Excellence in E-Learning

Yesterday, Tom Peters, one of my heroes, listed The 19E’s of Excellence on his business management blog:

If Not Excellence, What?
If Not Excellence Now, When?
The “19 Es” of Excellence:

Enthusiasm. (Be an irresistible force of nature!)
Energy. (Be fire! Light fires!)
Exuberance. (Vibrate—cause earthquakes!)
Execution. (Do it! Now! Get it done! Barriers are baloney! Excuses are for wimps! Accountability is gospel! Adhere to the Bill Parcells doctrine: “Blame nobody! Expect nothing! Do something!”)
Empowerment. (Respect and appreciation rule! Always ask, “What do you think?” Then listen! Then let go and liberate! Then celebrate!)
Edginess. (Perpetually dancing at the frontier, and a little or a lot beyond.)
Enraged. (Determined to challenge & change the status quo!)
Engaged. (Addicted to MBWA/Managing By Wandering Around. In touch. Always.)
Electronic. (Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building and entanglement of every sort. Crowdsourcing rules!)
Encompassing. (Relentlessly pursue diverse opinions—the more diversity the merrier! Diversity per se “works”!)
Emotion. (The alpha. The omega. The essence of leadership. The essence of sales. The essence of marketing. The essence. Period. Acknowledge it.)
Empathy. (Connect, connect, connect with others’ reality and aspirations! “Walk in the other person’s shoes”—until the soles have holes!)
Experience. (Life is theater! Make every activity-contact memorable! Standard: “Insanely Great”/Steve Jobs; “Radically Thrilling”/BMW.)
Eliminate. (Keep it simple!)
Errorprone. (Ready! Fire! Aim! Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff and make some more booboos—all of it at the speed of light!)
Evenhanded. (Straight as an arrow! Fair to a fault! Honest as Abe!)
Expectations. (Michelangelo: “The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it.” Amen!)
Eudaimonia. (Pursue the highest of human moral purpose—the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always.)
Excellence. (The only standard! Never an exception! Start now! No excuses! If not Excellence, what? If not Excellence now, when?)

I have always loved Tom’s passion about leadership, which comes through loud and clear above.  I immediately saw a connection between his values for the business world and the values I believe online faculty should have in place for elearning.  So let me borrow liberally and with passion for my world:


The “19 Es” of E-Learning Excellence:

Enthusiasm. Students quickly spot enthusiasm online, and just as quickly note when it is lacking.  Online learning is always more than content…it is facilitated learning led by an enthusiastic subject-matter expert.
Energy.
(Be involved, present, and active in your class)
Exuberance.
(Use social media to connect with students and let your personality come through)
Execution.
(Online learning does not just happen…it has to be designed in and managed.)
Empowerment.
(Students empowered to co-learn and become researchers of their own personal knowledge are learning gifts that will live long beyond your course.)
Edginess.
(Add some Edupunk to your course.)
Enraged.
(Don’t accept mediocrity in yourself or your students.  Get them to stretch beyond normal expectations)
Engaged.
(To me, engagement is the key to effective online learning.  Students need to see the relevance of what they are doing online and its impact on their world.)
Electronic.
(Partners with the world 60/60/24/7 via electronic community building and entanglement of every sort. Crowdsourcing rules! {Same statement Tom made applies to elearning.  Think outside the four walls of the classroom and connect your class with their global peers})
Encompassing.
(Borrowing from an old cartoon, no one may know you are a dog online, but online every dog can be a top dog)
Emotion.
(Be passionate about what you teach and let that passion show.)
Empathy.
(The power of elearning is the ability to make the learning customizable to each student in your class.  That requires real connections between faculty and students beyond the normal hierarchical establishment.)
Experience.
(Students should come away from online classes with a WOW experience.  You have the tools to transform their lives through social media.)
Eliminate.
(What works in face-to-face settings rarely transfers easily online.  It is not a matter of throwing your powerpoints, notes, or even class lecture videos online and saying you have online classes.  It is a different medium and therefore requires much to be tossed out and re-engineered.)
Errorprone.
(Ready! Fire! Aim! Try a lot of stuff and make a lot of booboos and then try some more stuff and make some more booboos—all of it at the speed of light!  {Okay, maybe not at the speed of light, but don’t be afraid of messing up online.  The online environment remains pretty messy, but in that mess is opportunity!})
Evenhanded.
(The online environment has the tools for the democratization of education.  You will have superstar students and those who learn at slower paces, but treat every online student equitably.)
Expectations.
(One of Chickering and Gamon’s Seven Principles of Good Practice in Undergraduate Education was for faculty to communicate high expectations.  It hold true equally in online classes – expect much and you will get it.)
Eudaimonia.
(Pursue the highest of human moral purpose—the core of Aristotle’s philosophy. Be of service. Always. {Equally true in education as in business, if not more so!})
Excellence.
(The only standard! Never an exception! Start now! No excuses! If not Excellence, what? If not Excellence now, when?  As Tom said, Amen!)

Now, I admit that I love how Tom Peters states things….but have I translated them correctly for online teaching and learning?  What are your thoughts?

{Photo Credits:  Untitled Projects, CogDog}

4 thoughts on “Excellence in E-Learning

  1. Since they are Peter’s “e” list then they can’t be changed.
    Since, nouns, verbs, adjectives are involved, I would look to possibly expand with:
    eclectic as in build an extensive repertoire,
    elaborate as in expand or extend with relevant detail

    Useful ideas and thoughtful translation.
    Thanks Elaine

  2. Brit,

    I saw this post from Tom as well yesterday. I took a look at it then, but I love how you made the intellectual leap to apply them to your area of expertise (Aha! There is another one – expertise!). Thank you for getting the conversation going. I am sure that we can continue to build on this list of “E’s”

    John

  3. Kia ora Britt

    Interest – (I don’t see any real allusion to this anywhere)

    Relevance – this is mentioned by you under engagement. Engagement is an area in itself and I see the connection with this and interest as being tenuous. True, that something that interests will tend to stimulate engagement. I would put interest as a separate attribute.

    There are three special attributes that elearning should have – I believe these with a passion.

    One is not mentioned (that I can see) in this list, and the other is mentioned as a subset (in passing) in another.

    The three that’s important to ALL learning, never mind elearning, are:

    Engagement – (this is listed – but I now wonder if we are all talking about the same thing:-) ).

    My feeling is that 19 categories, chosen so that they fit an alphabetical criterion, is not only diluting the importance of key attributes, but also tend to divert any prioritisation. I have listed my 3 in order of priority, as both interest and relevance lead to a state where engagement can be worked on.

    I’d be interested to learn what you think of these points.

    Catchya later
    from Middle-earth

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