Latest News

eLearning – The Training Industry’s Panacea Or Impostor?

 

Although eLearning has enjoyed widespread adoption in compliance-based training, within the health and safety industry, it seems there remain some health and safety practitioners who insist that true training has to be face to face. 

Here, Mike Stevens, training and development director at Praxis42, takes a look at how widespread is the acceptance of eLearning and asks - is it really training?

At a recent health and safety seminar I was astounded to hear one of the presenters announce that computer based training (CBT) or eLearning isn’t training. At the time I thought that this was a rather sweeping statement to make about a training medium that a survey by the CIPD showed over 50 per cent of respondents currently use and a further 39 per cent had plans to use in the coming year.  

With experience, myself, in both face to face and eLearning delivery, this statement made me wonder if this perception of eLearning is a common one and whether it does have its merits in health and safety management.

Perceptions of eLearning

A few years ago the presenter’s statement about eLearning would not have seemed as out of place as it is today as back then some of the content, media and delivery methods were rather primitive. In terms of technology even as recently as five years ago many workers, especially older employees, were not as technogically savvy as they are today; few people used computers as part of their job and fewer still had even heard of broadband.  People were trained in classrooms and PowerPoint was still considered amazing.

Then, eLearning was the next big thing; everyone was talking about it: few were doing it.  Today it is today’s big thing.  Today’s workforce consists more and more of people brought up on computers or mobile devices who have used the internet extensively as a knowledge resource.  We are increasingly a digital generation, which expects to engage in interactive learning and which can use it to its maximum potential.  Yesterday’s eLearning courses were perhaps a little bland and one dimensional whereas online training today is a media rich experience that engages, challenges and supports the awareness and learning process.

And eLearning content can only get better of course.  As today’s digitally adventurous youngsters enter the workforce, tomorrow’s computer programmers will be making eLearning programmes that will literally blow our minds away.

 

The benefits of eLearning

 

The benefits of eLearning are well documented.  Cost savings can be significant, even enormous.  Tracey Connage, deputy director of HR at Brent Council reported a cost saving of £116,000 when providing health and safety training for 2,500 using eLearning. * (People Management magazine 22nd Feb 2007.) 

 

According to Training Magazine, organisations typically save between 50 and 70 per cent when choosing eLearning over instructor led training solutions.  Because eLearning can be taken anytime, anywhere, it doesn't interfere with the critical operations of the employee. They can access training wherever they can interface with a desk PC, Laptop, PDA or other mobile device.  Learning is available 24 hours a day when and where it’s  needed.

 

There is good evidence to suggest that learners gaining knowledge online retain more than those subjected to death by PowerPoint.  When training is relevant to the job, as in health and safety, there is no such thing as boring content, only boring ways in presenting it.

 

Health and Safety and eLearning

In organisations where mandatory or compliance based training is essential such as the health and safety industry eLearning offers clear advantages: the messages are consistent and high volumes of people can be trained or knowledge refreshed across diverse geographies as the needs of the organisation require.

The Health and Safety Executive itself, the statutory enforcing authority, deploy eLearning solutions to train their own employees and ensure they comply with their own legal obligations.

Instantaneous updates, hyper links to other areas of background and research and online help desks, are just a few of the many other benefits of eLearning in the learning process. Couple all this with delivery flexibility and cost reduction, and it is no wonder that eLearning has become a core strategy in improving health and safety performance.

So is it really training?

The answer is of course it is training! As long as the fundamental principle is met where the trainee either knows more or is better aware at the end of the learning experience then how can it not be described as training.   

Ends

 

Mike Stevens CMIOSH, a former winner of the prestigious ‘Health and Safety Practitioner Award’, is responsible for training and development at Praxis42 Limited which is a leading health, safety and environment consultancy and training provider, offering both online and instructor led courses.