MAKING CBT CHOICES

Selecting a specific computer-based training product or provider is a complex task. You will want to evaluate the quality of a product's training content, delivery, and support. If you'll be hiring a company to provide services, you will need to check out the company's qualifications.

Before you can begin comparing products and providers, you need to find them. When searching for potential computer-based training products or providers, don't limit yourself to one information resource. Instead, explore multiple avenues of information. You can ask business colleagues you know if they have any recommendations. You can also explore possibilities on your own.

When searching for a potential computer-based training product, don't limit yourself to one information resource. Instead, you should explore multiple avenues of information. A number of training vendors, books and magazines, electronic resources, associations, and conferences are listed in the appendix to help you begin your search. You can also consult the National Workforce Assistance Collaborative publication Resource Guide: A Key to Organizations Working in Employee Training, Labor-Management Relations, Work Restructuring, and Workplace Literacy, which is listed in the appendix on Collaborative products and services.

Once you've located a few products and providers that seem promising, you are ready to compare and contrast them. The checklists provided here will help you compare computer-based training products and providers. The final analysis checklist enables you to combine the results of the separate checklists to select the best total computer-based training package for your needs.

You will need to conduct a product evaluation no matter what kind of computer-based training program or service you are purchasing. You will only need to conduct a provider evaluation if you plan to have your program delivered in on- or off-site classes. You will never have to conduct a provider evaluation if you plan to purchase a performance support system or have your employees train through independent study. However, you will need to conduct a provider evaluation for training instruction, or off-the-shelf, customizable, or customized computer-based programs if you plan to have these programs delivered in on- or off-site classes.

As was the case with the budget analysis, the real driving forces shaping your product and provider evaluations are their customizability and instructional format. Your product evaluation should be shaped by the computer-based program's customizability (off-the-shelf, customizable, or customized), while your provider evaluation should be shaped by its instructional format (independent study, on-site class, or off-site class).

The product and provider checklists provided here may be more extensive than you need. Which parts of these checklists you use will depend on the type of computer-based training package you intend to buy, and the computer-based training characteristics that are important to you. While this section discusses all characteristics, you will be picking and choosing which ones you include in your analysis. For example, if you are sending your employees to an off-site class, you may only be concerned with selected parts of the product checklist.

Training Product. A training product can be an off-the-shelf, customizable, or customized program. When evaluating off-the-shelf or customizable programs, you will need to look for specific characteristics within the existing programs. When selecting a customized program, you will want to look at a customizer's history in developing programs with those characteristics. For customizable programs, you will also want to look at a customizer's history in developing programs with specific characteristics, if you are going to hire a provider to undertake the customization.

You should examine a computer-based training product from a conceptual (instructional quality) and physical (computer systems) standpoint. You need to look at course content, delivery, implementation, and design; technological compatibility; and review options. You will also want to look at instructional and technical support. These supports could be built into the products, or they could be on- or off-site services the product developer can provide.

Training Provider. A training provider is an individual or organization you hire to conduct your computer-based training class. A provider is only needed for on- and off-site classes. In reviewing providers for on-site classes, you will want to gauge their abilities to provide instructional support. For off-site classes, you will also want to evaluate a few specific off-site services. You would conduct a provider evaluation for customized training, on-site classes, off-site classes, perhaps customizable training (if you were hiring a provider to do the customizing), and for any other computer-based training for which you wanted to hire support services.

Training Site. You would conduct a site evaluation if you planned on sending your employees to off-site classes.

You may want to select only a product, provider, or site -- or -- you may need to select a combination of these. For example, you may want to purchase a training program and contract for some support services, in which case you'd want to evaluate both products and providers. Alternatively, you may want to send your employees to a computer-based training site, in which case you'd want to evaluate both the sites and the training packages they use (product and site).

Which of these checklists -- or parts of checklists -- you use will depend on what type of computer-based training package you intend to buy, and what computer-based training characteristics are important to you. While this site discusses all characteristics, you will be picking and choosing which ones you include in your analysis.

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Questions? Contact Brett Bixler.