Making Online Training Work

This post is part of a series concerning the differences between traditional classroom learning and online training or “e-Learning” and the various aspects of each.

What’s good about learning in a live, classroom environment? Well, you can ask questions of the teacher. You can collaborate with your peers. You can watch live demonstrations directly. So how could online training possibly replace traditional classroom learning?

Well, I have my doubts as to whether it ever fully will. However, I have confidence that online training will be used more frequently in place of certain mundane class lectures. Not all lectures or classroom sessions are dull and boring, but many could certainly be described as such. Allow me to address each beneficial facet of classroom training with what I believe to be a suitable solution using eLearning.

Possibly the biggest advantage of classroom learning is the fact that the student can directly ask the teacher questions. This allows for dynamic learning limited only by the teacher’s own knowledge, meaning that the student’s learning experience is completely fulfilling as long as he/she asks questions within the teacher’s knowledge. The teacher/student relationship has been of the utmost importance since ancient times. Online content will likely never be able to identically mimic the social cues and natural flow of an in-person conversation, but I believe that streaming video or even a live chat feature could alleviate most losses. The ability to ask questions is key – and even though live chat over the internet cannot completely replicate personal interaction, it can give students the opportunity to voice their uncertainties on certain topics – and allow teachers to answer them.

Peer collaboration is very similar to teacher interaction, and can be solved through online training the same way. Social media has proven this. Facebook, MySpace, and other social networking sites are essentially hubs of collaboration that can be used in many different ways. Why not apply the same context to online training? The use of a “virtual classroom” where students can send each other messages, questions, and thoughts is a perfect environment to foster collaboration and idea sharing, which are extraordinarily important to the learning process. Expanding it further, many sites such as Blackboard have the capability to create discussion boards (forums) that allow students to discuss lectures and classroom sessions after they have been completed.

Finally, we have live demonstrations. This includes visually “acting out” difficult or abstract concepts. With the advances in technology and graphic design in the past decade, I think that this facet would be the easiest to move online. Three-dimensional animations can be used to represent topics that would be difficult to explain with just words and static pictures. In an online environment, the integration of visual content and lecture notes is much easier and more effective. Live or recorded video of real people can even be used if one is hesitant about exclusively using virtual animations.

In the next post I’ll address some of the concerns with online training, and the question, “Which negative aspects of online training can be mitigated, and what must stay exclusively in the classroom?”