision never happened (thank goodness). Far from being redundant, it is now appreciated that teachers and trainers play a critical role in supporting e-learning. However that role may not be the same as in traditional face to face classroom teaching, although how much the changing role of teachers and trainers is due to e-learning and how much it is due to changes in pedagogic approaches in general is open to debate.

7.1 The role of teachers and trainers

Perhaps the most important factor in supporting learning in Small and Medium Enterprises is the role of teachers and trainers. Just who will provide those teachers or trainers is another issue which I will explore later in this section. First though, I want to look at what the changing role of teachers and trainers might be in an e-learning context

Teachers and trainers are commonly seen now as facilitators of learning, rather than as purveyors of knowledge. It is true that here are many examples of productive learning in everyday situations. However investigative and deep-level learning is relatively rare without instruction or intentional self instruction (Enkenberg, 1994). For that very reason, instruction is necessary to enhance the quality of learning and to make it purposeful. Enkenburg put forward what he saw as the new role and tasks for teachers and trainers:

• organising the contexts and communities of learning;
• formulating organisational objectives
• structuring instructional contents
• guiding and monitoring the students advancement through the integral cycle of investigative learning;
• interacting and conducting conversation with the students
• planning and assessing the overall instructional process

One important issue for Small and Medium Enterprises to sort out is who are the teachers and trainers? If you already have trainers in your enterprise then it may be they can play this role. However, if they have never used e-learning before I would recommend they go on a course first themselves and then perhaps working alongside an experienced e-learning facilitator to develop their own skills.

Most smaller enterprises do not have in house trainers, and in many there is not even anyone formally responsible for training. In this situation you are going to be dependent on the trainers or facilitators from the e-learning providers (see section on selecting a provider). Certainly, the skills and experience of the trainers or facilitators should be one of your main factors in choosing an e-learning provider.

Even if you do not have in-house trainers or facilitators, and intend to 'buy in' facilitator support from e-learning providers, there can still be value in developing learning support roles amongst members of your workforce. For instance older or more experienced workers can act as coaches or mentors to help guide trainees through practicing tasks. It may be possible to link up these work based practice tasks with the e-learning programme.

Regardless of who is providing subject support for e-learning, many learners may also need support in using computers. Of course there will be a varying need for such support and I would certainly not recommend e-learning for employees who have never used a computer before. But, if at all possible, learners need to know there is someone to whom they can go if they have problems with the hardware or software.

However, responsibility for supporting learners goes beyond the trainer or facilitator.

7.2 Effective support for learners

The UK JISC report looks at what constitutes 'effective interventions' for teachers and trainers. I have amended this to provide a learners perspective on effective support.

Usability:

Interventions should have a clearly defined leaner base, use language appropriate to those learners, be known of by those learners and be functionally accessible to those learners.

Contextualisation:

Interventions should be contextualised for learners and have a clear and explicit statement of purpose; acknowledge the realities of the educational and work setting; allow learners to work on their own real life issues; and take account of the language, values, culture and priorities of their particular community.

Professional learning:

Changing practice requires learners to learn, specifically, to alter their conceptions of working through e.g. opportunities to construct their own meanings; learning from experience through reflection; informal learning; problem based learning; action learning; peer supported learning.

Communities:

There may be real advantages to working within the existing communities and networks with which learners are already affiliated. This links to secondary issues of authenticity and ownership: learners should experience interventions as genuinely sharing their concerns, and being provided or supported by people which whom they can identify.

Learning Design:

Learners need to be supported in engaging with a process that starts with the educational approach. Effective interventions are dependent on an understanding of the curriculum design process and of learning outcomes.

Adaptability:

Effective use is influenced by a learner’s ability to adapt and reuse the resource; resources must be easily repurposed. Adaptability is closely related to contextualisation: i.e. resources may be well contextualised for a narrow range of situations, or generally adaptable to a wide range of situations.

It is interesting that many of these tasks match very closely to what I would see as the role of a trainer or coach in supporting work based, rather than school based, learning. If that is so, it should not be such a big step to bring together the world of e-learning with the world of work based learning.

7.3 New perspectives on learning

Such ideas are supported by John Seely Brown, the head of research at Zerox. In a speech he made in 1999 entitled "Learning, working and playing in the digital age", Seely Brown looked at the different ways young people were using Information and Communication Technologies for learning. He pointed to the growth of discovery or experiential learning. As kids work in the new digital media, he said, rather than abstract logic, they deploy bricolage. Bricolage relates to the concrete and has to do with the ability to find something - an object or a tool, a piece of code, a document - and to use it in a new way and in a new context. But to be a successful bricoleur of the virtual rather than the physical you have to be able to decide whether or not to trust or believe these things. Therefore the need for making judgements is greater than ever before.

Navigation is coupled to discovery and discovery coupled to bricolage but this requires judgement concerning of quality and trustworthiness of information and sources.

In his speech Seely Brown drew attention to the importance of action. He suggests new forms of learning are based on trying things and action, rather than on more abstract knowledge. "Learning becomes as much social as cognitive, as much concrete as abstract, and becomes intertwined with judgement and exploration".

This is not unlike the way many employees in SMEs already learn new things. It may be that one of the main roles in supporting learning is to provide opportunities to link more formal training courses with work processes in the enterprise.

7.4 Learning through work

Barry Nyhan, who works for the European Centre for Vocational Training (Cedefop) has written:

"one of the keys to promoting learning organisations is to organise work in such a way that it is promotes human development. In other words it is about building workplace environments in which people are motivated to think for themselves so that through their everyday work experiences, they develop new competences and gain new understanding and insights. Thus, people are learning from their work - they are learning as they work."

He goes on to say:

"This entails building organisations in which people have what can be termed 'developmental work tasks'. These are challenging tasks that 'compel' people to stretch their potential and muster up new resources to manage demanding situations. In carrying out 'developmental work tasks' people are 'developing themselves' and are thus engaged in what can be termed 'developmental learning'."

To conclude this section, my own research has shown that perhaps the most important factor for e-learning in Small and Medium Enterprises is the attitude of the owner or manager. Not only do they often have sole decision-making power, but also they often serve as role models when it comes to learning. One way managers can support learners is by themselves participating in e-learning.

7.5 Key issues

• Who in your workplace has a role for supporting training and learning?
• Do they have any experience of e-learning?
• If you do not have trainers in your organisation, are there any staff who provide informal support to new employees?
• How do your employees learn about new processes and products at present?
• What work tasks in your enterprise provide employees with the chance to learn new knowledge and skills?
• How is work organised in your enterprise? Can it be re-organised to provide better learning opportunities?