With safety training, more than any other area of training, it is vital for students to retain the material.

Imagine the ideal safety training program. The instructor sits down one-on-one with each trainee, assesses his or her learning capabilities and then tailors a training program specifically to that individual. such training would be extremely effective, but it’s just not feasible in most companies. The typical training model looks more like this: pack as many people as possible into a room and get a trainer up in front. The trainer covers the material in an hour or two, hour or two, using some PowerPoint slides and maybe a video. If the video is boring, as soon as the lights go out, the people in the back row are nodding off. At the end, the instructor hands out a quiz to document the “training.” Test the students a day or two later, however, and the reality is, almost nothing will be remembered. So what’s the middle ground? Is it possible to train people well without dedicated one-on-one sessions between instructor and individual student?

Components of Training
The fastest-growing population in the safety industry has become company safety professionals who create their own training programs using PowerPoint. In fact, 59 percent of training programs are now developed internally. PowerPoint is a great tool that has vastly improved the ability to make presentations, but a set of slides does not constitute an effective training methodology.

Overall, effective training requires instructors who:
1.) Know the material. A great quantity of material does not imply quality. Any trainer can amass a vast amount of information on any given safety topic and compile a bibliography that’s five pages long. The real question is: Can the trainer present that information in a format so it can be understood and retained?
2.) Know the audience. Any trainer who has some familiarity with federal safety regulations can create PowerPoint slides and present them to employees. Yet, few trainers understand the adult learning theories and methodologies that make a training program relevant. Without relevancy, it is doubtful learners remember the information and can apply it when the need arises.
    Training adult workers requires an understanding of their psychological makeup and how they learn. It also entails an understanding of the company’s specific audience and its safety training needs.
3.) Know how to present the material. Remember a professor in college who was a really poor teacher – someone who stood behind the podium and read word for word from overheads or notes? Remember a really good professor – someone who understood the material and knew how to present it so the students could relate?

Again, training goes beyond general public speaking experience to expertise in adult learning theory and methods.

Retention and Application
With safety training, more than any other area of training, it is vital for students to retain the material. Someone’s life may depend on it. To be retainable, material must be:

• Relevant – The adult learner must be able to relate the material – text, narration and accompanying visuals – to his or her life and work experiences.
• Visually stimulating – If it does not captivate the learners, they won’t pay attention and won’t remember.
• Interactive – A student who simply reads page after page is not engaged in the material and therefore won’t be able to apply it. At best, he or she will memorize the text, regurgitate it during a test and then soon forget. Interactive material presents questions about information that will be covered later in the session to keep the learner involved and thinking. Reading and memorization are for the short-term. Thinking and application ensure long-term certainty of application.
• Presented in a time frame that does not exceed the learner’s attention span – Learners’ attention span is finite and varies from individual to individual. For example, most people generally only retain about 20 minutes of a one-hour lecture. A self-paced learning model, such as Web-based training, offers the flexibility that is not available in an instructor-led forum. It lets students learn at their own pace so that workers with different attention spans can complete the lessons at their own speed.

Choosing a Web-based Program
Not all Web-based training programs are created alike. The best programs meet the aforementioned requirements. Then, before selecting a program, ask these key questions:

• Does the curriculum engage the learner and is it interactive?
• What is the time frame to complete the training?
• How is the material organized for the learner?
• How is the learner tested on the material? For example, if quiz questions are always in the same order, a student can copy the answers for a buddy.
• What exactly does the program include?
• What record-keeping capability does it offer?
• What flexibility does it offer for scheduling the training?
• What kind of documentation and technical support is available and how easy is it for the trainer to access support and information?
• Is the program customizable?
• Does the program have a communication tool that allows students to reach out to trainers with questions?
• What type of reports can trainers obtain from the system?
• Does the program include OSHA curricula?
• How transparent is the pricing model? If technical support costs extra, how clearly are the additional charges expressed in the contract? How flexible is the provider in working with the company on financial arrangements?
• What kind of termination clause is built into the agreement should the purchaser wish to cancel the service?   

Today’s technologies make it easy for any company to set up a Web-based training application with little trouble or cost. Before committing to a purchase, investigate the vendor’s reputation. How long has the company been in business? If it develops its own curricula, what is the origin of the content, and what is its technical accuracy? Was the content specifically developed to be appropriate for the target audience? Who developed the content and what are their credentials in the area of adult learning methodology?

Obviously weak, inaccurate or misleading content is unacceptable because misinformation can be life threatening. That is why a provider that specializes in safety training often offers superior knowledge and accuracy to a company that provides other aspects of business training.

The Right Decision
It may be quick and inexpensive to create some PowerPoint slides and present them to a room full of employees. When it comes to safety, though, inexpensive training does not save money in the long term.    

A higher up-front investment in Web-based training developed by experts in adult learning methodology and safety will provide better ROI in terms of fewer accidents and lower workers’ compensation premiums.

Making the best decisions in the selection of training programs also pays off for the many company safety professionals whose bonuses are tied to the performance of company safety programs. It may not be possible to have instructors tailor and administer programs to students one-on-one, but Web-based training that lets each student learn at his or her own pace comes very close to the ideal.

Bryan Hornik is sales director for Summit Training Source Inc., which is a resource for environmental, health and safety training solutions. For further information, call 800-842-0466 or visit www.safetyontheweb.com.