2/12/08 Reading Summary
During my time in the workforce I have experienced all types of training. I have never had a job that preferred one type of training over the other. Every job always used a mixture of traditonal methods, along with more technological trainings. One thing though that has remained constant is the amount of on the job training I have had at every job. My current job so far has been almost exclusively peer observing more experienced peer or manager. There have been several advantages and disadvantages to this form of training. My learning style is more hands on and training heavily concentrated on observation makes comprehension more difficult. Another disadvantage would be that you are not always trained by just one person, at times I might be trained on the same topic by three different people. Everyone has their own way of doing things and the process can start to get confusing. Although, being trained by several different people can be helpful. In the end, I’m exposed to more than one way of doing things and I can then figure out what works best for me. For example, the other day I was being trained on a loan cancellation duty and one step I was shown required writing several different figures on each chargeback. This step was long and took up a good amount of time. The next day I was trained on the same process with a different person and was told that I could skip the writing step. Self directed learning has been a very important part of my experience, especially since I don’t benefit very much from this kind of on the job training. I have had to take the learning situation I have been put in and make it work for me. Which means using my down time to study on my own and work on everything I have been previously taught.
I wasn’t really introduced to e-learning until I started college. It was used by several of my professors and I was being introduced to being in classes that were heavily supplemented by this method known as e-learning. I found it to be helpful because it was extremely accessible. I enjoyed having access to all these materials whenever I needed them and being able to contact others in the class quickly. Eventually I began to take courses that were solely e-learning style, and I was able to really understand this training method. Just because the course may be done electronically doesn’t mean your learning is restricted. I was introduced to unique training techniques and it was all at your convience. E-learning is only going to become a more popluar way of training in the future and can be effective for organizations if they continue to develop this form of training.