“The Internet is the best place for learning”

The International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (IBSTPI) is a council that comprises renowned professionals from the teaching profession, private industry, the military sector and world governments. The current chairperson, Barbara Grabowki, explains how this non-profit making organisation conducts research and advises us on the competencies we need to have for different professions. These include online teaching.

The International Board of Standards for Training, Performance and Instruction (IBSTPI) is a council that comprises renowned professionals from the teaching profession, private industry, the military sector and world governments. The current chairperson, Barbara Grabowki, explains how this non-profit making organisation conducts research and advises us on the competencies we need to have for different professions. These include online teaching.

Our organisation is involved in developing and validating international training or learning standards, carrying out tasks and instruction in the virtual world. This is the first half of our mission. The second is to promote the implementation of these standards. In practice, what we do is carry out research to develop and validate these standards, and we then organise seminars, conferences and advisory sessions to promote their implementation. The IBSTPI was the first to develop the competencies that the instructor designer requires, in other words, it standardised the skills, knowledge and attitude needed. We defined it as such in about 1977 based on a need of two related professional associations, the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT) and the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI). At that time, it was thought that the standards of the profession needed defining. This laid the foundations for a study committee, which continued working until 1984, when it became a non-profit making organisation, where we had fifteen elected managers representing the international community. We now have people experienced in advising business and industry, governments, academia, etc. People come and go, representatives change, and this council always gathers a sense of the territory. It identifies where there may be problems in terms of the definition of the competencies of professions. This is the case of the training manager, for whom we have also defined the competencies. The figure of the instructor, which covers a number of fields, incorporated the virtual teaching mode a few years ago. We have a competencies development model over three phases. When the council or board decides that the competencies in an area need developing, the first step is to review the bibliography, study what has been said until now and how the necessary competencies have been assessed until now. The second step is to create assessment groups of people to describe their work, how they apply their competencies. And third, the panel of experts – which comprises professionals from a number of sectors in society – carries out its assessment and writes the first draft of the competencies. We draw up a questionnaire that is assessed by associations from around the world and they give their opinion about the standards that we have proposed. Finally, we gather all the information, adapt or modify it, and we give our final vision. We write a book with the research that we have conducted so that everyone can see our methodology, the steps that we have taken and the conclusions that we have reached. There is also a chapter that explains how to implement our recommendations. It works, as it has over the last 24 years, with basic research that is assessed by the Think Tanks, groups of managers with a general vision who develop a series of standards. They may decide, for example, that certain standards no longer work, that the business world has changed so much that the standards have to be rethought. Or, in the case of the online student or lecturer, technology has also changed and now the instructor focuses more on the student. The competencies needed by teachers in schools have been revised three times! The first definitions were in 1993, when people thought that the instructor had to give out information and this type of teaching and learning strategy was therefore reflected. By the end of the 1990s, technology became fully operational and teaching began to change, so we had to change the standards. But later, in 2003, there was a re-adaptation based on the recent changes. There is currently a very intense debate about the differences between face-to-face and virtual teaching. The debate is focused on the different competencies that each instructor needs, as the methods are different. However, as we investigate the subject, we find some common principles. For example, in both spheres, effective communication is necessary: it is important in the face-to-face situation and also in online teaching. Over and above the whole classification of competencies, these are the same. Very often standards are different depending on the context. For example, the academic environment has little to do with the business and industrial environment. In these sectors, communication is different in both the face-to-face and online situation. However, we do not have standards that go down as far as this level. What we propose is that people suggest how it behaves in their environment. For example: if you are preparing work material, how do you create it on the Internet? It will not be the same product as when you prepare it for a face-to-face situation. Our standards serve to provide more knowledge in the application, what we do is offer a series of basic standards to enable people to apply them. In fact, we have a learning community where everyone can come and talk about the standards that we suggest. Because every context is different, and by reflecting together we will improve. From my point of view, the UOC is impressive. When they suggested promoting the implementation of the standards in Europe, we decided to come here and talk. What impressed me most is the UOC model, where the student is the centre of the learning system. This university defines the different rings around the student so as to create a feasible virtual learning environment. Universities will not disappear, but the buildings will. When I became involved in distance education, we were facing a huge challenge: people needed to study with us but they could not get to the university. This happened to the nuclear industry. Every time professionals left their company to come and study with us, all their work was paralysed and it became increasingly expensive. This happened in the mid-1980s, and we did have the technology but we didn’t really know how to use it. Since then until now, universities have not disappeared because people learn better in communities. The best way to understand is to share our ideas with others, we know that. Therefore, it is important to have a teacher, an instructor who guides the learning, the student. However, I feel that the Internet is the best place for learning. In terms of what I’ve learnt as of the 1970s, creating virtual learning environments is a huge improvement for teaching.