donrobert

Being part of the training department of one of the biggest engineering firms in the US entails nothing but excellence. Training in-house staff and engineers already means challenge, but nothing compares to the yokes that we have to bear in training our dispersed workforce from the Philippines. Do not get me wrong though, they are equally as talented and competent as our in-house engineers and draftsmen here in the US. The problem lies in the training mode and requirements that we are giving the workforce from two different locations.

In the past, we used to conduct trainings thrice a year due to the issues on distance and cost. Our senior trainers from America had to travel to the Philippines to meet our Filipino staff and update them on the recent developments of projects, client specifications, and changes in operations. Our outsourced engineers are some of the most promising professionals in the Philippines so the problem is not really so much on them absorbing the information and skills we have in the training process. Our tenured and freshly hired dispersed employees have shown increase in productivity and utilization through the conventional method of training we do. On the other hand, the company would run the risk of losing so much resources and training cost if we stick to old practice.

To improve our training practices, we had to do research and assess options available to us. After the brainstorming session, we thought of giving elearning solutions a shot since many other companies, even smaller enterprises, are using it. We started contacting providers and studied the advantages and disadvantages of integrating a technology-based training method into our own approach.

After the first session, we already saw how elearning tools helped ensure faster learning curve for out trainees. It raised the productivity and efficiency of our operations since there was no need to disrupt regular work routine for trainings. Trainers need not travel to do conventional training sessions. They could just help design the modules and the overall instructional style of the tools. Elearning solutions also aided us in analyzing the effect of the trainings in the productivity and utilization level of in-house and dispersed workforce.

First things first, the "e" in elearning stands for electronic. Elearning can include inter/intranet available training known as web-based training (WBT) along with computer-based training (CBT) where right of entry to the internet is not needed. By providing elearning solutions, big corporations with many offices can get to employees despite where they work to fulfill corporate training requirements.


Computer-Based Training (CBT)

One dissimilarity between computer based training and web based training is that an internet connection is not required for CBT. The CBT may be in the type of a CD-ROM that the user inserts into the CPU to begin a lessons. As with WBT, they can stop the course at any time they desire. One disadvantage of making use of CBTs for education is that CBTs have to be offered to workers. That's not an issue for a little company, mostly if all the employees are in the same office. But for huge corporations, burning and transport CDs for learning can become difficult to administer. There's also a possible issue of employees not giving back the CDs when they are complete or allocation outmoded CDs with fellow workers. Whether or not they ended the course is also not identified.

Computer based education, to a smaller scale, could be guides emailed to the employee to read from their computer, like an employee manual.

Best Morals and Impediments

Training in general is a benefit to workforce and employers. The worker does not have to buy the seminars that subsequently improves their talents and job skills. In addition, when using WBTs, huge corporations can break up mandatory learning programs across a big population of employees with better effortlessness and far less cost than customary in-person training. With a learning administration scheme in place, businesses can easily track advancement of staff in education, a measure that is of grand value when tracking the close of obligatory learning. Possibly the best appeal to WBT is that it is on-demand training, accessible to the worker whenever they want it.

WBT is not limited to company/employee use. Anybody needing to further their talents can take advantage of courses offered online.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, it requires a self-directed student to embrace the values of web or computer based training. They have to be motivated to learn and see the value in improving their knowledge and skills to start and finish a course.