From...

November 30, 1998
Web posted at: 10:15 AM EST

by Johanna Ambrosio

(IDG) -- Online training is catching on in many large corporations, mostly because it offers benefits that sessions held in classrooms just can't provide.

For one thing, Web classes let workers tap in anytime, from just about anywhere, and allow them to learn at their own pace.

But there's a flip side to that. Increasingly, stressed-out workers opt to or feel they are expected to take work-related training on their own time -- at night or on weekends -- so they remain "productive" during work hours.

Speakers and attendees at last week's TechLearn '98 conference in Orlando, Fla., had plenty to say on the matter, although some preferred to remain anonymous.

MORE COMPUTING INTELLIGENCE
	IDG.net home page
Computerworld's home page
Computerworld "Emmerce"
Get Media Grok and The Industry Standard Intelligencer delivered for free
Reviews & in-depth info at IDG.net
IDG.net's personal news page
Questions about computers? Let IDG.net's editors help you
Search IDG.net in 12 languages
Subscribe to IDG.net's free daily newsletter for IT leaders
News Radio
	Computerworld Minute
	Fusion audio primers

"We have lots of phone associates -- 9,000 of them -- and we don't like anyone off the phone" because their selling time is affected, said one training manager at a large mutual fund company, who asked to remain unnamed. "So we send them to our online training room at off hours."

But such procedures, whether the choice of an employee or imposed by the worker's supervisor, can lead to "serious work/life balance issues," pointed out a trainer at a government agency.

Some firms encourage people to use their on-the-job time to take advantage of training opportunities and to make allowances for the work that just won't get done at that point.

"Managers and peers have to leave people alone so they can learn," said Peter Jones, vice president of learning technologies at Chase Manhattan Bank.

Although the bank lets workers train on a Web-based system at their desks, it also cooked up a method to prevent the interruptions of daily work from diverting workers' attention.

To help reduce distractions from co-workers who might interrupt training sessions, Chase provides workers involved in training with yellow tape -- much like the tape that police use at crime scenes -- to cordon off their work areas from onlookers.

The yellow tape reads: "Training line -- do not cross."

And a defense company has taken another tack. It is experimenting with having a minimum yearly training requirement of 40 hours. The employee's manager must cooperate, freeing the person up from day-to-day duties to take advantage of those learning opportunities, whether the training occurs at the employee's desk or in a classroom.

Learning online provides a cost benefit, practitioners said, as long as a company already has an online infrastructure in place. Web-based training classes are usually less expensive than going the classroom route, with most savings coming out of the travel area -- employees no longer have to get on a plane to get to headquarters to take a class if they're doing training online.

However, many employees actually like classroom-based training because it provides a break from their daily office routine. And trainers question whether online learning is as effective as classroom or other techniques. They wonder how much information people actually retain and can use on the job after Web-based learning sessions are over.

Nor is the Web a totally cost-free training medium. Materials must still be developed or bought, and then deployed and administered.

Web-based training makes it easier than ever before to keep tabs on employee-training troublespots or to figure out what they still need to learn, which can result in even more training being needed. Managers need to be notified and sometimes trained in how to mentor people effectively. So there's a whole human support network that needs to exist as well, observers said.

Given all these issues, many companies are coming to view online learning as an adjunct to training that they're already doing, not as a medium that totally replaces all other training methods.

"When something new comes along, we tend to think of it as a silver bullet," said Jay Cross, founder of Internet Time Group, a learning consultancy in San Francisco. "But in training, we know what works -- a combination of books, telephone, computer, television, mentoring and so on."

Plus, everyone learns differently, Cross said. "Sometimes it's 'Give me a picture,' sometimes it's 'Let me read for 20 minutes,' sometimes it's 'Put me in a small group,' " he said.

Dave Vaughn, group director of Anheuser-Busch University at the St. Louis-based brewery, agreed. "We want to get the right mix -- not to be limited by technology, but not be limited to how we did [training] in the past. Some things are best suited for one technology or another."

Elliott Masie, founder of The Masie Center in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., a learning think tank, said that "online learning is not a substitute for classroom. It's about lowering the cost of training."

For IT training particularly, online learning is often most useful for simulations. "We have to let IT people practice more than we do -- so let's give them the simulated system from hell," Masie suggested. "Where everything crashes all at once -- the IP addresses are all lost and there's popcorn coming out of the server."

The idea, Masie said, is to let IT staffers practice both technical and people skills. Masie estimates that around 40% of large companies have deployed at least one online course, primarily in the IT training arena.

A recent Masie Center report identified several major technology trends that will occur in online learning over the next few years. Among them: template-based development; reusable and redeployable content in object format; a single "storefront" for corporate learning; linkage of training management to enterprisewide systems; and support for enterprisewide collaboration and "communities of practice."