Eight Reasons Why Web-based Training May Not Work For Your Company

Web-based training or e-learning allows individuals to easily access education through the web from anyplace at anytime they want. Many companies see these programs as cost-effective alternatives to training a large number of employees in-house. Essentially, these types of training programs need efficient computer network technologies to develop, manage and administer training to employees in organizations. WBT is a lucrative field and many established companies like Oracle have come forward to tap the revenue opportunities it offers. Trained employees can improve the productivity of organizations and the enterprises pushing this goal can hire training and consulting companies to design courses and train their employees on various relevant softwares applicable to their industry.

For instance, U.S.-based Bluewolf has earned thousands of dollars by training employees to use CRM software. Online training is popular in both developed and emerging economies like China where enterprises extensively use the web to train their employees. Network technologies are also helping Korean executives to keep up with their Western counterparts. Many companies have adopted WBT and have decided to move away from instructor-led classroom training. It is true that WBT does offer many benefits, but it also has some drawbacks that give organizations pause before implementing them for their executives.

Drawbacks of WBT:

1. Bandwidth limitations: Online training courses provide users with content and videos that require adequate bandwidth. Not all networks of companies or institutions are optimized for heavy use and in most cases they are unable to deliver if too many learners want to access the Internet at a time. If you want to deliver bandwidth-hungry content such as audios or intense graphics, it is best to choose some other instructional methodology or you will only frustrate your learners. Some training programs are incomplete without videos and an absence of adequate Internet access simply defeats the purpose.

2. Cost constraints: Sales professionals often elaborate on how cost-effective web-based training programs are. They are quick to point out the travel expenses a company has to spend on hiring a qualified trainer and the employee downtime as a result of lengthy training sessions. Web training companies also stress that since a trainer cannot train hundreds of employees at once the enterprises should adopt their applications to increase the efficiency of training programs. But the truth is that a WBT can be equally or more expensive than traditional training programs. Setting up a web-based training system needs significant investment in infrastructure. The company has to invest in computer terminals, training software and also has to spend on the maintenance and upgrading of the system.

3. Time constraints: Web-based training software takes more time to develop, as the developers have to ensure that end users are able to use it with ease. This is more applicable in large organizations that need customized and specially developed training programs addressing their training needs. Trial runs are often required to find any loopholes in the training and the system is then adjusted to fill these gaps. This entire process may take several months and the company who ordered the training program may have to wait a long time to see the end result.

4. Motivation of learners: The employees may not be very motivated to get trained and may see attending online training sessions as extra work. It is human nature to resist change and the employees who are asked to complete the training program may be less enthusiastic about the entire initiative. Sometimes the problem is simple - the employees just don't know how to navigate the web pages. They may need training first to actually get trained by the new system. In many cases the managers will have to make more effort to encourage them and be more comfortable about using the web. This defeats the purpose of online training, as managers have to spend precious time in activities that were supposed to save time for organizations.

5. Higher dropout rate: A trainer in the classroom is often more successful in motivating the employees or learners and can counsel them to pursue their goals. Virtual classrooms usually have a dry environment with no human interaction. All these factors lead to higher dropout rates in web based training programs. An employee getting trained may get frustrated if his query doesn't get answered quickly and he may then decide to quit the program.

6. More distractions in virtual classrooms: Learning is slower in virtual classrooms as compared to traditional training centers where students are more focused and are 'not allowed' to get distracted. A trainer keeps the executives engaged by asking questions or giving them tasks. Also, employees in a classroom with an instructor are usually not interrupted by other people, as others can see that a formal training session is underway. On the other hand, an employee getting self-trained on a computer terminal may be interrupted by a colleague who thinks his query is more urgent than the training.

7. Inability to freely interact with trainers: A web-based training program doesn't allow employees to ask questions to the instructor simply because there is no one at the other end. These programs are designed to deliver the basic knowledge, but are not able to facilitate any interaction between the instructor and the end users. If you want to ask any question that comes to your mind, you will have to either ask someone in your office or send a query form to the training company. A person may have to wait up to a week to get an answer from the training company.

8. Cannot train soft-skills students: Certain skills are best taught by instructors in a classroom setting, as they require regular feedback and extensive practice. Companies organize soft-skills training programs to teach their employees ways to better interact with colleagues and customers. Productivity of the entire organization increases if all workers are operating as a team and this is what drives managers to hire trainers for developing social skills among workers. For instance, managers may want their new employees to learn acceptable workplace behaviors or train them to service their customers in a better manner. A virtual environment cannot effectively provide any of these and, thus, is not suitable for delivering soft-skills training.

Many IT enthusiasts say that all disadvantages associated with WBT will eventually fade away with time. The promoters of these programs identify poor bandwidth network connections as the only real disadvantage to WBT. The human touch in training can be included by using message boards or chat rooms. True, this form of communication is not as good as interacting in a live workshop, but this can be improved by using technology such as videoconferencing. Once learners have access to higher speed connections, they can easily leverage WBT and interact in real time with their instructors through video calls. Higher Internet speeds will ultimately allow students to virtually "raise their hand" and ask pertinent questions to their live course instructor.

Availability of higher bandwidth may also encourage developers to use more multimedia in their WBT programs. These inclusions will make these programs more interesting and engaging and this will remove certain barriers discussed earlier. The students will be more involved in their training, become less distracted and be more motivated to attend interesting virtual training sessions.