quote:

ILT typically uses an SME to prepare and also deliver the content, so I guess there are time-savings from an SME's perspective.

There's another reality that warrants a discussion in and of itself (the part about SMEs developing and delivering content).

Training can suck in any form - from ILT to WBT.
ILT, IMO, is seen as more effective because it puts people in traditional classroom seating. WBT will be seen that way someday by virtue of reports.

You don't see much GREAT online training because either or both the ID wasn't done, or done poorly, or the customer didn't want to pay for anything more than a converted PPT. Truly well-designed, media-rich, interactive training is simply expensive.

There are plenty of ROI studies showing that investment is generally recouped over time, compared to the costs and lost productivity of sending employees to classroom training, especially off-site.

However, the WBT costs are all upfront and often hard to swallow, especially as there will be a transitional period where the ILT still occurs while the WBT is being developed, implemented, and paid-for. That's a double funding hit that many companies are unwilling to take.

We have clients who just need to get something online, cheaply, for compliance requirements. That stuff tends to be boring and likely not very effective, but it's probably just as boring and effective as the mandatory 2 hour workshops the employees had to attend previously.

We have effective stuff that has freed-up SMEs to be productive instead of trainers, reduced safety/injury issues, and generally helped productivity. Those generally are the applications that have strong buy-in from the client and have gone through a true ID process with solid interactivity and retention strategies.
CM

quote:

Originally posted by LoveLearning:

There's another reality that warrants a discussion in and of itself (the part about SMEs developing and delivering content).

And why in many organizations "Training" is part of HR when the topics are often more related to the workings of other units in the business (e.g. a course in Java programming).

quote:

And why in many organizations "Training" is part of HR when the topics are often more related to the workings of other units in the business (e.g. a course in Java programming).

Now this is a terrific topic!