XplanaZine

This weekend I finally talked myself into using the self-service checkout at WalMart. I had resisted for the last two months because it seemed too new to be stable. So, figuring that after two months there would be a few patches or at least an initial Service PacK, I scanned my two items, put them in the sack (be careful to do EXACTLY what the voice tells you to regarding the sack).

Now I’m hooked. I’m even thinking that, within a couple of months, I may get noticed by one of the talent scouts at WalMart and get an offer for work. It’s a system I can definitely master.

Unfortunately, it appears as though there will be some competition. According to a USA Today article this week, “It’s a do-it-yourself world” out there. Here are a couple of interesting items from that report:

• Sales from self-service kiosks of all kinds topped $161 billion last year and could reach $1 trillion by 2006, according to IHL Consulting;
• 95% of U.S. supermarkets will use self-checkout of some sort by 2006;
• 75% of adults ages 18 to 24 say that at a fast-food drive-thru they would rather place their order on a kiosk or touch screen than over an often-hard-to-understand speaker.

The push for self-service shopping in the brick-and-mortar world is motivated by the same factors as it is for online users — efficiency and the ability to avoid less-than-helpful/friendly service or sales people.

• Users want more control over products (information) and how they obtain them;
• Users demand greater flexibility in terms of time and space when it comes to both products and service;
• Users don’t mind a small learning curve when the benefits are apparent.

So what does all this mean for online learning? First, it’s a simple reminder that the cat is already out of the bag and it will be darned difficult to get her back in. According to the 2003 Sloan Survey of Online Learning, 81% of all institutions of higher education offer at least fully online or blended course and complete online degree programs are offered by 34% of the institutions. An estimated 2 million students will take online courses during the upcoming fall semester and the current growth rate for online learning in Higher Education is 20% per year.

The burgeoning self-service mentality in America is also a strong indicator of those things that need more attention when it comes to technology and education:

• We must provide users more control and choices. In spite of what some educators and publishers often tell me, our users are not stupid. They are intelligent and they would prefer that education operate much more like WalMart. They want value, but with it they want flexibility and control. Our users want a smorgasbord of opportunities and they want to be the ones who decide what, when, how, and with whom they study;
• We must be more ambitious in what we offer our users; One of the most fallacious assumptions about online learning materials is that they must be “dumbed down” for our users. Somehow, we have made the mistake of equating “usability” with “unsophisticated.” The two are not necessarily related at all. In fact, one need only stand at the automated checkout line at WalMart or Home Depot to see just how willing people are to learn new things if it makes their lives easier. Believe me, checking yourself out at the grocery store is much more difficult than any of the things I can imagine asking my students to do in an online class.

The challenge is to add both flexibility and value to online learning. If users see the worth of a product or service, they will be willing to work harder to master it. Indeed, they will actually demand that the product be available to them.