E-learning or online education has becoming quite popular in the corporate world, as more and more companies now offer online courses to train employees.

Despite the popularity, employees are often skeptical of the approach. They feel traditional methods of learning offer a one-on-one experience and can help grasp concepts better.

If you are trying to find the best training program for employees in the human resources department, we discuss some of the pros and cons of both learning methods:

Online Learning

Online training programs reduce the overall training cost for HR employees. The method involves the use of multimedia such as graphics, audio and video, to train new recruits or employees.

The online courses are specifically developed to help HR professionals with talent acquisition, relationship management, or communication.

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Pros

Online courses are more accessible to the workforce – which induces better understanding – on a topic. Unlike traditional methods, online courses can be accessed anytime and anywhere.

Online training material can also be customized to make sure only the relevant topics are covered in a session. Maybe the HR professionals at a company want to learn about evaluation of new employees or they want to improve the inter-department communication.

With online courses, managers can make sure that the skills and concepts taught in an online class are exactly what your employees need to learn.

It also allows more flexibility in terms of easy access and operates on a non-rigid schedule for continued learning.

Cons

The biggest drawback of online training is that the employees are often not able to engage in a dialogue with the trainer.

It also requires more motivation on part of the employees to complete assignments and go over the training material for effective learning.

Traditional Education

Traditional education methods have not lost the battle to online education as they are still more meaningful to many.

An overwhelming number of companies still believe traditional learning methods are more effective to train employees. It involves a trainer – who conducts the sessions – in an orthodox classroom setting.