Allow me to share with you, a rather upsetting situation I found myself in recently: One day, I get home from work, grab a cup of java from my kitchen, and decided to run my daily routine of checking my email before grabbing some dinner. To my surprise, my friend sent me an invite to Google Wave, and being the computer geek that I am, I (of course!) accepted.
This might be quite embarrassing to admit, but 25 minutes into playing with Google Wave, I had no idea what I was supposed to do with it. Not to say that Google is to blame (I love you Google!) , Wave is indeed quite interesting. But this unfortunate incident, leads me to my next blog post:
Have you ever bought something new toy, or signed up to some new website, and had no idea how to use it? Remember the fear? The confusion? The “Oh my god, I think I just deleted everything!” That was me. When I started using Field ID, I had no idea what was heads and what was tails. Luckily for you, you will never have to experience the same thing. Our Field ID team has dedicated themselves to make learning our software as easy as possible. This includes our online webinar training.
Most people believe that there is no way that online training could ever substitute face-to-face training done on-site. Today, I’m here to tell you why online training has been perfected to become a worthy opponent to on-site training, maybe even its successor:
Time Efficiency
You are busy. Time means productivity. Do you have extra time to gather all your staff together for hours to listen to a lecture on software? Of course not, and we know you don’t want to learn it alone, it’s difficult and tedious. But we would never leave you hanging: Field ID gives you half-hour training sessions on GoToMeeting, allowing you to learn what you need, speak to a professional and ask questions. If some of your team members can’t make the meeting, we record all of our sessions and make it available on our Field ID University website. So whenever your team has a half-hour to spare, they can watch the session.
On-site training doesn’t have the time flexibility that only online training can provide. To learn more about GoToMeeting, click here.
Cost Efficiency
Travel costs aside, on-site training requires your team to join together and put aside work for several days. What does that mean for you? Halted productivity. You have tight deadlines and projects to finish, meaning you have money to make, and we definitely understand that. The last thing we want to do, is get in the way of your productivity. All you need for an online session is the internet and a phone line, two things you already have and don’t need to pay extra for.
On-site training requires extra costs. It may require transportation costs, lecture room rentals, and maybe even some refreshments after a long day of training. So on-site training results in extra costs AND halted productivity. It’s just not a practical solution when online training offers you the same outcome without the extra expenses.
Training Efficiency
Finally you ask: How effective is online training? Can you honestly say it’s as effective as on-site training? Honestly, I didn’t think that online training would ever match up to on-site training. But the truth is: online training technology has evolved. GoToMeeting provides an innovative solution to online training, allowing the trainer and trainee to interchange keyboard and mouse control and view each other screens. If you think about it, the best way to learn software is to see it happening on the computer screen, rather than someone giving you a long lecture. Field ID demonstrates the software as well as guides you through the process online. If you have a problem or a question, you can quickly share your screen to show our team exactly what is wrong. It’s quick, efficient, and actually quite fun.
If online training technology has evolved to become just as effective as onsite training, we shouldn’t dwell on on-site training purely because of tradition. It’s become rather inefficient. It’s time to move forward.
Agree/Disagree? What do you prefer? Online or On-site. Let us know!
