Most of us have visited or have at least heard of YouTube, the popular video hosting web site that is sweeping the Internet. This site allows people from all over the world to post public domain videos for the whole world to see, comment on and share. And it is just one of several video hosting sites now gaining popularity on the Web, with other sites like Google Video (beta) and Yahoo! Video also becoming more well known and prominent.

What you may not realize is that these Internet-enabled video sites may actually provide a great resource for enhancing your personal and organizational knowledge related to IT and software skills training, with much of this training available for free. These sites may allow your people to acquire desired skills and competencies more quickly, and in a fun and convenient manner. (Recent studies on adult learning theory indicate that adult learners often learn best when receiving information in small, “digestible” packets in an informal setting, with information they can immediately use and repeat.) But there is a catch to this available, free training resource (more on that later).

This free training resource comes as a result of the rapidly growing archive of user-submitted videos now populating and propagating the Web. With the rise of the web-based video streaming services and sites, a rapid proliferation of content is now under way—much of this content developed by amateurs, but some also developed by more experienced training and performance professionals. And some of this content is specifically related to skills training, including IT and software training.

A quick search on YouTube, Google Video (beta), and Yahoo! Video found literally hundreds of short training videos when using the search phrase “Microsoft Outlook.” So, if you, or a member of your staff were trying to learn how to do something in Outlook, there is a pretty good chance someone has created a little video on exactly what you are looking for. Most of these videos, due to the server and file-size limitations enacted by the service providers, are only a few minutes long, and tend to focus on only one or two simple skills/actions related to the software. Per what we discussed above, this is exactly the kind of training that best works for an adult learner—focused, quick, and immediately usable. Plus, you can play these videos over and over if you so desire, also giving you repetition, which also enhances adult retention.

As a training provider, I, too, have jumped on the bandwagon by creating my own YouTube channel (username: janarandydean) with several short audios and videos on how to better manage your e-mail account. I’m planning to add several more MS Outlook-specific skills tutorials over coming months as a way to enhance value for my client base. Posting videos is still primarily a free service, and may be a great way for some companies to create additional value for their employees, clients and customers at a very low cost.

There is always a catch

There are actually two “catches” when it comes to this free training resource: quality and time.  First, because these audio and video files are being generated on an ad hoc, uncoordinated basis by multiple different providers, the quality of the training tends to be highly inconsistent. Some are very high quality in terms of content and production, while others are obviously quite amateurish. And that leads to catch number two—time. It usually takes some time to surf through the different videos out there to find ones that actually provide the desired skill training in an appropriately professional format. If I were a company’s internal training manager, and a staff member requested quick how to training on a very specific action/task, I’d probably check these video services to see if something pops up, but I’d also likely preview the videos myself before sending the staffer to them. In addition, I certainly wouldn’t want my staff actively surfing YouTube looking for training content, as they might “accidentally” get distracted into viewing some of the more spurious content on these sites.

Nonetheless, there actually are some pretty good little training snippets on YouTube, Google, and Yahoo!, and I do recommend people (and especially training managers/coordinators) at least see what is out there. Especially for smaller firms and very specific software training requests, these free video training spots might be just the tool to help you and your company reach the next performance level in a cost-effective and somewhat enjoyable manner.

		Randy Dean, The “Totally Obsessed” Time Management & E-mail Guy (www.randalldean.com),is a locally- based national and international speaker and trainer on the topics of time management, e-mail sanity, and related use of technology.  The author of the book, Major Satisfactors = Major Success, Randy is currently at work on a second book on his strategies for effectively managing your e-mail.