Online Courses: What You See Is Not What You Need
Before
everyone gets overly enamored (although it might already be too late)
with online courses
for employee training and development, let’s step back and take a
close look at the reality of this technology.
No
doubt about it: the Web is a powerful tool for learning. Text can be combined
with graphics and sound and made accessible, literally at your fingertips.
This technology allows employees to take courses in the workplace or at
home, saving the time and expense of travel and lodging. Some companies
calculate the savings to be in the millions of dollars. The selection
of courses is virtually limitless. Employees can access Web-based courses
from any provider anywhere in the world. We are talking about the potential
for thousands of courses to be delivered to the office or living room
of any employee. All of this is true. But these are all the wrong reasons
to invest in e-education for employees.
Examining the Benefits
Let’s examine each of the so-called benefits of e-education:
Taking
courses at a desktop is as good or better than attending an off-site course. The primary reason employees give for liking off-site training programs
is that they can meet and talk with people from other companies or units
within their own company who have similar needs and problems. They learn
from each other. This benefit is absent from asynchronous online courses.
Communication among employees can happen with synchronous, online courses,
but not with the same depth and quality as face-to-face meetings.
E-education courses are cheaper to deliver than classroom education. This is like saying that a bicycle is cheaper than a car. It might be true, but so what? Both are means for transportation but they have quite different purposes and benefits. So, too, with online courses and classroom delivered courses. One might be better for increasing knowledge and one might be better for increasing skills, shaping attitudes, and group learning. And it should not be a choice between the two. I would not give up either my car or my bike. Together they provide me with the transportation options that I need. For many learning needs, even cheaper options exist than both online courses and classroom instruction. For example, for employees who need to enhance their abilities as supervisors, a mentoring program could be less costly and more effective than taking a course on the topic of supervision.
E-education offers a vast selection of courses. The selection of books at Borders is huge, too, but unless I am looking for a book and I know what I want to read, the number of books doesn’t matter to me. Selection does not have anything to do with quality, relevance, or impact. Just because it is Web-based, glitzy, authored by a college professor, and has a large development investment, does not mean that it is right for particular employees. Does the course cover the content that they need in their situation now? Does it do this in a way that they can easily assimilate the information? Does it help them apply the information immediately in their workplace – with feedback? These are qualities of good employee training.
The common wisdom in the training field is that 80% to 90% of the corporate
training dollar is wasted. Nothing about online courses suggests that
this waste will be any less using this technology. Training is only one
of many factors that result in employee learning and improved performance,
regardless of whether the method of delivery is by instructors in a classroom,
self-directed, through coaching or mentoring, or through Web-based courses.
Unless employees are prepared for learning and that learning is supported
and reinforced in the workplace, performance improvement is unlikely to
occur. Putting a course on the Web does not ensure the results that companies
are seeking.
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