The classroom is dead! Many of us thought it, many were even shouting it from the rooftops, but it simply isn’t true.
Despite a major focus by organizations on technology in recent years as the way forward for corporate training, research is telling us that classroom training is very much alive and well.
In 2014, as part of a research initiative to determine what blended learning would look like in 2015, Interactive Services obtained some very interesting data on classroom training through a qualitative survey of senior learning executives in the US and Europe.
Below are some of our key findings in relation to classroom training.
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Classroom is a good use of time and budget
80% of the learning professionals who responded to our survey confirmed that they believe classroom training to be money well spent. It is quite clear that learning executives believe training in the classroom to be highly effective. Many believe, however, that in the majority of cases going forward, classroom training will be more effective when blended with other forms of training, such as eLearning, mobile learning, or social learning.
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Cost is the biggest barrier
The majority of learning executives (65%) believe there are no real issues that prevent their organizations from deploying classroom training. 25% confirmed that cost is their primary obstacle from developing and deploying classroom training, while the remaining 10% of responses on obstacles that inhibit classroom training from taking place were divided evenly between the following:
- Time to deploy training
- Technology
- Insufficient evidence of impact/ROI
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Overall verdict – Classroom training performs well!
86% of survey respondents believe that overall, classroom training performs well. Interestingly, many believe this regardless of whether their organizations have specific measures in place to track ROI from training. The majority of learning executives felt that classroom training has a significant impact on how quickly new employees adjust to their roles and how well departments perform across the organization.
Technology most certainly has its place in the future of corporate training programs. With mobile and social in particular being adopted by large organizations to support workplace initiatives, we are going to see more of these in blended solutions for workplace training going forward.
But based on our research, classroom training is still a very popular and viable method of developing skills and improving employee performance. The nature of classroom training may change as we integrate technology to enhance the learning experience, but it is likely that the classroom itself will always be around.
Would you like to find out more about the Classroom and other methods of training?