The async vs. live training debate

In some spaces, there’s a perception that async training (aka “e-learning”) is widely used because it’s cheap and scalable, but if employers really cared about employee learning, they would invest in live training. 

You might think that we agree, since Electives is dedicated to bringing impactful live learning to employees. But we’re more interested in a slightly different conversation: which tool is better suited to help people learn a particular skill? 

We’ve found that, while async training can be uniquely valuable for developing technical skills or building “muscle memory” for repeated tasks, live training is often more effective and efficient for the development of so-called “soft skills.”

Do you want new employees to learn to use your CRM software? With async training, you can build a virtual simulation that lets employees explore safely, complete with hints, immediate feedback and the ability to rewind and retry exactly as many times as they need (at their own pace, with subtitles) until they get it right. These features are valuable for this type of skill-building and are difficult to provide in a live training setting.

On the other hand: do you want people managers to provide better feedback? Do you want employees to confidently interrupt microaggressions? Do you want employees to gain self-awareness, self-management and social awareness; to build stronger relationships and evaluate the impact of their decisions on others? These so-called “soft skills” are crucial for ensuring your employees are working together effectively to drive innovation and accomplish big, audacious goals.

That’s why live training is the tool you need for social and emotional learning. As children and as adults, we learn social skills by interacting with others. Getting live feedback from another person about their experience, seeing their facial expressions and hearing their voice, and creating genuine and fulfilling connections with those around us — well, we need people to be together to make that magic happen. 

At Electives, we understand that learners are better equipped to succeed when we use the right tools for the right objectives, and we work with clients every day to make those decisions easy.

When to use async vs. live training

Given all the things your employees need to learn, how do you decide what to cover with live classes and what to address using async content (videos, articles, etc.)? Here’s our cheat sheet:

Async

Async training can be uniquely valuable for developing technical skills or building “muscle memory” for repeated tasks (such as training new hires to use your CRM software), because async training can offer:

• Advanced accessibility features (translation, playback speed, font size)
• Learner control of speed and repetition (pause, rewind)
• Software simulations
• Delivering identical information at scale

Live

Live training is often more effective and efficient for social and emotional learning, so if you need your managers to give better feedback or need employees to confidently interrupt microaggressions, live training has enormous practical benefits, such as:

• Learning about the experiences of other people
• Receiving immediate verbal and non-verbal feedback from others
• Practicing relational skills in a realistic setting
• Feeling connected to other people

When in doubt, ask yourself: which tool is better suited to help people learn this particular skill? By thinking about the learners and what they need, we’re more likely to deliver impactful learning experiences.

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