Advancements in technology have pigeon-holed us into becoming a virtual society- for better or for worse.  For the most part, we have embraced these changes.  We will gladly email our colleagues rather than walk to their desk.  We love the money we save on hosting virtual meetings rather than flying our partners in for an in-person conference.  We’ll announce our new relationships and important events in our lives via a Facebook update instead of calling everyone ourselves.  Oh yes, we have gladly and willingly conformed to our virtual worlds of talking, loving, hating, bragging, mourning, buying, and selling through a computer screen.
One area of the virtual world where the jury is still out is learning.  While there are certainly benefits of virtual learning and training, there are many people that believe that computer training simply cannot take the place of the attentiveness of an on-site trainer.  How can you read a trainee’s face when they’re “just not getting it?”  How can you elaborate when more explanations are needed?

However, advancements in virtual training have began to chip away at these questions, making the pro’s of virtual training sound rather appealing compared to traditional methods.  Trainees have the convenience of learning whenever and wherever is best for them.  They are able to watch things they don’t understand more than once for repetition and clarity, and have the privacy of doing this without having to ask a trainer to repeat content again and again. And on the employer side of things, virtual training can save a ton of money that would otherwise be spent on countless hours of in-person training.

Below is a video that explores the potential of virtual training.  Have you employed virtual training in your workplace? Do you find it better or worse than in-person training?