Bersin Research Sourcing On Demand Learning

Research Bulletin | 2009
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES

September 11, 2009 Volume 4, Issue 35

Sourcing On-Demand
Learning: Using Digital
Content Libraries to
Jump Start Your Informal
Learning Strategy
About the Author Introduction – Supporting the Natural
Flow of Learning

Leaders in both training departments and business units are waking up
to the fact that most employee learning is informal.

At a fundamental level, the learning needs of employees have not
changed – people still need deep levels of skills, experience and
David Mallon,
Senior Analyst practice to become proficient with any role. New and experienced
employees need continuous training to stay current on the company’s
products, processes and markets. Managers and leaders need coaching,
mentoring and feedback. Everyone needs access to relevant, updated
and timely information to stay current and productive.

What is changing is that many learning and development (L&D)
departments are finding that their best value to their business
audiences is as brokers of learning, not just as a source. These L&D
departments are shifting their focus and resources away from
company-driven, formal learning programs to supporting the natural
flow of learning across the organization. Those formal programs are
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC
themselves being reinvented as part of holistic learning environments1.
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1
For more information, High-Impact Learning Practices: The Guide to Modernizing Your
(510) 654-8500
Corporate Training Strategy through Social and Informal Learning, Bersin & Associates /
INFO@BERSIN.COM David Mallon, July 2009. Available to research members at www.bersin.com/library or for
WWW.BERSIN.COM purchase at www.bersin.com/hilp.

BERSIN & ASSOCIATES © 2009

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Becoming a learning broker is not without its challenges. To be effective
KEY POINT
at this new role means the learning organization must:
Modern L&D
1. Be able to acquire / find / develop the best learning content
departments available, in as many different and flexible modalities as possible;
provide their
2. Have a deep understanding of learners’ needs and preferences in
best value to
order to facilitate the best match of learner and content; and,
the business as
enablers and 3. Have an easy-to-use underlying technology platform (or platforms)

brokers of learning, with which to enable rapid discoverability of content, and to
promote timely connections between learner and content.
not just as source.
In this report, we will address just the first challenge2 – sourcing
learning content and, more specifically, informal learning content.

Learning organizations are not nearly as experienced with building,
buying or finding informal, on-demand learning content as they are
with content for formal programs. The good news is that there are
actually many sourcing options from which to choose, including finding
content on the publically available, open Internet or by engaging
the organization’s employees as content creators. Of course, learning
departments can create their own on-demand content. However, all of
these options present potential pitfalls, in terms of quality, quantity,
accessibility and speed of delivery. In this report, we highlight another
potential on-demand source, one that provides companies with quick
access to high-quality content and in formats fit for rapid consumption.
This option, the digital content library, is quickly becoming the best way
for an organization to jump start its on-demand learning strategy.

2
(1) For more help with the second challenge, please see our industry study, High-Impact
Learning Practices: The Guide to Modernizing Your Corporate Training Strategy through
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC Social and Informal Learning, Bersin & Associates / David Mallon, July 2009. (2) For more
6114 LA SALLE AVENUE information on the third challenge, please see our industry studies, (a) Enterprise Social
Software 2009: Facts, Practical Analysis, Trends and Provider Profiles, Bersin & Associates /
SUITE 417
David Mallon, September 2008. Available to research members at www.bersin.com/library
OAKLAND, CA 94611 or for purchase at www.bersin.com/socialsoftware; and, (b) Learning Management Systems
(510) 654-8500 2009: Facts, Practice Analysis, Trends and Provider Profiles, Bersin & Associates / Josh Bersin,
INFO@BERSIN.COM Chris Howard, Karen O’Leonard and David Mallon, April 2009. Available to research
members at www.bersin.com/library or for purchase at www.bersin.com/lms.
WWW.BERSIN.COM

Sourcing On-Demand Learning
David Mallon | Page 2

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Getting Started with Informal Learning

Bersin & Associates defines “informal learning3” as any learning
opportunity that is accidental, ad hoc, unplanned and which likely happens
without the guidance of a discipline, such as instructional design.

Figure 1: The Bersin & Associates Enterprise Learning Framework

Source: Bersin & Associates, 2009.

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INFO@BERSIN.COM Corporate Training Strategy through Social and Informal Learningn, Bersin & Associates /
WWW.BERSIN.COM David Mallon, July 2009.


