How long are typical e-learning modules?

About a year ago, while reviewing a web-based learning module a vendor was pitching to me, I was struck by a particular question. It occurred to me that an informal study was in order. I've been around e-learning for some time now, developing e-learning strategies and managing the development of distance learning modules for the better part of seven years, but for some reason, the idea of examining this issue didn't present itself to me until that moment.

The study I conducted was, technically, more of a review - an examination of the length or seat-time of various off-the-shelf, readily available, e-learning programs. Why this sudden inspiration to evaluate the length of e-learning programs? The module I had been reviewing when I had this epiphany was focused on the human cardiovascular system. Generally, I love this type of content (I work in a healthcare-related field), yet I found myself yawning and becoming bored. A quick glance at my watch and I realized that I had been "learning" for over forty-five minutes. It was mid-morning, I had already drank my two cups of coffee, and was otherwise well-rested. Thus, my boredom was not content-induced or a result of my night-owl tendencies. Then it hit me - I'm an adult learner as well as an performance-focused learner. Folks like us don't have the time, or tolerance, for long training sessions.

In the week that followed I found myself launching e-learning modules of every kind to identify or approximate their "learning length". That is, how much time were learners being asked to spend on task? Here's a short sample of my lengthy findings:

• Introduction to Excel - 2 hours
• Running a Successful Meeting - 90 minutes
• The Cardiovascular System - 2 hours
• Principles of Negotiation - 60 minutes

This review reinforced my distaste of long e-learning modules. In fact, I don't like long learning programs of any kind.

To be fair, I fully realize that some topics take time to learn. I used to be on the vendor side of the table, so I'm sympathetic to having a large enough amount of content in these modules to warrant a specific price point. I also understand that an e-learner can typically stop and resume their learning if the module is arranged into sections or chapters. What this exercise made me realize is not so much that the majority of e-learning modules out there are too long, but rather the opposite - that there are not enough short, concise e-learning modules.

The needs of a working professionals

As a working professional I have a base of experience and I'm goal-oriented. I prefer to learn things I really need to know to improve my performance, climb the corporate ladder, and garner larger bonus checks. I rarely need to learn an entire new tome in a single sitting. Odds are I have endured some form of learning or have experience on the topic. Eight times out of ten, I need tidbits of learning I can absorb in a few minutes.

Allow me to provide an example. I am competent using Microsoft Excel, although by no means am I an expert. I can name at least nine companies that sell Excel e-learning courses. All of these courses are sold as Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced levels or the like. That's great for grandma who just began developing her computer skills, but what I really need to know is how to create an Excel pivot table. I don't want to waste my time searching through the table of contents of e-learning modules to find the topic. I certainly do not want to pay for an entire Excel module when I only need a specific topic. What I want is a short module on pivot tables.

Think about knowledge you have recently acquired. If you're like me, the majority of the learning you completed over the last year probably occurred in small chunks: a web search here, some investigative reading there, a few minutes in a chat room, followed up with a conversation in the break room.

Change of strategy: 10-minute modules

This belief has lead my department's e-learning strategy to include the design and development of brief e-learning modules as a main staple. The majority of e-learning courses we offer our employees take less then twelve minutes to complete, and many take only eight to ten minutes of the learner's time. Sure, we have some longer courses in our catalog, but they're the exception. We constantly receive learner comments on these mini-modules to the tune of, "Exactly what I needed and no more," and "It [the module] didn't waste my time."

Mini-module for pharmaceutial sales representatives

Allow me to provide an example. Many individuals within my company's sales organization had difficulty interpreting a graph within a clinical study reprint used to promote one of our products. What they needed was an understanding of the data on which the graph was based. This knowledge deficit was making it difficult to relay the data points into a selling point to the customer. After we identified this specific need, the decision was made to create a mini-module which focused only on interpreting the graph, and not the rest of the study. The e-learning module took approximately eight minutes to complete, including a brief quiz.

It was made available to the sales force and within days the positive feedback was overwhelming. In fact, nearly 90% of the learners completed the course evaluation, offering their thanks. The most common comments were paraphrased as "This was exactly what I needed. Nothing more, nothing less. Thanks for being to the point."

Below is a screen from this module, highlighting the "to the point" nature of this approach. Note the module only contain seven screens, two which were used for the introduction and the quiz. This module met the learning need in only five screens!

Adding to the success of these mini programs is the fact that my learners are field-based sales people. During the daytime hours they are in territory, visiting several customers per day. They typically arrive home late still facing an hour or so of administrative work still ahead of them. The last thing they want to do is sit through long WBT programs. The ability to quickly access and complete a eight minute learning module on a needed topic is very important to them.

Mini-modules and vendors' reactions

Since these mini-modules don't exist off-the-shelf, my e-learning team has taken the initiative to design most of these programs ourselves. We've also partnered with a small development vendor willing to author these modules at an affordable rate. I've chatted with content vendors about this approach, and waited to see their reactions. In every case, the vendor's business model didn't support this idea. Deaf to my comments, they have stressed that a learner can easily access specific topics within the larger learning module. They've stated that they would never consider taking one of their two hour e-learning courses and making it available as twenty-two mini-modules. It goes against their business plan. One vendor explained that my approach was flawed because they believed that high quality learning modules are the aggregation of many related topics which need to be joined together to give the learner a contextual focus.

Looking at your own catalog

Considering all the hoopla these days surrounding learning objects and their reusability, it would seem that e-learning modules would be getting shorter. The learning object approach, with its focus of breaking down learning into the smallest, self-supportive chunks possible, focuses mainly on the design phase. Ironically, most object-designed courses still end up being authored as large and time-consuming collections of individual objects. With the increasing popularity of Learning Content Management Systems maybe we'll start to see more companies offering shorter nuggets of learning to their employees. Hopefully the large e-learning content providers will adopt an approach that enables consumers to opt for smaller versions of their existing catalog courses.

In the meantime, take a look at the catalog of e-learning you offer your learners. Are there any courses that can be broken down into smaller components in terms of their delivery? You may want to modify your course evaluations to address ease of use and reduction in wasted learning time. If you have the ability, take a look at the e-learning courses that are most frequently terminated prior to full completion. Maybe these modules contain too many topics for the typical learner. Bigger may not necessarily be better.

It's time to get small.

John Talanca is currently Director of Technology & Distance Learning at Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation in East Hanover, New Jersey. He can be reached at jtalanca@aol.com.