Know about: Interactive Web Based Training
With the ever-changing economy, day by day it is hard to judge how much or how much you should invest in training. Even you know that training improves productivity, morale and retention of key employees.
Training is expensive and it is an investment in your most precious resource, your employees. Training can cost thousands of dollars per year per employee. How can you ask? Well consider these associated costs. In addition to the actual cost of training, you have the usual travel, food, accommodation and phone expenses, which in themselves can be quite expensive and are often a reason not to send someone on training. But you also have what’s called a lost opportunity cost, the cost of not being able to do business normally while a key employee is away for training. Stopping projects or not accepting any new projects, overtime, extra temporary manpower that needs training so that they can cover when the employee is away for training and overtime when the employee comes back so that he can catch up on everything what was left while they were gone. Now add the lack of advancement, poor job satisfaction, poor morale, high turnover costs due to money and too little training, which the training you did manage to get within budget, leaves the employee gone. Some company try to manage it with contracts and other requirements but you still lose with reduced productivity, travel and lost opportunity cost.
What is the result of all this? Less money spent on training, lower productivity, higher payroll, lower morale and even higher turnover resulting in more money spent on recruiting. Not to mention slashing incoming business so that you can handle current jobs with the workforce you have. so what are you gonna do? The budget and lack of personnel will not allow you to train everyone. Time issues related to training can take months, even if you have the budget, to train and organize people. You still need to serve your customers and look for new business. The answer lies in finding training that is inexpensive, doesn’t require travel, is tailored to your needs, and uses a method that everyone can learn from. I know it may sound like web based training and it is close in fact, it is called Interactive Web Based Training (IWBT).
Training can be divided into interactive and non-interactive. There are things like non-interactive books, CBT, WBT, audio and videotape courses. To accomplish these, the employee has to be highly motivated and the emphasis is on the employee to search for answers to things they do not understand. It’s cheap, and meets no-travel and scheduling requirements, but not everyone is motivated nor can they learn from this method. Many people don’t learn well without interaction with a group or at least an instructor. Interactive learning requires someone to teach others. Things like classroom training, job training, and mentoring are good examples of interactive learning. Interactive learning is expensive. This requires the time and resources of many people, potential travel, scheduling and a high probability of lost opportunity costs. However, not everyone learns better this way and they do not need to be as motivated to learn as is the case with non-interactive learning. Training usually takes place at a predetermined place and time, when someone briefs them. Interactive training also involves more senses such as sound, sight, touch and smell, so people retain more information than simply reading a book or completing a CBT/WBT course. How is the answer of IWBT? IWBT is instructor-led training (interactive learning) conducted in a virtual classroom (VC) rather than a physical classroom. Using VC we can do most of the tasks we use in the classroom, including whiteboards, presentations, videos, demonstrations, questions and answers, and group conversations. In addition, VCs usually have a better support structure to maintain and support learning after class is over. These can include emails, recorded sessions, bulletin boards and chat rooms, all designed to help students maintain and continue the learning process after class. I think the recorded sessions are of the greatest value. This session is a streaming video capture of what happened at the VC during class. All voices, lessons, presentations and videos are captured and stored on a server so that the student can review the class at any time. This is a great way to review just before using a new feature or function that was taught but not immediately implemented at work or for a client. These recorded sessions can also be used to teach others who may not be able to attend class and reinforce other non-interactive learning methods.