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We break informal learning into the following three broad types4:
KEY POINT
• On-demand,
On-demand
• Social and
learning is, by
• Embedded.
nature, very
content-centric The term “on-demand” refers to learner-led activities, such as self-

and sourcing study e-learning, books, reference materials, videos, podcasts and other
forms of content that the learner uses on his / her own when needed
on-demand
or as directed. In this approach, the learner “learns” through his / her
learning content
own interaction with the content – and he / she essentially assembles
can be difﬁcult
his / her learning with help from the training department. On-demand
for learning learning is, by nature, very content-centric and sourcing on-demand
organizations. learning content can be difficult for learning organizations. More on
that thought a little later.

Social learning encompasses all of the ways in which we learn from
each other – through questions, discussion and feedback. In today’s
new technology environment, social learning can take place in new,
low-cost, highly interactive ways. We can connect people very quickly
and in very granular groups by using social networking5, communities
of practice6, quality councils, wikis7, blogs8 and instant messenger. Using

4
For more information, The Enterprise Learning Framework: A Modern Approach to
Corporate Training, Bersin & Associates, Josh Bersin and David Mallon, April 2009. Available
to research members at www.bersin.com/library.

5
“Social networking” refers to the use of web tools for individuals to build connections
to other people, post profile information, share comments and notes with each other,
collaborate, and join groups – similar to the use of Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace in the
consumer market.

6
A “community of practice” (or “CoP”) is often defined as a group of people who share
an interest or concern about a common topic, and who deepen their knowledge in this
area through ongoing interaction and relationship-building within their group. While
communities often come into being spontaneously, they nonetheless require nurturing if
they are to become valuable to the members and remain viable over the course of their
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC evolution. For more information, Developing Communities of Practice: Best Practices and
Lessons Learned from the Defense Acquisition University, Bersin & Associates / Chris Howard,
6114 LA SALLE AVENUE May 2007. Available to research members at www.bersin.com/library.
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7
OAKLAND, CA 94611 “Wiki” is from the Hawaiian word for “fast” – and stands for web pages that can be
collectively and collaboratively edited on the fly by readers.
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INFO@BERSIN.COM 8
“Blog” is a shortened form of the phrase “web log,” which is a form of personal
WWW.BERSIN.COM publishing that readers can discuss.


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these tools, we can now create highly specific social learning groups
that can leverage the expertise of many people to solve the problems
of the few. In this approach, people learn from peers and experts, not
from formal trainers.

Embedded learning is our category encompassing all of the learning
that happens as part of work itself. Electronic performance support
systems (EPSSs) that intelligently suggest learning at the point of need
are an explicit example. After-action reviews, project post-mortems,
customer feedback processes or any other moments of engineered
reflection on the success and failure of our actions are all more subtle,
implicit examples.

On-Demand Learning Content

The learning organization’s role in each type of informal learning is
KEY POINT quite different.

Most embedded Social and embedded learning require more focus on architecting
learning is time- opportunities and environments either for social interaction or for
and process-driven, concerted reflection to occur9. Social learning does not necessarily
require the need to build or buy any content per se – just provides
not content-driven.
a means for learners to share their own content or blend social
activities, such as communities of practice or Web 2.010 tools into formal
programs. Other than the very specific case of performance support,
most embedded learning is also similarly time- and process-driven,
not content-driven.

However, as mentioned earlier, on-demand learning is all about
content – lots of content in lots of forms. Sourcing on-demand learning
presents a major challenge to most learning organizations.

9
Corporate Training Strategy through Social and Informal Learning, Bersin & Associates /
David Mallon, July 2009.
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC 10
“Web 2.0” refers to a perceived second generation of web-based communities and
6114 LA SALLE AVENUE hosted services (such as social-networking sites, wikis, folksonomies, weblogs / blogs, social
SUITE 417 bookmarking, podcasts, RSS feeds, social software, web application programming interfaces
OAKLAND, CA 94611 / APIs, and online web services), which aim to facilitate creativity, collaboration and sharing
between users. Although the term suggests a new version of the World Wide Web, it
(510) 654-8500
does not refer to an update to any technical specifications, but to changes in the ways
INFO@BERSIN.COM software developers and end-users use the web. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_
WWW.BERSIN.COM 2.0#Defining_.22Web_2.0.22.


