Should all training be digital?

The lame old training folder

How many of you have gone to training workshops and classes and received a huge training folder, never to be seen again? I found mine from an old workshop I attended and thought of using it as a door stopper - no, really I did. As a training professional I too have been a victim of developing these kinds of folders and passing them around. I convinced myself that the learners/users will have something to take back to their desk a tangible asset of the time they spent in training. In reality this is never used. 

Note - This essay is not about creating online training but the focus is on distribution of training documentation. 

The most effective way of providing information in today's world is by putting those materials online. It could be your company's Sharepoint site, Shared drive or an online training platform like an LMS (Learning management System). This way you can keep the documents updated and have it accessible to the users as and when they need it. Of course, you can say that everyone has a different style of learning. Some like paper in their hand when they are learning. In that case when you put documents online you give your user the choice to review the material through a digital format or to print it out as they see fit. 

You are also saving a few trees in the process. Jokes aside this is the most efficient way to maintain your documents and to keep version controls. In companies where information is getting updated every so often it is important to make sure your users have the latest information. So let's review some benefits of not creating training folders but rather adding information online:

• Accessibility
• Ease of use
• Version control
• Tracking
• No wastage of paper

Powerpoint presentations sometimes require print outs so that users can make notes on each slide as they move through the presentation. This is helpful but definitely is not a must have. In workshops where they don't provide powerpoint print outs users end up making notes in their own note pads. 

Exceptions are always there. If you as a trainer or facilitator and have come across a situation where you think a print out was better than having that information online then you should share.

Leveraging Social Media for Work

I am a believer in Social Media. I use our run of the mill sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn almost on daily basis. I get up with a device (smart phone)  in my hand to see the updates of the day and sometimes when I am trying to put my son to sleep I sneak in the updates with my smart phone at night too. Okay, I admit I check my social media updates every night before I go to bed.

In the early years of online community forums such groups communicated via email. Yahoo groups for instance was huge and still is being used worldwide for sending information on When is the next group meeting? What can we do at our next event? Things like this. Once you become part of the group you would start getting emails and you could choose to reply or just be a silent observer. A great tool but didn't feel real time and sometimes the discussion got lost in too many emails. As a training professional and an individual who is always interested in learning an email just didnt do it.

For the past year the idea of using Social media at work has garnered more strength. For companies like Google and Salesforce this is a given but in the semi conductor industry things were catching up. Some companies did better than others. These social sites were special. These social media or platforms were specially built or customized for companies. As companies want to make sure that employee comments and inputs are not seen by the world. They are only meant for internal eyes only. This also helps to foster trust and openness to create internal communities with similar likes or interests inside the company. These could be work related or could just be some fun activities. A platform for spreading ideas. Does this also help in learning?

I am currently using Salesforce Chatter to announce various training events at work.  This becomes a great way to get comments and feedback real time. For instance when a training is announced and if someone is traveling or for some reason cannot attend it they just reply to the post by saying 'Where can I find the reference material or the recording?' This way whatever our reply is to that person the entire teams has visibility. The communication messages and information become visible is to a larger audience. Plus it is there when you need it. The other advantage of using a medium like this is that is functions based on your behavior. If you are a person who is too busy to actually login to the platform to see what is latest you can set up email triggers to be sent in your inbox. This way when you come to work and read your emails you can also see what is going on in the Chatter (Social Media) space. It is also a great platform for sharing pictures and ongoing stories. We have global events and our teams add their pictures of the work events and notes to share with all. This truly has a community feel and fosters stronger work culture. Till now learning about the company and the work culture through Social media has been the best experience.

I am not signing off with this post but rather will continue to write about my experience using Social media for learning.