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       Certified Master Coach -Some Preliminary Guide Notes: 
      Benefits and Disadvantages of Online Coach Training
         -Executive and Business Coach Training ©

           (includes extracts from new text book 'Behavioral Coaching' by Zeus and Skiffington -published and copyrighted by McGraw-Hill, New York)

Online Coaching Courses and Coach Training

Never before in the world of learning have so many delivery options been available. So how do you select the right delivery medium for a coach training course? In a recent international survey it was found that 92 percent of large organizations will use some form of online learning this year. There are several distinct advantages and disadvantages of e-learning. By carefully weighing this list of advantages and disadvantages, you should be able to better judge what medium best suits.

Some Online / Resource-Based Learning Advantages:
  • No time and travel costs to classroom
  • Can be more effective for certain types of learners
  • There are no geographical location constraints
  • You can learn at your own pace
  • You may feel freer to be yourself online
  • You may feel more comfortable writing about your learning / knowledge issues than talking about them.
  • You can read and re-read your emails
  • Writing enhances your relationship with yourself.
  • You can take as long as you want to complete your work.  
  • Flexibility in course scheduling
  • You can email your instructor any time of day, especially when you feel the need for help

A recent study by the journal American Economic Review concluded; "Although virtual courses seem to be effective in helping students learn basic concepts, they are less successful at helping students learn how to apply those concepts on problems that require analytical thinking etc". "Students in the classroom did significantly better than the online students on the most complex material"

Resource-Based Learning –as information-management –focuses on an the interaction between a human and a computer. This approach focuses on providing media-rich resources for learning. Though several advantages are listed above -there are also several disadvantages that have been identified. Many teachers enrolled in e-learning feel they have lost control over the learning process and that therefore their effectiveness and their contribution to the learning process have been diminished. Teachers have also expressed the difficulties inherent in evaluating e-learning students with traditional individual teaching criteria, especially when it comes to higher cognitive skills and reflective skills.

One of the main disadvantages found is that it requires much more personal discipline in the study process -there being no group energy to support the learning. In face-to-face learning groups all are able to offer mutual support, encouragement and even friendly rivalry as motivating and support factors.

Some Learning Disadvantages:

  • Lack of face to face interaction -the visual cues provided in face-to-face interactions
  • Requires new skills and responsibilities from learners
  • Difficulty with staying on track without the structured classroom
  • Lack of interaction. You are not in a classroom and may not have the opportunity to hear all of the questions and discussion from other students.
  • Educators need to be qualified and effective online instructors/virtual trainers
  • More time consuming for instructors to provide individualized feedback  
  • Difficulty for instructors to move set online content
  • Problems in ensuring materials are pedagogically of a high quality
  • The difficulty of the learner to assess the instructor's expertise, knowledge etc.
  • Types and effectiveness of student assessment
  • Academic honesty of online students
  • Students need to be well-motivated and self-organising learners
  • A lack of peer contact and interaction for students working alone - a feeling of isolation -without the face-to-face classroom environment  
  • There can be more misunderstandings by email and therefore a greater need to explain things and ask questions
  • Confidentiality cannot be guaranteed over the internet
  • Some problems cannot be resolved online
  • Possible misunderstandings: There can be misunderstandings with text-based modalities such as email (since nonverbal cues are relatively lacking) and even with videoconferencing (since bandwidth is always limited)
  • Turnaround time. The learner should be informed of how soon after sending an email, for example, he or she may expect a response.
  • Lack of non-verbal cues. We depend, at least in part, on the sum of all the person’s reactions, including all the cues that are non-verbal. It takes some getting used to in relying only on the written word and certain characters to express feelings.
  • Typing—Slow typing, Space limitations, Distractions, Silence/inactivity between typed sentences -issues etc.
  • Frustration with technology
  • Delayed response from other classmates and/or instructor through asynchronous communications bulletin board/discussion/forums and email
  • Technical problems with the online process. When logging online, busy signals may prevent one from signing on, or the network may be slow, for example.

The importance of: 1) social interaction as an inherent ingredient of the learning process and 2) the meta-cognitive level of learning and discussion
Perhaps the most critical disadvantage of online learning in the field of coach training, given its dynamic and interactive nature, is the lack of real time, supervised 'hands-on' application of technical skills. With e-learning there may be no quality assurance mechanism to monitor new skill development and its application -this is potentially a dangerous practice. For example, in an online professional development course there can be no opportunity for the actual practice of techniques under the guidance of an experienced instructor. As such, the course, by necessity, is confined to online discussions about theory and the need for a clear theoretical framework, the areas of use of those skills and the hypothetical practice of these skills, but no supervised application of their practice. 

Potential distance learners need to ascertain whether the format for an online coach training course is matched appropriately to the nature of the course content. When studying subject matter such as understanding the principles and benefits of coaching, the course demands will be different than if the content includes learning to administer and interpret assessments tools and specialist coaching techniques. The learner who enrols in an online course that promises to deliver sophisticated or even basic skill development, but does not offer a means for real time supervision of skill practice will be disappointed in the experience, and consequently short-changed in the process. 

In coach training, the relationship is the thing. 
A solid, trusting relationship needs to be established between the facilitator and the student. The facilitator’s ability to establishing a successful working relationship with the learner, modeling, discussing personal issues and concerns, managing counter transference, and skill building are critical elements of the learning equation. 

Face-to-face learning also means the facilitator can sight any visible cues and barriers that impede learning and produce the highest level of participant satisfaction and accomplishment.  

People work and learn more effectively in a positive, intimate and emotionally supportive environment. 
Using Accelerated learning techniques can take anxiety and competition out of the learning environment and replace them with positive energy, positive speaking and genuine collaboration. Using ' AL ' techniques (face-to-face) simply means the facilitator can accelerate the learning process by working with an individual's preferred learning style. By optimizing the available time, learning is accomplished in a much shorter time. 

Recent research suggests that professional skills development courses, such as coach training, best require a face-to-face connection between the facilitator, participant and the subject matter versus a "classroom approach". This personal connection provides: 
- a technologically non-restrictive, genuine interactive learning environment
- a lively, focused discussion
- the unique opportunity for the learner to spend time developing their own personal skill set and business needs versus a prescribed "packaged" approach to everyone   
- the opportunity to question, learn and practice new skills in a safe, supportive and highly constructive atmosphere

In recent years, many human resource development departments and training institutes have become more critical of the results and value of e-learning and are replacing the technical skills learning phases in an e-learning program with face-to-face situations. In this way many of the above disadvantages are greatly diminished.

Deep immersion role-plays, relevant 'hands-on' case-studies
Most vital behavioral-based change models, tools and techniques and assessment instruments a professional coach requires are only available to coaches trained and mentored by an educator who is also a licensed clinical psychologist. Dr Skiffington's invitational, fast-tracked, 4 Day, Face-to-Face, Very Small Group Certified Master Coach Course (conducted in N.Y., London, Sydney etc) meets the critical needs for busy new and experienced business and executive coaches to be trained (via deep immersion role-plays and relevant 'hands-on' case-studies) in the use of validated, proven change models tools and techniques.  Read More >.... 

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