What the latest educational pot of gold can and can't do for you.
If you're in a hurry to build up your IT skills, or you need some just-in-time training, Web-based learning applications may be exactly what you need, no matter what you have to learn. On the other hand, Web-based training has some ground to cover before it can make a practical replacement for classroom instruction or other forms of computer-based training.
Types of Web-based training
An enterprising student can take a WBT course independently, or an entire "classroom" of students can learn under the facilitation of a human instructor.
Because of the independent nature of non-instructor-led WBT, students can learn at their own pace. Also, courseware can be modular. With a pre-course skills assessment, students can be matched up with the segment of the course most appropriate for their level.
Not all WBT requires human instruction, but where student-teacher interaction is concerned, WBT comes in two flavors: synchronous and asynchronous. Asynchronous, the more common of the two, involves modes of communication that don't require immediacy. Students may turn in assignments via email; receive class materials in the mail; may confer in groups on a BBS. Learning is self-paced, and students don't need to be online all at the same time to meet for the course.
Synchronous training, on the other hand, uses modes of communication that foster a real-time (or approximately real-time) environment. Instructors and students may discuss problems in a chat forum. And if the technology can handle it, streaming media allows some face-to-face interaction, at least between the students and the teacher, if not between students.
Advantages of WBT
Whether the course is instructor-led or not, there are some general advantages to WBT. Access is universal, so the system platform (Mac, Windows, Unix) is irrelevant. Learners don't need to travel to get to the training. And the curriculum is current and quickly updated.
Problems for non-instructor-led WBT
Non-instructor-led WBT can be essentially like reading a book and working independently online. It can be just as boring, too, if the designers don't use the Web's tools and abilities effectively. Not everyone likes to simply read large amounts of text on screen.
When Microsoft evaluated its own online institute's WBT course offerings between 1995 and 1997, it found that instructional design is essential for motivating students. It's not the number of clicks that keeps a student engaged, the study indicated, but the effectiveness of the material being presented. And some students need a high level of personal direction and coaching.
Utah State University professor M. David Merrill said, in a recent Training Magazine article, that advances in understanding how adults learn have come slowly and steadily, but advances in mode of application – educational TV, videos, computers, the Internet – have come more like a roller coaster. Though we know that practice, feedback, and guidance are necessary for adequate learning, what bad WBT essentially does is shovel information into Web sites, offering the learner little or no opportunity for practice.
Problems for asynchronous WBT
Instructor-led methods can allow for some of the guidance lacking in independent WBT, but asynchronous WBT has some disadvantages as well.
Course format is still limited by the capabilities of popular Web browsers. And one continuing challenge is a widespread limitation of bandwidth, which prevents optimal performance of sound, video, and graphical components.
The stops and starts of asynchronous coursework may leave less self-directed students feeling unmotivated and disconnected from their coursemates and the course itself. Many experts stress that interaction is a key component to a successful learning model, and that WBT often doesn't provide enough opportunity for interpersonal exchange. Training's "1999 Industry Report" shows that a scant 36 percent of all online students saw opportunities to interact with the instructor and other students.
Problems for synchronous WBT
Synchronous WBT may allow some of the interaction lacking in asynchronous training, but life is not like "The Jetsons" yet. Most synchronous training isn't up to speed on streaming media, so the instructor has no real-world gauges of student interest and participation.
Web-based capabilities such as streaming audio and video are pointless if learners are unable to upgrade their systems with every hardware advancement or new media-player version.
No golden calf
Despite its appeal, the Web hasn't been able to answer every challenge in the corporate training arena. Web-based training doesn't yet have a strong lead over other methods of instructional delivery.
Data from Training's "1999 Industry Report" indicates that, across all industries, training on corporate intranets stood at nearly 25 percent of all computer-delivered training in 1998, while training via the Web reached a modest 13 percent. A 38 percent chunk may sound impressive, but CD-ROM still held tightly to a 37 percent showing in the computer-based training market last year.
The traditional classroom model is still the top method being used.
