What is instructor-led training? Plus its pros and cons

Even in this digital age, not all corporate training has moved online; instructor-led training or ILT remains a popular and common choice.

ILT is simply classroom training with a live instructor and learners in the room together. The classroom does not have to be a physical classroom; there is, of course, a digital twist — virtual classrooms.

Actual and virtual classrooms both offer synchronous learning, which means the instructor and learners are present at the same time. A virtual classroom, though, is online, using digital conferencing, webinar, or learning management system technology to provide everyone access.

An ILT can consist of a large group of learners or a small group; the teaching approach can be lecture or interactive. The defining characteristic is not the content or the approach but the simultaneous presence of an instructor and learners.

Pros and Cons of ILT

Instructor-led training has the advantage of an expert instructor available to learners during their sessions. Often, corporate ILT sessions are half- or full-day classes or workshops, giving learners focused time immersed in studying a topic. They can ask questions, get immediate feedback, and engage with the instructor and colleagues as they learn and work on projects.

The main drawback, though, is the cost. It can be expensive to bring expert instructors to teach on site or to take experts away from their work within the organization to prepare and teach classes. Workers, too, are taken away from their work for the duration of the learning.

Logistics can be a challenge as well; scheduling an instructor and ensuring that all the learners who need to course can be available at once is not easy!

Supporting ILT with Digital Tools

Classroom teachers don’t live in an analog cave, though. Instructor-led training can be enhanced and enriched with the use of digital tools. Consider:

• Leveraging your learning management system (LMS) to schedule courses, enroll learners, and send reminders
• Using your LMS to host supporting content, including curated content that learners can use to prepare for the ILT and support learning during and after it
• Creating microlearning that introduces core concepts and terms ahead of the ILT, so the expert instructor can focus on higher-level concepts and processes
• Deploying a knowledge retention campaign after the ILT to reinforce the learning and ensure that learners retain and apply what they’ve learned

These suggestions veer into the territory of blended learning solutions, a related concept that takes advantage of multiple approaches to learning.