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necessary: travel, limited geographic reach, and the challenge of bringing additional subject matter experts into the classroom were obstacles to be overcome. Thus training organizations traditionally have delivered the best possible results “under the circumstances,” often with the distraction of side issues (logistics and cost) that blocked the ability to focus on what was best for both trainers and learners, as well as the entire business.
Methodology and Survey Sample
The goal of this white paper and the research that led to its publication is to understand the usage levels, benefits, and justifications for web conferencing as a training application. In December 2006 through early January 2007 Wainhouse Research invited a group of Citrix and other vendors’ customers to complete an online survey on the use of web conferencing and other technologies for training. Two lists (one provided by Citrix and one purchased from a training publication) were used, containing individuals who had been identified as trainers and educators. Incentives were offered in the form of the chance to win one of 10 amazon.com gift certificates.
About 1/3 of the total respondents (32%) are involved in training management or as training practitioners (broken down below in three groups: training professionals, training managers, or Chief Learning Officers). Another 17% are in IT management and 12% in sales/marketing roles.
Why Trainers are Turning to Web Conferencing
Web conferencing has been available and in use for many years in the workplace, but the pace of adoption has quickened in recent years. Live web-based events are now seen as a key ingredient of training programs – an ingredient that is beginning to equal the importance of other approaches – and we can now say for certain that it is beginning to displace live training events (as described later in this white paper). Web conferencing also is growing as a supplement to other asynchronous, time-delayed technologies and approaches to training, e.g., Learning Management Systems (LMS), audio and video archival systems, etc.
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