Why live-streamed learning offers more than just convenience

Online learning is now more accessible than ever. From bite-sized courses to digital training, informative content is available at the click of a button. Statistics show that a significant number of employees have hybrid working arrangements or working from home plans in place, meaning they can make the most of being able to learn from home.

Live-streamed learning offers employees and employers alike many benefits: this blog post considers some of these.

Saving on expenses

Online learning allows workers to take part in interesting courses from the comfort of their own homes. Through live-streamed courses and webinars, participants also save on the costs of fuel necessary to commute to a venue, and also on the subsistence costs (for meals, accommodation, parking charges, tolls and more) associated with travelling for work purposes. Research carried out by Totaljobs showed that the average employee in the UK devotes 400 days of their life to commuting, with employees spending an average of £146 a month on their commute. Live-streamed learning helps to reduce this cost, allowing workers to learn from home or an environment comfortable for them.

Employers also save, too – having employees learn from home means less money spent on office facilities such as electricity, water, food and heating. In the long run, this means considerable savings can be made for the business.

More environmentally friendly

Live-streamed learning also helps to reduce emissions from car travel. Employees are able to learn from home, meaning they can partake in online training in comfortable and familiar surroundings.

Home learning helps offices conserve energy and minimise their environmental impact. Additionally, studies have suggested that employees working from home and participating in live-streamed learning adopt more sustainable waste practices, including recycling more.

Online learning from home often has mixed impacts on energy usage, as this is greatly affected by each employee’s unique characteristics (for example, climate change awareness and personal wealth), home set-up and even geographical factors, such as location and season. Businesses making use of live-streamed learning should take care to account for sustainability issues pertaining to energy and residential emissions.

Certain tools and initiatives can be used effectively by employers to promote green behaviour amongst online learners. Designing sustainable learning from home policies will help workers to minimise their carbon footprint and reduce waste.

Real time interaction

Live-streamed learning allows participants to communicate and interact in real time. Workers are able to collaborate across locations and generate networks composed of like-minded professionals where ideas can be shared and queries can be discussed. Real time interactions allow for the widening of horizons and the promotion of employee productivity.

Flexible options

Another advantage associated with live-streamed learning is an employee having the flexibility to learn at their own pace and at a time when is most convenient to them. Greater flexibility allows workers to learn when it suits them and reduces the risk of employee burnout. Learning online from the comfort of your own home also helps to promote a healthy work-life balance, minimising stress and fatigue.

Personalised feedback

Online learning can aid the course presenter in tailoring their content based off of learner interaction and course feedback. This helps to improve online courses for future participants and ensure that the content is targeting the right audience.

Presenters may wish to create and send out satisfaction surveys to course participants in order to ascertain where they can improve and how well elements of the course worked.

How we can help you

Mercia offers a wide range of live-streamed courses covering topics such as bookkeeping, audit, ESG and international tax. For more information, please visit our website.