relationship between elearning and face to face

Hi Bud,

Great topic and I'm a big fan of this method and I've done it a couple of ways. We had a 3 day training conference that included flying everyone in and then filling their heads with more information and instruction than they could possibly process. The team was very knowledgable in their field but they were trying to take everyone from novice to expert in this short time period. Some did ok. Most just got very very frustrated. We reworked the entire program to several eLearning courses that covered all of the concepts and basic processes. We scheduled some web-x Q&A sessions in between. After completing that part of the program we conducted a one day workshop to really crack into the business objectives and build on the foundation that was already there. The difference was drastic. It was better for the learners AND saved the company a great deal of money.

Now I'm working on how to execute something similar with an international audience and a live, online workshop. Not every topic warrants international travel expenses but it's a challenge to completely replicate that in-person interaction.