Bill Brantley points out recent research in which respondents identify their preferred learning methods. Conspicuously absent among the top 5 most preferred learning methods: E-Learning. Brantley summarizes:

For soft skills, the top five methods were:

1. On-the-job training
2. One-on-one coaching
3. Peer interaction and feedback
4. Discussion groups
5. Live classroom instruction

For hard skills:

1. On-the-job training
2. Workbooks and manuals
3. Books and reading
4. One-on-one coaching
5. Live classroom instruction

The research appeared in Retiring the Generation Gap by Jennifer Deal.

For younger workers, the #2 slot on the ‘hard skills’ list is hard for me to believe: workbooks and manuals? Guess I’ll have to read the book to get the whole story.

While the banking industry appears to adopting gaming as an eLearning tool at a healthy pace, there’s not much else to cheer about in that business.

Two contrasting articles published this week:

1. Gaming as eLearning tool on the rise in banking industry.
2. Banking industry falling apart.

The following from a Business Week article citing research from the eLearning Guild. (Congrats to Brent, by the way, for the nice eLearning Guild visibility in Business Week):

According to a 2007 survey by the eLearning Guild, which polled nearly 1,500 of its members, from large and small companies throughout the U.S., 38% of insurance companies are investigating using games for work. In finance, accounting, and banking, that figure was above 50%.

Meanwhile, The Hub, talks about a looming banking industry crisis that many believe has only just begun:

Big banks are seeing merger and acquisition activity frozen, resulting in a full stoppage of deals that were in progress, which can’t be good for bonuses.

Various bankers and financial types we’ve talked to lately have ranged from quietly worried to nearly hysterical to uncomfortably sarcastic.

“Work sux” says one [hedge fund employee] by text.

“Its bigger than the Asian Financial Crisis in 1998″ says one person at Merrill Lynch. “Some major hedge funds are going to not be here by next year.”

I certainly don’t mean to imply a relationship between gaming-as-eLearning and the growing banking crisis. Nor would it be prudent to make light of the plight of those in the banking business. But, you have to admit, this could provide ample grist for any number of late-night talk show hosts.

I think it’s really great when long-held beliefs are proven false - especially those created by “experts” in a given field. Usually, the experts propagate these beliefs because they cast a shroud of mystery over their industry. This way, unsuspecting clients can be reminded that they should “not try this at home.” Instead, the client should hire said expert to explain it all to them.

The latest is the “Cone of Experience,” developed in 1946 by Edgar Dale. You know the one; it tells us that people only retain 5% of what they read, 10% of what they hear, 30% of what they see, etc.

Will Thalheimer wrote a series of posts last year in which he confidently debunked the Cone of Experience. He added an update just recently.

It always did seem to me that this theory was a little too neat and tidy, but the Cone has been around in training circles for so long that I never really questioned it.

What other chunks of “established knowledge” do you suppose are guiding our decisions? What other theories do we espouse as the Truth, without enough data to support them? Finally, how much money are we telling our clients to spend on these theories. Probably a good idea to question these always, because you never know when the real truth may emerge.