This blog post will be of most interest to training managers and others who are involved in making decisions about the types of training their teams or organizations will deliver.

Video conference apps like Zoom and Microsoft Teams have been incredibly helpful during the pandemic. They have made it possible to deliver training when face-to-face contact was impossible. But my lifetime as a trainer and coach informs me that they are not as effective as the traditional medium. And it concerns me that some organizations are talking about continuing with online delivery of training after the pandemic is over. Sure, it is less expensive since neither trainer nor participants have to travel, stay in a hotel and eat meals that are reimbursed by the organization.

But let’s explore the drawbacks of online instruction.

The dynamic of a learning circle (a group of people gathered together with the common purpose of developing enhanced competence in a specific topic) in which knowledge sharing takes places not only one-way from trainer to participants but between participants with different experiences requires proximity and natural interaction as well as opportunities for informal communication during breaks and meals. Participants do not get to know one another in online training.
Some participants may disengage from the training to handle what they perceive to be more urgent matters which in fact are less important in the long run. They may temporarily turn off their camera and audio and use phones or tablets to check emails and other sources of daily business while the trainer is unaware.
The trainer cannot control the environment of the participants. Distractions from family members, pets, delivery drivers, gardeners and countless others may break the flow of ideas coming to a participant.
We may be in a world where people get used to watching films on their televisions that were intended for the big screen. But the demand for tickets to live performances of theater and music show that the impact they have is profoundly greater. Similarly, a live training experience has a far greater impact than one coming on a computer screen, especially when we consider that many training programs seek not just to convey information but to effect behavioral change.

My remarks also go for one-to-one coaching. I have done it online and of course face-to-face. The speed with which honesty, trust and openness develop in a face-to-face environment compared to online is amazing.

I recognize that there will always be times when online training is the only good option, for example when participants are so geographically diverse that bringing them together would be cost-prohibitive or for rolling out procedural changes of a purely factual nature. But I hope we will see a return to primarily face-to-face training as soon as our COVID-19 situation allows.

Now that you have heard my opinion, I think it only fair to offer other viewpoints. Here is an article you might find interesting: https://www.continu.co/blog/in-person-vs-online-training

You will have noticed that the end of that article speaks glowingly about blended learning. I like that method very much as a compromise.

- Herb