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Indian business houses are adapting to new mode of training and development vigorously. It is not only the IT industry, which has preference of Distance Learning education, Industry sectors as varied as petrochemicals, automotive and sanitary ware are having their executive trained though this novel way.
There is solid business rationale behind this development; the burgeoning attrition rates in most industries are making the organizations rethink their HR strategies. It is becoming a well-accepted way to retain valuable talent by placating them through opportunities to acquire higher qualifications and specialized skills. The conventional face-to-face education does not meet their requirement as organizations cannot keep their employees away from their mainstream activities for long duration. Distance Learning offers enormous flexibilities as employees can log on to the Internet to access courseware anytime anywhere.
Employees are encouraged to use their free hours at home to pursue such distance learning courses. This format of learning is conducive to the employees, who have itinerant lifestyles and can access the learning material wherever they are at a given point in time. In many cases, these online courses are customized to the unique needs of a particular industry by way of relevant case studies, articles and discussion topics.
Enormous innovative improvements in Learning Management Systems (LMSs), have contributed to the proliferation of Distance Learning. These LMSs have elaborate tools like announcement tool, assignment tool, discussion boards, white boards, email, chat facilities and more. The easy access and falling prices of broadband is fuelling growth of this concept among corporate houses and individuals alike.
The Instructional Design model uses various model to design the course ware for faster learning. The concept of learning object enables the course designers to reuse the learning material for defined user
Calculating the ROI of Training), return on investment is quite different than cost savings. Cost savings is a reduction in expense, while return on investment is the rate or percent of return on your investment. One way to increase ROI and decrease expenses is by implementing technology based training (e-learning).
Technology based training (e-learning) makes several significant claims. It’s supporters claim:
(1) That e-learning saves time without decaying learning benefits
(2) That it minimizes travel costs
(3) That it minimizes time away from work
(4) That it is more cost effective
(5) That it can meet the needs of a geographically disperse employees
(6) That it provides consistent course delivery
(7) That it can offer more individualized instruction; and
(8) That consistently higher learning results can be achieved over traditional training.

It is a misconception that the conventional face-to-face training offers more interactions with participants and faculty compared to distance learning training. People having undergone online learning experience vouch that the interactions in online courses are far more intense, authentic and pragmatic resulting in deep learning. This is so because the asynchronous discussion boards allow for reflective thinking about the posting made by fellow learners before learners post their own views. The peer-to-peer learning is the hallmark of online education even when faculty facilitates the distance learning classes. The role of the facilitator in Distance Learning classes has been reduced to that of a ‘guide on the side’.
Broad-band Internet has opened new vistas in Distance Learning with the advent of free of cost video-conferencing through freebie software. This allows the learners to get in touch real-time with the faculty and fellow participants. Many other software allow the instructor to deliver Distance Learning live lectures to a globally dispersed audience, who listen to the voice of the instructor while simultaneously going through the presentations displayed on their computer screens. It also allows the audience to pose questions (voice-enabled) real-time to receive real-time response from the instructor.
The conventional brick-n-mortar institutions are also prudently venturing into the Distance Learning space by way of joint ventures. India’s leading business schools like the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB) and the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) have tied-up with the some pre-eminent Distance Learning institutions. These initiatives would certainly help these institutions in their vision of extending their reach to the global audience.
Another factor, which goes in favor of Distance Learning training, is the cost-benefit ratio. Most activities happen in textual format. Corporate houses organizing such training for their staff can always revisit the ongoing or archived Distance Learning classes to know exactly what kind of learning experiences their delegates have in the training programmes.
The development is a testimony to the changing outlook of the Indian industry in the Post-liberalization and globalization era. It also epitomizes the leading role the Indian corporate sector is bracing itself for playing in the global arena in the time to come.

While training is not the universal answer for all human performance issues, it can provide viable solutions to many of the new challenges that face corporations. Well constructed computer based training, if employed appropriately, can yield significant improvements in learning and performance. This positively affects ROI and significantly improves a corporation’s competitive advantage.

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