Training and education: E for education

Law firms are missing a trick by not investing enough into e-learning technologies, as opposed to traditional training methods. Tim Buff outlines the benefits

Staff training and development is a necessary element of any industry, but its role within the legal profession is paramount. Be it professional skills development, keeping up to date with changing law and legislation, new employee induction or the infamous health and safety awareness, training can require huge amounts of investment, both in terms of time and financially.

It is essential that employees are provided with the training necessary to perform their roles effectively and meet compliance requirements. But to ensure staff development is effective, and doesn't cost the earth, what measures need to be in place to make sure you're getting the most from your training spend? And what does the future of training in the legal profession hold in terms of learning methods and approaches?

A choice of two

While instructor-led training (ILT) has traditionally been the tool of choice, the balance is shifting considerably towards e-learning. ILT is typically viewed as a costly training method but it certainly has the potential to be an interactive and effective way to train employees. However, all too often, due to time constraints and limited budgets, ILT sessions can take the form of a PowerPoint presentation - not necessarily the best way to share and develop knowledge.

Lawyers may be better able than most to assimilate information from a dry Word document or PowerPoint presentation, but the delivery via ILT can often require complicated diary co-ordination, travel and subsistence costs, and take experienced lawyers away from fee-generating work to lead and participate in the learning.

And this is where HR departments are missing a trick: ILT may seem cost-effective, but on closer inspection it can cost much more in terms of time, financial input, outcome and administration than the alternatives. ILT is still valuable where face-to-face networking is desired, a safe experimental environment is needed, or if an element of reward is appropriate. But for all other topics, it is now possible to undertake a much wider range of training than ever before using e-learning techniques; these areas now include behavioural change, scenario-based training and experiential training as well as knowledge-based training.

In order to be valuable and worthwhile, training must be relevant to the needs of staff, engaging, accessible and available for reference at a later date. Consistency of the messaging and delivery quality is also important and can sometimes be compromised through ILT methods. E-learning has become a more popular alternative in recent years, and more recently, through new developments in e-learning technologies, the associated cost and need to outsource the creation of learning material to third-party companies has been removed.

Making it count

Historically e-learning was only considered suitable for teaching factual information, which is fairly stable. Now with modern tools it is possible to create much more agile e-learning that can easily deliver different types of content in a way that will fit different learning styles.

Monitoring and managing staff compliance is a must for the legal sector. Having access to an audit trail detailing where employees are in their continual professional development, and knowing who has completed and passed which piece of training can require a huge amount of administration. All this administration can be automated through using e-learning mounted on a learning management system.

In its simplest form, e-learning can be a rolling set of PowerPoints; in its most complex form it can be full of intricate multimedia assets that require the learner to make decisions and interact with the content. But do not think these are the only two options. Between the two extremes will be a range of alternatives that have previously required time and technically skilled staff to create engaging levels of interactivity. Nowadays, with the latest technology, even the least technically able person can quickly and easily create interactive e-learning courses.

Price point

The cost benefits of e-learning are significant: less delegate time away from the job, lower trainer costs, reduced travel and subsistence costs, lower classroom investment, faster rollouts, consistent messaging, automatically tracked training attendance and results, easier admin and so on. The traditional arguments against e-learning include higher initial development costs and the cost of the delivery infrastructure. But with the latest platforms these drawbacks can be minimised, with companies now able to easily and quickly design and deliver their own e-learning programmes without needing to outsource. This means that the control remains within the business, enabling much faster development timescales and much easier maintenance updates. In other words low cost, agile e-learning changes the equation and the benefits quickly
outweigh the costs.

The future of training e-learning

There are several misconceptions surrounding e-learning's ability to deliver effective training. Although many of these were once well-founded, they centred on the length of time it took to develop content, the expense incurred when using outside e-learning production companies and the difficulty in updating material when subject matter required amendments. Previously some law firms have felt at the mercy of e-learning development companies, with complaints that some can charge nearly as much to update training material as they did to create it in the first place. E-learning used to be expensive to develop and cheap to deliver, whereas it has been assumed ILT has cost less to develop but with a high delivery cost. Now the cost equation has shifted completely.

ILT has the potential to be great. It offers delegates a friendly and low-risk environment in which to learn and can also provide an opportunity for networking. But unless firms have limitless training budgets, which is unlikely given the current economic climate, e-learning becomes an increasingly attractive alternative. The real benefit of using the latest technologies within your e-learning strategy is not only the cost reduction that is offered; it is also the speed, relevance and effectiveness that the latest e-learning platforms can enable. Content development and update timescales are reduced from months to weeks, or even days, and consequently many more courses can be developed for a wider range of uses. This enables a much better use of staff time, and most crucially, training can be better targeted for increased effectiveness.

With the cost of e-learning suddenly reduced, it is no longer just the large firms that can use e-learning to give them a competitive advantage. It is becoming far more affordable and accessible to smaller firms too - providing greater flexibility, lower costs and, perhaps most crucially, a more highly-trained workforce.

The E-learning strategy

Using modern e-learning as a key part of an overall training strategy is becoming much more important in increasing reach and reducing costs. Use the following five steps to develop your e-learning strategy.

• Decide on your curricula
Which content will be delivered as e-learning, and which will be issued as classroom-based training? If you need help, then talk to someone who has the relevant experience; e-learning providers can supply a full range of support services to help clients get the most from e-learning as part of an overall strategy.
• Decide how to develop your e-learning content
In the past the only real option in developing e-learning content has been to subcontract to specialist e-learning developers. However, with prices per hour of e-learning ranging from £10,000 to £25,000 or more per course, and long development cycles of typically three months or more, it is easy to see why e-learning adoption has been patchy. Now, with the latest enterprise-level rapid e-learning development platforms, you can create and update your e-learning quickly, without having to outsource to external specialists.
• Decide how to deliver your e-learning content
You can deliver e-learning content in a number of ways. Most e-learning courses can be delivered through CD-ROM or a website, but the advantages of a learning management system must be considered. Additionally, you might benefit from delivery through your intranet, a Microsoft SharePoint site or even a mobile phone or personal digital assistant (PDA).
• Monitor results and modify the strategy going forward
In tough economic times, it is important to ensure you get the best return on any investment. For e-learning, this means tracking learner progress and ensuring the effectiveness of the training. A key contributor to monitoring e-learning is a Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM)-compliant learning management system that can automatically track and report learner progress and individual results.
• Explore the most cost-effective routes
E-learning has the potential to save significantly on training spend. But even when a law firm has made the decision to move away from traditional, instructor-led training, there are still options to consider. Outsourcing the creation of e-learning to third-party companies usually requires a substantial amount of input from in-house subject matter experts, can mean a large and substantial third-party spend and can take months to develop - presenting huge problems for businesses needing to constantly revise their training in order to be compliant with changing legislation. The latest enterprise-level rapid e-learning creation platforms are worth looking at to empower your own staff to create their own e-learning quickly and at low cost.

Tim Buff is managing director of CM Group.