I want to be emphatic when I say this: I have never been a fan of online training. This form of training has been knocking at my door for years, and I’ve done a magnificent job of hiding under my sheets – hoping the knocking would stop! I have been bred to present information in a certain way, and I wish the intruder would stop knocking at my door and just go away. However, if I’m going to be a thought leader on training, I need to learn about new forms of training, and point out the strengths and weaknesses of each innovation that comes along.
The Weaknesses of Online Training
One of the most fundamental challenges of online training has to do with one of the most important principles of any actual presentation, training event, or performance. Online training has, and always will, struggle to inspire those who watch it. To truly reach into someone’s heart and make a lasting impression, you have to do more than just dispense information.
Even if you can put on the presentation of your life online, I will always believe that the more the audience interacts with the trainer and/or each other, the more they enjoy the presenter. By nature, online presenting just doesn’t allow for significant interaction. I live to engage audiences. I like to watch them tackle various problems in small groups exercises. I like to watch them work through case studies, engage in role-plays, navigate their way through simulations, and interact with each other.
When I have conducted online training, I can’t tell you how many times, after I’ve asked a simple question, I’ve had to wait over 20 seconds for even the first response. Want to know why it takes 20 seconds? Every participant has muted his or her microphone to mask the noise of the breakfasts being cooked, and other household tasks that are being done during the presentation. I even had someone proudly tell me this: “I loved your session. I was able to clean my entire house while you were speaking!”
When I am doing training “in person,” something else is happening that can’t be captured online. I like and appreciate the interaction that takes place between participants when the training is not being conducted. I’m referring to the conversations with the presenter during breaks, the conversations with each other during breaks, the dinners that allow for a type of bonding that can never be achieved in an online format.
Grrrrrr. Okay, I needed to vent and, in full disclosure, let you know that I will always prefer a live training event to a program delivered online. But that doesn’t mean we can’t embrace what is here, because online delivery has some impressive strengths, and it’s only going to continue to evolve.
The Strengths of Online Training
One of the first, and most obvious, strengths of online training centers around the bottom dollar. Budgets are tight, particularly in the training world, and conducting an online presentation can save a staggering amount of money. The costs of taxi fares, airfares, meals, hotel expense and more, are eliminated.
Online training also offers the presenter the benefit of time saved. Almost all professional speakers will fly in the day before the actual training event is to begin. That means some significant down time away from the office. Oh sure, many of us have established routines that allow us to maximize productivity, and sneak in work when we travel. The fact still remains, however, that even for a one-hour keynote presentation, the presenter has two days on the road. Online training eliminates the need for travel.
Although I have fought my own online demons, I have embraced online delivery for certain uses for quite some time. Follow up training is a natural for online delivery. It’s the live delivery that creates a condition for change by inspiring those who attend. It can be an online follow-up that helps sustain it. The follow-up type of training doesn’t require the level of change that the initial training does. The initial training has to motivate and inspire the participants to embrace a new way of thinking, and it’s very difficult to do that online.
Another positive of online training is that it can be ideal for those who are struggling with the initial training. Due to fiscal concerns, most companies will not pay to have struggling trainees go through initial training twice. Online deliveries create a much more affordable opportunity to help those who are struggling.
Online training has its weaknesses but it isn’t going anywhere for a number of good reasons. Although I’ve resisted the idea of online training, if it helps my clients, I’m willing to open the door and see who’s knocking. It may very well be opportunity knocking and the direction a lot of our training is going.
Hi Rob, Well said my friend.
There are definitely benefits to online training based on the material. There are just some things you cannot relay via the internet. Personal interaction, the “feeling” of being a part of a group, sharing space and time, eager to learn something new, is not conveyed well via an online presentation. That being said, simple, straight forward material, i.e. Death by PowerPoint, can easily be followed online, at your own pace, although it would be hard to clean the house while actually paying attention!
What Dan Argiro said.
Rob – I understand your concerns. I was skeptical but am a definite convert. I have more engagement from introverts than I ever would have imagined. I find involving people with quizzes, questions and utilizing the comment section allows people to reflect and connect in other ways. Talking is not always the solution. Thanks for bringing this up.
Hello, my friend!
A well-written BLArticle (as usual), clearly stating the dilemma that many of us 3-decade learning and development veterans find ourselves facing.
Part of my epiphany (in my changing mindset about online training) is that not only are clients demanding more efficient and effective ways of reaching their people, but the makeup of “their people” is inexorably changing. Millennials and younger are an “information pull” generation–they’re used to going out and getting what they want when they want it. And no amount of “get off my lawn”-style yelling about “you gotta do it the old way” changes that. So I’ve come around to accepting and embracing online training as a key element (note the term “element”) of the learning and development arsenal.
How to employ online learning (and which modality to select) is of course no easy decision. For me, it comes down to “what are you trying to help people learn?” Anything that is learning a “what” can be captured in self-paced online learning relatively easily and effectively – we know how to do this, and do it well. The harder part is helping people learn “how” to do something. This is where the guidance of an expert is typically critical. Coaching/mentoring/facilitating the application of new behaviors over what may be fairly complex concepts or processes is where the expert’s presence stands out. And in those cases, the decision of expert “location” – physical or virtual – depends not only on the behaviors being addressed but also immediacy, need for verification and validation of mastery, and the individual and corporate culture involved.
Sorry for the soapbox – but this was a great conversation starter!
Nick
Technologies improve and change at a faster rate than ever before; online training is not the online training of even a few years ago. But Rob you point out accurately that training is and always will be a social experience. New social designs allow learners to explore material more now than previously. I am not sure if Nick was implying that only millennials feel an affinity for these new modes of learning. The old concept of breakout groups can now be social interactions during and after a training session and benefit all ages if they want to learn. LOL Someone may not be so inclined to clean their house during training and be engaged in the material.
The degree of interaction is not entirely on the shoulders of the trainer, but like a good grade school teacher, commanding attention and directing the conversation is still the domain of the teacher. But allowing side conversations and questions can provide brilliant segue to an otherwise static presentation.. Allowing for individual and small group interactions often, if guided, can make courses better for the learner in terms of engagement. There is a term for this learning environment structure. This environment I am introducing is called a personal learning environment (PLE).
PLEs are often thought of as static and exist as a created structure during a webinar. Static PLEs can also be like an educational blog with comments adjacent material as they are presented in time. PLEs do not need to be limited to an online experiences and have recently been adapted to classroom or seminar environments, Imagine using your tablet or phone to text a question or answer to a speaker during a presentation or a quick survey to see the response to a posed question by the audience. Of course the potential lifetime of an online static presentation or course has become the online dynamic. Instructors can retain historical comments for new students studying updated asynchronous courses. The instructor can anticipate often asked questions and provide answers within adjusted material or in the “margin”.
The point is that there are many options for online presentations now especially asynchronous training. The costs of travel, conflicting schedules, and launching a learning “event” is significantly reduced. The ability to reach globally becomes possible, tolerable, and more inclusive. PLEs offer new possibilities to training…. even classic lectures. All that is required is that speakers update their knowledge.