ICELW 2020 Proceedings Foreword

Dear Reader:

We’re living in unexpected and difficult times right now as I write this, and among the fields that have been shocked recently is our own field of online learning. Seemingly in moments, and in some cases almost literally in moments, companies and schools had to move to a completely-online learning model. But due to time constraints, at the very least, they’ve primarily moved their existing formats, such as lectures and tests, online.

We have an opportunity now to take advantage of the extreme interest in online learning to rethink and reimagine how we can use technology to create educational experiences and workplace performance.

I founded ICELW in 2008 with the goal of bringing together research and practice in online learning. ICELW has been designed to bring together people from the academic world and the business world, in order to further explore and share ways in which technology is used in workplaces to improve job performance. As technology evolves, the possible effects on learning, development, and performance continue to grow. I've always viewed ICELW as a place where people can share ideas about the types of experiences that can best make use of new technologies, and as a way to support interactions that can lead to new ideas. Perhaps this year more than ever, it's a time for new ideas.

Along those lines, ICELW 2020 is our first online-only conference, as we have moved online due to the pandemic. ICELW 2020's program continued to build on previous ICELW conferences, including demonstrations of e-learning work and research studies, and a variety of excellent presentations given by experts from around the world, plus, as a new addition, interviews with speakers and others in the field.

As has been the case for several years, we are seeing more and more movement within organizations away from traditional academic models of teaching, toward approaches that focus on performance improvement and the application of knowledge. I'm pleased to see more and more practical work that stems from a basis in theory, and draws from a variety of disciplines. I have long believed that the design of successful online learning and performance technology is both an art and a science. That belief remains at the heart of ICELW and its existence.

This proceedings volume contains all academic papers that were accepted into ICELW 2020. Since ICELW mixes academia and the business world, our proceedings volume also includes, in addition to academic papers, presentation slides from those presenters who chose to include them.

I hope to see you in New York next year for ICELW 2021!

David Guralnick, Ph.D.
New York, NY, USA
June 2020