E-Learning or Live Training? Tips On How To Decide

An important part of designing instruction in a corporate setting is determining what format to use- web-based e-learning, or live face-to-face training. I recently asked the Instructional Design and E-Learning Professionals Group on LinkedIn in a discussion forum for best practices and got some great responses. Below is a summary of factors that have been suggest so far, along with my interpretation of how they should be considered:

• Stability of the material
• If the materials will likely not change a lot over time, then it might be worth building e-learning because you won't have to constantly change the e-learning.
• Type of learning (soft skill, technology, etc.) and the objectives of the learning
• If a person is learning a "soft skill" (like communication skills or something) or a physical skill (like welding) it might be better to have the training be in-person. But if it is a technology skill, it might work to put it as a piece of e-learning. The third option of using a blended approach (using web-based and live components) might also be powerful- using video or multimedia to demonstrate skills or knowledge and then having the participants practice in a live setting. (I have used blended approach for a lot of what I do and it can be very powerful).
  
• Available resources
• If there are few resources available to develop the unit of e-learning, then go with a live training. (This could work the other way, too).
  
• Our timeline
• If there is no time to create a quality unit of e-learning, have it done live.
• Number of people to be trained
• If you are training only a few people, it is probably not worth investing resources into developing a unit of e-learning. But if you are training several thousand, it is more likely to be worth the resources.
• Location of the people
• If everyone is in the same building, it might be easier to just train them live. If they are spread out throughout the world, creating e-learning is likely more useful.

One of my students also pointed out this very comprehensive breakdown of how to select the appropriate medium for training, prepared by SkillSoft.

I hope these are useful. What else might you add?

New Video: What Instructional Designers Do

It can sometimes be difficult to explain what an instructional designer does. I made this video which describes clearly (I hope!) what most instructional designers do. I hope it is helpful.

What do you think? If you are not an instructional designer, does this explanation help? If you are an instructional designer, does this description make sense?

The Influence of Context on Instructional Design

In one of my first instructional design courses as a graduate student, the professor Dr. Mimi Recker would very often answer questions about instructional design best practices with, "it depends." As I've moved forward in my career as an instructional designer, I have realized how important it is to really understand many of the variables in my work. Truly, in instructional design, context is everything. It affects how we apply our tools, theories, processes, and technologies to design effective instruction.

In my experience, many things influence how the designer carries out his or her work. All instructional design activity takes place within an environment or context, which can have significant and direct influence on the activity of the designer and on the resulting instruction. The following list, taken from an article I wrote previously (Gardner, 2009), demonstrates some general influences that affect the work of the instructional designer:
 

• Designer Background – Every instructional designer has a different background that affects the use of instructional design tools. This background also affects how the designer perceives and responds to the other contextual influences below.
• Community – Instructional designers work within a community, and the norms, culture, communication style, and expectations of community members can strongly influence how a designer works and the instruction they design.
• Goals and Purposes – The goals and purposes of an organization directly influence many aspects of instructional design. For example, a fast-moving corporation (with goals of gaining profits, developing products and marketing to end-users) places different time and product demands on a designer than a large research university (with semester-long courses and goals of producing researchers).
• Design Technologies – The kinds of technologies available and used within a context also directly influence the work of a designer. For example, developing instruction with HTML has specific constraints and that an instructional designer must work in. In contrast, using a desktop capturing tool to develop instruction has another set of constraints. Limited or prescribed access to technology can heavily influence design activity and product.
• Rules and Policies – The rules and policies of an organization can also heavily influence design. For example, if there are design standards or structural requirements, the designer's work is immediately constrained.
• Division of Labor –the individuals a designer works with and shares design functions with also have a strong influence. In smaller organizations, the designer often takes on development and deployment functions, while a larger organization might have different teams who perform these functions.

Awareness of these factors gives a designer the ability to adapt to any context and even influence that context in meaningful ways. If context is everything, then knowing that context will provide designers with power to design instruction that makes sense.