In order to maintain efficiency in your organization, it's essential that your training program help your developers to address user needs and coding challenges. With all of the different training options available, it can sometimes be overwhelming to decide what is essential and what will best contribute to the growth and development of your team.
Here, we explore some of the top IT education trends for 2015. These approaches to education are not only easy to implement, but they are also affordable and practical for smaller training teams with limited budgets.
Virtual Classroom Training.
A virtual classroom differs from other eLearning environments in that it goes beyond just offering pre-recorded content. This IT education solution offers learners the benefits of having access to a trained and experienced instructor, while still maintaining the flexibility and convenience of online learning. This option helps you to increase the efficiency of your training program by offering students the ability to get instant feedback and advice from a real instructor.
Social Media.
Whether you are providing live or online training, social networking sites, blogs, and discussion forums are great supplement to any formal curriculum. Using these methods encourages learners to build relationships with instructors and the companies that train them. By interacting with these organizations on social platforms, learners are better able to communicate and receive support during the training process and after the training process. Social media outlets such as Twitter and LinkedIn are also great for sharing relevant literature and other supplemental material.
Live Instruction as an eLearning Supplement.
No one can deny the growing popularity of eLearning and with so many resources available, it's hard to deny the viability of this option when it comes to IT training. However, you can't overlook the success of blended training programs that incorporate both live and online content. With so many experiencing such great results from this hybrid approach, it suggests that many people respond best to learning in an environment that lessens the distance between instructor and student. When face-to-face instruction is not feasible, you can use technologies such as Google Hangouts to retain the interactive element of the live classroom. There are many free resources that allow instructors and learners to communicate face-to-face, offering developers the opportunity to receive answers to their questions instantly.
Stay Current with Development Languages.
In order to remain competitive, it is essential that IT training programs address industry trends. Here are some programming skills that continue to be essential for developers:
- Java - Java has become an in-demand language for many software developers due to its use in Android development. Java is one of the leading mobile development languages and demand for this language increases as our use of mobile technologies grows.
- JavaScript - There are an increasing number of new web applications that depend on JavaScript. As device independent apps continue to gain popularity, JavaScript becomes an increasingly important skill to learn.
- Objective C - As the language for those who wish to develop applications for Apple products, the demand for developers that know Objective C continues to increase.
- Python - Python is not only a very efficient programming language, but one of the easiest to learn, making it ideal for new developers.
If you are looking for ways to make your training program more efficient and effective, consider implementing some of the trends discussed here. The great thing about these suggestions is that they are not difficult to implement or incorporate into already existing training programs.
Above all, it's important that you build a customized training program that works for your organization's unique needs.
