Book Summaries from

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Beyond E-Learning
Book Facts
By Marc J. Rosenberg
Overview
• © 2006 by John Wiley &
Son Inc.

• ISBN: Beyond E-Learning: Approaches and Technologies to

0-7879-7757-8 Enhance Organizational Knowledge, Learning and
Performance takes a deep look at the entire e-
• # Pages: 376 learning landscape and beyond. Rosenberg provides
insights into the best practices in the areas of
• Web Site knowledge management, online collaboration and
other essential learning elements within an
www.marcrosenberg.com organization.
It is a valuable tool in any training professional’s
toolkit.
The 10 chapters in Beyond E-Learning provide
guidance, advice, and insight on how to best prepare
and manage the use of technology to facilitate
learning from the strategic level. The book highlights
strategies working in organizations today and that can
How to Buy It be implemented in your organization with a little
forethought and effort as explained by Rosenberg.

Changing Learning Technologies

• www.pfeiffer.com

• www.astd.org
The book begins with a
• www.amazon.com discussion of five realities
that are fundamentally
changing how learning
professionals should think
about the future.
These lists provide an
excellent foundation for the
rest of his work.
1. Technology-based
learning is here to stay.
2. Believing that face-to-
face classroom training
is going away is both
misguided and wrong.
3. Justifying the expense The beginning of the book also
of learning is no longer includes five lessons
a cakewalk. Rosenberg has learned through
his many years in the field.
4. Organizational learning
and performance are Lessons Learned:
facilitated through
strategies and 1. We have overrelied on
techniques that go far technology.
beyond training
2. We have spent too much
5. The workplace has time in the training center.
fundamentally
changed. 3. We have often spoken a
foreign language.
4. We tend to think this is
easy.

