Web Based Training or Instructor Led Training? What’s best for your situation?

Keeping up with the digital revolution requires an effort, making us continuous learners by default.

From operating new devices
to keeping up with social media trends
to getting everything to work in a new car,
our success depends on learning.

At work, we could be expected to learn new skills or new ways of doing things on a near continuous basis.
Learn and Adapt!
Keep Up!

• Due diligence requires a us to be educated and trained in the work we are performing as well as company policies and procedures.

• For example; something as simple as getting a a new printer can screw up the workflow of an entire office unless people know how to operate it. Now imagine the possible consequences of someone guessing how to operate new machinery or tools in a hazardous work situation.

Learning Choices: ILT or WBT?

One of the choices a management team needs to make is between classroom-style Instructor Led Training (ILT) o on-your-own Web Based Training (WBT) education and training.

There was a time when ‘the boss’ would send one worker to a seminar on the new training, with the expectation of the worker turning around and training everybody else in the office or shop. As training became too technical for this approach, classroom sessions became the norm.

But having workers in a classroom instead of on the job is a poor investment.

On-line, the same learning can be scheduled during work hours, in a staggered manner with only a few people are away from their job at a time, or during off-hours. These options keep work flowing with minimal impact on productivity.

Benefits of WBT learning compared to ILT classroom sessions are:

• Less disruption to production and worker schedule
• Lower cost
• No additional travel costs
• Learner can control pace of progress, and order and review of topics
• Learners get consistent content (not the short version sometimes provided to the last classroom session of the day)
• Learners can return to repeat entire lessons
• Keeps knowledge current, as revised training is made available

Sometimes the best solution is a combination of on-line education and classroom sessions. For example; completing a theory-based, on-line Fire Extinguisher tutorial and test package followed by an ILT physical training and operation session to prove knowledge and ability.

Some people need continuous learning more than others to keep up with their responsibilities. The instant, on-demand delivery of WBT on-line education gets them the information they need when they need it. Instead of killing time, training can be completed during natural breaks in their day; whether at work, home, or anywhere via mobile connection.

Contendo has made its way by delivering online, site-specific process operation training to energy sector clients, as well as full-course SAGD operations training and various Safety Awareness courses to single and group subscribers. With thousands of views of our WBT modules, Contendo is a proven partner in knowledge and skill development.

From the writer:
I really believe in on-line learning, for both work and personal advancement, and regularly complete tutorials, courses, and testing during information research.
Being able to access specific knowledge; to learn something; to understand; has literally let me change my career choice!
I was a process operator, with a power engineer license acquired through an apprentice program (with very little formal training).  I started doing some technical writing along the way, and on-line learning lets me understand and write about things like industrial processes invented after I left the operating game. There’s just no classroom alternative for this.

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Visit us at contendo.ca to out more about Contendo’s Safety Awareness Courses or SAGD oil recovery in the Canadian Oil Sands.

Kevin Fox is a senior technical writer at Contendo.
He is a power engineer who has written process education programs for industrial clients since 2009.