E-Learning 2.0: Breakthrough Management Training

In 2005, Stephen Downes "created" the term E-Learning 2.0, a new concept in the field of management training.

As a Senior Research Fellow at the National Research Council of Canada (NRC), he serves in the Information Technology Society's E-Learning research group. E-Learning 2.0 is just one of his numerous research findings. Didn't E-Learning 2.0 exist before him?

In 2001, an online college called "U21 Higher Education Online" was jointly launched by 19 famous universities in 11 countries and began to offer globally recognized online MBA programs.

In 2003, a role-playing online game called Second Life was repositioned by Linden Lab as a virtual community that replicated the full picture of human society.

In 2004, the first "Serious Games Summit" opened in Washington, D.C., and the educational and training functions of games cannot but be taken seriously.

With the development of information technology, more interactive, more realistic and more practical diversified attempts in the field of management training make the label 2.0 ready to emerge. What Stephen Downes has done is to summarize various practices into concepts, and thus guide scholars and enterprises to answer: what is the new generation of E-learning.

E-Learning 2.0 is not 1.0?

Although the debate has never ceased, the breakthroughs and characteristics of E-Learning 2.0 that are different from 1.0 have reached a preliminary consensus:

A more realistic learning environment: using computer 3D technology and broadband Internet as the platform to simulate the operation and management of enterprises all environment.

From tangible financial statements, office space, operational facts, to intangible market rules and corporate culture. Second Life and its Chinese version, HiPiHi, are such an all-inclusive VR platform. Management training institutions represented by U21 Higher Education Online and IBM's staff training are settling here one after another. In the near future, third-party management training software such as serious games is also expected to break through the technical bottleneck implanted in the platform.

A more active learner: Learning to manage by interacting with others and the environment across time and space.

MBA students or corporate trainees have regained their learning initiative due to E-Learning 2.0. The learning time, space, content, and even classmates and teachers can all be chosen by the learners. For example, the online leadership training of Satyam Software Technology Company in India gives employees full freedom of self-learning. In addition, the bigger difference from 1.0 is that interaction anytime and anywhere is itself the best way to learn.

However, the difference is not all of E-Learning 2.0. 2.0 actually comes from a spiral of 1.0 and traditional training methods.

On the one hand, online simulation learning software, which is increasingly used in management training, comes from the technological refresh of traditional training methods. For example, online simulation of business decisions was born out of the original "sandbox simulation".

On the other hand, E-Learning focused on teaching materials and teachers' guidance in the early stage, while 2.0 gradually returned to the traditional in the development, adding more professional guidance and feedback for students' self-learning and mutual learning.

E-Learning 2.0 is Web 2.0?

"The Internet is changing from a medium to a platform."

Stephen Downes emphasized that Web 2.0 allows content to be produced and sold on the Internet, rather than just an information circulation channel. This is exactly what E-Learning 2.0 is. The most important background for the rise. Wing Lam, the information management course director of U21 Higher Education Online, holds a similar view, "E-Learning 2.0, like Web 2.0, is all about interactivity and sociality."

Although some of the current management training software with high simulation and high interaction, Still unable to run on the Internet for technical reasons, but the essence of Web2.0 is still there.

E-Learning 2.0, "e" is the first element?

"Web 2.0 is an attitude not a technology." E-Learning 2.0 is the same.

Technology allows E-Learning 2.0 to simulate the business environment, and it also becomes a temporary obstacle to its further development. But, says Wing Lam, "technology is probably the least critical factor." You Denghong, a well-known financial expert and promoter of Marketplace simulation decision-making training software, also believes that technology is not everything, and the most important thing is that simulation operation provides an opportunity to learn from your own failures.

Information technology is limitless, the key lies in how to serve the teaching and learning of business management.

Currently, the platform, teaching and software of E-Learning 2.0 are still exploring the infinite possibilities of management training, and the seeds of 3.0 may have been sown in every step of practice. No matter how the concept evolves, management training from practice to practice will surely accelerate individuals and businesses to excellence as technology advances.

Special article:

E-Learning 2.0 Platform: Three-dimensional Management Training

When the Internet changes from a plane to a three-dimensional, E-Learning 2.0 also changes from a concept to a reality.

E-Learning 2.0 Teaching: Breaking the "You Teach and I Learn"

E-Learning 2.0 greatly improves the interactivity of management training and breaks the passive mode of "you teach and I learn".

E-Learning 2.0 Software: "Game" Management Training

Learning software that simulates a business environment, as well as fresher "serious games", make management training more effective and more interesting.

The author is an associate editor of the CEConline website.