I'd written here earlier about the disappointing uptake of the followup forum for a face to face course I'd been on. I set up a poll to find out why it had failed, with not much hope of a response, and said I'd report back on the findings. I say 'findings' as if it's very scientific. Only five of the twelve delegates responded and one of them was me! Here they are for what they're worth. I'll then say what conclusions I draw from the experience and invite you to correct me or add your own observations.
1. Did you intend at the end of the course to take part in any online post-course discussion?
4 yes 1 no
2. Did you visit the forum in response to the initial invitation?
5 yes (so the ones who didn't visit also didn't respond)
3. Did you post anything - action points or just comments - to the forum?
3 yes 2 no (I was one of the 3)
4. What were the main things that worked against you taking part in the forum?
- each of these was a 1-5 scale with 5 being high
I didn't know how to find it: 3 x 1 (low), 1 x 3 (mid) 1 n/a
I found it difficult to use: 4 x 1 to 3, 1 n/a
I don't like online communication: 2 x 1 to 3, 1x 4, 2 n/a
I don't have time for this kind of followup: 1 x 1, 3 x 3, 1 x 5
I don't have time for any kind of course followup: same
5. Do you use any of these forms of social learning or networking outside work?
only two responded, one being me. The other said s/he had used Facebook and Google and had looked up, but not contributed to, Wikipedia. So 3 out of 5 hadn't.
6. An open question:
Finally, what scope do you think there is for this type of forum to be useful in this organisation? What would have made you more likely to use it? What need would a good forum meet for you?
The answers:
I have never used any type of forum. I understand how they could be useful, but tend to contact people direct rather than at an open forum. think it needs to be something people either really need or are really interested in. Although agree that follow up after training is good, it still seems a bit like work - rather than a catch up over coffee when it may come up more naturally.
I think this kind of forum has loads of scope - we are all just not in the habit of using them. As an organisation we always seem to only ever use about 40% of any tools actual functionality. Time pressure is always an issue. If people felt they got something out of it they would do it .... but for that to happen everyone has to be involved and play - so it ends up a catch 22. If I knew that if I had an issue / problem and I posted it on a forum and 3 thought provoking ideas that I had not already considered came back to me - then I would use it.
1) Great scope as we are all time poor 2) Greater use as a facilitator to team activity in achieving objectives i.e. if we had been set something on the course that we had to achieve as a team 3) Team training & support where team is geographically dispersed
My conclusions:
Although everyone thought it was a good idea, sharing action points after the course wasn't a good starting topic. Too much exposure and fear of held to account. The other two topics, though, which I seeded with general reflections on the course and questioning the NLP element, didn't receive any comments. Three people did put their action points.
One suggestion that someone outside of this made was that the forum for a course should be for all groups who've ever done the course, not just one, and for the trainer (in this case the trainer was external so that wouldn't have happened.)
If people came to a forum where they could see evidence of discussion going on and questions being answered they'd be more likely to be engaged. It's like nobody wants to be the first, understandably. But how to start it off ?
My suspicion is that the way Sharepoint presents the forum didn't help - it doesn't look anything like the kind of PHP forum people may be used to. For example, the name beside the topic is that of the person who started it, not the last person who posted.
Finally, I think it confirms a lot of the critical opinions you find in elearning circles about face to face training and its poor carry-over into work afterwards. I'm sure the majority of the delegates probably didn't follow up in any way and the extensive folders of handouts are gathering dust. I'm not sure for myself I've reached even the 10% transfer that critics say is normal with formal training.
I hope this is useful to someone and if you think I've missed the point anywhere please point it out. This is definitely part of my learning!