The Future of Online Learning

How will online learning change as technology continues to advance? The benefits of online learning today are numerous and well-known, especially in construction safety training systems and other types of industry safety training. Online safety training courses are less expensive due to little or no travel costs, there is less down-time on site, and course content is complete and delivered consistently. At one time, online learning held many challenges. Slow internet speeds meant that the quality of video and images was poor, so course content was heavily text-based. Equally poor computing speeds meant that in an online training system, the number of users at one time was limited and comparable to the number of people that could attend a single in-class session. Too many people logging in to the system at once could crash it. As technology has advanced—bandwidth speeds and the use of servers and clouds have increased the scope of what a Canada online course is capable of—those issues have been rectified and the use of online safety training courses continues to expand. Daniel MacDonald, from BIS Training and Development, which provides the system that the Canadian Online Safety Training Association (COSTA) uses to provide online safety training courses to multiple industries in the country, has seen how technology has changed the way safety training courses are delivered. “Online training is still in its infancy. There are not as many challenges today as there were years ago, but the future of online training will be so advanced that it will make what we currently have look sad in comparison.” Online safety training courses are quickly becoming a viable option for theory in the safety training industry, but there is never-ending room for improvement. There are a number of technologies in the works to make online safety training courses easier to take and more effective. One of these technologies is interactive voice control, where a learner will be able to speak directly to a virtual automated instructor and ask open-ended questions for more explanation or clarification on course topics. Further to this technology will be the ability to use software that would convert any part of a course, be it the content, the feedback, or the testing, into multiple languages without the high financial costs and hours required from a translator. Another advance will be online safety training courses that branch out according to each individual user. The learning path of these courses will change based on correct or incorrect answers to questions, meaning the course itself adapts to learning speeds, providing more information when it is required, and yet not becoming repetitive to learners who grasp content quickly. Technology changes fast, and organizations like the Canadian Online Safety Training Association are looking for ways to use it to create and deliver courses that are learner-driven and effective in improving worker safety.