Maybe you’ve noticed a recent trend: lately, it seems like more and more of your coworkers are carving time into their schedules to attend a webinar or a remote class. According to Pew Research, three out of four adults consider themselves to be lifelong learners, and 63 percent attend at least one training course per year. Babson Survey Research Group has seen a 3.9 percent year-over-year increase in the amount of people taking online courses in the United States.
Instead of investing in costly higher education, more and more adults are taking education into their own hands. This makes sense as 57 percent of managers are concerned that they will not have the skills needed to succeed in five years, and a staggering 96 percent of entry-level employees believe that college did not fully prepare them for the workforce, according to CLO Media. Employees who care about their future are not content to fade into obsolescence.
In fact, the advantages of remote sessions are tremendous. Let’s take a look at the top four reasons why people attend online sessions.
Democratizing Knowledge
Anybody can take a remote session. There are no admissions processes, no applications. The knowledge is available to anybody who would like to sign up for a course. At the New Marketing Institute (NMI), we believe that truly everybody should have the information they need to perform their jobs more efficiently. Our sessions don’t care where you are, what your background is, or who you are, just that you come eager to learn.
Global Information Share
The internet has changed the way we live and work, particularly the way we communicate across the world. That may seem like a very facile statement, but it cannot be underestimated. As a facilitator, I have taught professionals from all over: South Africa, Singapore, Japan, India, France, Brazil, Argentina, Germany…the list goes on. Having people everywhere learn how to speak the same “language,” in our case, the language of digital marketing, is vital to creating better global teams.
Minimal Time Commitment
As we mentioned earlier, higher education is time-consuming and expensive. The average graduate school requires years of commitment and can cost upwards of $40,000. A university’s continuing education space is typically less costly, but still requires a time commitment of roughly 20 hours per class. Most workers don’t have that time as the pace of modern life can often be overwhelming. And, as cited above, those who have invested in higher education, still consider themselves to have gaps in their learning and were not appropriately prepared by those higher education sources. Online classes are typically concise and cost efficient, thus allowing more people to take advantage of the benefits.
Instant Feedback
One of the best advantages of live remote sessions is the ability to interact directly with the facilitator. The Q&A period is a gold standard to ensure participants retain knowledge after the session. Online live classes allow them to continue the age old practice, just via digital means. In fact, we often see shy participants more eager to participate by being able to ask questions in a relatively anonymous environment, without fear of judgment.
Research shows, there will be more and more learners to engage via these types of remote sessions. If you are curious about attending one yourself, take a look at our upcoming Emerging Trends course that runs July 13-August 10th in partnership with the Direct Marketing Association (DMA). The series covers everything from email marketing basics to programmatic and omnichannel advertising. Additionally, stay tuned for NMI’s upcoming webinar series, launching in August.
Marketers, here is your chance to take advantage of all of the convenience and benefits that online courses provide!