Overhead transparencies, flip charts and computer displays provide the media for display. The students sit quietly, inactively listening. After the break, which takes longer than scheduled with some students returning to class tardy, the lecture resumes. There may be a few questions, but mostly it is just the teacher trying to be active. Some people take notes, some appear to be sleeping and others are listening with glazed eyes.
Most organizations equate employee development with classroom training.
Even though some of these lectures have migrated to the Internet, there often is little improvement in the amount of student involvement or in the efficiency of getting the key messages to the learner. On top of all this, it is difficult to show how classroom education relates to the business outcomes of the firm. Too much time and money is spent trying to justify and prove that there were benefits from the classroom activity. I have seen or been invited to more than 10 conferences in the past year that purported to help do this. The conclusion drawn by any business person is that either there are so few benefits that it takes high level detective work to find them, or that most of this activity is futile.