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For better or worse, Google and the open Internet have become the
KEY POINT
standard against which employees judge an organization’s on-demand
Google and the learning content support. Google, Wikipedia, YouTube and the rest
have taught all of us that content should never be more than a keyword
open Internet
and a click away. If found that the content does not prove engaging or
have become the
useful within a short period of time, searchers will abandon the source
standard against
at hand and move on to another.
which employees
judge an The structure and packaging in which the content comes wrapped is
equally as important. On-demand learning content has to be built for
organization’s on-
quick consumption, without having to sift through needless overhead
demand learning
or content other than what we are most motivated to learn in the
content support.
moment. Given the on-the-go nature of today’s workforce, content
must be consumable as easily through mobile devices as it is via
personal computers.

Finally, given its learner-initiated nature, on-demand learning needs are
very personal. Learners may need access to extraordinary depth in one
subject matter at one moment and then quick, broad content in many
different subject matters the next. Organizations may be able to safely
generalize as to the domains likely to be of interest to their employee
populations, but individual topics needed can and will vary by learner
on a daily basis.

Our recent research on modern learning organizations11 shows that
KEY POINT
most training departments are finding it increasingly difficult to meet
the on-demand learning needs of their audiences fast enough, or to
On-demand
support learning in all of the forms and modalities in which it naturally
learning needs are
takes place within the organization. These departments are poorly
very personal and
prepared to develop their own on-demand content. Their organization
speciﬁc to each
structures and content development processes are built for creating
individual learner. formal content in which the instructional scaffolding is baked-in,
making it inflexible and difficult to consume outside of formal learning
contexts. Their limited resources are best devoted to developing content
related directly to what makes the organization special and drives
competitive advantage in the marketplace. Given that the on-demand
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INFO@BERSIN.COM Corporate Training Strategy through Social and Informal Learning, Bersin & Associates /
WWW.BERSIN.COM David Mallon, July 2009.


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learning needs of the employee population are often so mercurial,
unpredictable and unrelated to the organization’s deep specialization
strategy, most L&D departments are wisely choosing to look externally
for content sources.


Where are companies turning for on-demand content sources?

The Public Internet

Yes, there is a great deal of free or nearly free content on the Internet,
KEY POINT
on any topic desired, in whatever format desired. Some of it is quite
Syndication is good and some, well, not so much. Therein lies the challenge with using
another such the open Internet as source – your quality and results may vary. There
are tools available that can make it more likely to find higher-quality
tool that is
content, such as social bookmarking12 sites like Digg13, community-
showing some
monitored content sites like as Wikipedia14 (better than many realize,
potential within
but not perfect by any measure), and automatic content filters like
organizations – not as Google Alerts15 and Yahoo Pipes16. This last type constantly watch
so much as a source content sources for you and then forward potentially interested content
of content, but as a based on customizable criteria.
very personalizable
Syndication is another such tool that is showing some potential within
means of content
organizations. Syndication technologies (such as RSS) are not so
distribution. much a source of content as a very personalizable means of content
distribution. Some technology-friendly organizations have started to
implement organizationwide uses of syndication technologies. RSS

12
For more information, please see these two reports: (1) Enterprise Social Software
2009: Facts, Practical Analysis, Trends and Provider Profiles, Bersin & Associates / David
Mallon, September 2008; and, (2) Social Networks for Enterprise Learning and Talent
Management: A Primer, Bersin & Associates / David Mallon, June 2008. Both reports are
available to research members at www.bersin.com/library or for purchase at
www.bersin.com/socialsoftware.
13
6114 LA SALLE AVENUE Source: http://www.digg.com.
SUITE 417 14
Source: http://www.wikipedia.com.
OAKLAND, CA 94611
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Source: http://www.google.com/alerts.
INFO@BERSIN.COM
16
Source: http://pipes.yahoo.com.
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allows employees to subscribe to topics of interest at a granular level.
These subscriptions then drive always-on distribution of related content
just to interested audiences. RSS-readers allow those audiences to take
further control over the content, sorting it and archiving it in much
the same way as most employees are used to doing with email. These
organizations can use RSS to push both official and internal content, as
well as offer externally available content streams in topics, such as news,
industry happenings, research domains or market analysis. Podcasting is
a well-known use of syndication technologies in which audio or video is
pushed via RSS or similar tools.

