The key is to identify the correct application for any distance learning or web-based learning programme. In my experience, webinars, teleseminars, online interactive, DVD interactives or any other form of training has to be chosen very carefully, you must have the right subject matter!

For instance, online learning is mega effective for product knowledge guides and other short bursts of information that does not require other skill sets to complete the task.

Where we see multi media training fail is where the student needs other skills such as math. You can’t legislate for other skill sets. You can interact with product knowledge or soft skills, but you can’t interact if the student can’t work a calculator or doesn’t understand the basics of the subject matter.

In short, people are seeing multi media training as a total solution for everything to do with training. No, it’s not cookie cutter, you have to select the right subject or it will fail.

When you get the right subject it works like a dream. Part of the sucess with online training is having the right consultant to know if multi media is applicable and then how to utilize it so it works. This is our area of expertise, contact us and we’ll tell you if your plan is viable or not.

Hope this helps?

Joe.

I have attended many of RAB’s Acoat training courses and found them to be extremely beneficial to my own career development. This was because his philosophy on training was always to hire the very best tutors relevant to the subject; that’s how we first met Jeff!

I was recently asked by a local high school to give a talk on basic business skills to year-10 students as part of their “Young Enterprise Day”, I accepted the offer and felt comfortable to talk to young people of this level, but this certainly does not make me a good tutor!

I suppose my point is that it is more important to have high quality training, delivered at the right level making the delivery method a less important factor.

Personally, I like classroom based training as I find so much more information can be sought from networking with other people in a similar job role.

In principle though the cost benefits can’t be questioned. There’s a multi-billion pound industry globally that services this field. I’ve been involved in the delivery of all manner of training and development initiatives within the motor industry for 20 years including e-learning.

In my experience the key to success in using e-learning is to do with culture of the organisation behind the initiative and the focus and drive that exists. If the culture is not supportive of learning, does not provide the right conditions, does not put the learning initiative in the context of meeting an identified training need then it’s less likely to succeed anyway regardless of the method used. Elearning and technology based learning is a very cost effective way to help people learn.

When motivational training delivered in a classroom by a great trainer is very powerful it can be seen as being quite a passive form as far as the learner is concerned, in as much that as a learner I can just sit back and be led by the trainer following his or her path, following the course structure. Where as with e-learning I need to take full responsibility for my own development. The course will not succeed unless I put in all the effort, so for lazy learners this is too onerous.

But then may be it’s a generation thing too. Those of you with children will know just how IT savvy they are, how quickly they can navigate around the web and multi-task on-line. My prediction is that the 16 year olds of today who will be your future employees will expect and want more on-line learning. As the cost of fuel increases there will be pressure on all of us to find new ways of developing staff without the expense of traveling distances to training centres.

Technology now allows us to provide rich online learning experiences that can be very rewarding to be part of especially when the communication and learning can be extended beyond the class room. E-learning is here to stay and it will only get better.

With online you just go through the motions sometimes and don’t really take the info in.

- Face to face interaction so you get to know everyone well
- Real-time discussions in the classroom (or maybe a webcam session)
- The chance to get to know your classmates socially
- The opportunity to test online your knowledge of the topic at any time
- Discussing topics online (like we are now) at any time and from any place
- Planning online activities around work commitments to reduce any inconvenience
- Details of the class are permanently available and not entrusted to our memories

The number of face-to-face meetings can be adjusted based on the class’s ability to meet – maybe once a month instead of once a week.

What you’re correctly pointing out is that, if an online learning technology is affordable, this doesn’t have to be an either/or decision.
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Steve

If online training is part of a suppliment to some classromm training then it should work well. If online training is given as an option to training without an initial meetup with a tutor, then I think it will not be anywhere near as successful.

I think the key is to have a mentor/coach. What do you think?

- Design a course intended for online learning. Take advantage of the online medium. Don’t just copy an on-site course.

- For learning facts, use quizzes with a huge test bank so ’students’ can take the quiz over and over and over.

- To glean experience from others, use discussions. Grade them so everyone must contribute; on the other hand, block anyone who takes over the discussion. Have the instructor act as a coach and guide so everyone feels equal and able to contribute. “The only stupid question is the one never asked.”

- Plan for interaction in the classroom and consider using teams.

- Ensure you have a great instructor. In this area, I strongly recommend having students grade material and instructors at the end of a class so others can later pick the best instructors.

- Archive the class so everyone can return to it, even years later. The discussions, in particular, may contain a wealth of useful information. It’s still there even after the trainer and maybe colleagues are long gone.

Imagine you’re a telephone company that sends out a monthly bill to a corporate customer. The bill has hundreds of pages, arranged by department, but it’s fixed in format because it’s on paper. The corporate customer can see just how much each department spends each month.

Now imagine that the telephone company informs all its customers that it now offers a new and improved service: an online bill. Sadly, all they do is make the paper bill available on line. That company doesn’t get it.

A competitor, though, embraces the new technology. Not only do they make bills for their corporate customers available online, but they allow them to view the bill by department, by type of call, by day/time of call. They let their customers see how much the bill would be using a different calling plan. They offer a discussion board so customers can ask questions, and so on. The second company didn’t just make something paper-based available on line. They embraced the new technology, invested time and effort, and made the most of it.

It’s the same with online learning. Turning an on-site course into an e-book is taking many steps backward. By taking advantage of technology, however, good designers can transform a course into something much better. Frankly, this isn’t happening much right now. Over time, though, I think the power of this new medium will begin to emerge.
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Steve