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Training Your Team Members Online
In today’s business
environment, plenty has been said about the importance of keeping team
members well educated and equipped with enough of the latest industry
work practices, tricks and procedures to bring maximum value to
employers.
Popular belief says that
carefully planned employee training programs can help businesses stay
competitive by increasing productivity and morale, while at the same
time reducing employee turnover and workplace accidents.
Despite the obvious attractions however, many people with families,
sporting interests, other hobbies or second jobs simply don’t have the
time (let alone the energy or motivation) to attend formal
lectures/classes or prepare for scheduled exams.
But thanks to the widespread availability of access to the Internet, as
well as the emergence of some increasingly complex interactive
technologies, an alternative, more accessible and flexible option for
team member development is gradually becoming available.
Marilyn Harvey, an e-learning specialist from the West End’s Training
Online International, says the
online environment is a “good fit” for adults because they tend to learn
in a different way to children.
“When an adult wants to know something, they want to know it immediately
and are highly motivated to the point where they are able to learn
independently,” she says.
Commonly known as e-learning or online training, the provision of a wide
range of courses through the Internet has created a new virtual learning
environment that eliminates the need to physically travel to and attend
class.
Also, the delivery of tailored study materials and assessments
‘virtually’ allows individual students to learn at their own pace
wherever they want to - whether at home, at work or while traveling.
In his role as a director of Online Learning Professional, Steve Fisher
has developed online learning materials for several universities,
commercial clients and government departments.
”Certainly the anytime-anyplace ‘mechanical’ nature of online learning
has made delivery more efficient and learner oriented,” he says.
“E-learning has not changed the way courses are taught, but it does help
raise a lot of questions that we never considered when stuck in the
classroom.”
The relative infancy of the Internet being used as a proxy teaching tool
has understandably lead to concerns over the quality of courses
available and the fees and charges that might be involved.
“The reality is that developing an online course is an expensive
exercise if it is done well,” says Harvey. The cost of developing a
course can range from $10,000 to as much as $250,000, depending on the
number of programmers, time taken and the complexity of media used.
“The return comes when an organization is able to reap the benefits that
come from having team members who have excellent product knowledge, good
understandings of business processes and a strong occupational skill
base.”
According to Marilyn Harvey, e-learning expert, there is “amazing scope”
for the development and delivery of public courses over the next few
years, but there is a very limited range available at the moment outside
IT certification courses.
“Most online learning is being commissioned by organizations to be
delivered to their own personnel,” she comments. “The motivation behind
this is the organization’s own business goals, so the courseware is
developed for a very specific audience.”
While nothing will arguably ever be more effective than the ‘live’
classroom-learning environment, online courses and programs have the
potential to fill the void created by (potential) students who just
cannot afford the time to study the conventional way.
“People are any organization’s most valuable resource and it is very
important to ensure they are up-to-date with their knowledge and
skills,” Harvey says. “It is
well documented that investing in training makes good business sense.”
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