Online Training, Advantages, And Disadvantages

Is online training an alternative to traditional training? Does it serve to improve our CV?

Online Training In Numbers

Online training has not ceased to increase in recent years. Although its extension does not reach the percentages that we can find in other countries such as the United States, England, the truth is that the entire training offer for all Spanish-speaking countries already accounts for approximately 20% of the total, according to studies of international companies in the sector.

These studies also foresee that by 2020 online training will be the predominant method, leaving compulsory education aside and affecting official university studies to a lesser extent… Although both educational fields tend more and more towards mixed models, face-to-face teaching is combined with online activities, and even in postgraduate university courses such as master’s, the predominance of ‘tele-training’ is becoming more and more prevalent.

However, not all courses can be replaced by online training, as the Ormco company attests. For example, this manufacturer specializing in innovative products in orthodontics conducts face-to-face courses in various cities around the world whose mission is to teach patients specialists in orthodontics the correct use of their products. Being an essentially practical discipline with a high technical component, its courses, in general, must be done in person for the explanation to be completely correct. This situation is found in practically the entire healthcare sector or that related to engineering and architecture.

Background And New References

However, as is well known, distance learning in Spain at the highest educational levels already had a history before the emergence of the Internet, with the National Distance Education University (UNED) having existed as far back as 1972. One educational institution that has seen its training possibilities multiplied exponentially with the rapid development of New Technologies. Since 2009, there has also been a private university whose training activity is carried out exclusively in a non-face-to-face way. 

Training Courses

But even considering all this, in any case, today, the most palpable extension of the online methodology can be found in the training courses, the completion of which is important to acquire knowledge about specific aspects that may be in demand in the market.

Employment, thus enriching the CV and thus increasing the possibilities of hiring. Without leaving aside the importance of the training offer of courses aimed at workers, within a concept already fully extended in companies that emphasizes the essential nature of continuous training.

Advantages Of Online Training

The truth is that whether it is the teaching of Vocational Training modules, university degrees or postgraduate degrees, or training courses for students, unemployed, or workers, the indisputable fact is that online training has a wide range of advantages over face-to-face models.

However, it is also possible to distinguish between a university degree or postgraduate degree and training courses since many of the latter incorporate self-correction, self-evaluation, and automated tutorials that allow the completion of the course self-sufficient. Thus, in this way, the offer of places can be infinite, as is already the case with many online courses offered by the employment and training services of the regional administrations.

The second advantage of online training is that it is also cheaper due to the savings in infrastructure and equipment. The student finds it more affordable to carry it out while taking the courses from home also saves on topics such as transport. Greater offer of places and lower prices, to which are also added the advantages derived from flexibility, since there is no established schedule, the course can be adapted to particular time conveniences, thus combining with other tasks whether they are training, work or domestic.

The Drawbacks

But as can be assumed, not everything in online training is idyllic. Without the need for poor quality or directly fraudulent proposals, the truth is that, to begin with, the drop-out rate in non-face-to-face courses is ostensibly higher than the conventional ones. At the same time, the suitability of having ‘feedback’ in the learning processes between the teacher and the students and between them cannot be ignored, something for which it is important to share a classroom.

In addition, face-to-face teaching also carries a socialization component, which is particularly recommended for certain groups such as adolescents, this case by age, or the unemployed. Interacting with other people in the same situation also carries many psychological benefits.

Online Training In The CV

It is not necessary to insist on the need, and more so in situations like the current ones, on the need to have a CV as complete as possible, taking into account, as is also well known, the recruiters of companies when hiring an unemployed person if he is active in training to increase his potential employment benefits.

In this sense, online courses can be an affordable way to enrich our curriculum, putting more arguments in our favor on the balance. However, some prejudices about them still have to be faced, which are increasingly diminishing, yes, since it is a format that is taking root more and more strongly.

Also Read: Can Online Training On The Internet Replace A Face-To-Face Course?