These days, most organizations should allow employee access to the
open Internet. It is still the biggest possible source around and it gets
bigger by the second. If your organization intends to rely on this option
as a major part of your on-demand learning strategy, we strongly
suggest implementing enterprisewide tools to support quality content
BEST PRACTICE
discovery, including corporate social bookmarking and RSS.

Organizations
Employee-Generated Content
that choose
to encourage Of course, in today’s Web 2.0 world, every employee is a potential
source of content17. Many organizations are finding great benefit to
employee-
spreading authorship of content (business or learning) around the
generated content
company. Increasingly, it is the training departments that are leading
should provide
the charge to provide the experts in the organization with access to the
employees with tools needed to create good content themselves. While this strategy
both the tools and has the benefit of taking advantage of all of the organization’s tacit
necessary training expertise, this option may suffer from inconsistency of quality and
for creating high- participation. Organizations with the most success in taking this path
quality content. (such as British Telecom18) have learned the wisdom of offering training
to employees on how to create high-quality content.

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OAKLAND, CA 94611 Corporate Training Strategy through Social and Informal Learning, Bersin & Associates /
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INFO@BERSIN.COM
18
Ibid.
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Existing e-Learning Libraries

Some organizations have chosen to repurpose their existing licenses
to off-the-shelf e-learning libraries as on-demand repositories. This
content is more of a known entity than what is available from the open
Internet. Typically, these content developers use proven development
methods and work with identified experts in their fields to create it.
Remember, though, that many companies often find this traditional
learning content to be unsuited for on-demand use, given its structure,
format and length.

For organizations with licenses to such libraries already in hand,
repurposing them for on-demand use is a worthwhile strategy. We
would not, however, recommend purchasing such licenses solely for on-
demand learning purposes.
KEY POINT
Digital Content Libraries
Digital content
So, the Internet offers much of the content desired, in all the necessary
library providers
formats, but there are no guarantees as to the quality. Similarly,
take much of
employees can help source content, but there are no guarantees that
the guesswork enough will participate or that the content will be usable. e-Learning
out of ﬁnding libraries have quality content, but the content is not in an ideal on-
quality content. demand format. Is there another option?
They work with
Yes, we believe the best current option available to organizations today
the foremost
is the growing number of digital content library providers. Providers
publishers and including Books 24 / 719 (part of SkillSoft), Safari Books Online20 (co-
content sources in owned by O’Reilly Media and Pearson Education), Soundview Executive
each industry and Book Summaries21, GetAbstract22 and a growing list of others now offer
content domain. organizations access to a vetted library of quality content specifically
formatted for on-demand access.

19
Source: http://www.books24x7.com.
SUITE 417 20
Source: http://www.safaribooksonline.com.
OAKLAND, CA 94611
21
(510) 654-8500 Source: http://www.summary.com.

INFO@BERSIN.COM 22
Source: http://www.getabstract.com.
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These providers take much of the guesswork out of finding quality, on-
demand content. They work with the foremost publishers and content
sources in each industry and content domain. Content can come in a
variety of digital formats, including:

• Magazine and journal articles;
KEY POINT
• Full book texts in electronic form;
Content can come
• Book summaries and abstracts;
in a variety of
digital formats • Book reviews;
and some of these
• Content overviews, factsheets and summary notes;
providers specialize
in speciﬁc digital • Podcasts; and,

formats.
• Audio and video vignettes.

Some of these providers specialize in specific digital formats. For
instance, Soundview and GetAbstract both focus on book summaries.
Others are more general in focus; Books 24/7 and Safari Books Online
both offer content in a wide range of digital formats.

As for content topics, the early adopter customers for these content
sources have tended to be interested in technology, media, and business
or management content. Not surprisingly, provider libraries are deepest
in these areas.

Apple with the iTunes Store23 and Amazon24 with its growing library
of e-books25 also deserve mention in this category. While solely direct-
to-consumer focused, they are driving interest on the part of end-user
employees in the concept of consuming content in digital forms. They
are leading the evolution of the mobile devices26 that are becoming the
primary platform by which people consume this kind of content.

