With training budgets being reduced, travel costs on the rise and businesses having to focus on what matters most. It's important for training departments to look at all available options to get the most out of their resource and deliver content that adds value within their business.

The two main delivery methods in my mind are....

1) Face to face training -  still the most dominant form of delivery and is the traditional approach to workplace learning. There are obvious benefits to face to face delivery however it is also the most resource hungry and costly for organisations and training teams due it's high reliance on rooms, travel, trainers time and the cost of taking people away from their jobs for the actual training.

2) e-Learning - on the rise due to the amount of low cost rapid authoring tools now available on the market. Training teams can now produce good bite size content relatively quickly and distribute that content to a large number of people through an LMS or Intranet and track results of assessment or completion rates. The quality of e-learning design has also improved moving from page turners and click next click next modules to something that is more scenario based and more specific and relevant to peoples roles. If a rapid authoring tool isn't available then PPT can be used as a cheap alternative for self-managed learning modules.

Most organisations will use both forms of delivery and depending on the training team and the way in which the team is structured they may out source e-Learning design to an e-Learning supplier. If an LMS is present then training is most likely scheduled and e-Learning content might be hosted through the LMS. What ever the approach there will most likely be a blend of approaches used to meet the demands and needs of the business.

The third delivery method which is gaining much more traction across the Learning & Development world is Live Online Learning. There are now a whole host of tools on the market that offer a range of features that can be used to deliver training. You might hear the words webinar or virtual classroom to describe these sorts of sessions but whatever you call them these tools provide the ability to connect people in an online training room to

  • Deliver content
  • Create discussion
  • Live chat
  • Share applications / screens
  • Interactive screens / annotations
  • Show video
  • Assess knowledge through polls / surveys

With technological advances and improved internet connectivity / speed these tools can provide much more interactive and engaging experiences and deliver more rich multi-media content than ever before.

We'll look at the skills required to host and deliver these sessions in another discussion but I wanted to share a document that provides a great introduction to virtual classroom tools and technology.

It looks at the free tools available as well as the commercial tools out there. It provides a good breakdown of the features and functionality available in each.

Are you using any of these tools to host sessions and deliver learning in your business?

I'd love to hear what you are using and how you are using the tools?

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