COMPUTER-BASED TRAINING TECHNIQUES
Task Requirements
The tasks that training must accomplish vary, depending on a company's instructional requirements. These instructional requirements might stem from the training subject, or the training environment. How important each of these tasks is to a company will depend on its own training needs.
Ability to teach a physical skill.
Most of the training media highlighted in this chapter are not well suited to teaching skills that involve physical action, such as running a machine. Learning that involves physically doing something is best done using the actual machine or tool.
However, recent advances in CBT simulations may allow you to teach physical skills using specifically designed CBT programs. If your employees are to be using expensive or complicated equipment, or working in hazardous environments, CBT can provide "practice" via simulations. With simulations, mistakes, and the learning that results from them, will take place on the computer, not on the job.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to provide human interaction.
Social interactions (conversations between people) are very difficult to teach in the abstract. If your trainees are learning how to use English (or the appropriate spoken language) that is acceptable with supervisors, peers, and clients; follow, clarify, or provide feedback to oral instructions; use aural communications devices; or engage in appropriate social interaction with supervisors, the public, co-workers, or instructors, live, lecture- (or conversation-) based training is probably the best training delivery method.
However, recent advances in CBT simulations and video instruction tapes may allow you to use these media for language instruction. And in some cases, CBT or video might be an appropriate adjunct to instruction with human interaction.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to determine and adapt to individual needs.
Assessment is a valid part of any training. It enables the training program to target instruction appropriately. Computer-based training assessments may be best at initially placing and then monitoring students' progress within a curriculum. Workbooks and lecturers may also be able to assess learners and gauge their needs. The greatest value of assessment is the guidance it provides on targeting instruction. Good CBT can adapt to learners' individual needs, providing the amount of instructional support needed. Workbooks and lectures can do this to a lesser degree.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to question students and adjust instruction accordingly.
It is important to quiz students periodically to determine whether or not they are mastering the material, and then to adjust instruction accordingly. Well designed CBT will provide follow-up instruction appropriate to students' responses. Lecturers can also adapt instruction to students' grasp of the course content, but they usually have to target their follow-up to general student needs, rather than to each student's needs. Students using workbooks will probably have to determine what further instruction they might need on their own.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to provide immediate feedback.
It is important for students to know how they are doing and whether they are mastering course content as soon as possible. Immediate feedback can keep them from floundering, or going forward under misperceptions. CBT is best at providing immediate feedback. Workbooks and lecturers may also be able to, though not as well.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to produce life-like images.
Some instruction requires high quality visuals, such as illustrations of machine parts or body organs, to be effective. All of the training media discussed here have that capability, though lecture-based instruction needs some augmentation to provide these visuals.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to produce high-quality audio.
Some instruction also requires high quality audio reproduction to prepare trainees properly. Machine malfunctions might be best diagnosed by the sounds that they make, and the different sounds people make breathing could indicate different ailments. CBT and video are best suited to providing high quality audio, and with augmentation, lectures can provide it as well.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Instruction using motion can demonstrate how something is to be done, for example, assembling equipment or a piece of furniture. CBT and video can clearly show the action, while texts and workbooks can only show pictures at various points in the process. Lectures can be augmented to portray motion.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to telescope time (time lapse or slow-mo).
Some processes (like the life cycle of a flower) are best shown with time-lapse video. CBT and video can do this extremely well. Conversely, some training may require slowing down time (showing the individual piston strokes of an internal combustion engine, for example). Again, CBT and video do this well.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to use in combination with other media.
Some forms of instruction can be combined fairly easily (lecture with text, for example), some cannot. The ability to combine media may be important if, for example, learners need to master both theory and practice. Textbooks and workbooks are frequently designed for use with other media, while most CBT is designed as a stand alone product.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Computer literacy is rapidly becoming a basic skill all productive people will need to function in society and on the job. If employees are in jobs that require them to use computers, computer-based training can do double duty: both providing the training content intended, and building employees' comfort and facility with computers. If computers aren't yet used on the job, but will be soon, using CBT will introduce employees to computers and familiarize them with computer functions.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to teach more than one trainee simultanously.
If a company has a number of people that need to be trained, it is important that the training media work well with groups. All five of the media looked at in this chapter (computer-, video-, text-, workbook-, and lecture-based training) can teach more than one trainee at a time, though trainees would need to be able to access the computer-based training and textbooks individually, and each student would need his or her own workbook.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to provide team as well as individual study.
At times, it may be appropriate for individuals to learn how to do something as a group, such as analyze production processes in order to improve quality. In these cases, it is best that individuals receive instruction together, so that they can share ideas and practice techniques together. Solitary training media, such as texts and workbooks, are not well designed for team instruction.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to reach trainees remotely.
Trainees may not all be in the same place at the same time. All of the training media discussed in this chapter, except lectures, can handle this situation well.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to access training where needed.
Many organizations are also seeking ways to conduct training without removing employees from their day-to-day job tasks. Again, textbooks and workbooks are most mobile, classroom-based lectures are least mobile. The mobility of computer- and video-based instruction depends on a company's access to computers and VCRs.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to access training when needed.
Many organizations today are looking for a way to train employees when skills are needed. Textbooks and workbooks are most responsive to satisfying the immediate needs of an employee. Lectures are least responsive. CBT and videos can also enable employees to work through an appropriate skill module when the skill is demanded by the job, making them very efficient training delivery methods.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to update & change course content frequently.
If the content of the subject being taught will change frequently, the training media needs to be fairly flexible. If course content is more stable, media flexibility is unnecessary. The lecture format is most flexible, videos and computer-based training least flexible.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Learner Requirements
Different training media are best suited for different learners. Companies need to evaluate their own situations to determine their learners' requirements.
Ability to gain attention & motivate.
If trainees are resistant to training, or the subject matter is particularly difficult, it may be important to keep the trainees' interest and motivate them. CBT and lectures are best at this, text- and workbook-based instruction are worst.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to minimize demands on verbal & reading skill.
If trainees have difficultly reading, text- and workbook-based instruction will be difficult. Video- and lecture-based instruction will be easiest.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to minimize demands on technical skills.
If trainees are not computer literate, it may be best to stay away from computer-based training media. Unfamiliarity with a computer could turn trainees' focus from the substance of the CBT course, to the technology itself. At a minimum, trainees should be able to activate a computer, navigate to an appropriate program and start it, use a keyboard and mouse to enter and manipulate data, and access on-line help.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Administrative Requirements
Some organizations may need to track trainees' progress in order to satisfy an external requirement, from, for example, large company customers or grant providers. Others may want to track progress for their own purposes.
Ability to record trainee's progress.
High quality computer-based training is designed to record trainees' progress. Lecturers can track progress, and workbooks can be checked to track trainees' progress as well. Videos and textbooks provide no means of gauging trainee progress.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Ability to report on trainee's progress.
Computer-based training systems are also designed to produce reports on trainees' progress. Trainee progress records from lecturers and workbooks can be compiled into reports, as well.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Budget
All organizations operate with limited funds these days, and the costs of training media must fit within an organization's budget constraints.
Costs (develoment, acquisition, equipment) must be kept low.
Costs (development, acquisition, equipment) must be kept low. In general, text and workbooks are the most economical training media on the market. Videos usually fall in the mid range, while lectures and computer-based training, particularly when equipment costs are included, tend to be the most expensive. However, off-the-shelf CBT packages can be very affordable, particularly when a company already owns the necessary hardware.
Return to "Selecting the Training Medium" Page
Return to "Selecting and Implementing Computer-Based Training" Home Page
Questions? Contact Brett Bixler.