Future of learning is here, now! If you have at least four people to train, you can have us teach a class on demand. I don’t mean e-learning or self-study. I mean a real class, taught by real instructors (not avatars) in real time. Only, it’s on our website. WebLive™, an Eogogics exclusive, is the technology that makes this possible.
So what’s WebLive™ you ask. First, what it’s not: it’s not a self-study (e-learning) module. It’s certainly not a “webinar”, an infomercial thinly disguised as training.
It’s a real class, taught by the same subject matter experts who teach our onsite classes. Like an onsite class, it’s tailored to your needs based on an up-front needs analysis conference call with the instructor. It’s not like the “one size fits all” training offered by public classes.
It’s taught in real time, on a schedule that’s agreed between you and the instructor. Often, to make it easier for you to get some work done along with the training, the class can be scheduled in several half-day sessions.
When it’s time for class, you meet with the instructor and your classmates in a WebLive™ “room” on our website. This virtual classroom looks much like a real classroom, with a projection screen and a white board. You can see the instructor (and other participants), raise your hand, ask a question, or provide feedback on the class. He can solicit feedback and answer questions and, if you have a webcam, he can see you as well. WebLive™ classes can include many of the activities – group work, demos, labs, tests, and more – that onsite classes can. They can also include some things that onsite classes can’t (without special equipment), e.g., application sharing.
While nothing betters the learning that happens when you’re face to face with a good instructor in an onsite class, there are some areas where WebLive™ classes have an upper hand. For starters, it’s possible to have a cost-effective class with a smaller group of four plus (versus 5-7+ for an onsite class). (Since WebLive™ classes usually have only 4-9 participants, you enjoy a better student-teacher ratio than in many onsite or public classes.) You also don’t have to pay for the instructor’s travel to your offices or the participants’ travel to the training venue (for a public class). As anyone who has done the math knows, the expense and productivity loss due to travel often dwarfs the actual training fees. To make a good deal even better, the-per person fee for a WebLive™ class is often a little lower than that for a public class. Since, with WebLive™, we also save on the downtime of travel, we’re happy to share the savings with you in reduced training fees. Finally, WebLive™ is also a more environmentally sound, “greener” way to train.
So it requires a smaller group size, is just as tailored and interactive as an onsite class, costs less per person, avoids the expense and wear-and-tear of travel, and is greener! What’s the catch? Well, the catch – if there is one – is that for various reasons, not every topic that’s currently available as an onsite class is available WebLive™. For example, face-to-face role plays, being critical to many soft skills subjects, we offer only a limited number of soft skills topics as WebLive™ classes. And, since not every one of our instructors is as yet trained to teach WebLive™, not all of the technology classes are available WebLive™ as well. It certainly does not hurt to ask. Call or email and tell us the class you need taught WebLive™ and we’ll tell you if we offer it yet or not. It’s that easy!
Incidentally, later on in 2009, subject to continuing improvement in the economy (knock on wood), we have plans to offer pre-scheduled public classes on the WebLive™ platform. Sign up for our newsletter and you’ll be among the first to find out when WebLive Public™ becomes reality.
Editor’s Note: You can find out more about how the WebLive™ program works on our WebLive™ page. Also, see the press release on this subject. When WebLive™ Public classes are offered, you will see them listed on our Public Seminars and WebLive™ Classes page.