Making Learning Green: It's Easier Than You Think

In the current global economy, training departments are undoubtedly being asked to do more with a reduced budget and a smaller staff. On top of that, you and your organization may be in the midst of finding ways to implement corporate mandates on greening your processes. How can you and your organization meet your objectives while operating a new, resource-strapped reality, all while doing your part to help the environment? While this may seem daunting, there are some relatively simple changes (and some larger ones) you can make that will make an immediate impact to your productivity and overall costs while reducing your carbon footprint.

eLearning vs. The Classroom

While eLearning has been around for well over a decade, face-to-face classroom training has statistically remained the delivery vehicle of choice for learning organizations. In fact, in 2007, more than 60% of trainings occurred in the classroom. So the question remains, why in this era of what industry experts and analysts have coined eLearning 2.0, does the physical classroom remain the venue of choice for todays trainers? Is it a matter of comfort or is there really something about the in-person interaction that makes learning more effective?

When deciding on whether to conduct a training in-person or online, the financial and environmental costs of traditional classroom training are taken into account.

I dont want to get into a long-winded discussion of the pros and cons of web-based versus classroom training, and we all know that there will always be a need and a place for live classroom training. But recent studies have shown that eLearning has proven more effective than classroom training because it forces students to become active, as much of the onus for learning is placed squarely on their shoulders. This model keeps motivated learners engaged. They are able to go through the material at their own pace and learners can complete trainings at a fraction of the cost of going through the same training in a classroom setting. Another benefit of eLearning is its ability to enable just-in-time training allowing your organization to be more nimble and respond to emerging trends more quickly. Trying to use eLearning as much as possible just makes sense, especially when the cost-benefits (and the corresponding environmental benefits) of Web-based Training (WBT) are so vast when compared to traditional classroom training.

An appropriate metaphor here is that of the printed newspaper. I'm sure many of us never imagined a time when a printed newspaper arriving daily on our doorstep would be obsolete, and yet, here were are in 2009 and century-old newspapers are folding or laying off large percentages of their workforce. How have we arrived here? Well it's clear that we have we have reached a tipping point where internet-based technology has surpassed its paper-based cousin, and the real-time, searchable, and free access to information provided by the Web has started to inevitably take hold. Could we be reaching a similar tipping point in learning? Is your organization ready to meet the demands and expectations of an increasingly internet-savvy workforce? Can you really increase the overall effectiveness and productivity of your training department while reducing your carbon footprint at the same time? Does it sound too good to be true?

eLearning: How its Green

A move to eLearning will not only reduce overall costs but is inherently green. By moving a training session online, you instantly reduce the largest contributor to your carbon footprint, travel. You may not have actually taken the time to calculate the carbon emissions produced from travel to-and-from classroom training, but the results are significant. To illustrate this, let's create a real-world scenario in which an organization is running an annual 3-day training session for a 20 person sales team. We'll evaluate the cost and environmental savings garnered from running the training online versus in person.

Travel
Let's say on average , each sales person must travel an average 2,500 mile roundtrip (a roundtrip from New York to Los Angeles is 5,000 miles). Cumulatively, to get all 20 learners to the same physical location, produces 22 tons of CO2 emissions. This is equivalent to the average American's entire average yearly output of carbon dioxide emissions. Whats more is that the world average per capita is about 6 tons. So by holding that training session in-person, you are significantly increasing the carbon footprint of everyone involved. And this is not even calculating the cost-benefit savings of not having to purchase plane tickets for each student.

Facility Rental/Maintenance
Whether you are renting a physical space such as a hotel or conference center to run your training event or using a company-maintained training center to run your training, there is inevitably costs, financial and environmental, associated with this approach. If it is an event where you or your learners are required to travel, there are also the financial and environment costs associated with the accommodations to consider. A classroom that holds about 20 learners and is occupied during the week from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. would generate 1.7 tons of CO2 in an average climate, mainly due to cooling and heating. According to Greenlodge.org, the average hotel stay generates 44 pounds per person per night. When calculating the costs of an eLearning versus traditional approach this aspect often gets left out but which should definitely be part of the equation.

