E-Training: The Truth is Out There

Is Web Based Training Too Alien for Corporate Cultures?

Technology is the driver for the world's economy. Skills and information now change in “Internet time.” In order to keep up, corporations and government together spend nearly $100 billion per year in the US on adult learning and education.[1]

Corporate in-house training managers, already under siege, risk becoming like Agent Mulder in the “X-Files.” Seeing conspiracies lurking in every corner, Mulder continually seeks to prove that “We Are Not Alone” through verifying alien abductions. It's all part of an international covert plot to install aliens as the dominant race on earth. Corporate training managers risk suffering from “e-paranoia,” having discovered that they, too, are not alone: Alien technology is rampant. They have discovered a vast, underground global network that is changing the perception of education and training everywhere. It’s the Internet.

Technology-Based Training Gaining Market Share in IT Training IndustrySource: International Data Corporation, 1998

How are training managers successfully making the rapid transition between classroom based training and technology delivered training? Training managers will triumph in the end that seek “encounters of the third party kind” by leveraging outside resources, outsourcing training development, and sharing training resources industry wide.

Corporate cultures that can change their perception that training only takes place when “students” are in the “classroom” and embrace technology delivered training will experience a higher return on investment for their training dollars as well as improved performance.

Training Has Been Abducted

The last few years have seen a revolution in the way corporations view and implement training. The rise of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems (Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, Baan, etc.), e-commerce, and the general online automation of the enterprise has meant soaring training expenditures as employees are learning how to do their jobs online. This has often meant that the largest training budgets in corporations are no longer under the control of training departments, but under IT.

Elliott Masie of the MASIE Center reports:[1]

• Training departments are losing headcount. Recent studies have shown that the number of full-time employees in internal corporate training departments has gone down and is continuing to decrease. Outsourcing and a sensitivity to training headcount has created a sense of under-staffing in most training areas.
• Training departments are being asked to deliver more training, in more formats, that ever before.
• As our organizations run on “Internet Time” the rate of change and the shortening of business cycles is placing a premium on the role of training.

Aliens Are Seeking World Domination

Only recently have there been companies to outsource Web based training to, with old companies converting their courseware to Web delivery, and new groups popping up, such as:

• NetG
• DigitalThink
• Global Knowledge Network
• KnowledgeSoft
• HyCurve

These types of companies have achieved prominence in the last few years as a tremendous consolidation has taken place in the training industry, in recognition of the massive changes online education offers. When Michael Milken, his brother, Lowell, and Larry Ellison (Chairman/ CEO of Oracle Corp.) decided to sink their own money into a one billion dollar startup training and education consolidation company, Knowledge Universe, the business press started taking notice.[2]

E-Paranoia Is Rampant

Wall Street may be recognizing online training companies through over-subscriptions to their IPO’s, but the training community as a whole has been a tough sale. Why? Forrester’s surveys have indicated a reluctance to outsource e-commerce in corporations.[3] Training managers may suffer from the same problem: A fear of losing control.

But losing control is happening already without the training manager’s active involvement in outsourcing:

“Let’s take a large retail banking group… There is a Knowledge Management project that is underway, right out of the Chairman’s Office, with the direct involvement of the CIO. The training manager isn’t even on the project team. Yet, they are laying out strategies for how they are going to deal with the large and growing skills gap, how they are going to centralize the buying of learning and knowledge assets, and even considering an outsourcing of the entire Knowledge Management process. No surprise that the consulting group doing the project is ready and raring to go as the outsource partner for that process.”[4]

How Web- Based Training (WBT) Is Superior To Classroom Training

Web- Based Training (WBT) is superior to classroom training for larger populations to be trained (more than 200 people, depending upon their geographic dispersion). Web-based training, as compared to classroom training, is:

• More effective
• Less expensive
• Globally available
• Easier to administer and track

More Effective:

Employees are OVERLOADED with written and spoken information as it is. Traditional training modes are surprisingly ineffective. Many studies suggest that students forget as much as 50% of the material presented the first week after the training is concluded.

Multimedia based training has demonstrated superior results to classroom training:

• WBT learning is 31% faster than classroom based training
• Mastery through Web-based training is increased 15-25% over classroom based training.[5]

Classroom training attempts to force a roomful of people to learn at the same pace, inevitably leaving some learners behind while others become bored and lose interest. Because Web-based training is always available, learning is a process that spans the exact period of time that each individual requires, and includes Performance Support on demand.

Less Expensive

Cost savings are available for the visionary companies willing to make an up-front investment in training for large populations:

• Ford Motor Company has reported a 100% ROI, with payback occurring early in the second year, by converting portions of their previously classroom-based technical training courses to technology-delivered training. This reduced training time from three days in the classroom to 3.5 hours per course, for a population of 42,000 technicians, which resulted in savings of $24.8 million per course.
• Steelcase implemented a technology-delivered software training program reaching 600 sales associates in 170 locations nationwide. Classroom training would have cost $1,304,200 in travel and training time. By cutting the training time from two days in the classroom to four to eight hours per associate, Steelcase saved $760,000 in associate time, and $480,000 in travel expenses.
• Ford Credit was able to reduce a five-day classroom training program on management skills to approximately eleven hours of technology based training. The savings that accrued from the initial offering to the 9,000 managers and supervisors encouraged Ford Credit to extend the course to 28,000 employees worldwide.

Globally Available

Global companies are continually faced with the problems of training delivered in different languages across all time zones. Web-based training offers a unique solution to this problem.

When Jaguar introduces a new model, it means providing training and sales support in 53 markets worldwide simultaneously. Replacing regional training with a technology-based course, Jaguar was able to train each dealership in their own language with a single program. The program was localized for many languages and cultures, including Japanese, Spanish, German, Dutch, French, and Italian. There were two English versions, one for the US and one for the United Kingdom.

Easier to Administer and Track

Record keeping is the least favorite job of the training director. New Web-based products like TrainingServer from SYSCOM, Inc., offers online registration, launching and tracking of self-paced learning, and skills assessments. Student records are automatically generated and updated. Graphic summaries of individuals or groups are available online, as well as changing course offerings.

How To Be a Hero and Stay in the Loop

As support for the proposition that Web-based training is superior to classroom-based training grows, training managers who champion more effective (alien?) learning methods can become heroes. The winners in this new world are those training managers who understand the economics of outsourcing technology-based instructional design, and learn to effectively manage vendor relationships along with the internal politics that go hand-in-hand with monumental organizational change.

Part II of this article addresses the Search for Best (and Worst) E-Practices in Training.

1. www.digitalthink.com/company/industryinfo_future.htmlw.digitalthink.com/
2. www.idc.com/ Traditional Classroom Instruction Challenged by Developments in IT Training Market, London, 18 March, 1999
3. www.trainingserver.com/MasieReport.pdf “The business of training workers via computer attracts the interest of would-be visionaries -- and Wall Street," Barron's, March 2, 1998
4. Christopher Mines, The Industry Standard, September 13, 1999,
5. Elliott Masie, The MASIE Center http://www.masie.com/articles/ JD Fletcher Institute for Defense Analysis,

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Last Modified October 11, 2005