5. We want immediate results.

 Beyond E-Learning
The Myths of E-Learning
The book does an excellent job of framing
e-learning and discussing some of the
problems learning and training
professionals have made because of some
“E-Learning is here to mis-beliefs about e-learning.
stay, but that doesn’t
mean it should stay the Here are the myths and mis-beliefs. See if
you or your organization currently holds
way it is.” any of these myths as truth.
-- Marc Rosenberg.
Everyone Understands What E-learning
Is—This is simply not true. Without an
agreed-upon definition and a common
framework for thinking and talking about e-
learning, confusion reigns.
E-Learning is Easy—Building and
deploying great e-learning that is both
effective and efficient takes real effort,
discipline, and experience in the fields such deployment, and shortened times to
as design, information design,
communications, psychology, project
management, and psychometrics, not to
mention a healthy consideration of needs
assessment and evaluation.
Critical Success Factors for Community Collaboration
“…[e-learning] must For communities or “communities of
practice” to succeed, the community
move beyond
must offer sufficient value for members
courseware and to become engaged and people must
classrooms and into participate in order to create value. You
work. To reinvent e- need to find a way to motivate people to
learning is, in many participate.
ways, to reinvent Some of the success factors of
learning itself.” communities are:
-- Marc Rosenberg
∙ Peer Identification—Group
members by common interest or
need. Make sure each member sees
the other members as kindred sprits
because of their shared knowledge,
role, or task ahead.
∙ Content Value—Make sure the
content and conversations inside the
community are valuable to the
members of the community.
Page 2 of 4
Success is Getting E-Learning To
Work—For too many, this means
getting the technology to work. It is far
more than that.
Only Certain Content Can Be Taught
Online—This argument, often raised by
sponsors as a reason not to support e-
learning, is untrue. With the right
instructional design approach, almost
any type of knowledge or skill can be
developed and delivered online.
e-Learning’s Value Proposition Is
Based on Lowering the Cost of
Training Delivered—What should really
be the focus is the substantial benefits
e-learning can generate in worker
productivity, speed of learning
competence.
These myths and others need to be
addressed and understood before an
effective e-learning strategy can be
deployed within an organization.
∙ Incentives—Encourage members
to participate, especially on the
contributions side. Make it
rewarding for them to share what
they know. When knowledge
sharing is not valued, it is not likely
that participation will be valued
either.
∙ No Pain—Remove punishment
and risk to participation.
∙ Community Leadership—
Communities don’t run
themselves, and although it might
be nice to think that the
membership can collectively run
things, it is likely that good and
frequent facilitation will be
necessary to keep the community
vibrant.
 Page 3 of 4 Beyond E-Learning
Consider Electronic Performance Support Systems (EPSS)
Electronic Performance Support Systems
(EPSS) use software to assist people in
achieving a level of performance they would
not otherwise be able to achieve.
Building performance support solutions
requires a deep understanding of what
people have to do or accomplish, that is, the
performance, and the processes they need
to go through to get there.
There are five key benefits of performance
support systems:
• Makes Work Simpler—Performance
support can take the complexity out of
work processes and tools. It can reduce
the level of skill required to perform a
task.
• Configurable—Users can format EPSS
to their own needs. They can use it for
support in areas where they may be
weak and bypass parts of the tool in
areas where they are already
competent.
Four Underlying Principles of Moving Forward
Moving beyond current thinking and
perception of e-learning will likely require
you to reinvent the way you talk about
and practice e-learning. You must reflect
the need for speed and greater
efficiencies, and the emergence of new
thinking about learning and performance.
Getting there involves adherence to four
main principles:
1) Head the Warning Signs– Don’t be
complacent. Embrace your strengths,
but don’t ignore our weaknesses.
2) Reinvent What You Do– If you have
existing programs that are not
meeting their goals, fix them.
Reinvention is not always about
trashing what exists; rather, it is about
improving what you are doing and
moving on from there.
• Provides High Scalability—As
software, electronic performance
support can be quickly rolled out to a
few people or to thousands of people.
• Fosters Performance Consistency
and Reliability—to a Point—
Performance support can reduce “Ultimately, the hallmark
variability in the way people perform of a smart enterprise is to
tasks, which can be especially critical in make learning and work
technical or high-risk areas. They can so indistinguishable from
even suggest a recommended path to
one another, so mutually
follow, however, the person using the
system has the final decision. beneficial, that learning
becomes work and work
• Allows the Nonexpert to Perform
becomes learning.”
Closer to the Level of Expert—This
-- Marc Rosenberg
may be the most important benefit of
performance support.
What should be clear to learning
professionals is that an EPSS, by focusing
directly on the work or task to be done,
mitigates the need for some training (and
learning).
3) Redefine Your World – Expand the
parameters of what learning can be.
Don’t be held back by traditional views.
4) Put Yourself in the Bigger Game–
Rethink and expand your role. Get into
the workplace and become a valuable
partner in solving real business “Go out on a limb—that
problems with the least disruption to
is where the fruit is.”
work as possible.
-- Anonymous
Acting upon these principles will enable you
and your organization to be positioned to
take advantage of new and upcoming
technologies while keeping a solid grip on
the purpose of any training activity which is
to ultimately improve the bottom line of the
organization.
 About the Author
Marc J. Rosenberg, Ph.D.
www.e-LearningGuru.com
Dr. Marc J. Rosenberg is a New Jersey, U.S.A.-based management consultant, writer,
educator and leading figure in the world of training, organizational learning, e-learning,
knowledge management and performance improvement. Marc’s expertise extends
Visit us online to get across all of the emerging fields of e-learning strategy, knowledge management,
more e-learning book performance support technologies, change management, as well as instructional design,
summaries and performance improvement and evaluation. His clients include major U.S. and
international corporations, professional associations and trade groups across multiple
• 10’s of free “how industries, including telecommunications, energy, technology and financial
to” articles services/securities, among others.
• access to dozens of
industry white Dr. Rosenberg is a veteran of more than two decades in the field of organizational
learning, with an international reputation as a leading advocate and expert on using
papers integrated performance improvement systems to enhance individual and organizational
• document effectiveness. He was a pioneer in the development of electronic performance support
templates, tools, systems (EPSS). His career includes 18 years in management positions at AT&T where
and ROI he developed the company’s education and training strategy and directed major
corporate initiatives in learning technology, performance management, and education
calculators and training reengineering. Marc also served as the e-learning and knowledge
• glossary management field leader for consulting firm DiamondCluster International.
• links to other Dr. Rosenberg is the author of the best-selling book, E-Learning: Strategies for
resources Delivering Knowledge in the Digital Age (McGraw-Hill).

A highly regarded thought leader and much-sought-after presenter, Dr. Rosenberg has
spoken at The White House and keynoted at numerous professional and business
conferences. He has authored more than 40 articles and book chapters, and is a
frequently quoted expert in major business and trade publications, including HR
Magazine, Investor’s Business Daily, Knowledge Management Magazine, Training,
Training and Development, E-Learning, Online Learning, Learning Circuits, Context, Fast
Company, Sales and Marketing Management, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and
CFO Magazine. Marc has also been featured on CIO Radio (a service of CIO
Magazine). He is a past president of the International Society for Performance
Improvement (ISPI); a founding editorial board member of Performance Improvement
Quarterly; co-editor of ISPI’s Performance Technology: Success Stories, and a
contributing author to the Handbook of Human Performance Technology, as well as the
American Society for Training and Development’s (ASTD) Training and Development
Handbook (4th edition), Models for Human Performance Improvement, and the 2002
ASTD E-Learning Handbook.

Dr. Rosenberg holds a Ph.D. in instructional design, plus degrees in communications and
marketing. He also holds the Certified Performance Technologist (CPT) designation from
ISPI, reflective of his experience and expertise in the field of organizational performance
improvement, and is an elected member of his local community's Board of Education.

More information is available at www.marcrosenberg.com

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