Online Learning vs In-Class Education and Everything In-Between

When you’re learning to be a professional coach, what’s the best way to study? Is traditional in-class learning the way to go? Online learning? The answer seems to be ‘yes’ to both.  

Traditional Learning for Coaches

“Some people just aren’t comfortable unless they can see a face,” says Richard Hyams, Erickson’s Faculty Lead and Senior Instructor. “They prefer a more traditional approach and want to be physically in the room with other people. They want to be part of a community they can immediately relate to.” They thrive on a kind of structure to learning that they had when they were growing up. The classroom environment and tracking progress follows well-trod pathways.  

Certainly, that’s a big plus for in-class learning – but there’s a flip-side to that coin.  

Online Learning for Coaches

“When coaching students are online, they’re getting comfortable with doing their job without seeing a face – and that’s important because in the real world of coaching, that’s how you may be interacting with your clients,” Hyams says. “Most coaches today are coaching over the phone. During the training, you’re re-learning how to communicate. You’re learning to listen and pick up cues in the tone of voice, pauses and other aspects of what coaches call ‘global listening’. That’s an important skill to develop because you need to really hear what they’re saying if you’re going to help them.”  

As for building community among your fellow coaches, traditional classroom learning might not have as big an edge anymore over online learning. “The truth is that the online program is highly interactive and you’ve got a good level of community-building through team projects, team blog writing and other kinds of group work.”  

Online learning’s biggest draw is for students who want to learn at their own pace because they may not be able to schedule travel or get away from paid work.  

On the fence about which learning method works better for you? Good news: you don’t have to choose one or the other.  

Hybrid Learning for Coaches

A hybrid approach offers the best of both worlds – and we’ve found that many of Erickson’s professional coaching students prefer it this way. For instance, they may decide to take two of five modules in the classroom, while saving the other three for online learning. “This flexible approach is one more reason students are able to stay engaged,” Hyams says. “That helps people to maintain their attendance and stick with it.”  

Ultimately, how much education programs offer online learning versus traditional in-class, on-site teaching will be up to the results that programs deliver. How well are we producing people who are strong at their chosen calling? Colleges are increasingly looking beyond course assessments to longer term results – and the first graduating classes of a fast-evolving program will help fine-tune education programs for a long time to come.