Survey: Most Plan to Increase Virtual Learning in 2013

San Francisco, Calif. — Dec. 13

ON24 Inc., a webcasting and virtual event services firm, announced the findings of its survey of more than 3,000 registrants of the Virtual Learning Edge, a virtual conference dedicated to virtual learning.

As high as 91 percent of HR and training professionals plan to increase the use of virtual training in 2013, and 33 percent even said they would be increasing use by more than 25 percent.

The biggest benefits noted were reduced travel time (83 percent), more convenient (83 percent), more cost effective (79 percent), easier to involve company experts (52 percent), higher participation rates (43 percent) and more consistent training (38 percent).

ON24 conducts research evaluating virtual training perceptions and adoption on an ongoing basis, and this most recent survey revealed what HR and training professionals think about virtual training, as well as their use of it in 2012 and plans for the future.

Moreover, the survey found that 81 percent believe compliance training is best suited for a virtual environment, followed by:

• Customer/Product Training – 64 percent.
• On-boarding – 62 percent.
• Administration – 57 percent.
• Sales Training – 48 percent.
• IT Training – 41 percent.

When asked which characteristics matter most in a virtual trainer, the top answer was effective user of quizzes, polls and social media (88 percent), followed by:

• Facilitation skills – 83 percent.
• Voice inflection – 74 percent.
• Good with technology – 69 percent.
• Topic matter expertise – 60 percent.
• Funny – 50 percent.

The survey was fielded among a broad range of industries, including banking/finance/insurance (19 percent), technology (17 percent) and health care, government and education (each roughly 10 percent).

Source: ON24 Inc.