There's been a lot of talk abound in the industry that classroom learning is on the decline. Nothing new there.

There's also been a lot of talk abound in the industry that e-Learning is not the be-all-end-all it was purported to be. Nothing new there, either.

Back in the day - you know, the archaic year 2001 - as my career marched on in corporate learning, I read numerous articles and forum posts that classroom training is on the decline, steadily being replaced by what is now called e-Learning. The e-Learning craze began too early, was expensive, and had people endlessly wagging their tongues about the latest delivery widget. Caught up in the gospel, many corporations invested heavily in the technologies that delivered e-Learning and began converting their classroom learning to be delivered electronically.

Many learning professionals and corporate head-honchos were so bedazzled by the latest computer-based whiz-bang-aroo that they were forced into a technology induced amnesia, forgetting about the people who would actually be doing the learning. Instead of designing for the learner, they started designing to accommodate the latest whiz-bang-aroo, figuring that the end user would be just as impressed as they were with the delivery system. They weren't. As a consequence, learners turned their backs on e-Learning.

They built it. Nobody came.

Why? Much of it was boring, dreary, mind numbing, tiresome, dull, tedious, unexciting and uninspiring.

Imagine your college lit professor's lectures. Now imagine reading an endless stream of her lectures on a computer screen, page after page droning on about some long dead blowhard. My lit professor lectured, but his voice had intonation and inflection and he, get this, actually expected participation from the learners in his classroom. Silly man, I thought until I was spacing-off one day in class and had a piece of chalk whiz by my head. It was apparent then that I was to be participatory. Taken out of context, however, and dumped into HTML, his lectures would have been boring, dreary, mind numbing, tiresome, dull, tedious, unexciting and uninspiring. There would be no interaction and no context. No incentive for the learner to be engaged. No motivation to learn.

What's my point? I was just getting to that.

What can instructional designers do in corporate climate that is clearly shying away from expensive classroom-based, instructor-led training and has a really, really bad taste in its mouth regarding e-Learning? They should sync up with their audiences, that's what.

Designers should take a cue from the "traditional" way of teaching: the classroom. Classroom instruction, when designed effectively, can be an energizing, engaging and motivating experience. Deep, meaningful learning can happen with the right tools, the right methodologies, the right context, and the right climate that's tailored for the audience.

There's no reason that e-Learning cannot do the same.

Way back in 2001 the classroom vs. e-Learning battle was at its pinnacle. Which was better? Which would solve every learning problem in the known Universe, cure cancer, and make dogs like cats? In the end, neither. However, even as this battle was raging, some innovative souls actually brought them together to work cohesively, taking the best that each had to offer - blending, for example, the interactivity of the classroom environment with the just-in-time advantages of e-Learning.

As designers realize that the learner, not the method, should be central to the design process, e-learning is evolving, becoming more learner-centric, taking into account how people learn and the myriad of individual learning styles. Practitioners are realizing that there are virtues to each delivery mechanism. Yes, e-learning is evolving and is poised to make a significantly greater impact in the way learning is delivered. And yes, the classroom is not going away.

Some have discovered, at times the hard way, that the classroom is indeed the most effective medium to foster learning. It ain't dead yet, "and isn't going to die anytime soon," says Saul Carliner, assistant professor of educational technology at Concordia University in Montreal, as quoted in the April 2006 issue of Training magazine.

Others have discovered that e-Learning, when properly designed, can be just as effective. Yet some others have discovered that blending both is optimum for learner performance.

It's my hope that learning professionals and instructional designers keep the learner's needs first and foremost in their minds as they craft learning experiences, no matter what the delivery mechanism. It will be a great day when Joe E-Learning provider comes along touting the latest and greatest "learning" whiz-bang-aroo and the learning professional says, "how is that going to really help our people learn?"

The old adage of "know your audience" has never been more applicable.