In-Person Training vs Online Training
A business is only as good as its employees. Not only due to the unique skills and experience that each employee brings, but also due to individual productivity and engagement levels that affect the quality and quantity of the work they do.
One key factor that impacts engagement and employee satisfaction is learning and development. Now, as a management training consultant specializing in the training of managers, I am a bit biased, but the stats (and Gallup, especially) tell us year after year that one key driver of employee engagement is an investment in their development.
By equipping folks with the tools and strategies they need to do their jobs well, a company reaps several benefits: a stronger internal pipeline, better-equipped managers, more confident and skilled employees, less friction and communication challenges, lower turnover rates, and so much more.
Yet, the entire learning and development landscape has undergone significant shifts these past few years and the impact on employees is evident.
Training and development are at the core of an organization's success. In this era of rapid technological change and evolving workforce dynamics, the old ways of training simply don't cut it. The landscape is in constant flux and staying relevant means adapting to these shifts. In the past, training might have meant hours of classroom lectures and dusty old manuals. But today, no one is going to willingly sit through that and it's now all about remote flexibility, microlearning, staying agile and embracing new methods.
The rise of online learning has been nothing short of revolutionary (take it from me and the rising success of my Manager Boot Camp Course!). Online learning has the power of accessibility AND convenience. You can access training materials from your cozy couch or a café in Timbuktu. No more geographical boundaries holding you back.
Plus, you get to set the pace – learn at your own speed, whether it's during lunch breaks or midnight snacks. It has democratized education, making it accessible to people around the world. Whether you're a working professional looking to upskill, a stay-at-home parent seeking career advancement, or a curious learner exploring a new hobby, online courses have opened doors that were previously locked. The flexibility it offers is a game-changer, allowing learners to balance their training with work, family, and other commitments.
If you combine remote and hybrid work with the rise in resignations and subsequent workload overwhelm, employees and employers alike are scrambling to find the right balance between training opportunities and the work that needs to be done.
UNDERSTANDING TRAINING FORMATS
Variety abounds when it comes to the types of development a company can offer: in-person training, mentor programs, task or job rotations, ongoing leadership coaching, online training and virtual leadership training to name a few.
The two that are near and dear to my heart are in-person training and online training. I do a substantial amount of both and love and prefer each one for different reasons at different times. Plus, within the current hybrid work environment, the choice between in-person training and online learning – when to do which one, and the benefits of one versus the other – is at the forefront of almost every HR professional’s mind.
In-Person Training
Traditionally, in-person training gathers participants in the same room at the same time. Think pre-pandemic. It’s instructor-led and provides face-to-face interaction often with the opportunity for participants to share and discuss what they are learning. The benefits of being in-person go beyond the topic at hand and can be a way to connect teams who otherwise might not be spending quality in-person time together.
In-person is just that. Gathering a cohort of employees into a common room to participate in an interactive learning session. Most everyone knows how being “in the room” feels when it comes to a training experience. There’s a socialness and liveliness that adds energy to the room dynamic.
Depending on the skill of the trainer, their energy and enthusiasm help keep attendees engaged in what they are learning and interacting with the content being presented. Some of my best career moments happened in a live training!
There's something magical about physically being in a room with an instructor and fellow learners. In fields where hands-on experience is paramount, like surgery or automotive repair, there's no replacement for the real thing. The ability to touch, feel, and manipulate equipment under expert guidance is an invaluable part of the learning journey. The value of hands-on learning is immeasurable.
Consider the medical field. Would you trust a surgeon who learned everything from online courses? Probably not. In careers where lives are at stake, like surgery or emergency medicine, there's no substitute for in-person training. Similarly, in technical fields such as aerospace engineering or nuclear physics, the complexity of the subject matter demands hands-on, in-person instruction.
In-person training does come with its own set of challenges. Imagine you're in a room with a diverse group of learners. Some are like sponges, absorbing every nugget of knowledge effortlessly, while others need a bit more time to digest the information. As a trainer, catering to these varied learning styles and paces can be like trying to conduct a symphony with a mix of seasoned musicians and first-time players. Not everyone learns in the same mode and some may not thrive in a live, in-person atmosphere.
Online Training
In contrast, online training is often more cost-effective and offers flexibility in terms of time and schedule for those participating. Online training addresses a lot of the hybrid work challenges of employees being scattered across locations and time zones. Additionally, online training has the potential to cover more topics in a shorter amount of time since most physical logistics are removed.
Online learning is all about freedom. It liberates you from the constraints of time and place. You're not bound by rigid schedules or classroom walls. You can log in and learn in your pajamas if you want! Plus, the ability to review materials as many times as you need ensures that you truly grasp the concepts. And guess what? You can revisit those materials as much as you like. It's like having your personal tutor on call 24/7.
