Blog

E-learning will be a hot topic for the training industry for a while. This exciting use of technology offers many new possibilities for developing and delivering training. Before you invest in developing some e-learning modules for you next training programme; you might want to consider some important points:

"What types of learning experiences do the participants need to understand and apply the relevant skills and knowledge?"

Once you're clear about your training needs, then try to honestly answer this question:

"Using e-learning as a delivery method, how well can you meet the training needs you just identified?"

For increasing knowledge, e-learning can be a great choice. But for increasing skills, e-learning will always have it's limitations, especially for non-computer-based skills.

Would you like fries with that?

Take for example, assembling a meal at a takeaway restaurant. The information about how to do this could easily be delivered in a power, engaging way using e-learning. A training developer could use slides with diagrams, showing how high to fill a cup with drink and the correct technique for getting the chips into the box. What e-learning can't do in this situation is provide the actual experience. It can tell you what the ideal experience should be like, but the participant needs that to create that him or herself. This can't happen in front of a computer. While this seems obvious, too often we view e-learning, especially in a self-paced/distance learning environment, as a silver bullet. When in reality, it can inform really well, but sometimes, it cannot meet 100% of the training needs for a particular programme.

Get real

Only once you get real about what can and can't be accomplished using e-learning will you be able to move your training programmes towards maximum effectiveness. The critical step is acknowledging that in some cases your e-learning course will need to be blended with classroom or live demonstrations and ultimately opportunities for real life practice and application.

Just do it

To use our takeaway restaurant example, actually filling a cup with drink will be the best way to solidify the information about how to do it. Most importantly, it will help to ensure that the new skill is integrated into the participants everyday performance of his or her role in your organisation. Making training sticks to participants in their daily work will have the greatest bearing on whether or not your training also sticks to your organisation by impacting on the performance levels it wants to operate at in the future.

Make it stick bottom line

E-learning is great for communicating information. If you're training skills, you need to blend your e-learning with real life practice and experience to ensure that your training sticks to the participants and your organisation.