Implementing Web Based Training for Employees

Web based training, especially when pertaining to its practicality and effectiveness, is a pretty polarizing topic these days. With systems like Moodle becoming increasingly popular, though, the argument against the idea is reducing with each passing iteration of the argument. But, for the moment, this idea still has its naysayers, and some of them do bring up some legitimate points. But, are a handful of genuine concerns posited by pessimists really enough to even question the continued move toward adopting web based training as a standard practices (especially in corporate and collegiate scenarios)? I’d say not, and evidently, I’m far from alone in that opinion. That said, you may find yourself wondering, “How exactly do I implement this for my employees?” That’s a good question, and one that there’s no shame in needing to ask, because there’s a difference between structured training online, and just saying, “Here, go read about this on the net and I’ll test you”. There are a number of approaches to this, depending on what grounding you have in offline training. If you’re more predisposed to the seminar or lecture concept, you can use a webinar system effectively. Basically with this, you can either do live video streaming (complete with text or call in interaction by students remotely) and/or post recordings of said lectures for them to access at any time once they’re made available. This can be done over YouTube and Moodle, over a blog system, any number of frameworks really, even Skype of live is the main goal. It’s not recommended to rely too heavily on the lecture concept though, because many students, especially busy adults, will tune you out and wait for the clock count down so they can leave. But, not counting out lectures entirely, the best solution (especially if you’re working with Moodle, which I recommend whole heartedly) is to record basic introductory webinar lessons which you can include in the courses along with a text-based transcript of the lecture for those not predisposed to audiovisual learning (like myself!), and then use another piece of technology that’s quite good for teaching, WalkMe. WalkMe, for those who don’t know, is a tutorial creation framework that integrates live into an existing system, and uses step-by step hints and automation to intelligently guide students through complex processes. It’s capable of directing them, monitoring them and correcting their mistakes when made, meaning this is a great tool for the learning by practice phase of any training situation. It’s also great for bringing some gamification into online training, and with its native interoperability with Moodle, it’s possible to tie your webinars, text transcripts, tests and your gamification of learning projects together from one central location. With these technologies and this mixed approach, you’re removing the centrality and rigors of scheduling from learning, as well as covering the broad range of learning style preferences that various people may have, as well as increasing engagement through easily implemented gamification and progress tracking. Related information is available at the gamification examples page. Web based training, especially in a corporate atmosphere, used to be difficult or at least time consuming to implement, before systems like this came around which were made for each other, and when tied together, form the most intuitive and unique alternative to tired old learning environments to date.