One of the biggest advantages of online training is the flexibility it offers in scheduling. In-person training often requires participants to align their calendars with set class times, factor in drive time if necessary, and commit to leaving their desks for extended periods of time which can be challenging for working professionals with busy calendars. Online training relieves learners from these scheduling constraints, gives them flexibility, and oftentimes allows them to choose when to engage with the material.
Online classes do offer convenience, but they can lack the warmth of in-person interactions. When you're behind a screen, you miss out on the subtle cues that come from being in the same physical space as your instructor and fellow learners. The immediacy of having your questions answered in person can also be a significant benefit of traditional training.
Since the pandemic hit, online learning of both types has skyrocketed. Employers needed something flexible, immediate, and digital, and employees were obviously at home on computers. Online options were the perfect choice for a solid two years.
Online training, for me, has two aspects to it. First, there’s 100% online, which is something like my Manager Boot Camp program which delivers 23 pre-recorded micro-lessons via an online platform. Second, there’s live online training, which is instructor-led content typically delivered via Zoom or Microsoft Teams.
I’ve been training online since 2016 and despite thriving on my in-person training bookings, I also really love the immediacy of being online and, especially, cherish the time saved by not having to commute (drive or fly) to conduct a client session.
Here is a closer look at the advantages and challenges between online and in-person learning.
BENEFITS AND CONSIDERATIONS OF IN-PERSON TRAINING
Hands on and Interactive
Face-to-face learning also offers people the opportunity to ask questions and get immediate answers, have an organic conversation around the management training topic at hand, and build connections within the training space. Talking to another person face-to-face usually provides greater clarity and understanding, which boosts learning retention.
Social Interaction
In-person training offers a sense of togetherness and social intimacy, a critical ingredient for teams in a remote and hybrid world. Employees can have side conversations, participate in a bit of team building, and get to know one another outside of the day-to-day work. Plus, there's an emotional connection between participants and the facilitator that is much harder to replicate online.
Attention and Focus
In a physical training room, there are typically a variety of tools used to capture employees’’ attention and focus. The instructor is there, maybe a whiteboard or flip charts, physical workbooks, interactive tools such as discussion, and more. All these training tools make it easier to capture attention and promote a focus on the content.
The more employees touch, see, hear, and interact with a training, the higher their retention and ultimate application can be.
Planning and Execution Time
In-person learning may require higher levels of planning, coordination, and execution than an online offering might. This becomes especially true when topics repeat over time. Whether a company taps into external training consultants (folks like me) or uses their internal HR or L&D teams, there’s a level of time and resources that tends to be high.
Potential for Information Overload
It’s been a hot minute since we could gather groups of employees in a training room. Our familiarity with being online means we may have grown less tolerant for longer, in-person meetups.
This can make full-day or multi-day training sessions quite a challenge. Information overload can lead to poor retention and a lack of enthusiasm to continue learning.
Encourages Team-Building
In-person training isn't just about learning; it's about bonding too. It’s like a social gathering with a side of learning. When you're physically present in a classroom or workshop, you get to meet your fellow learners in the flesh. You exchange ideas, share experiences, and build connections that often extend beyond the training room. This camaraderie can lead to stronger teamwork and collaboration in your workplace.
BENEFITS AND CONSIDERATIONS OF ONLINE LEARNING
Accessible Anywhere, Anytime
With a computer and WiFi, online options abound. Employees can participate in training right in the comfort (and convenience) of their home office or other remote location. Because of its easily accessible nature, online learning options actually result in more learning.
Cost-Effective
Adding up the money saved by utilizing online training can be staggering. Every hour an employee is traveling to, participating in, and returning from a training event adds up. Not to mention the fees associated with booking a trainer, an off-site location if necessary, food and beverages, and other event-related expenses.
Online training can also reach a wider (physically disparate) audience and, when recorded, the material can be reused time and again.
Flexible
Online training is often an excellent option for individuals that work remotely or have responsibilities that make it difficult for them to attend in-person training seminars. Even if the course is somewhat structured, the employee can finish work according to their time frame.
Not to mention, with the busyness and workload levels of most companies, especially in light of The Great Resignation, delivering succinct and targeted lessons without overwhelming a person’s workday is a huge benefit
Distractions to Facilitation
Keeping employees engaged in a virtual leadership learning environment can be difficult. In a hybrid world, learners are challenged by at-home distractions, lack of social interaction, computer notifications, multitasking, and more. We may diminish or lose the energy of a live facilitator if a course is conducted even partly online.
