In recent years, there has been a major change in the world of work, which has been encouraged not least by some external pressure from the coronavirus pandemic. Many work options that are commonplace today were almost unthinkable a few years ago. There are employment contracts that allow employees to work from home several days a week. Video conferencing tools allow us to hold decentralized conferences. And with the help of all kinds of collaboration software, we can work on something together while being physically separated from each other. Training via webinars, online courses or e-learning has also become standard. At the CCD Academy, we now hold most of our training courses online. And there are good reasons for this.

7 advantages of online training

1st advantage: Cost-effective online courses

Let's start with the usual advantages. The customer does not have to provide a fixed room and technical infrastructure or make any other preparations. This saves costs and hassle. While we're on the subject of costs, let's add the costs that are saved through travel, accommodation and other travel costs. Let's be clear: no room costs and no travel costs.

2nd advantage: Better scheduling, more flexibility

Online training courses can be scheduled more flexibly than on-site seminars because there is no need to travel. They can be rescheduled at shorter notice and finding a date is much easier because there is no need to plan a journey the day before. Also, a trainer's training days do not have to be planned one after the other to ensure that the journey from one training session to the next works at all. This time flexibility makes it easier to offer appointments with shorter lead times.

3rd advantage: Decentralized e-learning

If we are talking about companies with several locations, there is another advantage. Decentralized training! Participants can take part from different locations at the same time, without the need to travel. This makes it possible to organize seminars that might otherwise not be possible at all or only at high cost. All that is required online is a proper Internet connection.

4th advantage: Different time zones

Online training can be held in different time zones. This benefits decentralized teams with members working all over the world. We also hold seminars with teams whose employees are based in America or Asia, for example. Of course, we also offer our training courses in English. This form of knowledge transfer is often an advantage for a distributed team because it makes it easier to develop a common understanding.

5th advantage: Participant-friendly

Next, we come to the benefits for the participants. They can choose whether they want to work in the company and take part in the training from there, or whether they prefer to learn at home. This not only saves travel time for all participants. We have found that many participants find their own home a more pleasant learning environment than their regular work environment.

6th advantage: Better group work

Another advantage that has emerged directly from the training courses concerns working in groups. In on-site seminars, all participants often sit together in a large room. Online, there is the option of using so-called Breakout Rooms to create small groups. Within these groups, exercises can be solved alone and you can advise each other on challenges.

As teamwork plays a major role in our training courses, we have many tasks that are solved in groups. Online, it is easier to view the code on one screen with several participants, especially for these joint exercises. One participant shares their screen, the others can access it and have their own IDE open at the same time. We also often work with drafts during group work. The groups need space to draw. This can be particularly difficult on site if there are not enough whiteboards or sometimes pens available. There are excellent collaboration whiteboards online. Each group has its own board and everyone can work at the same time without any problems. There are no interruptions from other groups. The results are immediately available digitally and can be shared accordingly. The transcripts that we trainers create in our training sessions, as well as other learning materials, are also immediately available digitally and can be sent to the participants as a PDF by email or chat.

7th advantage: Extensive range

New formats can be implemented online to complement our existing portfolio. Even when we were offline, we offered a seminar with gaps in addition to the usual 2-, 3- or 4-day block seminars. This means that the respective number of days is not held one after the other en bloc, but with 3-4 weeks in between. If you would like to know more, you can find here a contribution to this. This format can be carried out much more cost-effectively online, as there are no travel-related costs.

One format that we can only offer online is the half-day format. Instead of 2 or 3 full-day training courses, we offer 4 to 6 half-day training courses. This means that the content is divided into smaller chunks. There is more time in between for exercises and to implement the learning content in everyday working life. This is complemented by coaching calls, which can be held with the participants in a period of around 3 months after the training. Here, any questions that arise when implementing what has been learned in everyday life are clarified.

We also offer video code reviews. For this purpose, the gaps between the training sessions are extended to around 6 weeks. After 3 weeks, participants can send in their results for an exercise. We record a detailed code review and make it available as a video. This enables participants to implement suggestions from the review before the next training session.

Disadvantages of e-learning

We cannot identify any real disadvantages in terms of learning success. Nevertheless...

Alternative: Face-to-face event

Of course, there is still a desire for on-site training. And yes, offline training also has its advantages. The most frequently cited advantage is that on-site training is more personal than online training. This is true and is a minor disadvantage of e-learning, but it has no significant impact on the results of the training. If the customer still wishes to meet the trainer in person, we have had excellent experience with hybrid training. One day on site so that participants and trainers can get to know each other. The other dates take place online.

Conclusion: online seminars work best

As you can read, I am clearly in favor of online training. That doesn't mean that I don't also appreciate a good on-site seminar, quite the opposite. However, in our experience, the advantages of offline training that are so often mentioned in discussions actually have little impact on learning success. The really important factor is the cooperation of all participants. This also includes the trainer. A really good experience is created when the trainer brings enthusiasm and conveys the content in a varied, low-threshold and interesting way. The participants, on the other hand, ask questions, start discussions and share their exercises with others. Online training already offers more channels and freer design options for this than on-site seminars. And the formats are still growing.