23
BERSIN & ASSOCIATES, LLC Source: http://www.apple.com/itunes.

6114 LA SALLE AVENUE 24
Source: http://www.amazon.com/kindle.
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25
OAKLAND, CA 94611 An “electronic book” or, in other words, the complete text of a book in an electronic
(510) 654-8500 format designed to be read via an electronic devise.

INFO@BERSIN.COM 26
E.g., the iPhone, iPod and Kindle.
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In the next section, we will provide further example of what a digital
content library is by profiling one such provider, Safari Books Online.

Safari Books Online: Bringing Social to On-Demand

Founded in 2001 as a partnership between O’Reilly Media and Pearson
Education (two heavyweights from the technology and education
publishing industries, respectively), Safari Books Online is one of the
largest and most successful examples of a digital content library today.

Figure 2: Safari Books Online Resources Available

More than 9,500 books;

More than 200 articles;

More than 800 videos; and,

Content from more than 40 publishing imprint.

Source: Safari Books Online, 2009.

Safari Books Online sells access to its library of content either through
KEY POINT
an “all-you-can-eat” subscription or as small bundles of related
content, called “bookshelves.” The company markets to both individual
Safari Books Online
consumers as well as organizations. Most of its business customers
sells access to its
choose the unlimited option and most consumers choose the
library of content
bookshelf route.
either through
an “all-you-can- The content itself comes in many different formats, including both
print and video; mobile access is also available. While it is designed to
eat” subscription
be consumed electronically online, Safari does provide a method for
or as small
customers to purchase the rights to take content offline, if desired.
bundles of related
content, called
“bookshelves.”
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Figure 3: The Future of Publishing Lies Online


Safari Books Online is in the process of launching a new version of
KEY POINT
its website that will make the company an even more attractive on-
demand learning option for organizations. First, the site has had a
Safari Books Online
facelift, improving the overall user experience. The underlying portal
is in the process
technology allows each user to personalize his / her experience,
of launching a
highlighting content of interest. The new site brings social software
new version of its functions to support social learning and content-based community.
website that brings Finally, it now offers an expanded application programming interface
social software (API) to support connections to business systems, such as corporate
functions to support search, intranets and portals, and learning management systems (LMSs).
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Figure 4: User Reviews


Figure 5: Creating a User Review

SUITE 417 Source: Safari Books Online, 2009.
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Figure 6: Collaboration


Figure 7: Bookmarking

SUITE 417 Source: Safari Books Online, 2009.

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Safari’s content is divided into three general domains:

• Technology,

• Creative, and

• Business and Management.

Safari Books Online has impressive roots in the technology and media
design worlds. O’Reilly Media has a tremendous reputation with these
audiences, as does Peachpit Press, an imprint of Pearson Education.
Safari Books Online has leveraged its parents’ reputation and expertise
to build a loyal following with professionals in both of these disciplines.
As the company has grown, it has expanded into the business and
management content arena, and now maintain a very respectable
offering in those disciplines, as well.

Safari Books Online has seen rapid growth in its customer base
and revenue over the past few years. Even in the current economic
downturn, the company is gaining business as prospective customers
realize that access to these sorts of libraries is a relatively cost-effective
way to meet many different learning needs and styles.

Conclusion

Corporate learning is entering a new era – one of social, collaborative
KEY POINT
and talent-driven learning. Today’s workers still need formal training
that is built around specific problems and talent needs; however, they
The modern high-
also need corporate training departments to become enablers and
impact learning
brokers of learning – providing context and pathways through which
organization
these employees can drive their own learning, find their own learning
takes a self- content and make connections to experts with knowledge they need.
service approach,
The modern high-impact learning organization takes a self-service
providing learners
mentality to what it does, providing learners with the best possible
with the best
resources in as many forms and modalities as possible. The modern
possible resources
learning function sees the learner as a customer first and foremost, and
in as many forms is always customer-driven.
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If your organization is ready to begin the transition to modern
enterprise learning, and is looking for a way to begin enabling and
leveraging informal learning in the enterprise, a simple but effective
strategy for providing on-demand learning support is to provide
enterprise access to a digital content library.

Bottom Line: Sourcing on-demand learning content can be challenging.
Digital content libraries (such as Safari Books Online, Books 24 / 7 and
GetAbstract) are potential solutions to this challenge, providing on-
demand access to low-cost, high-quality content from known,
reputable sources.

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