Less Accountability
Being assigned an online course to take may feel isolating. Being able to hold employees accountable for their participation may prove tough. Online learning may get lost in a sea of daily to-dos and compete with other work priorities. Companies will need to strategize a clear way to hold employees accountable for their participation, engagement, and completion.
THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS - BLENDED LEARNING and VIRTUAL CLASSROOMS
I’m finding there may be a happy medium when it comes to training. Blended learning is a solution for folks who want to tap into the benefits of both styles of training without compromising one over the other.
The idea of blended learning is simple: companies use both online and instructor-led training in their employee development efforts. The proportion of both can vary greatly; it might be 90% online combined with cadenced in-person trainings. Or it could be once-a-week instructor-led sessions coupled with a digital course.
My own Manager Boot Camp is a 100% online program where I offer supplemental live, facilitated roundtables – these can be done online or in-person training – which adds a more immersive, blended learning aspect.
Less Resource Intensive
Blended learning can help a company balance and potentially reduce the resources involved with creating and executing development programs: upfront time, training time, labor costs to plan and participate, and instructor, technology, and facility budgets.
Appeals to Different Learning Styles
Employees learn in different ways. Some are visual, some are auditory, some like to think concepts through, while others like to discuss. Blended learning allows companies to add variety to training methods to better accommodate the variances between employee learning preferences.
Higher Participant Ratings
In one study, Reavley et al. (2018) looked at blended learning and 100% online options and found that members of the blended learning course were more likely to highly rate the course in terms of its usefulness, the amount learned, and their intention to recommend the course to others
Let's not forget that learners have a new normal that involves being remote, too. And most of them want to self-pace their learning in their spare time at work. Also, employees who are more satisfied with what they are being offered and feel that they're more useful and applicable are more likely to engage with their training – which is the whole goal, isn’t it?
Online training unfortunately has a few pitfalls whether it be self-paced or instructor-led.
First, let’s look at self-paced online training and the few disadvantages that stand out. To begin, the lack of social interaction can minimize the training’s impact on the individual. Without the questions and comments from others, the session lacks the extra boost that other participants can provide. So, in a sense, the training is not customized whether by diving deeper into an area or clarifying a key point as it progresses as can happen in an instructor-led session.
Also, as we all know all too well, distractions play a key role when working alone. Solo learners can often multitask leading to decreased focus and reduced learning.
With instructor-led online training, the instructor can bring all the benefits of face-to-face learning to the remote classroom but with some limitations. Using online video tools such as zoom, while effective for interaction, can often fall prey to participation issues when participants’ cameras and mics are off. How does an instructor know the learners are really there?
Learners’ questions can be answered and courses can be slightly customized as is done in a live classroom but only if the participants chat, raise their hands, or speak up to the instructor. And in any remote learning, distraction is always a huge issue since there is little control over where the participant chooses to be when they are logged in.
EVALUATING TRAINING FORMATS
It's important to carefully evaluate the pros and cons before making a decision that will affect a person's training and ultimately, career. Your business will need to determine what works best for their employees' schedules, learning needs, and your overall financial situation.
Is online learning as good as face-to-face learning? Do I dare say it can be? But truly, the real answer is “It depends”.
Research shows that instructor-led training is best when training involves physical skills. When learning face-to-face, learning is more fluid by allowing social interactions, reducing opportunities for multitasking, and providing better hands-on learning, retention, and perceived satisfaction with the training.
Online learning deserves its day in the spotlight when it has a micro-learning approach. When the material can be delivered in bite sizes, it has been shown to have higher completion rates. Likewise, the ability to review the material online multiple times benefits the learner by allowing a refresher whenever they need it.
It's essential to recognize that there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach to training. You're not limited to just online or in-person. There's a smorgasbord of training methods to choose from, each with its unique strengths. The smart move is to pick and choose, creating a training cocktail that matches your specific needs and objectives. Sometimes, blending online and in-person elements can be the recipe for success.
MAKING A DECISION
There you have it. There's no one-size-fits-all, definite answer to whether in-person training or online training is better. Personally, I love conducting both for entirely different reasons. By combining the two and doing some level of blending learning, you get the benefits of each of them while impacting the skills and growth of your team – who doesn’t want that?
About The Author
For the past two decades, Cecilia Gorman has helped advertising agencies and other creatively-minded companies fix costly communication and productivity issues by teaching managers how to become better connectors, motivators, and leaders. Cecilia is the author of Always Believe In Better, creator of the digital learning course for managers—Manager Boot Camp, and co-founder of the global training and support community for working women—Empowership.
Interested in growing your skills as a manager? Check out how Manager Boot Camp might help.