HOW TO PILOT WEB-BASED TRAINING

Web-based training can cut costs, deliver training consistently, and p rovide global access to learners. But before you catapult headlong int o WET, it's best to conduct a pilot. Driscoll, a technology instructor , tells how to go about piloting this online learning solution. Web-ba sed training is a complicated computer technology that requires input from many areas of the organization, such as management information sy stems, business unit managers, line managers in field offices, and, of course, the learners. Web-based training has high fixed costs-another reason to conduct a pilot. If you're going to invest a lot of money i n this approach, you should ensure that it will be successful. WET req uires resources for learning new software, for purchasing hardware, an d for enhancing the network infrastructure to handle additional traffi c. Driscoll describes 12 steps for conducting a pilot, cautioning that no two companies will have the same needs or expectations. They are c larifying the pilot's purpose, enlisting high-level support, forming a core team, creating evaluation criteria, developing a data-gathering plan, matching technology and the topic, deciding whether to go with o ff-the-shelf or in-house development, preparing for rollout, conductin g a dry run, delivering the program, and getting feedback. The last st ep is to summarize the experience and make recommendations.Driscoll co ncludes with the prediction that online learning is surely to become a n essential competency of training pros in the near future.