Pitfalls of online training

Aaron Gnaden, Boyd Sparrow, Christy Tucker, Fran Reddick, Glenys Flight, Greg Odynski, J.P. Medved, Jeff Carter, Jeffrey Stouppe, Jim Hartigan, Lorie Madison, MJ Aherne, Maryanne Henderson, Michael Whissel, Ross Woods, Simon leckie, Steven A Robertson, Steven Tickner, Thanikachalam Vedhathiri, 2019

"We are thinking of moving into the online arena for training. We want to facilitate a broader reach to our clientele and were looking for the list of pitfalls to avoid, mitigate or just have to slog through, because we just can't avoid it! Any thoughts from those experienced in online training? The end result needs to be gripping, motivational and packed with content and attention grabbing bits and pieces."

Despite the landmines, you'll be glad you moved to online. More content delivered to more people at a lower cost. No travel, classroom materials, etc.

The decision to move online

The first question is whether you should even move to online. Short answer: Not always.

You can not merely "digitize" existing content without transforming it for online; content doesn't translate seamlessly from the instructor-lead format to online. A different mindset is needed when doing online delivery because the facilitator becomes a voice in a box. Pacing and feedback need to be different, so ensure you have time to pilot, retool, and test the online deliveries. If you fail to do so, you will find that the audience has checked out and your stellar training content loses its value.

Just because you can put it online, it doesn't mean you should. Online is not a silver bullet. Your stakeholders are cruising for massive disappointment if they think it will solve all their problems with delivery and time away from production and costs-to-produce.

It depends on your audience and your goals. If you're training a small number of centrally located people on content that changes regularly, self-paced elearning probably isn't the best investment of time and resources. If you have a large number of student or your audience can greatly expand with elearning, then that's a factor in favor of moving to online.

Don't look at online learning as a complete replacement for other learning methods. Like any tool it works best in certain situations. What it does great is enabling the transfer of knowledge and building understanding. This means you can use online learning to 'prime' learners and then use valuable face time to build on core understanding. Another major benefit is accessibility - online learning can happen anytime, anywhere. Human interaction is still key, so incorporating workshops and/or webinars, forum discussions and easy access to tutor support can build an incredibly powerful learning experience.

It might take a lot of money and time to set up, so does it work and can you cover the costs in a reasonable timeframe? I mean, is it worth it, or should we continue to work in the physical classroom style?

Don't underestimate the time and cost involved. Especially initially, it will take much longer to create online learning. You also have to figure out an LMS or platform for hosting and administering all your online learning, something that many people forget and don't realize the process can take months. Then do plenty of Beta testing, and consider the follow up and maintenance that you will need to do later on.

Online learning normally has a larger upfront cost, but ongoing costs should be less. It would also depend on how interactive and creative you want to go for further costs but saying that you don't just want users essentially page turning either.

Do you have bandwidth? Anything to be delivered outside a developed country might be a hard slog. A Manila start-up a low and unstable bandwidth throughout the country, which choked on the compression and nothing would load. Test thoroughly in every region you plan to release before launching.

So you decide to go online

Now you've made a decision, here's how to avoid several of the main business structure pitfalls.

Define success

Training initiatives can fail for lack of a clear, measurable definition of success. An old adage says: "If you don't know where you are going, you will never get there." What gets measured gets done. Training is no different.

Spend time preparing, setting and communicating clear SMART goals from the outset; it is likely to be an effective investment of your time and effort. You'll haarvest the real reward during regular reviews against your measurable criteria.

Measurable criteria usually work very well, but are not necessarily always adequate. You can find out later that something unforeseen was not good enough and, in hindsight, you wish you had included in in the SMART goals. One particular quality standard has a "job environment" clause, which basically mean, "And ... just .... do a good job."

Assess risks

For example:

• Some students are at much higher risk of not satisfactorily completing.
• Could you need backup instructors?
• How does the budget look?
• How firm are any contracts? If a major client can pull out, you can be dead before you know it.

Assess risks: Case study 1

We developed modern programs to suit the new high tech industries, but the faculty were not willing to implement them. The administrators did not anticipate the funds required. They did not have enough qualified faculty. The existing resources were very limited and obsolete.

The developed curricula were not implemented as per the schedule. The curricula become obsolete by the time the new faculty were recruited and trained. Again the curricula were updated. The whole change process took many years to implement.

Moral of the story: Assess the academic environment, readiness of stakeholders, motivation of the faculty and students before taking massive development projects.

Assess risks: Case study 2

In one project, the project administrators asked us to prepare technical and financial proposals. The technical proposal was evaluated and agreement was drawn for implementation. After we drafted the training package, one of the companies stated that they had not been not consulted and the training package did not meet their training needs. Then we prepared additional modules to suit the company requirements. Another company gave similar feedback on other modules and we had to prepare another set of extra modules to suit their needs.

Moral of the story 1. If the project has to train the employees of various companies in the same industry, it is better to evaluate the needs of each participating company and prepare both technical and financial proposals.

