Online learning for older employees

Training and development plays a critical role in organisational life. I feel the 70:20:10 principle advocated by HR specialists and followed by some organisations is in a way a clever prescription for keeping training costs under control. This means 70% of all learning occurs on the  job,20% of learning comes from other learning mediums like online learning ,10% of learning comes through face to face interactions .

Online learning has become very popular nowadays which can easily combine the 70:20:10 principle in one platform. I have mixed feelings about online learning. I entered the world of online learning at a pretty late stage in my career. From attending classes through webinars to taking online exams at external venues I have had a taste of all. The webinars were most interesting .I was on headphones with speaker options and there was a trainer which was great. You could follow the trainer’s instructions on a virtual board on your computer. It was interactive and participants could talk to the trainer. The training was followed by a quiz and a test.It was like attending a virtual face-to -face session.

I attended one which was online and I was on headphones. But it was a wholly recorded voice that explained the various modules as you progressed through the lessons. There was set time frame and you had to complete the course and answer a test within that time frame .The test was funny .It was not really a test because one could consult the notes while answering the questions .There was enough time to do that. So I got most of the answers right. With my poor memory I forgot most of the learning within a week. Now if I have to remember the lessons I have to go back to my cut and pasted notes once again.

I attended another which was the simplest because it was designed in such a manner that nobody could fail the test. I guess it was more to do with reinforcing a concept than testing your knowledge. But I know one colleague of mine who never got through even after trying several times. I think he was bored with the topic and did not pay attention .

The toughest one I attended was a full fledged course which had to be completed within two years. The assignments had to be completed online which you could do from home .But the final eight papers had to be taken at an external computer training centre. I had to struggle literally. It was a sponsored course and I had no choice but to take it and submit my completion certificate to the HR department. It was a real pain. If you have ever attempted to take  online examinations you will know their difference from regular ones .You need to be techno savvy to handle such exams. Otherwise one wrong click could result in non-completion of  a paper and thereby you could be marked fail on your progress card. I had to prepare well .You could not quit in between. You were allowed couple of attempts within the course fees thereafter you had to pay additional charges per module. I had a problem with one paper when I tried to quit in-between .The system would not allow me to do so. The interesting part was being graded instantly at the end of the session.Everytime I waited with bated breath after answering the last question as if my life depended on it. The pass mark was pretty high and if you had answered a portion of your paper on guess work then the wait could be nerve-wrecking.

Well I know there are scores of online modules coming up daily on the organisations learning and development portal. The short ones are quite interesting and useful if directly related to your work .I think for employees of all age groups it needs real determination and enduring patience to attempt any kind of course online or otherwise. The average employee is so bogged down with work pressures that unless compelled to do so he/she would prefer being left alone.