Is Patience Really a Virtue?

November 25, 2008

We all know the saying “Patience is a virtue”, but that completely depends on the context in which it is being used. In such a fast-paced world, people have less time to sit around and wait for things to happen. Instead, they go for the gold themselves, and they take control of their destiny rather than waiting for it to fall into their laps. This is especially true in the online world. The internet gives the user complete control of the content in which they delve into, and as long as we have a keyboard, the ball is in our court. When is the last time you opened up your browser and sat there waiting for a website to start loading without typing a single word? Exactly! People don’t just sit around and wait for things to happen. When it comes to taking online training courses of any kind, people should be in complete control of when they decide to do things, and at the pace that they want to do them. You can’t tell people that they have 10 minutes to complete a test or else they will fail. This is a training course, and remember, there are many reasons why people should be allowed to learn at their own pace. Here are just a few for consideration:

• You can’t expect people to read and type at exactly the same rate, so why do they have to train at the same rate? it’s not fair!
• What happens if there is a knock at the door, or what if the phone rings? are you going to say too bad so sad? no! that’s not fair!
• What happens if nature calls? do you expect the individual to suffer the consequences of holding it in? no! let them do their business!

And the list goes on. The moral of this article is that if you are offering an online training course, you have to respect the users space, time, and individual differences. You may be able to establish what they learn, but you have to understand that you are in no position to dictate how they learn! It’s a training course! Sure, it may be important to recommend endurance training tips, or set out particular time constraints that they may have to face while they write the real exams later on, but while they are learning the material, let them do what works best for them. Then you can start timing them according to the standards of the exams in question. Applications have all the patience in the world. They won’t fuss or complain, but your customers will if you can’t let them take control of their learning environment.