How to pilot Web-based training

Web-based training can cut costs, deliver training consistently, and provide global access to learners. But before you catapult headlong into WET, it's best to conduct a pilot. Driscoll, a technology instructor, tells how to go about piloting this online learning solution. Web-based training is a complicated computer technology that requires input from many areas of the organization, such as management information systems, business unit managers, line managers in field offices, and, of course, the learners. Web-based training has high fixed costs-another reason to conduct a pilot. If you're going to invest a lot of money in this approach, you should ensure that it will be successful. WET requires resources for learning new software, for purchasing hardware, and for enhancing the network infrastructure to handle additional traffic. Driscoll describes 12 steps for conducting a pilot, cautioning that no two companies will have the same needs or expectations. They are clarifying the pilot's purpose, enlisting high-level support, forming a core team, creating evaluation criteria, developing a data-gathering plan, matching technology and the topic, deciding whether to go with off-the-shelf or in-house development, preparing for rollout, conducting a dry run, delivering the program, and getting feedback. The last step is to summarize the experience and make recommendations. Driscoll concludes with the prediction that online learning is surely to become an essential competency of training pros in the near future.