I get it, we’ve been taking part in instructor-led training (ILT) really since day one. Our basic and most of our advanced education was ILT driven. It’s familiar, it’s comfortable. We want that reassurance that if we have a question, we’ll get the instant gratification of one-on-one attention. Right? This is the dream. But let’s consider the flip side.
Live, In Person Training – Some Drawbacks
I’ve travelled cross country and internationally to provide training in person. In some cases, over half the students had also travelled to be at the training as well. All those travel costs – time and money – are ultimately taking away from the bottom line of the company that desires the training.
When we consider the actual dynamics of physical training, there is the feeling that an instructor can give individualized attention to each student. The reality is the instructor has the responsibility to do this for the class as a whole. We’ve all been in classes where one or a few students monopolized the teacher to the detriment of the quality of class as a whole. Not cool.
We feel that having the class all together will boost participation, but I have not found this to be the case. If you aren’t comfortable speaking in front of a crowd, asking a question in class is a big hurdle. Also, questions are often glossed or deferred as time to finish presses and ‘we have to move on.”
How Online Training can be Better
Now while I could go on, your time reading is best served by considering how to improve the quality of training and reducing the cost. I will readily admit that there are times when ILT is a valuable, sensible and effective answer to education- I find these situations to be more on the deep dive, one-on-one or one-to-few mentoring/consulting end of the education spectrum. For general class instruction however, students learning, teacher efficiency and effectiveness, and the business bottom line are very often much better served by online solutions.
Why is this?
1. One of the biggest savings for both student and teachers is the time savings of cutting out the commute – down the hall, across the country, whatever. Plugin wherever is convenient to you as student or teacher, stop paying for the hotel room.
2. Everyone has the best seat in the house. With screen sharing, you get the “view of the board” you should have. No heads in the way or need to scoot to the front to read the small print.
3. When setup correctly – improved participation and classroom discipline. Especially when paired with chat functions to take questions, students seem less timid about asking questions and questions can be logged for coming back to, even after class!
While we consider pre-recorded on demand options as an extremely high value way to deliver training, live online sessions are our definite number two in value for typical training. This recent IDG article by David Spark describes the benefits of online meetings that translate almost directly to similar benefits for online training. Click >>here<< to get the article – no sign up required!
John Starmer, Director of Education
Are you ready to try online training? Check out our >>education page<< for a listing of all our course offerings.