Classroom training, though traditional in approach, still holds a central position in today’s corporate training and development scenario. Traditional training is a term used to describe a formal classroom training scenario, where a lecturer addresses a group of learners, and interprets the outcome using paper-based assessment. Right from the start, one can already tell that traditional training isn’t a time and cost-efficient activity in the 21st century.
Time is a valuable resource today, and traditional training demands a lot of it. The Association for Talent Development (ATD) has reported a percentage drop in the number of companies using Instructor-led Training (ILT) from 58.4% in 2010 to 49% in 2015. The reason for this drop is associated with an attempt at reducing the cost of time, efforts, and resources required to facilitate traditional training. That being said, 49% of organizations still use traditional training globally, and the good news is, modern learning management systems (LMS) are great tools to formalize your traditional training as well.
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Pre-training
An LMS can be a capable tool when used correctly. One way to use an LMS right is by using it to pre-train the employees before the actual classroom training session. A training session could sometimes spread across a whole day to a complete week, it starts by covering topics that are basic (introductions) moves on to the body (theory) and ends with a conclusion. There is a good chance that each section may have certain fairly general parts that act as precursors to that section and yet, are important to introduce a subject before explaining it. The trainer has to cover these sections before starting the actual subject. Otherwise, just because they skipped an easy-to-understand topic to save time, they may risk the possibility of the learners not understanding the topic completely.
If the same trainer instead chooses to upload a piece of content that explained this topic in detail on an LMS and asks the learners to get introduced to the topic before attending the training session, they are effectively saving his and their own time and can now divert greater attention towards covering the core of his subject. This is called pre-training, where the learners are prepared before the training activity itself. Imagine a 5-hour training initiative being reduced to a 3-hour training activity because everything basic is already available on the LMS for either pre or post-training.
Scheduling, Broadcasting, and Attendance
Planning an organization-wide training initiative is a complex task, especially when it’s in a traditional classroom training setting. The task of scheduling the training on a specific day, checking for trainer and venue availability, intimating all employees, confirming the number of attendees, and finally confirming how many registrants attended is definitely a tedious and time-consuming task. Combine it with the responsibility of tracking 50+ people and it becomes even tougher.
Most modern LMSes come with the ability to provide all-rounded support for scheduling and hosting classroom training. By using the LMSes calendar, administrators can check for a trainer’s availability, book a conference room from any of the available rooms in the organization, send a broadcast to all employees on their personal mail telling them about the day and date of the training who in-turn accept the invite if interested. Where traditionally a lot of efforts were required to keep a track of all these functions, the LMS now does it in a much simpler way. Post the training, the trainer can finally check how many people attended after registering. It is the ability to streamline training set-up activities prior to the actual training itself that actually makes the LMS very helpful in this case.
Post-training and Assessments
Training does not end soon as the lecture has been delivered. The possibility of learners not grasping the training completely, or the need to further delve into the subject, or the need to keep practising and referring to a topic is ever present. Uploading all training content that was originally used to train the employees on to the LMS platform definitely addresses all three possibilities mentioned above. This is exactly where the LMS outshines traditional training activities easily. Referring to complex topics for whatever reason at the end of the training activity is very important. Under normal circumstances, the ability to take notes and remember points is the only tool provided to seal the training provided in a person’s mind, and more times than often, it seals very little in.
But, what trumps traditional training are the assessment tools and options that an LMS provides. Paper-based assessments help you determine how much a learner knows, but, the LMSes assessment tools exactly assesses where the learners are facing most issues, who those learners are, and if they need further training. When comparing this to traditional assessments there is absolutely no comparison between how much better an LMSes assessment tool is. Furthermore, the ability to upload images, videos, audio recording as answers is just incomparable. Imagine a trainee sales person uploading a video of their sales pitch for the trainer to asses and grade the trainee based on the pitch delivery, body language, eye contact, and confidence?
Time-Based Validity and Certification
Perhaps something that most organizations sticking to traditional training very commonly forgets is—training provided is only relevant till it stays accurate in the learner’s mind. With the passage of time, the training provided may lose its accuracy in the learner’s mind and some topics may face distortion of facts as the learners begin to forget. This is most common for compliance topics such as fair trade practices, workplace safety, sexual harassment, and racial bias training. Since most of these topics are aimed at preventing any untoward incident, they aren’t discussed on a regular basis. And thus arises the requirement to train the employees once so that they are prepared when they face an issue in the future.
This is where certifying an employee for a certain duration is important. This ensures the employee is regularly trained at specific intervals and the subject is kept fresh in the mind of the learner. Furthermore, post the traditional training activity, the learner can take an assessment stored on the LMS, on successfully completing it the LMS automatically certifies them with a digital certificate of completion. If a certificate is time-bound, on expiry, the LMS sends out a notification asking the learner to renew their course.
We, at Abara LMS, provide learning platforms that support both your traditional training requirements and your online training initiatives. Reach out to us at contact@abaralms.com or Click Here m and one of our representatives will get back to you shortly.
