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CompanyWeb Conferencing: The Future of Training?
What is web conferencing and what opportunities does it offer as a training delivery method within a blended learning programme? Tom Stroud highlights its strengths and weaknesses, and demonstrates its application in organisations today.
Our approach to the process of learning is continually changing. Historically, learning was seen as a rather formal and structured process, instead of something that is ongoing and continual. Today, it is widely accepted that learning should be part of our everyday life and never more so than within the workplace.
The use of blended learning combined with different methods of delivery has increased significantly in recent years. It has been recognised that this more holistic approach is extremely successful at delivering many learning objectives and one which can easily be adapted for the modern workplace.
The objectives of this article are to explain what web conferencing is and explore the opportunities it offers as a training delivery method within a blended learning program. It will also highlight which forms of training it is particularly suited to and provide a few cases studies demonstrating how web conferencing is being utilised by organisations today.
Where web conferencing really comes into its own is when you need to deliver interactive training to a geographically dispersed group of employees. Because participants access the conference over the internet, it is possible for employees working almost anywhere in the world to attend a training session, no matter where the presenter is located.
Firstly what exactly is Web Conferencing?
Although web conferencing in various forms has been around for quite sometime, it is only in the last couple of years that the technology has evolved and developed into the secure and reliable solutions we see today.
Essentially, web conferencing allows individuals to connect to a conference or online meeting room on a secure virtual network using only a web browser and internet connection. Once logged onto the conference, participants are able to view presentations, share resources and collaborate on documents with other attendees. They can also share the applications on their computer with others in the conference, all securely and in real time.
In common with a physical conference, a presenter (or presenters) set the format of the meeting and control what participants can view and access. Depending on the type of session, it may be a small collaborative workshop or a presentation to an audience of many hundreds, the presenter can select the structure and functionality of the virtual conference room to suit the event.
In its basic format, the presenter may use the web conference simply to deliver a PowerPoint presentation to an audience. By combining the web conference with an audio conference call, the audience can see the slides displayed on their screens as well as listen to the presenter talking via the audio conference. The audio element may be carried over the internet or delivered via separate teleconference.
Participants can be given the ability to ask questions by using an instant messenger facility, or use the 'seat mood indicator' to request the presenter speeds up, slow down, recap a subject, or indicate that they want to ask a question verbally.
When being used for more collaborative sessions, the presenter is able to hand over control of conference to any of the participants. The presenter and participants can work on documents and files together allowing each to see the changes being made in real time. It is also possible to share applications, making it ideal if you want to demonstrate a software application and allow the participants to actually use it without having to install it on their local computer.
The latest web conferencing solutions also offer a range of additional features, such as interactive white boards, external website slides, polling and seamless integration with other commonly used software applications. They also offer the valuable feature of being able to record sessions for future playback, so a conference can be accessed at a later date by participant unable to attend the live meeting. These recordings can also be retained as part of the training programs audit trail.
Importantly, unlike video conferencing web conferencing requires no special hardware or software which makes adopting the technology inexpensive and simple. To attend a web conference participants only need a web browser and internet connection, it is even possible to connect to a web conference using a 56k dial up modem. This allows home workers and staff located in remote, often rural locations, to be able to attend a training session being delivered by web conference.
So how can Web Conferencing be used?
Generally, web conferencing is ideally suited to relatively short training sessions, usually a maximum of around 1-2 hours in length. Any longer and the possibilities of eye strain from having to concentrate on a computer screen becomes an issue, not to mention fading concentration levels.
It is ideal for delivering training programs where you need to keep employees up to date with rapidly changing information on a regular basis. For example, making sure employees are aware of changes to the Company's internal procedures or keeping sales staff abreast of the latest product features or specifications.
With the ability to collaborate, share documents and files, web conferencing is also ideal for providing interactive training. Examples include training employees, partner or customers on how to use software applications. The ability to hand over control of an application allows the trainer to give a practical demonstration and then ask the student to repeat the actions. Because this is all done in real time, the trainer can see exactly what is being done by the student and provide coaching or address errors as they work through the application.
Furthermore, because you are able to deliver content quickly and easily to geographically dispersed audience, web conferencing can offer opportunities to alter the way in which you deliver training as an organisation. For example, when employees have to travel long distances to attend training sessions, you are naturally inclined to make it a full day course rather than just a couple of hours.
However, by using web conferencing you are able to deliver training on a subject across a number of shorter sessions, maybe every few weeks. The students gain from this approach in two important ways; firstly they no longer need to set aside a full day out of their busy routines as sessions can be scheduled for periods during the day or week which are less busy making the training far less disruptive. Secondly, by delivering the content in short bursts over a period of time rather than in one marathon session, it can improve the comprehension and retention of the subject. You are able to recap on the previous session and reinforce the message over a longer period.
How Web Conferencing Can Be Used In Practice
As an example, let's assume you work for a Building Society with 120 branches located in towns throughout the UK. You are charged with delivering a training program covering the Society's new money laundering procedures. This course needs to be completed by all employees dealing with the public, and due to the importance of this issue, you must be able to demonstrate to the regulators that all relevant employees have completed this training.