Moral of the story 2: When training needs analyses have major gaps, the developed training package needs to be be modified.

Regular reviews

We need to know both where we have been as well as where we are going, but regular reviews easily fall by the wayside when more urgent (but less important) things come to the fore. How can we ensure regular reviews actually happen?

One program developed pre-training, in-class and retention assessments to measure where a participant starts, where they end up and how much they retain.

Another way is to use sets of plannning questions. Not all of them fit every context, but it's better to have the questions and not need them that to omit something that might be mission-critical. Consider these examples of planning and review questions:

Planning stage

1. Have educational administrators, faculty, parents and students been informed the proposed changes?
2. Have they agreed to implement the updated program?
3. Does the institute have enough funds to update the faculty, infrastructure and resources to implement the proposed programs?
4. Have they assessed the emerging needs of the state, community, industry, and/or employers?
5. Have they involved the stakeholders in assessing their needs?
6. Have they conducted needs analyses to meet the emerging technology?
7. Have they planned program educational objectives and validated them with the employers?
8. Have they estimated the funds required for implementation?
9. Have they planned follow up faculty development programs to update them to meet the prescribed competencies?
10. Is there any need to pilot the program before wider implemention?
11. Will existing faculty will be included in the development team?
12. Are industry representatives and employers included in the developing team?
13. Will the program include formative evaluation?
14. Wil instructional packages be developed and validated?
15. Will mass production of learning materials be ready according to the schedule?
16. Have all necessary policy decisions been made? Do they have support for implementation?

Before training

1. Were needs analyses carried out properly by consulting the employees and line managers?
2. Has there been an accurate assessment of the real issue, for example whether issues pertain to management or to training?
3. Were the program objectives validated?
4. Were training materials prepared to meet the objectives?
5. Will the training program reflect the objectives?
6. Are the trainers qualified and experienced?
7. Does the training institute possess the required resources?

During training

1. Are trainees given opportunities to participate?
2. Are trainees given follow up exercises?
3. Are they getting feedback on the work done?
4. Do they get motivation to do the work?
5. Do they take a project during the training?
6. Do they complete the project and get feedback from faculty?

After training

1. Do students implement the skills learned?
2. Are they given tools, equipment, manuals, and job aids to perform?
3. Are they able to maintain good motivation?
4. Do they get evaluation and feedback?
5. Are the goals fixed for performance?
6. Do they maintain good interpersonal relationships at the place of work?
7. Do they have excellent environment to perform?
8. Do they have ergonomically designed work place?
9. Do they excellent work culture?
10. Do they have too many rules and regulations which will hamper the progress?

Changing the business

Approach a migration to online learning as a business transformation and change management task linked to the needs of enterprise operations. Use the change as an opportunity to move to an advanced distributed learning strategy, including but not limited to M-learning as "reminder and reinforcement" at the workface.

Think through a comprehensive approach, including the best ways to engage "cognitive diversity" and multiple generations in the workforce.

Don't approach it as just a cognitive exercise if skills, especially psychomotor and/or procedural skills are mission-critical.

Good learning

Be engaging

Courses do not have to be boring even though we have some boring content and dry subjects. With some creative thinking and a solid platform, they can be quite intuitive and fun. It comes down to how much time the content developer wants to invest. The art of instructional design is a blend of a variety of modalities, a good pace and some humor. If it was boring in person it will be boring online. Personality is the key; put yours in it.

Be imaginative and deliver the content in different ways to try and help keep the student engaged. There is nothing worse then opening a 76 page pdf full of text. Break it up; you can even hide the odd joke in there.

Do it right the first time. You only have one chance to make a great first impression with your students, so a poor first time elearning experience will make future adoption much more difficult.

Interaction

Set up interactive group courses or a community. The standard elearning module can be lonely.

Keeping the viewer attentive and engaged can be extraordinarily difficult, some kind of group interactiion is good idea. Include a forum or a way for the student to contact the instructor to quickly answer any questions the student has and guide them before they go off track.

It could replace some of the interaction that would normally be missed once moving on-line.You can no longer depend on the presenter being able to 'read' the class. Students would loose networking time, one-on-one with a presenter to ask specific questions, and the lunch table chatter that often addresses other related issues.

Incorporate some education principles

Use forward planners. Include short videos with the presenter telling the students what they are going to do and what the expected results are. This helps to guide direction and make the training less informal.

Help students to self-assess their outcomes. Give examples of the finished result when a student is ready to check that they have comprehended the lesson.

Reporting

Decide what kind of reporting you want or need. this varies greatly depending on the kind of course. For-credit programs need to ensure sound assessments, measure retention and pass rates, and analyse the causes. Non-credit programs might also need to measure effectiveness for purposes of program improvement and reporting to employers and funders.

Video

Use video if you can. If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a thousand pictures.

Mobile devices

The trend is that most students now want cellphone access. Determine how much will be consumed on mobile devices. The design and development is different from courseware that will only be consumed on a laptop or work station.