The new wave in employee training is everywhere. "A couple
billion dollars a year is [already] spent on Web-based
training," says Kevin Oakes, president and chief learning
officer of Asymetrix (http://www.asymetrix.com), a
Bellevue, Washington, leader in the field of online training.
And that represents just a sliver of the nation's estimated
$60 billion employee-training marketplace. But this train is just
beginning to pick up speed. "As much as half of all training
will be happening online by 2002," predicts Brandon Hall, the
Sunnyvale, California, editor of http://www.brandonhall.com, a site
that provides technology-based training information, industry
developments, trends and ideas.
Why this mushrooming of Web-based training, where, instead of
attending a class on how to use Corel WordPerfect, employees are
now logging on to the Web to get the same information? There are
two big reasons, says Kenneth Brown, an assistant professor of
management and organization at the University of Iowa in Iowa City.
"Web-based training is more accessible--people can do it when
and where they want--and the costs are substantially lower than
classroom-based learning."
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How much lower? "Cost savings are about 50 percent from
classroom training to Web-based," says Hall. That's good
news at a time when most experts say employees will need virtually
continuous retraining to keep pace with today's dramatic
workplace changes.
But the real argument for Web-based training isn't price;
it's convenience. "The student can take a class when it
fits into his or her schedule," says Kristina Lumsden, a
product marketing manager with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based
Distributed Learning Business Group, a division of online training
products developer Lotus (http://www.lotus.com).
"Web-based training can be `just-in-time'
training," adds Colm Darcy, director of curriculum development
at Redwood City, California-based CBT, a leading provider of online
training solutions for the business, government and higher
education markets. "With Web-based training, the student can
take it when he or she needs to."
Robert McGarvey writes on business, psychology and management
topics for several national publications. To reach him online with
your questions or comments, e-mail rjmcgarvey@aol.com.
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