In recent years there has been a shift from classroom-based to online security awareness training. Although some of the shift is attributable to the social distancing requirements of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is noticeable that many organizations have not returned to classroom environments to deliver security awareness training having witnessed the benefits of providing training online.
This article discusses seven benefits of online security awareness training. Not all will apply to every organization, while other organizations may find more than seven benefits. If you would like to find out more about how online security awareness training could benefit your organization, do not hesitate to get in touch to request a free demo of SafeTitan´s security awareness training platform.
1. Online Training is Easier to Organize
Organizing large groups of employees to be in a classroom at the same time can be an administrative nightmare. Who is late? Who is absent? Who needs to leave early to attend a meeting? Who needs more training than time is available to provide? With online training, system administrators can remotely send training modules to each employee for them to complete in their own time.
2. The Completion of Training is Quantifiable
The completion of each module is recorded via a simple acknowledgement or the modules can have a quiz attached to them for employees to answer. This enables system administrators to see not only who has completed each training module, but also how much of the information has been absorbed in order to assess whether more training is required and on what subject(s).
3. Online Security Awareness Training Can be More Specialized
While it is not impossible to provide specialized security awareness training in a classroom environment, online security awareness training can be delivered by group or department according to their roles and any unique threats they may encounter. This may be particularly relevant for employees working in finance or with escalated administrator privileges.
4. Online Training Can Reach Remote Workforces
With classroom training, workforces in satellite offices or in the field may have to take considerably more time away from producing for the organization to attend training. Alternatively, organizations may have to send trainers and training materials out to remote workforces. Online security awareness training overcomes these issues by standardizing training across the whole workforce.
5. Micro-Training has Higher Retention Rates
It is difficult to find unbiased sources that prove online training has higher retention rates than classroom training; however, there is evidence to suggest that micro-training – which is only realistically providable via online training – is more effective for information retention due to the average adult having a maximum attention span of around twenty minutes.
6. Online Training Supports Greater Interaction
Interaction with the content of any security awareness training can help trainees better understand the content of the training, put it into context, and apply it in their daily roles. Due to the nature of online security awareness training, there are more opportunities for interactive training via (for example) videos, quizzes, and simulated phishing tests.
7. The Success of Online Training is Measurable
Online training platforms such as SafeTitan include enterprise level reporting that demonstrate behavioral change and how this has improved organizational security. From these metrics, it is possible to calculate a monetary return for the investment in online security awareness training and facilitate informed decisions about security moving forward.
As mentioned previously, if you would like to know more about SafeTitan online security awareness training, do not hesitate to get in touch.