Web-based learning gains more converts: log on and learn--that's a mantra more and more financial professionals have been repeating. Web-based tools make sense in many ways and many settings. But don't expect live learning to disappear soon.

There's no denying it: Paul Regan is a huge fan of Web-based learning.

As president of Hemming Morse, a San Francisco-based forensic accounting firm, Regan likes the convenience of online education as a resource both for himself and for the 100 certified public accountants employed at his organization. "All of our folks require 80 hours of continuing professional education," he says. And, because of the online education alternative, he adds, "As you get close to the renewal period, you don't have to think about flying to San Diego or Los Angeles. This is something you can do at home."

Then there is the "connectivity" feature, the ability to find supplemental information with a few mouse clicks. "As recently as last October," he says, "I was taking an ethics course online. And I was able to go to the regulation. And then I saw a reference to litigation--and I was able to read the case."

And, finally, Regan appreciates the ability to concentrate on the task at hand without being diverted by members of a disruptive audience. "The last time I took an ethics course," he says, "there were two or three people who dominated the discussions with personal, in-depth questions that didn't interest me. When you're online, there isn't that annoyance."

Regan's experience is becoming the norm. He is representative of a rapidly expanding universe of financial and accounting professionals who are enthusiastically embracing Web-based continuing professional education.

In just the last six years, says Joseph Gibbons, the Boston-based, national director of education and development at Deloitte Services LP, the firm's training regimen has gone to a 50-50 mix of live and virtual training, up from 90 percent live and 10 percent Web-based in 2001. Back then, "we mainly used online training as a pre-work tool before a conference," Gibbons says. "That way, we were able to do some level-setting and didn't have to remediate people at the live session."

Since then, the menu of programs Deloitte offers online has expanded exponentially. Driving the trend at Deloitte and elsewhere is the convergence of innovative developments in technology coupled with steadily rising demand. At Deloitte, for example, the events of 9/11 served as a wake-up call. "All of a sudden, we couldn't fly anyone anywhere," Gibbons says. "But we still had to train people. So we moved them into a virtual classroom."

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More User-Friendly

With technological advances, online education is increasingly more sophisticated, interesting and user-friendly. Program providers are rapidly adding a range of interactivity features that enhance the electronic learning ("e-learning") experience. In real time, virtual participants are logging into webcast seminars where they can participate in a poll, ask questions of the instructor--"you raise your virtual hand," says Charles Gillette, president and CEO of Knowledge Anywhere, a Seattle online learning company--or engage in group discussions following the program.

"Say you're the chief financial officer at a drug company," says Gillette. "You can look at the list of participants and click on 'Joe' over at Eli Lilly and ask him a question." Or, he adds, a participant at a large company might see somebody with whom he or she might want to communicate. "If I'm working in finance at a big company like Daimler Chrysler in Detroit, I can email someone else in finance at the company in another city. This allows experts to come together."

David Celmins, vice president of business development at Corpedia Inc., a Phoenix consulting and training firm that specializes in ethics training, says that with improved graphics and design, otherwise dry material can be spruced up. "Even if the material is not the most exciting, it can be enlivened and enhanced with multi-media," he says.

The ever-expanding promulgation of rules and regulations by oversight bodies is also spurring the growth of online learning programs, says Jack Fingerhut, president of SmartPros, a leading vendor to big accounting firms. Complex laws, such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, spur rule-making bodies like the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a raft of new regulations, which need to be explained and understood.

Moreover, government continues to introduce new rule-making authorities, such as the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), with whom companies must stay in compliance.

Meanwhile, Fingerhut says, the sheer number of professional credentials that require renewal or re-certification continue to proliferate. In the accounting field alone, CPA certification requires the regular completion of education credits. But, Fingerhut notes, so do certified management accountants (CMAs), certified internal auditors (CIAs) and certified fraud examiners (CFEs).

"This has become an important driver for more and more programs," he says, adding: "There's also a demand for more ways to deliver information to people."

Corporate scandals that involve accounting shenanigans and financial skullduggery, as well as the increased risk of litigation arising from sexual harassment and employee discrimination in the workplace, have also triggered a need for legal and ethical education. Business organizations are increasingly striving to foster corporate cultures that curtail risky behavior and embrace best practices.

"Companies are required to have ethics and legal programs in place to protect themselves," says Celmins, the Phoenix consultant. "In the event of a lawsuit," he adds, "they want to show that it was a rogue employee and not a systemic problem" that brought on the litigation.

Fraud Courses Popular

The post-Enron era also has business organizations and professionals clamoring for more expertise in the detection, prevention and deterrence of financial fraud, prompting many more professionals to specialize in the field. For CPAs to renew their licenses in California, says Kevin Taparauskas, director of marketing and events at the Austin, Texas-based Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), a portion of their education credits must be earned in fraud-related subjects.