Printed Materials
Another aspect of classroom training that is particularly harmful to the environment is the printing out of classroom materials. How many times have you ordered the binder containing a complete set of slides, printed 2 per page or if youve received such a binder from a training sessions, how many times have you referred back to the binder? The learning guides for Connect Pro training comes in two volumes, and include a total of approximately 300 pieces of paper (which are at least printed double-sided). Now multiply that by 20, one for each student, and that's a lot of paper. With technologies like Adobe PDF and collaborative services like the Share application on Acrobat.com, is there a reason to continue with this model is a better model. Making these resources available online has many benefits. First of all, learners can access them on demand from any PC, so if they are at home or away on travel, they can still have access to the information. Secondly, the resources become searchable, so if you are looking for a specific tidbit that you vaguely remember from the training, you dont have to flip through pages and pages to try to find it, but you can just type in a keyword and the PDF returns the page number instantly to you. Finally, if a learner does want a print out of a set of steps to achieve a specific workflow for example, they can print out that single page and save on the other 299 that they would have otherwise. The reduction in printing costs as well as the positive impact to the environment are obvious here.

Tips for Green Learning

By this point, I hope that you agree that incorporating green practices into your learning mix does not have to be cost prohibitive or require a lot of effort. I'll conclude with some tips and tricks that you can practice in your every day job that will help reduce your bottom line while helping the environment.

Run course pre-requisites as on-demand eLearning. Before entering a class you may want all of your learners to be at the same starting point. A great way to achieve this is to create an on demand course using Adobe Presenter or Captivate online that learners must complete before attending a live session (either in a physical or virtual classroom). For some learners this will inevitably be a review, and they can go through this material relatively quickly and therefore won't have become unengaged as they sit through review topics. For other learners, this will provide an opportunity to work at their own pace and come to the training armed with questions and specific areas where they might need assistance. So even if you want to continue to conduct live classroom training, you might be able to reduce the training time from two days to one.

Ask Yourself, Could this Be Done Virtually? In their infancy, virtual classroom technologies provided a sub-par experience and due to a lack of engagement options, often resulted in learners checking email and minimizing the classroom window into the task bar. But these technologies have advanced such that they not only mimic many of the strengths of classroom training, but in fact, present new possibilities for instruction. For example, you could bring a Captviate-authored soft skills simulation into the meeting and allow attendees to navigate through the scenario collaboratively by talking through the various steps. Add to the fact that youll likely be able to attract a larger audience for your trainings with travel budgets dwindling, justifying the costs of traveling for training is becoming harder and harder.

Consider Using Digital Resources and Materials. For all the reasons mentioned aboveanytime/anywhere access, searchability, etc. you should strongly consider using digital resources and materials in classroom training. Distribute learning guides as downloadable PDFs, run assessments online using Presenter, Captivate, or some other quiz authoring tool, provide learners with digital note taking tools.

Offer Carbon Offsets to Learners. When offering in person training, provide learners with the ability to purchase carbon offsets This one may seem a bit out there, but this is becoming more and more common place and recently the San Francisco Airport implemented a program where travelers flying to SFO could purchase green energy credits in the airport to offset the carbon emissions of their flight. People want to be green, but it has to be easy and convenient.

Track Your Carbon Savings and Map to Cost Savings. One key element of going green is tracking your carbon savings and the associated costs savings. If you can demonstrate to your management how moving more of your trainings to eLearning has helped the bottom line and helped you achieve green initiatives, a promotion is likely not far away. While measuring carbon emissions can be a slippery slope, there are some great tools out there than can help you do this with rigor.

Learning Emissions Calculator
http://learningfootprint.com/calculate.html
Calculator to help you determine your learning footprint by entering in simple data such as travel distances, paper used, etc.

MIT Design Advisor
http://designadvisor.mit.edu/design/
Tool to help you calculate your carbon footprint for maintaining and using your training facility.

Green Learning Calculator
http://www.globallearningsystems.com/greenlearning/
This tools helps you determine your cost and carbon savings for doing training online versus in person.

Moving from a classroom training model to an eLearning model is not an easy shift, but in the end, incorporating eLearning technologies into your bag of tricks, and making a commitment to using them when appropriate is a winning proposition, for your bottom line and for the Earth.