One Trainer’s Search for the Perfect Computer Based Training Program
by Michelle Ellsworth, Founder of e-Training Solutions

Contact: michelle@etrainingsolutions.cc, 941.778.7033, www.etrainingsolutions.cc

Before I founded e-TrainingSolutions I was a Trainer just like you.  And just like you, I was in search of the perfect Computer-Based Training program.   There was so much out there!  How could I choose?  There was such a variety of design, content, and delivery formats that after a three-month investigation, I was more confused than when I began my search.  It took another year to really determine what was best for my on-site customer.  I wanted to share some of my research and observations with you in hopes you will save some time and money in your own search for the perfect Computer-Based Training program.

What every trainer should know about CBT’s:

1.  CBT Design is Imperative for Effective Learning

The key elements that work in a classroom are the same key elements that make training effective in Computer Based Training.  “Tell - Test”, or in  CBT’s case, “Text - Test” just doesn’t work.  Most adult educators agree that the key elements necessary to make learning occur are:

The learner must be engaged.  Engagement is the motivating learning environment.

Academic research strongly backs up the common sense notion that when students are engaged in the learning process, they learn and retain more.  Engagement in CBT can come through emotion, relaxation, and especially through fun.  Games are a strong motivating and engaging factor. Programs that have a game-based or question-based, task-led approach are the most engaging.  These are difficult to find. 

Experiential learning fosters accelerated, effective learning.

Once learners are motivated, a number of elements have been found to accelerate learning and make it more effective.  They include questions, mistakes, and multiple senses; feedback and reinforcement; challenge, involvement and relevance and “doing’ through simulation. The programs that give the learner the ability to ask and answer questions, make mistakes in safety, and have multiple senses stimulated are most effective.  Immediate and relevant feedback and positive reinforcement are additional keys to effective learning.

The old “Tell-Test” or in CBT’s case, “Text-Test” doesn’t work.

Most of the programs available on the Internet and CD-ROM are in effect a series of text sections followed by a test. The experience is similar to sitting in a classroom, listening to a lecture with an occasional transparency or Power Point slide and then being tested at the end.  There is little-to- no interaction. 

2.  Speed of Delivery is imperative

Download Speed

Even though we were on a “network” in the corporate office, most of our properties were still on a dial up system.  If we wanted any video or animation in our training, we needed our training on CD ROM.  Even with 56 K modems, the frustration of waiting for downloads and streaming video was too much of a distraction for the “Nintendo” generation. 

Transfer Rate for a 10-Megabyte File

Speed - they expect it

The “Nintendo” generation expects it.  Every parent, educator, and manager knows that the “Nintendo” generation - those born after 1970 (a large portion of our on-site customer) and raised on video and computer games, Walkmans, the Internet, etc. - are different.  This generation grew up on video games, MTV (more than 100 images a minute), and the ultra-fast speed of action films.  Their developing minds learned to adapt to speed and thrive on it.  Yet when they join our companies, we typically begin by putting them in corporate classrooms, bringing in poor speakers to lecture at them, and making them sit through an endless series of corporate videos. 

My 14-year-old daughter told me she had to “power down” when she went to school.  At home she is constantly learning through several medias simultaneously.  She is on the Internet, doing research for a paper, chatting to friends in a chat room, talking to another friend on the telephone, and watching MTV all at the same time.  She is effectively learning through all sources at once.  Her brain has been programmed this way.    Speed-wise, we effectively give them depressants.  And then we wonder why they’re bored.  It’s important that managers (as well as educators and parents) recognize that these changes exist so that we can deal with the younger generation effectively.

3.  Content

There are some generic programs on compliance (Safety, HazCom, Fair Housing, Sexual Harassment) and maintenance topics (A/C troubleshooting, Electricity Basics) that are effective for all learners. 

As far as sales, leasing, marketing, customer service, supervision, hiring, firing, team building, train-the-trainer and orientation, I prefer a customized course.  We have all worked hard to develop comprehensive content over the span of our careers.  Why go with a generic course when we could have one customized for the same or even less price? 

4.  Final Conclusion of Research and Checklist for any program:

      Does the program have:

Have your content customized for your sales, leasing, marketing, customer service, supervision, hiring, firing, team building, train-the-trainer and orientation.  e-Training Solutions can take your current courses and put them into interactive, CD ROM or DHTML courses. 

What started as a search for the perfect CBT program ended up as a bridge for both my partner, Shelley Conroy, and myself.  That bridge launched our new careers.  While the rest of the world had been busy getting “up to speed” with Computer-Based Training, I found that our wonderful industry was just starting the search.

Top