In response, says Taparauskas, the ACFE has been growing "at a 12 to 15 percent clip over the last five years, with a 90 percent retention rate, while a lot of other trade associations are just treading water." But it has only been in the last two years that the organization has begun to offer online seminars--or "Webinars"--to its membership. Members are required to earn 20 hours of credits to maintain CPE certification.

"One of the advantages is that the faculty member can be anywhere with an Internet connection," says Taparauskas. "And attendees can log in from anywhere. Now, we're reaching more of our membership than ever before."

In the last several years, the workplace has seen an influx of tech-savvy graduates who have spent their formative and college years mastering computer skills, which means that they expect the world to be presented online. "There's been a huge growth in online programs" at the college and post-graduate levels, says Pam Lowry, an expert in instructional technology at Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, Mich. "Students do synchronous learning--which means that they can log on to presentations together and work at the same time, employing voice, video and white-boarding--which involves writing virtually," Lowry says.

"And they are doing asynchronous work," she adds, explaining that "this means that they can access a program at any time." (For her part, Lowry says that she recently conducted a Web-based class during the semester while on a working vacation in Anna Maria Island, off the west coast of Florida.)

Online education isn't cheap, yet it's a bargain compared to the costs for a live program, says Deloitte's Gibbons. He reckons that when travel, hotel and training expenses are toted up, it costs roughly $1,000 per person, per day, to conduct a live seminar. That compares with $5,000-$25,000 per hour to develop training materials for an online educational program--meaning that it can cost as much as $150,000 to produce a single six-hour program for one person.

At first glance, that online program might look a trifle pricey. But the per-person, daily costs are deceptive. Once it is completed, the Web-based program can be archived and downloaded to anyone with a personal computer. And it can be transferred to a CD-ROM or DVD disk, which means there is no additional cost. Thus, whether it's shown to one person or 10,000, the cost is $150,000.

For the live, in-person presentation, however, the $1,000-a-person cost can't be leveraged: a live presentation shown to 1,000 people costs roughly $1 million. And the expense can be for naught. "There's nothing worse than flying across the country to hear someone who has a great biography--but when you get there, it's an empty suit," says Gillette, the Seattle consultant. "And instead of having to walk out of a seminar that has no value," if you are online, "you can just turn off your browser."

Nonetheless, live seminars aren't going the way of the dodo bird. Celmins, for example, notes that in-person sessions are usually preferable for training senior executives or board members. "It makes more sense for consultants to be conducting a live course for a sophisticated audience of top executives," Celmins says. "They'll get a lot more out of it."

For example, a seminar on the laws and ethics pertaining to backdating stock options--currently a hot topic roiling Corporate America--is relevant mainly to a fairly narrow coterie of top officers and board members. "There's no need to talk to a broad audience," says Celmins.

At Deloitte, says Gibbons, there is recognition that "consultative skills"--as well as "selling, leadership, management and communications skills--usually require people to be together in a group setting." In order to close the gap between current and desired skills, he adds, the training "requires practice and feedback." (But not writing skills, he notes, "which can be taught virtually.")

In-Person Connections

Regan, president of the San Francisco forensic accounting firm, says that "there are a lot of seminars where you want the interactions of other students. I was just at a construction conference in Phoenix, which had the added benefit of meeting and becoming acquainted with other attendees. There were lunches, dinners and a golf tournament.

"So, you get everyone on the same social page," he went on, "and you get to know people in the industry so that, as issues come up, you can give them a call and you can brainstorm. You can lose that when you're just doing it online."

But, there is no need to segregate the live training from the virtual. For best results, says Deloitte's Gibbons, the firm's continuing education programs employ strategies of online education in conjunction with live seminars for "blended learning."

In such areas of training as developing sales techniques or curtailing sexual harassment, the first half of a six-step training regimen could be taught online, he says. Then the final three stages--which involve role-playing and personal interaction--can be dealt with in live sessions in a classroom setting. "You don't teach process in the classroom," Gibbons says. "You teach the application."

PAUL SWEENEY ([e-mail]) is a freelance writer in Austin, Texas, and a frequent contributor to Financial Executive.

RELATED ARTICLE: TAKE AWAYS

* A rapidly expanding universe of financial and accounting professionals are enthusiastically embracing Web-based continuing professional education.

* While there is still a valid argument for in-person training in some situations, online education makes sense for many learning and certification uses.

* One driver for online learning is the proliferation of continued professional education (CPE) needs for accountants, fraud examiners, auditors and others.

* With technological advances, online education is increasingly more sophisticated, interesting and user-friendly. It's also very useful for training people before a live event.