Naming/Labeling E-Learning/WBT Courses

Mar 04, 2022

Dear colleagues, 

I hope you are well. Hopefully this is the right place for this discussion. :) 

At the moment we are discussing if we need a new name for courses that are exclusively Web based trainings, to attract customers and to give them an idea what the course is and to differentiate those courses from webinars or on site courses. 

Up until a few months ago we used to call them WBT, then we switched to E-Learning, because we found that the term was more known within our community, but since this is not a very specific term we are thinking of changing it again. 

Now what I would like to know, what do you call those courses? And why? :) 

Best regards, 

Julia

4 Replies
Sarah Hodge

Hi Julia! You came to the right place! 🙂 E-Learning is a common word usually used as an umbrella term to describe CBT (Computer Based Training), WBT (Web-Based Training), online learning, internet-based training, and many other names. Since we're unfamiliar with your program, can you share a bit more about what you mean by 'e-learning' not being specific enough? Perhaps that might help us to come up with better naming suggestions. 

Julia Vogel

Hi Sarah, 

thank you for that explanation. 

I am very familar with those terms, as I have actually learned them in my first semester studying digital learning back 15 years ago. ;) But thank you for clarifying. 

Maybe I should go more into detail, for what we are looking for. As I pointed out we are trying to give our WBT courses a new label for our participants. We are an established academy with mainly on site training, as well as webinars and also web based trainings, which are asynchronus (and of course everything blended for that matter). 

We used to call them WBTs, but that term was not clear for our German speaking community. Now we are calling it E-Learning. Now from a strictly professional perspective WBT is absolutely the correct term to use. However we are trying to sell courses and it won't serve us to call it WBT, if this term isn't suitable for our audience. 

As you have correctly pointed out E-Learning is a broader term and actually would also include Webinars, Video Learning, etc. We are using it now, but we aren't quite happy with it. 

Hence I was asking what other people call it, so that their customers/audience/employees/community immediately get what kind of course they are looking at. 

I hope this clarifies it. :) 

Have a great day! 

BR, Julia 

Sarah Hodge

Hi Julia! Thanks for the response! Looking now at what I wrote, it does look like I was Sarahsplaining. 😆 My bad! That’s awesome you’ve been in the industry for over 15 years. It sounds like you’re doing some amazing things. 

Also, thank you for sharing all the program details. Totally makes sense! Finding the right terms can be a challenge. I’m going to defer to the community on this one. Perhaps, someone who has more experience working with this variety of content might have some helpful ideas to share.

And I hope you have a great day, too! 🌞