If you rely solely on classroom training and seminars, you might be interested to know about the benefits of online learning. Why wouldn’t you be!? Even though classroom training has stood the test of time, it’s not always the most efficient method.
Think of the venue booking, the travel costs, and then consider the fact that most of the training is forgotten within a week or two… it’s easy to see how any other method could save you a lot of time and effort.
Online learning can be the answer to a lot of your ills and it could even fix problems you didn’t even know you had. But you need to make sure the training is good fit for your audience.
There are lots of other advantages to be had, but let’s take a look at 10 of the benefits of online learning and how it can make your training more efficient, more engaging and ultimately more effective.
1. It makes classroom training more effective
Some training is impossible outside of a classroom environment. Blended learning gives you the opportunity to reinforce the classroom training through the LMS and combat the dreaded ‘Forgetting Curve’. Since almost everyone carries a mobile device nowadays, you can also incorporate your learning platform into the training sessions themselves. Your instructors can launch live tests at regular intervals throughout the session. Your learners can then complete these tests on their mobile or tablet and give the instructor a better idea of where the biggest knowledge gaps are.
2. It’s cheaper than classroom training
Edinburgh Business School says that an online solution will help you significantly cut the cost of training. As a business, it will mean you don’t have to worry about hiring a conference room, asking employees to take time out of their working day, paying for lunches or subsidising travel costs. This will help you to cut your training costs!
3. It’s better value for money
Instead of focussing only on what eLearning actually costs, online learning can make your training go a lot further. Aside from saving money on your training budget, an online learning initiative lets you reinforce the learning on a regular basis, making it a lot more effective than the occasional classroom session.
4. It’s more scalable
If you want to upscale your seminar training, the cost, effort and level of complexity go up proportionally to the number of separate sessions you want to host. With online learning, it’s as easy to train 10,000 employees as it is to train 10. Any good learning platform will give plenty of options for segmenting your employees and in most cases, you can be creative with the hierarchies to get the perfect solution to suit the needs of your organisation.
5. It’s more consistent
Once you have a scalable solution, it gets much easier to keep your content accurate and up to date. For example, if the law suddenly changes, you’ll need to demonstrate that all of your employees know how it affects the way they do their job. On an LMS, you can just swap out the relevant training, create an updated test and push them to the top of your employee’s to-do list.
6. It improves communication
When your essential compliance training has been updated, the next challenge is making the employees aware of the change and any related training they might have to complete.
A decent LMS will let you share training content with your employees using customised email notifications. A really good LMS can perform more like an online feed of everything that’s happening in your organisation.
Social learning initiatives are becoming more popular than simple learning platforms because they have all of the functionalities of an LMS, plus the additional benefits of an enterprise social network. When you have new or updated content, you can add a sticky post to your employee’s social feed ensuring the best visibility possible.
7. It speeds up career progression
A lack of options for career progression is one of the biggest reasons people change jobs. Since online learning makes it a lot easier for your employees to engage with their training, they’re more likely to complete any content that’s central to their professional development. As with social functionalities, LMS providers have also added performance management options to their learning platforms. This approach shows every employee what their contribution means to their teams and to the business as a whole. The added meaning gives them yet another reason to engage with their own development.
8. It makes reporting easier
Assessing the effectiveness of classroom training involves a lot of manual work and a lot of time that could be better spent doing something else. Reporting tools are an essential part of any LMS and they make it easy to see the difference your training content is having. It’s also possible to run custom reports based on regions or departments, or on specific training paths letting managers identify any weak points.
9. It provides instant feedback
Without an online learning solution, your employee needs to wait for a learning manager to mark any assessments and tests. In the meantime, the training becomes a thing of the past, and the learners lose their emotional attachment. Tasks like marking tests can be done automatically by an LMS giving your learners instant feedback while the learning is still fresh in their minds.
10. It’s more personalised
More advanced systems can also push helpful content based on any incorrect answers, addressing individual training needs on the spot. Managers can also push specific training to groups of learners based on the results of their reports. This streamlines the learning journey, giving employees the training that they really need, without slowing them down with the training they don’t.
That’s only 10 major benefits of online learning to whet your appetite, but before you start planning your strategy, you should know that not all learning platforms are made equal. The really effective ones are those that focus on engaging the people using it. Click the button below to find out more.
