Are your team based in different geographical locations?

Many organisations these days operate from a head office with offices in different geographical locations. This means quite a headache for the L&D manager when organizing training.

Training Budget 

Training budgets are being squeezed. The need to accomplish more whilst spending less is all around us. The L & D professional is tasked with ensuring that staff are up to date, can meet their learning goals, whilst at the same time being told to slash their budget.

Gone are the days when you could just send staff from all over to a central training venue with all the accompanying cost of travel and accommodation. Plus the cost of more time out of the office and away from productive work. The toll of travel and being away from home needs to be factored in to the overall cost too.

Bringing training to your desk

With the advent of robust and multi-faceted online meeting and training solutions, training courses can now be attended right from your own desk.  Your desk can be in the office or even at home or increasingly on the move.

Software

Online meeting software such as Webex and Lync can be accessed from a computer,laptop,tablet or mobile device. All you need is an internet connection, a headset and a microphone plus a space to sit in and attend from.

Design 

Well designed online courses are just as interactive as face to face training. A course designer will make sure that interaction is designed into the course. There will be several kinds of interaction, from open microphone questions, to chat using instant messaging, to annotating slides or a whiteboard. Polls, Q&A and General chat all help. If the sessions are long enough breakout rooms can be created to allow either groups or individuals to work independently.

Next time you need to run a training course, ask yourself if it could run online. Give us a call to see how we can help you make the most out of your training budget.

Do you need to provide training to a team that is dispersed around the country or even around the world? Call us now on 020 8203 1774 to talk through your organisational learning needs. We can design a Live Interactive Online session for you.

Shelley Fishel is a Certified Online Learning Facilitator, and holds the Certificate in Design of Online Learning through the Learning and Performance Institute as well as being an MCT

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The IT Training Surgery has a range of Microsoft Office training courses that can be delivered online. Call us for more details.