The Basics of e-Learning
Monday, Oct 06, 2003
The Future of Learning
It is a fact, all companies must train their employees and most companies need to train often. Training employees must be a comprehensive and efficient process. But, what is the best method to use? Today, due to advances in technology, corporate trainers have more tools at their disposal than ever before. One such training tool that offers many advantages is e-Learning.
e-Learning (often called computer-based training) is a type of education in which a student learns by executing special training programs on a computer. According to research conducted, e-Learning has a number of unique features that sets it apart from traditional training methods and makes it a powerful training tool. These features are beneficial to a company training a large group of employees with diverse learning methods.
Features of e-Learning:
1. e-Learning Provides Integration of Text, Graphics, Video and Sound: e-Learning is an effective training option because it appeals to multiple senses - seeing, hearing and doing. According to research, people remember 10 percent of what they read, 20 percent of what they hear, 30 percent of what they see and 50 percent of what they hear and see.
2. e-Learning Provides Immediate Feedback: Immediate feedback allows both instructors and trainees to monitor progress and adjust instruction accordingly. This feature of e-Learning allows a student to decide how much time he or she needs to spend on a particular area, assuring that the student spends enough time on areas of weakness and not to much time on areas of proficiency.
3. e-Learning is effective for people with various learning styles: Everyone learns different and receiving information through more than one sense increases the likelihood that the student will be able to recall the information in the future. Trainees remember more for a longer period of time.
4. e-Learning is Cost Effective: After initial costs, you have a 24-hour per day trainer. A trainer is able to teach any number of trainees at the same time using e-Learning. Also, having an on-hand e-Learning program eliminates the cost of assembling instructors, use of all your facilities and travel expenses that may come when training employees with traditional training methods.
5. e-Learning is an Effective Training Option for the Adult Population: In some cases, adults who are required to attain additional training for employment purposes may feel threatened by the atmosphere of traditional classroom training. With e-Learning, the student feels in control because the computer provides a non-threatening and non-judgmental learning environment. e-Learning actively involves the student in the training process, providing for increased student satisfaction. Students are not scared to try and try again till they get it right.
6. e-Learning is Self-paced, Flexible and Individualized: A student can work at his or her own pace using an e-Learning program. Plus, e-Learning can sequence training to match the needs of the student, and provides immediate feedback so a student can keep up with his or her own progress.
7. e-Learning is Tireless and Consistent: e-Learning is a superior training option because it never needs a break, is always available, can train greater numbers of students in a given time frame than other training methods and meets the need in today's workforce for continuous training. It provides consistency of training in terms of the quality of information presented.
8. e-Learning Improves Job Performance: An e-Learning program can help companies successfully train people in specific skills for specific performances while providing increased access to information tools for decision-making and general skills that effect overall employee performance.
e-Learning may seem cold and impersonal when first mentioned, especially to the employees who are to be trained, but that is not true if it is used correctly. The important thing to remember is that e-Learning is a training tool, not a substitute trainer that will do all your training without any human intervention. There are many ways to insure a comfortable e-Learning experience for everyone.
Overcoming the Impersonal Nature of e-Learning:
1. e-Learning is not meant to replace your trainer, it is meant to make them more effective in the use of their time and consistency of their message.
2. e-Learning is an effective tool for your corporate trainer and trainees to assist them in providing complete training and awareness programs to meet all your training objectives.
3. e-Learning is very effective in actively engaging users in a proactive, one-on-one learning environment. Digital Video allows personal introductions, explanations and rewards.
4. The ideal scenario seems to be a combination of both types of training. A warm, personal introduction by the corporate trainer in person, followed by one-on-one training with e-Learning for fundamentals and testing, and then a wrap-up session with a person again for specific answers to questions and targeted personal training in areas of employee weakness or concern.
Contact us today to discuss how e-Learning can work for you!