Learning solutions architecture has come a long way. From ‘training’, which was merely considered a passive function in an organization, the emphasis has now shifted towards making learning and talent development an integral part of the corporate culture. Like everything else, this drastic change in approach hasn’t been fast. It has been a slow process of evolution dating back to World War II – from where programs design finds its roots. Here is a brief history of how it has changed over the years to take its present shape. Origins World War II, by virtue of its sheer scale and size, needed a humungous amount of trained military men. Consequently, training programs which were based on the principles of learning, instruction and human behavior, began to be developed. A large number of psychologists and educational researchers were summoned to develop training materials, as well as to apply their knowledge of evaluation to assess trainees’ skills. The Programmed Instruction Movement – Mid-1950s to Mid-1960s In 1954, B.F. Skinner through his article called “The Science of Learning and the Art of Teaching” pioneered the concept of programmed instructional materials – materials that include small steps, require overt answers to frequent questions, give immediate feedback and allow a learner to self-pace his/her learning. In the early 1960s, Robert F. Mager emphasized the importance of learning objectives to include desired behavior, learning condition, and assessment. Writing objectives, even today is influenced by these 3 elements. Behavioral objectives got another boost when in 1956, Benjamin Bloom and his colleagues developed the “Taxonomy of Educational Objectives”. He identified three principal domains of learning: Cognitive (what one knows or thinks), Psychomotor (what one does, physically) and Affective (what one feels, or what attitudes one has). The Criterion-Referenced Testing Movement – Early 1960s Until 1962, norm-referenced tests were used, which compared an individual’s performance to a group performance. In 1962, Robert Glaser coined the term “criterion-referenced measures” which examines the entry-level behavior of students before they take up a course. Finally, the extent to which students have acquired the behaviors after the instructional program is over, is determined. The Conditions of Learning – 1965 In 1965, Robert Gagne identified the 9 events of instruction that are used even today as founding principles to guide learning design. Gagne highlighted some very important areas in learning hierarchies and hierarchical analysis which formed an important concept – that learning should be designed so as to ensure that learners acquire basic skills before they attempt to acquire more advanced ones. Shortly after this, in 1967 Michael Scriven emphasized the need for formative assessment, i.e. to try out the drafts of learning material with learners before putting them in their final form. The Rise of Interest in the Systems Approach – the 1970s By the 1970s, the topic of learning solutions design had started to ripen. Numerous models were developed across military, academia and organizations. These models were based on information-processing-approach and used media and instructional design procedures to improve the quality of instruction. The birth of e-learning – 1980s 1980s saw the integration of personal computers into the design process. Methods were being evaluated as to how the PC could be used in an academic and interactive context. Computers began to be used as tools to automate some learning design tasks. PLATO (Programmed Logic for Automatic Teaching Operation), the first generalized computer assisted instruction system allowed computers to be integrated into instruction. Many modern concepts in multi-user computing such as forums, e-mail, chat rooms, message boards, online testing, picture languages, remote screen sharing, multiplayer games and instant messaging were developed on PLATO. Concurrently, there was also a rising interest in how the principles of cognitive psychology could be applied in the learning design process, and the cognitive load theory began to prove its relevance. The Rising Interest in Performance - the 1990s Constructivism and the Importance of In the 1990s, there was a notable change in the attitude towards learning. Until then, learning was mostly focused on theoretical and traditional forms. The constructivist theory underlined the importance of “authentic” learning tasks that could replicate the actual complexity of the real world environment which learners would apply their learned skills. Performance support systems were developed as there was a growing emphasis on performance improvement. The Rise of Online Learning – 2000s Deeper internet penetration and better bandwidths made it a very popular tool for online learning. E-learning gained further importance as educational institutions and organizations began to unearth ways to deliver courses online coupled with social media tools in the late 2000s. 2010 and beyond Now is the age of learning technology in all its form – social, mobile and personalized. Big data and analytics are already shaping the way how learning is tailored to the needs and preferences of each learner. The principles of instruction are no doubt, rooted in years of research in learning architecture, but learning is now designed to be more contextual, fluid and learner-friendly. Social Mobile Analytics and Cloud (SMAC) technologies are at the heart of this era of learning.
