Changing dynamics of online certifications

What to choose from online or offline learning? This is a tough question to answer. Everyone and everything has gone online after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. Children are studying online, people are working online, meetings are being held online, and, even the judiciary in many countries are conducting their trials online. 

In the upskilling space, there are quite a few companies for professionals as well. Consumers of these online courses are also often seen to drop out of their journey midway and many don’t even start them in the first place. 

According to several studies conducted, the average completion rate for any online course was barely very less. Many people sign up for them but start to lose interest some way along the road. 

The major reason for these dropouts is because often there are just recorded videos upload of these courses. These companies are simply selling packaged hardware so to say. The end results are, well, not the greatest when these practices are put into place at companies.  

Even though a lot of companies might be claiming these days that there has seen a surge of interest in people signing up for online courses in the last year but that is just because people are cooped up at home and have nothing to do. Hoping that people will continue to learn even when COVID-19 has gone many companies are giving away their courses for free. 

There is also an argument going on favouring that people don’t have to complete 100% of their online courses. It says there is no need for them to invest their time and resources to complete the whole course they will derive all the benefits they want from the course by even half of the of course completion. But in countries, where certifications and grades play a very important role in the hiring process and even promotions, this is not enough. There is a need for a certification that proves you are capable of doing it correctly.

So do we have to believe that India can’t be taught online? No that’s not true at all, as India has to be taught ‘live’ online. The best-case scenario will be taking the benefits of offline training like individual attention, face to face doubt clearing, and combining them with the online ease of efficiency. In online learning, there is no travel and massive savings on rent and resources. In the coming future, it will be the blend of online and offline learning that will work the best for everyone.

Having trainers fly out to respective organisations for conducting offline sessions is another method to approach this. These sessions can be recorded and used as a library for any future doubts. Having a separate session for doubts and clarifications at a later date is also a good idea. This is how an Israeli-American IT firm with a back office in West India functions. 

Companies providing online courses these days really have to understand that people signing up to upskill have to be really driven for completing the course. A mandate should be issued to the employees by their heads to get certified.