Choosing Between eLearning and Classroom Training: What Works Best for Your Organization?

Hi all,

What has been your experience? If you had to implement training in your organization, would you go for e-learning or classroom training?

Advantages of e-learning: One-time development cost, quicker completion, easier to deploy, no minimum batch sizes and scheduling, easier to monitor, saves hassles of locating a trainer, etc.

Advantages of classroom training: Allows better monitoring, traditional method so employees may prefer.

Look forward to hearing your views.

Cheers,
Rashmi

I question some of the advantages of elearning you mention. Classroom training also, in most cases, has a one time development cost – no advantage here. Quicker completion – all other things being equal, only if you save on traveling time. Easier to deploy – what about the setting up and maintaining of IT infrastructure, along with the specialist IT skills required?

Disadvantages of elearning are very high development costs and tendency to turn into a page turning exercise with very little participant engagement.

There are a number of elearning models, from simple CD-ROM to fully participative social learning with lots of interaction and scenario-based content. Difficulty of design and deployment and cost are proportional to quality of outcome. Whether you choose elearning or classroom, or a combination of both (blended learning), will depend on a range of factors, including geographical dispersity and computer literacy of participants, access to IT specialists and elearning instructional designers, access to IT infrastructure and bandwidth, existing courseware, nature of course content, etc.

As for preference, there are bad elearning courses as there are bad classroom courses. Each course needs to be judged on its merits. As for learning effectiveness, of all the studies done so far, some show elearning is more effective and some show classroom is more effective. It might just depend on the circumstances.

Vicki Heath

http://www.businessperform.com

Hi Rashmi,

It depends on what kind of training you are looking for, behavioral or technical. Nowadays, blended learning is in.

Hanu

[Insycon-Innovation & Leadership Consultants](http://www.innovativetraining4u.com)

According to T+D (Training & Development Magazine), e-learning or web-based training has evolved into a mature training tool. Some 80% of HR Managers and Trainers fully expect e-learning to increase in 2006. I think it's a little too presumptuous to say that e-learning is just "page turning." Obviously, applicability varies with the type of company, type of training, audience, etc., but thinking companies are not looking for easier, cost-effective, but creative and powerful tools to build their skills management is folly.

Donatus
e-Learning Place
http://www.e-learningwebsite.com

Hi,

There's very little doubt that when compared to the classroom or physical training, e-learning has innumerable advantages. The mantra is: "Getting the Right Information. To the Right User. At the Right Time." Basically, it allows you to add live, real-time interaction to distance learning.

With the emergence of new social technologies, we are now seeing a new phase of E-Learning, known as E-Learning 2.0, which supports a more social and collaborative approach to learning, widely known as Social Learning.

It is our need to recognize that self-directed learning is nowadays just as important a part of learning within an organization as formal learning.

Thanks.

Regards,
Prashant Khanna
Customized eLearning Solutions - Enhance Systems Pvt. Ltd.

Online learning is very much in trend these days and is proving successful in various places. It gives the freedom to learn anywhere, anytime.