It’s good, but …

There is a lot of buzz around regarding eLearning, blended learning, online learning etc.

For companies, it provides an opportunity to save big dollars on their corporate training costs.  For staff, it allows them greater flexibility because they can fit training in around their busy schedules, re-watch parts they didn’t understand the first time, and learn at their own pace in different ways.

Compelling arguments, but …

Consider who you would choose:

Imagine you’re employing a new graduate to work in your company.  You’ve narrowed down the search to Michael and Nadine, who have the same degree and grades.

The only difference is that Michael did his entire degree online from home.  He never attended university unless he had to.

Nadine, on the other hand, attended all her lectures and tutorials in-person.

Who is likely to have better life skills in teamwork, dealing with people and building relationships?  Who is more likely to have a better network of contacts?

It’s an easy choice isn’t it, but why did you choose Nadine?  Because an education isn’t just about getting good grades!

Now extend this to corporate training …

 “Telling ain’t Training!”

If your definition of “Training” is just having someone stand at the front of a room and talk all day, you might as well make a video and save yourself some cash.

Effective corporate training is about far more than this.  It also includes:

• Learning by doing, making mistakes, asking questions and getting help in real-time from an expert instructor.
• Discussing concepts, ideas and case studies with fellow participants.
• Developing connections and relationships with fellow participants, learning how to interact with them, and work as a team.

Sure, it’s possible to do each of these in a purely online setting … but at about 1/100th of the speed and effectiveness of face-to-face training.

This is why Face-to-Face training will always be king … provided it adapts & evolves

 

Why Face-to-Face Training needs to Evolve

• Participants are increasingly expecting more from their face-to-face training.
• Participants don’t want paper: it’s hard to store, easy to lose, and they can’t search it or reference it later
• Participants are increasingly proficient with technology and expect to use this in all aspects of their lives, including training e.g. for research, further information, clarification, sharing, translation, or otherwise enhancing their training experience
• Increasingly, participants are multi-tasking during every moment they’re awake and their attention spans are getting shorter

Face-to-face training that expects everyone to put away their phones, and focus solely on the course for it’s entire duration just isn’t going to appeal to many audiences anymore.

In fact, the younger the audience, the more they’ll see this request as asking them to amputate a limb!

So rather than fight these trends, trainers should embrace them and use them to improve the training experience they deliver.

How Face-to-Face Training is Benefiting from Technology

While online learning is all about using technology to deliver training, innovative face-to-face training companies are also using technology to supplement, augment and extend the training experience.

Remove the Pain of Paper Notes

For training companies, it’s really inefficient, costly and cumbersome to print large training manuals, then do the binding, collating, couriering and distributing of these.  It’s also a constant struggle to get the materials from of the trainer in time to get them printed.  Then after the course has finished, it’s a pain to enter all the feedback forms and attendance registers … assuming you can read them!

For the course delegates, it’s annoying to get large wads of paper because these have to be stored somewhere, they’re not searchable, and they’re often not accessible when needed.

Innovative face-to-face training companies are now removing all the pain of paper, and using systems like Prezentt to differentiate themselves by providing benefits such as

• Instant, online access for delegates to all the training materials during the training session
• The ability for delegates to take notes, add their comments, and interact with the trainer electronically using any device
• Ongoing 24×7 access for delegates to course materials that are accessible from anywhere
• A flood of referrals and positive social media as delegates who have given high ratings are prompted to share these

Get rid of the Tacky Butcher’s Paper

Need to gather feedback from the group or capture ideas?  Why write these on tacky, cumbersome butcher’s paper that you then throw away?

Why not capture them electronically, then share these immediately with everyone in the group instead?

Innovative face-to-face trainers are using systems like Prezentt to do exactly that because at any time, files created by the trainer can be uploaded and made available to all the delegates … like a private Dropbox.

Alternatively, delegates’ thoughts, ideas and questions can be captured via online discussion or online questions.

Prezentt’s “private Dropbox” is also incredibly handy when the trainer forgets something or gets an unexpected question: just upload the file or link and immediately, all delegates have access.

Benefits Beyond the Course

Why should training end when the course ends?  The more someone practices what they’ve learned, the more likely it will move into their long-term memory and that’s when they really benefit from the learning.

So why not use technology to supplement this by sending a stream of additional exercises, assessments, course materials, and reminders to the delegates after the course has finished.

Not everyone will use these, but those who really want to learn the new skills will really appreciate the extra help and advice.

This provides training companies with a fantastic differentiator when delegates are comparing courses in today’s highly competitive market.

Let us take away your Training Pain

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