Can a computer and monitor replace what typically takes place in a classroom? Perhaps; as time goes by, more and more students are going online to meet their training needs. This is for good reason, since online training has many benefits.

For one thing, it saves time and money, and allows the student to complete the training anytime and anywhere, all from the comfort of their own computer. Known to many as computer-based training (CBT) or e-learning, online training can take a variety of forms, but most often involves the interplay of text, graphics and sound displayed by means of a web-browser.

Jules Griggs, president and CEO of Safety Unlimited, Inc., an OSHA Compliant Safety Training provider, is well aware of the many benefits of online training; in fact, he has made it a large part of his business. He started as a trainer in the mid-80s with the Army, and then turned to safety training in 1993, when he established Safety Unlimited, Inc. He has been involved in online training, in particular, for over a decade.

“It had a lot to do with being a trainer and getting introduced to the internet,” he says, recounting the time in the late 90s when Safety Unlimited, Inc. began putting much of its training online. “That seemed to be where people were going, so we kind of got on board with that.” To this day, Safety Unlimited, Inc. continues to offer online training, still considering itself a training provider first and an online training provider second.

Besides saving time and money, Griggs sees online training’s most important benefit as being its flexibility for both the teacher and the student. “You can do it on your own schedule,” he says. “You don’t need a classroom full of people in order to provide the training. Plus, there is less travel.”

These conveniences may seem to place online training far above typical classroombased training, causing many students to elect to take all of their training online. But Griggs—who also owns Online Training Systems, a service that allows companies to provide their own online training through a portal—argues that online training cannot entirely replace classroom training.

He believes that, in order for online training to be successful, it must be approached realistically as part of an overall training program. To do this, he provides the following ways to approach online training.

The first is to understand that online training does not replace all training, and that you cannot do all your training online. He sees people falling into two camps in regard to how they view online training: there are those who want to do all their training online and others who refuse to do any training online.

Griggs thinks it should be approached somewhere in the middle. “You need to find a happy medium,” he says.

“It’s good for some training and not good for other training. It should not be the only training that you do; on the other hand, you shouldn’t exclude it altogether because it does have value.” Griggs feels a lot of what makes an appropriate online course comes down to subject matter. “Certain subjects should be taught through online training and other subjects should be taught through classroom training,” he says.

The second way to realistically approach online training is to understand that online training is not for everyone. “You can expect a younger guy who has all the new technical devices to do better at online training than you would a 55-year-old construction worker who doesn’t even own a computer,” says Griggs, whose classes online require users to have an updated computer and a high-speed internet connection.

But owning a computer with a fast internet connection is not enough; students also need a basic proficiency in using computers and the internet to take online courses. “Some people really need computer training before they need online training,” he says.

Additionally, online training needs to be approached from a realistic standpoint when it comes to time. To illustrate, Griggs compares the time to take a 40-hour course in the classroom to taking a 40-hour course online. Typically, taking such a class would involve spending eight hours a day, five days a week in a classroom. Yet Griggs finds this schedule difficult to undertake online.

“It is really hard to spend five, eight-hour days in front of a computer doing online training,” he says, suggesting that students break up online training into smaller portions over a longer period of time.

Online training is also only as good as the amount of work a student puts into it. Students who put more time and effort into online training can expect to get more out of it. In his over a decade long involvement in online training, Griggs has found one thing that can improve the value of online training more than any other.

And what is this one thing? According to Griggs, it is reading. “That’s the secret for taking online training,” he says. “If you just read what is in front of you and follow the instructions, the next thing you know you’ll be an expert at online training.”

To help in this enterprise, Safety Unlimited, Inc. offers online training that is both written and narrated. “The flexibility is that for those that like to read they can. For those that don’t want to read, they don’t have to,” says Griggs.

To summarize, online training can be a very valuable component to an overall training program if approached realistically. To do this, students should understand that online training should not replace all training; they should also understand that subject matter plays a large role in what is and is not appropriate medium for an online format.