By Richard C. Wells.
Portions of the original article reprinted with permission March, 99 Training Magazine. ©1999. Lakewood Publications, Minneapolis, MN. All rights reserved. Not for resale. Updated 2017, 2022 by the author for this website.
(Perspective 2022: This article shares our current thinking having begun 23 years ago in 1999 to evaluate online training options to complement our standard workshops. The revised article begins …)
2021 – Live Internet Classroom – No KUDOS.
First, our recent revisiting of the Live Internet Classroom was most disappointing. In 1999 we had been much more hopeful. Then, this approach’s outlook looked very good indeed as a complement to our standard face-to-face workshops of 12-30 students at a time with one instructor. Late in 2021 we revisited the Live Internet Classroom having created a very successful strategy based upon Web-Based-Training (a.k.a. self-paced or synchronous training).
We discovered zero progress since 1999 in areas we cared about. Perhaps all the development focus went into serving the large University and College venues? In any case the level of control, ease of use, and learning curve for our facilitators was not what we wanted given the 23 years of development time. We have settled on one software to use going forward that is the “best” of those we reviewed. Our experience with it at this point is too limited to write about.
2017 – Web-Based-Training element
What we always liked about WBT is the individualized focus it has. We can make sure that each student sees each lesson, attempts each question and gets the needed feedback or corrections before taking a final exam on understanding each concept ALL on their own – no hiding in a group. What it lacks is the social aspect of learning and an easy way to practice the concepts on current issues and get the advantage of expert coaching.
A solution to the practice and coaching short-fall has been worked out! The first maintains the social distancing concerns and the second employs intact local work teams with or without masks.
2017 – Electronic Forms – make it possible for a virtual team to work on a common issue applying the concepts while being observed or led by a facilitator, who can step in when needed.
2022 – Workshop Boot Camp – The students attending the WBT training online must finish in time to attend the Boot Camp for 2-3 days where they join their local team members and facilitator(s) to work on present issues and receive expert coaching. All result are reported to management to document the impact of the Boot Camp.
Conclusion (2022)
We are actively pursuing partnerships to explore distance learning elements and how best to leverage them to improve organizational systems through systematic Tracking Root Cause efforts. We will revisit this article after we further test the Live Internet Classroom software, too.
Back to (the Internet) Class
Business Processes Inc. * R & D * P.O. Box 1456 * La Jolla, CA 92038 * 858.459*7600
www.critical-thinking.com
This PDF download (above) contains our recent experience with two live-internet-classroom software options, bringing our opinion more in-line with current realities!