On Day 6 of the 31 Day Challenge to Improve Your IWMS Implementation you have already defined the training needs for your IWMS organization. However, today you are going to follow / register for an online training session.
Today’s teaching
Training is absolutely necessary to acquire useful knowledge about the industry that we are in. As I have written on more than one occasion, I try to know as much as I can about everything that is going on in the IWMS / CAFM arena.
There are lots of techniques to acquire this knowledge. In yesterday’s post I explained the usage of social media to your advantage. Today however, you are going to focus on both online (webinars) and offline (on-site training courses) training sessions.
Online Training Sessions
Online education (virtual education), refers to instruction in a learning environment where teacher and student are separated by time or space, or both, and the teacher provides course content through course management applications, multimedia resources, the Internet, videoconferencing, etc. Students receive the content and communicate with the teacher via the same technologies. (Source: Wikipedia)
Internet plays a significant role in everything knowledge workers do, and this role is becoming increasingly dominant. Certainly in the last 5 years internet development has leaped immensely. The rise of social media is a great example of the increasing influence of Internet on business life.
Virtual is becoming the norm for most business processes. Instead of buildings of bricks and mortar, we have virtual buildings. Instead of real friends, we have online relations. Instead of the bookstore, we have Amazon. The virtual world is having a tighter grip on the real world now more than ever before. Education is no exception to this as there are quite a few benefits to it.
Benefits of Online Education
Stephanie Coleman has published a wonderful list of 15 Benefits of Online Learning on WorldWideLearn.com.
1. Anytime, Anywhere
Students can “attend” a course at anytime, from anywhere. This means that parents can attend to their children, then sit down to class; working students can attend classes no matter what their work schedule might be, folks that travel for business or pleasure can attend class from anywhere in the world that has internet access.
2. Student-Centered
Online learning enables student-centered teaching approaches. Every student has their own way of learning that works best for them. Some learn visually others do better when they “learn by doing.”
3. Accessibility
Course material is accessible 24 hours a day 7 days a week. Students have the ability to read and re read lectures, discussions, explanations and comments. Often spoken material in the classroom passes students by due to a number of distractions, missed classes, tiredness or boredom.
4. Student Interaction
In an online environment, attendance to class is only evident if the student actually participates in classroom discussion. This increases student interaction and the diversity of opinion, because everyone gets a say, not just the most talkative.
5. Knowledge
Online instructors come with practical knowledge and may be from any location across the globe. This allows students to be exposed to knowledge that can’t be learned in books and see how class concepts are applied in real business situations.
6. Technology Skills
Using the Internet to attend class, research information and communication with other students teaches skills in using technologies that will be critical to workers in the 21st century business community that works with colleagues globally and across time zones.
7. Intimidation
Participating online is much less intimidating than “in the classroom.” Anonymity provides students a level playing field undisturbed by bias caused by seating arrangement, gender, race and age. Students can also think longer about what they want to say and add their comments when ready. In a traditional class room, the conversation could have gone way past the point where the student wants to comment.
8. Increased bonding and camaraderie
Because online institutions often offer “chat rooms” for informal conversation between students, where student bios and non class discussions can take place, there appears to be a increased bonding and camaraderie over traditional class environments.
9. Approachability
The online environment makes instructors more approachable. Students can talk openly with their teachers through online chats, email and in newsgroup discussions, without waiting for office hours that may not be convenient. This option for communication provides enhanced contact between instructors and students.
10. Spectrum of content
Online course development allows for a broad spectrum of content. Students can access the school’s library from their PC’s for research articles, eBook content and other material without worries that the material is already “checked out.”
11. Contribution
Students often feel that they can actually listen to the comments made by other students. Because everyone gets a chance to contribute, students are less irritated with those that “over contribute” and can ask for clarification of any comments that are unclear.
12. Degrees
Over 75% of colleges and universities in the U.S. offer online degree programs, with online degrees as respected as “on the ground” degrees. (Lewis)
13. Team Learning
Online classrooms also facilitate team learning by providing chat rooms and newsgroups for meetings and joint work. This eliminates the problems of mismatched schedules, finding a meeting location and distributing work for review between meetings.
14. Attendance
Students often comment that online learning lets them attend class when fully awake and attend in increments of convenient time block, rather than rigid 2 or 4 hour stretches once or twice a week.
15. Diversity
Because there are no geographic barriers to online learning, students can find diversity of course material that may not be available to them where they live or work. This is especially true for professional training such as medical billing training or purchasing training and for students in remote rural areas that cannot support college or vocational training centers.
Although not all points are relevant for Integrated Workplace Management Systems, they give insight about why online training can be important for you as well.
Most IWMS vendors provide online training programs to help you as an end user or project manager with the application. In addition to that, they also provide certifications and exams in certain areas.
Today’s task
To benefit from online training sessions you are going to register to an online training session / course. You need to check the availability of online courses with your vendor. In most cases your IWMS vendor will provide this kind of training.
Good luck!
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