Designing Web-Based Training: How to Teach Anyone Anything Anywhere Anytime

2.3. DISADVANTAGES OF WBT

WBT is not all advantages and benefits. It has costs, requires compromises, and poses serious risks. Most of these negatives can be overcome with good design-but only if you acknowledge and understand them.

The purpose of this section is not to scare you out of using WBT but to balance the scales a bit. WBT is not an educational panacea. This section gives you information you need to honestly evaluate WBT and decide whether it meets the needs of your particular project. If this section provides ammunition to kill off an ill-conceived WBT project, then you will have paid for the cost of this book many times over-without having to read all of it. Killing off a bad WBT project does as much to advance WBT as commissioning a good project.

2.3.1. WBT requires more work

Lacking the slick tools of CBT development and the finely honed management procedures of classroom training, WBT courses require more time and effort to design, to teach, and to take.

2.3.1.1. More instructor effort required

Many instructors report that electronic delivery requires 40 to 50% more effort on their part [67]. Many teachers using technology in elementary and high schools complain about the increased amount of time and effort such courses require of them [35].

Students, lacking face-to-face contact, demand more attention and feedback from instructors. Some instructors felt they had become, in effect, private tutors [68].

Complaints from instructors about a higher workload diminish ...