LearnShare
LearnShare is an innovative development in technology-based training. Formed in 1996 in Toledo, Ohio, the LearnShare consortium originally consisted of seventeen noncompeting organizations, including Owens Corning, 3M, Gen- eral Motors, Motorola, Northwest Airlines, and Levi Strauss. These organizations agreed to share some of their existing training materials with one another, with a particular focus on building up their online training course offerings. In 2011, LearnShare included over forty member organizations employing over 2.5 million people.This remains an intriguing model of collaborative online learning.
There are a number of limitations to IBT. Given the multimedia format, which uses large video and audio files, the primary limitation to date is network bandwidth—the size of a network’s transmittal capacity.161 However, with the rapid advances in technology and streaming video (greater bandwidth, and improved abilities to compress data), this limitation is increasingly being over- come. On the practical side, online learning is criticized for pushing the time for learning to the employee’s nonwork or off time. That is, the proposed bene- fit of anytime, anywhere learning can in fact mean that trainees are expected to do the training on their own, and often without compensation.Also, many trainees find it difficult to complete self-paced training. This led to an ASTD/ MASIE Center study of reasons why some trainees abandon technology-based training after only a few sessions. An interesting response to this problem is the increasing use of podcasting, wikis, and other social software to allow employees to view needed training modules when and wherever they want.
