ONLINE TRAINING:
 The
Internet has provided opportunities for corporations
both large and small to take advantage of significant
cost savings by taking their current training tools
to the Net. Whether it is Management Training, Sales
Training, Policy Changes that require key personnel
to sign off on, New hire tutorials or Senior Officer
updates and continuing Ed.
The Internet is the tool of choice. Atlanta Web Services
with its primary partner, Summit Training Systems is
able to streamline even the most difficult training
task. Here are just a few reasons why you should consider
going online with training and putting the cost savings
into other marketing efforts.
How online learning is superior
to classroom instruction
Quotes: “New technology will play a
big role in learning, both inside and outside the classroom.
The return on investment will be profound.” “Information
technology will bring mass customization to learning…Workers
will be able to keep up to date on techniques in their
field. People anywhere will be able to take the best
courses taught by the greatest teachers.” Bill Gates, The Road Ahead
- Faster learning.
Research has shown that students learn quicker with
computer-based instruction. Learners do not have to
match the progress of a classroom, but may move ahead
at the pace that meets their needs.
- Faster and cheaper delivery.
For organizations that need to disseminate information
that quickly becomes outdated, online training and
re-training of geographically-dispersed people is
almost always faster and cheaper and better than moving
trainers across the country and requiring learners
to sit in a classroom for a set number of hours.
- Online learning affords instructional
consistency and standardization, giving the
same quality of training to large groups of learners,
regardless of location.
- Learners can access
the material at multiple terminals, anywhere and anytime,
thus accommodating personal moods, location preferences,
sleep needs, creative peak times, availability times,
and personal health. The flexibility of such truly
personalized instruction allows for open entry
and open exit usage where students can progress
at their own pace.
- Learners can have the ability
to control the pace and flow of course
content in a non-threatened manner. Learners can determine
which training modules they would like to take and
in what order.
- Learners are inter-actively
engaged in their own learning process, and motivation, satisfaction, and learning is
increased under these conditions. Highly
interactive multimedia courseware, which is richer
in content and context than even the most dedicated
instructor can create in a traditional classroom lecture,
is powerful enough to combine text, screen titles,
captions, diagrams, technical illustrations, video,
animation, narration, and other sounds and graphics.
Learners are provided with engaging, compelling,
informative, sophisticated, entertaining, and even
dazzling learning experiences.
- Material can be presented with
sensory diversity, in rich media-based instruction,
supporting the learner’s preferred learning
style (audio, video, text, graphics, animation,
etc.) When students use more than one sense, as in
the integration of verbal and visual presentations, learner retention and recall is improved by the stimulation of both right and left-brain engagement.
- Rich assessment tools, combined
with programmed, adaptive logic, allows software
to “adapt” to user input, providing
a richer learning environment and improving pass-rates.
- Online learning can provide
a framework to support enhanced communication
and collaboration applications between students
and instructors, or between students, including real-time
interactivity using software and video cameras,
non-real-time discussions, chats, e-mail, conferencing,
and knowledge and document sharing.
- Success is measured by true/false questions, multiple choice, fill-in-the
blanks, image matching, etc., with the learner receiving
immediate and constant personalized positive reinforcement
and feedback. Many learners perform better with computer-based feedback, because it reinforces
positive learning, and provides them a supportive,
patient, and forgiving environment free of embarrassment
when they lack understanding. Systems can provide
detailed feedback to training trackers and learners
on many levels: pre-tests, practice problems, evaluation
scores, time on task, learner progress reports, section
reports and more.
- Learners can explore course
content with less fear of failure,
and can repeat or review instructional
selections without feeling embarrassed.
The private nature of online training allows students
to progress at the rate with which they are comfortable.
- Content can be increased
by technology, with comprehensive electronic
libraries of supplemental resources and additional
information and training materials that can be reused
in different learning plans, in different formats,
and for different purposes. Use of such electronic
libraries reduces duplicate expenses.
- Each learner is provided with
a rich, personalized, prescriptive learning
plan, configured based on prior knowledge
and competency, learning goals, skill level, learning
styles, feedback, assessments, and sophisticated profiling
done in the Instructional Management System
(IMS). Such personalization tends to increase
learner achievement. Mastery-based learning programs
let the learning management system automatically assign
curriculum components and courses can be reassigned
to learners when re-certification is required.
- The IMS tracks all forms of commercial and custom-developed learning
content, including Web-based and instructor-led courses,
for any number of students at multiple locations.
The system can inventory, deliver, track, store, and
report learner progress and training-related data
to the learner and to the administrator, from any
browser, from anywhere in the world. Institutions
can document learner progress mastery for reimbursement
purposes.
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