Should Your Organization Be Leveraging Online Trainings?

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Online trainings allow companies to stay up-to-speed with the latest technological advancements, which is crucial in a digital era where things are moving so fast. If you’re wondering how you can benefit from online training, you’ve come to the right place. There are many myths surrounding eLearning, but this article will debunk them, while suggesting how you can maximize your organizational potential with modern teaching. Before we assess the impact of online trainings, let’s start with a quick definition of what it is:

What is Online Training?

As you’d imagine, online learning covers any educational methods which take place over the internet. The popularity of this method has increased over the years, mostly due to user preference and improved resources. This has made online learning more attractive, where organizations can access as many courses as they need. These can be leveraged to equip staff with the skills necessary to optimize performance. Ultimately, online learning has made the experience easier, as organizations enjoy the following benefits:

The Advantages of Online Trainings

Reduced Costs

Online training is typically associated with less investment, which is advantageous when you consider the prevalence of cost cutting initiatives. Online learning is more affordable than conventional teaching, mostly because you avoid costs like travel expenses, printed materials, and site rental fees. By avoiding these incidental costs, online trainings immediately cost less. The only budget you’ll need to consider is the cost of the course itself. If you buy an existing course relating to your organizational needs, this is even cheaper. Ultimately though, you’ll want to design a course that perfectly fits company culture, and can be tailored based on your business requirements. In this situation, you’ll still only need to account for development and maintenance costs. Online trainings facilitate advanced learning at a fraction of the cost, so is well worth incorporating into your learning strategy.

Redistribution

Once you’ve developed an online training solution, it can be repurposed multiple times. This is useful because it saves significant time and resources, while helping you maintain a consistent standard for your learning endeavors. Once you’ve established a foundational online learning platform, you can modify content for different departments, and to meet evolving business needs. This creates a level of flexibility which is highly advantageous, where you’ll never sway too far from overarching objectives. Additionally, online learning is very scalable. Whether you have ten or ten thousand employees, you can redistribute your training program to as many people as you like. You won’t incur any additional costs, and if you need to add anything to your course to improve its impact or preference a specific skillset, you have the option too.

Convenience

Online learning is accessible from anywhere at any time, providing you have an internet connection and compatible device. This creates a level of freedom that improves productivity, and frees up time for staff to focus on core competencies. Staff can subsequently engage in training activities outside of work. This improves the effectiveness of the development approach, while giving users an opportunity to learn at their own pace. This ensures learners maximize their experience. There will be times when users need to access information at unscheduled times, and this is where online learning becomes most useful. Employees can login to online trainings and access a wealth of resources, taking time to acquire skills which make their lives easier. They can do so without having to worry about their counterparts, but instead focus on what will make them more successful.

A Personalized Experience

Learning isn’t a one-size-fits-all procedure. Everyone learns differently, so to unlock their true potential will need different learning methods. In this sense, staff benefit significantly learning resources which are tailored to their individual needs and preferences. This is where online trainings are so useful, because they can forge personal training paths. If you’re training customer service employees, you can prioritize the development of soft skills like communication, whereas a financial employee can benefit from a program with an analytical approach. Online trainings will cater to specific training preferences, simulating situations that directly apply to individual roles and responsibilities.

Detailed Tracking

With online trainings, you can effectively track performance, using metrics to determine the successfulness of methods. This is facilitated by analytics and reporting features, where you can monitor progress and identify weaknesses and strengths. This allows you to offer support where needed, and focus your training on critical areas of improvement. This gives you the opportunity to modify training based on real results, tweaking your strategy where necessary and ultimately receiving a higher ROI. It is useful when staff receive instant feedback and results from learning initiatives, which keeps staff progressing in the right direction. Staff can additionally offer feedback on online trainings, which can be used to improve resources. This contributes to improved personal development and better organizational performance.
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Jason is the Lead Author & Editor of TrainingStation Blog. Jason established the Training Station blog to create a source for news and discussion about some of the issues, challenges, news, and ideas relating to training, learning and development.