School’s Out--CD-ROM’s In
Think “multimedia CD-ROM” and you’ll probably think of “Myst,” “Doom” and other popular interactive games. But what about “How to Use Microsoft Windows NT”?
No, it’s not the latest arcade-style release for computer geeks. It’s part of a trend among corporate training circles of substituting classrooms with CD-ROMs.
“We take the material you’d be required to learn in a classroom setting and turn it into an entirely different teaching medium,” said Bill McCabe, chairman and chief executive of CBT Group, a South San Francisco company that has produced more than 200 CD-ROMs that teach people how to use software systems such as Windows NT and Lotus Notes.
U.S. companies spend $30 billion on corporate training each year, and a growing chunk of that money is spent on multimedia CD-ROMs, according to the American Society for Training & Development in Alexandria, Va. In a survey conducted last year, the trade group found that 15% of U.S. companies use CD-ROMs as part of their training regimen and at least 14% more have tested them.
Multimedia CD-ROMs gained fame as realistic flight simulators that helped commercial and military pilots practice the fine points of flying without having to leave the ground. Now CD-ROMs are used to teach everything from welding to public speaking to writing.
“It’s got day-to-day applications--everything from teaching bank tellers how to interact with clients across the counter to a simulation that teaches doctors how to handle situations where they are overloaded with patients and need to make vital decisions quickly,” said Ronn Rogers, managing director of Multimedia Recruiters USA in Dallas.
Some of those tasks are inherently people-oriented, so why are so many people practicing with a computer?
* Schedule coordination: Unlike human instructors, a CD-ROM is ready to go whenever a trainee has time to practice. That flexibility makes them an integral part of distance learning programs.
* Pacing: In a classroom, some students are tempted to speed ahead whereas others have difficulty keeping up. With self-paced training, learning time decreases 20% to 30%, according to an ASTD study.
* Effectiveness: Multimedia training increases the likelihood of people’s remembering what they are supposed to learn. Studies show that people recall only 20% of what they see but 40% of what they see and hear and 70% of what they see, hear and do.
* Cost: Training with CD-ROMs is cheap. Development and maintenance of computer-based training costs 64% less than conducting seminars, ASTD says. Training one-on-one with a computer also eliminates the cost of traveling to a seminar.
Interest in interactive education has grown as computers with enough power to run CD-ROMs have gotten cheaper, McCabe said.
Dana Visser, a spokesman for the training society, said demand for multimedia training will continue to build.
“There’s no reason why any company couldn’t use it,” he said.
* Karen Kaplan, a freelance writer who covers technology and careers, can be reached by e-mail at Karen.Kaplan@latimes.com