With a topic such as money laundering being, well let's just say a little dry, it is important that you make any training as interesting and interactive as possible. So, you've decided to do a 30-45 minute presentation followed by a Q&A session in which staff can address any issues they are unsure of followed by a short test to confirm their understanding.
So having created your snappy but informative presentation using PowerPoint and written an amusing script which conveys the seriousness of the subject but in an interesting and appealing fashion, how do you now deliver this to all 750 employees scattered across the country within the next 2 weeks?
Option one; you could bring all 750 staff into head office to sit through the presentation sit in silence through the Q&A as nobody wants to ask a question in front of the whole company before sitting them down to complete the comprehension test. This is not really feasible as you'd have to close the whole of the branch network if you wanted to carry out the training during the working week.
Option two; you could run the course at regional centres to say 100 or 200 employees at a time getting staff from other areas to cover the branches being trained. Or most likely, you and your colleagues embark on a whistle stop tour of all 120 branches and do the training on a branch by branch basis. Alternatively, you use web conferencing.
To make the presentation using a web conference you need first to upload your PowerPoint presentation to your virtual classroom. From here you may also want to include a couple of interactive slides to help enhance the presentation. For example, you might want to ask you audience what their current understanding of the topic is using a polling slide. Or if you are presenting to a relatively small number, you may want to ask them to type what they are looking to get out of the session using a shared text slide.
You will then need to send out invitations to each member of staff advising them that they are required to attend an online training session. This can be done from either your virtual classroom control panel online or using Outlook or Lotus Notes. The emails sent give the attendees a hyperlink which they follow to join the session along with instructions on how to enter the session and audio conference details where appropriate.
Usually around 10 minutes before the start time you as presenter would log into the session and make sure all the slides are showing correctly and the session controls are set to your preferences. As each individual logs on to the session you will see their name appear in the list of attendees on your console. This is a simple way to make sure that everybody expected has arrived.
With everybody in attendance you can start your presentation, either with a polling question or maybe a short verbal introduction and explanation of how attendees can interact with you as the presenter. At this stage you can also choose to record the session to make available for those who couldn't attend the session live, or to retain as part of your audit trail.
Having completed your presentation, you can then direct participants to a web page either on your general website or your own secure intranet to complete the comprehension test. Once they have completed the test you have a complete record of the training, including who has attended the live session, those who accessed the recorded session along with the results of the final tests.
The advantages of using web conferencing to deliver this type of training are numerous. Firstly, you remove the need to travel as neither the participants nor the trainer have to leave their office. This then reduces the time out of the office which in most cases is unproductive time.
As the training session can be accessed by over 2,000 participants at anyone time, it would have been possible to make the presentation to all relevant employees at one time. For those unable attend the session live, they can simply view the recording at a convenient time and then complete the online test to confirm they have attended and understood.
In terms of cost, even if we ignore the time saved and lost productivity, the cost of running a one hour training session for 750 staff would equate to no more than £10 per person. Compare that with the cost of a suitable venue, the cost of employees travelling to and from the venue or the costs associated with sending trainers up and down the country to deliver the program in person.
Examples of Company's Using Web Conferencing
American companies have lead the way in adopting web conferencing as a training tool with the numbers using it having increased dramatically in recent years. For example, Cadence Design Systems, the world's largest supplier of electronic design automation technologies and engineering services, needed to disseminate information to its sales staff of over 4,000 quickly and at low cost. Before adopting web conferencing the Company would spend $260,000 per session, excluding airfares, to bring sales staff in for training typically between two and four times per year.
Now Cadence have been able to hold ten training sessions per annum using web conferencing for the around same cost. Furthermore, rather than putting on a big show simply to cover informational topics, they are now able to focus on delivery of the needed-skills and process training.
Cadence also reported that web conferencing had helped with employee satisfaction. In addition to be being easy to use, training with web conferencing takes only an hour out of their day, requires no travel, and offers the freedom to participate from home, office, or the road.
Siemens have deployed a web conferencing solution in 20 different countries to conduct training classes for over 4,000 participants as part of there elearning and remote training program. Siemens feel that web conferencing is ideal for short duration training courses. It is much less expensive and more convenient than regular classroom training because so many more people can attend an online conference without leaving their office.
Finally in the UK we recently started working with a small training company specialising in training sales and customer services representatives within the travel industry. In the past, their trainers would need to visit their clients to run 45 minute training sessions, often first thing in the morning to avoid eating into the sales staff's working day.
By using web conferencing, it has been possible for the trainers to deliver the courses directly to the employees at their desks. Furthermore, as increasing numbers of employees within the travel industry work from home, they too can attend the training session without needing to make a special trip into the office.
In summary
Web conferencing offers an ideal way of delivering varied types of training to a geographically dispersed audience. It well suited to regular training programs where is it is important to be able provide up to date information quickly and easily.
It can be used as a low cost method of presenting to large numbers of people or for working in small workshop sessions with a high degree of interactivity and collaboration. The technology is secure, reliable and extremely easy to master.
With no initial investment required in new hardware or software and a wide range of pricing options, it can be deployed cost effectively within a large global organisation or small business with equal ease and offer high and rapid return on investment.
As the move toward blending learning increases, web conferencing should be considered and evaluated by any training department as a potential training delivery method.
