Will Online ITIL Training Widen the Gap?
I recieved a throught-provoking tweet from our friend, Stephen Mann at Forrester on Friday!
Stephen asked if I thought that "online training could make the #ITIL theoretical/real-world divide even bigger." 
In the ITIL training world (well, probably in ALL training), there's a notion that in the world there are "trainers" and there are "people who do the work." The stereotype alludes that trainers don't really have real-world experience and strictly teach you how to pass the tests, but aren't really armed with actual war stories that make your learning more fruitful. So does the insertion of "online training," that has NO instructor, really, widen this gap?
So, I cruised my halls and talked to my colleagues about this.
The answer is complex and speaks more to the relative value of online training versus instructor-led. The reality is, you will get more out of an instructor-led training than you will ever get from an online course, but that doesn’t mean that online is a bad choice. There is a market for cheaper training, some people don’t have the money for instructor training, some companies don’t have the ability to devote large contiguous amounts of time for the employees training, etc.
But could the gap widen? Most certainly. TV church, Facebook, frozen meals, Internet gaming, Atari and the University of Phoenix each COULD widen gaps of some sort or another. Heck, drone warfare could desensitize us from the reality of war. Quiet cars widen the gap in reality that you are driving at 120 mph relative to the car 6 feet away from you going the other direction.
All these things require mitigation and maturity to ensure that the intended outcome is reached. The gap may have to be managed in some way, such as mentoring, internships, forums or even social media. There is also a risk of being on the wrong side of the gap if you DON’T leverage innovation and relying on instructor-led only will most certainly create a gap, as well.
At the end of the day, training does not take the place of experience, no matter what the training vehicle. And the good news is that as a result of availability of online ITIL courses, foundation certifications are on the rise, so at least people are learning a common vocabulary. So a common vocabulary MUST help make the gap smaller, right?
Want to give online training a free try?
Photo: Annie Mole