Feature \ National Conference — technology-based training
Courses of action
On-line training cannot become truly effective until traditional teaching methods are abandoned, argues Roger Schank. He proposes a ‘goal-based scenario’ approach, to exploit the medium’s capacity to provide learning through doing.
Organisations everywhere are scrambling to get into technology-based training. They see computers, multimedia and the Internet as vital to this enterprise, but have missed the point about what these tools can add to education.
The type of learning that such web-based training initiatives will provide is a cause for concern. There is a danger that it will be the same old stuff as in the past, only this time without the classroom, the trainer or the junkets, which allow time on the golf course with fellow trainees.
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Designed for trainers by trainers, The ITS Suite, which incorporates ITS Designer, ITS Playback, ITS Manager and other ancillary applications, is part of wider advances in the PC-based approach to professional training. Traditional methods have focused on the lecture, whereby the trainer instructs, and the trainee observes. PC-based courses, aided by their multi-media formats, provide trainees with a more active and hands-on approach to training, which is based on trial and error. They are encouraged to interact with the Training Course by answering questions, typing relevant information, and clicking appropriate buttons.
Unlike traditional training courses, those run with ITS Playback are non-linear. This means that, although trainees can progress through a course in a sequential fashion, there is the scope for viewing topics as and when desired, whether it is to recap on a specific topic, or to repeat a task. Such flexibility allows the training material to be used, not only as a course of study, but also as a Help tool, to aid a practising user through a particular aspect of a task, while on the job.
Read what 'Management Today' and 'People Management' have to say about computer-based training. Even if you are already using this method, they may make you wonder whether you are getting the best from it.
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