E-learning remains big question in Indonesia

Eridani Sudiono, Consultant, Accenture, Jakarta

Flexibility is what should come to mind when people hear of e- learning. E-learning corresponds to the notion of easy access training, hi-tech, multimedia, easily managed training, etc. So, is Indonesia ready? What does e-learning mean in this country? What is the probability of success if e-learning is to be implemented widely in Indonesia?

Let's first see how Indonesians learn and interact with each other. Ever notice that Indonesians prefer talking over writing, prefer attending training conducted by instructors over self- study? We can probably assume that, as a part of the culture, the majority of Indonesians prefer to communicate or interact directly with other parties than to communicate in, say, a virtual way.

E-learning on the contrary, uses a virtual method, and provides very limited interaction with other parties. E-learning platforms though, make us able to use the full blast of multimedia technology, still there is very limited direct communication with other people. There will be video of experts leading the trainees through voice facilitation. But they are not considered actual humans, they are just recorded images and sound.

Other than the human connection and/or interaction, e-learning demands good discipline. This means that the trainees should be able to sit throughout the course to be able to learn something without anyone supervising, which of course is still uncommon in Indonesia.

In addition, here in Indonesia, I met lots of people who still consider training as an escape vehicle of relaxation or vacation. To learn something or to gain new skills is far less of a priority.

Therefore, would it be possible to implement e-learning in Indonesia with the limitations expressed above? I am still positive about this, actually, but how? I am suggesting that we see e-learning not as e-learning by itself, but as a tool used by an organization to arm its people to stay up to date and to be competitive, in a flexible and mature way.

One of the possible ways is to change the learning paradigm, possibly by incorporating e-learning as one of the levers of a new corporate culture. But it is well known that changing corporate culture will take time, therefore, a communication plan might need to be developed to "advertise" e-learning usage and later to increase the appetite of using e-learning in the corporation. Having said this, still, the plan to introduce new culture with the emphasis on working efficiently and smartly using cost-effective and flexible tools, which, in this case is using e-learning, needs to be developed and implemented.

Changing the way people think and feel about attending training and what to gain from training is more about mental attitudes and general maturity. Therefore, changing the traditional learning to e-learning needs to be part of culture change.

Other important things, among others, are the readiness of training infrastructures, so that the trainees will feel obliged to finish the training and to gain something out of it. A simple example is incorporating the courses with performance management tools, or in a more traditional way is actively engage supervisors to monitor their sub-ordinates performance.

Corporations should also find another way to reward employees with the "vacation" type of reward, in addition to the annual vacation.

Now the question is: will companies be ready to take this initiative?