What’s new in training?

“Now, new technologies make it possible to reach learners wherever they are and whenever they find it convenient, instead of bringing inadequately small groups to a central location away from work.” Peter Drucker.

Our Train the Trainer course constantly evolves to reflect the latest training trends.

Being an effective trainer has always meant being flexible and willing to change. Now training professionals are faced with the greatest challenge ever with the increasing use of e-learning methods. There are a variety of different e-methods on offer, for example:

• Online student groups – allowing learners to interact with each other
• Online tutoring – where trainers and learners connect one-to- one, through e-mail and scheduled chats
• Online coaching – that helps in decision-making;
• Online libraries and resource centres up-to-date documents, articles and newspaper clips for reference are available
• Bulletin boards – learners can post topics and comments and ask questions of other learners
• “Webinars” – seminars on the web

The biggest advantages of e-learning are that it is easily and quickly accessible, convenient and relatively cheap. Also the trainee is in charge of the development process. Companies have discovered that e-learning permits them to disseminate change strategies quickly to the whole workforce and can be a useful way of giving a thorough grounding to all staff at once on policies and procedures.

E-learning is here to stay and trainers must keep up with the latest developments so that they can advise on the best use of such methods AS PART of an overall training plan.

But what are the disadvantages of this method of learning?

• It lacks the all-important human interaction element
• Learning can be disparate, with no cohesive plan behind it
• Follow-up is much more difficult
• The quality of the feedback on progress is questionable

Among the learning methods, e-learning has quickly found acceptance, whether it is through an intranet, the Internet, multimedia, interactive TV, or computer-based training. It is clear that e-learning is interactive and different components of a course can be brought together in a form the individual student feels most comfortable with.

Blended learning

Blended learning programmes bring together distant learning methods (by email) and face-to-face workshops. It is an extremely time and cost effective way of learning as participants have an opportunity to prepare for an interactive workshop, experience it and apply their learning back in the workplace with the support of the trainer.

An example of a blended learning programme followed a blended learning process spanning approximately 3 weeks, divided into three main phases:

Pre-workshop phase : duration one week’s work comprising email questionnaires, pre-course reading, pre-course exercises.
Objective: two-fold purpose:

• to assist participants in focusing on the programme and their expectations of it
• to provide a clearer idea to the trainer of what is desired in this topic so that the workshop can be more precisely tailored to the needs of the group.

Face-to-face workshop: duration of 3 days in participative style

Post-workshop phase: duration one week’s follow-up work by email including action plan review, post-course reading etc
Objectives: The importance of this phase is to embed learning in the workplace by finding practical applications for what has been studied. During this phase the trainees deepen their understanding and improve their skills by further reading, immediate application of their action plans and intellectual reflection.

Related posts:

1. Train the Trainer
2. Group development
3. Facilitation
4. Feedback skills

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Related posts:

1. Train the Trainer
2. Group development
3. Facilitation
4. Feedback skills

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course, E-learning, news, Online Coaching, Online Tutoring, train the trainer, Train the Trainer Course, Train the Trainer Training, Training

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