“Should I design the course as an instructor-led training? If yes, should it be delivered face-to-face or virtually; if no, should I create an eLearning course!”

Isn’t this one of the first things that crosses your mind when you look at a training requirement in your organization, and you are unsure of the training delivery mode.

Don’t stress! If the training requirement is carefully analyzed, it will be a cakewalk to come up with the appropriate delivery medium. Each delivery mode has its own pros and cons which can help you decide which route to go. Let’s talk about them…

Face-to-face training is more effective when you are dealing with varied scenarios and want to direct the learning path based on the learner’s specific requirements and questions. It gives the training a personal touch where the trainer is in front of the learners and he/she can immediately tweak the course structure based on either the body language or responsiveness of the learners. It is also a preferable choice when the audience level is beginners or intermediate. The pace of the delivery can also be structured based on the receiving capacity of the learners. Having said that, the cost element for face-to-face trainings is higher, the geographical reach is limited, and due to the human dependency factor, consistency in content delivery may vary.

Virtual training is a replacement for face-to-face mode of delivery to leverage the expertise of a trainer and address the geographical challenges. This enables people from multiple locations across the globe attend the training at the same time. The biggest challenge here is the inability of the trainer to physically see the class reaction and modify the content/pace accordingly. There is also a possibility of the audience being engaged in multiple tasks and not pay hundred percent attention. But this drawback can be easily rectified by making the training more interactive by conducting polls, asking questions, and seeking responses from non-participative learners.

eLearning is transforming the training space in recent years. The key benefits are standardization in content and delivery, flexibility in terms of taking the training anytime, anywhere. It helps in mass communication and decimation of generic organizational information. The biggest challenge is to gauge the effectiveness of training. The content developers are completely dependent on timely and correct feedback by the participants.

Over the last few years, technology and innovative eLearning products are helping increase the effectiveness of eLearning courses. The designers have now varied options for content presentation. This increases the visual appeal, and helps the learners grasp important information. Besides this, eLearning is the most economical form of training which can be scalable, customizable, and reusable.

This clearly shows the imperative need to choose the medium of training based on the multiple factors discussed. What’s your take on it? Leave a comment on this post to keep the discussion on…