Online training blows goats - I have proof

In the land of the public service, more and more training is delivered online. Makes sense. It's a lot cheaper and punters can do it at their work station. They can also go at their own pace, and pause it to fit in work. More and more there's mandatory training. Equity, OH&S, security etc and so forth and so on.

Today I had to do a chunk of online stuff. The time line was fairly spot on for the self paced modules, and I have to say well presented.

Then came the online assessment. You had to get five out of six right to pass the course.

It took me 36 fucking minutes to get the last question I needed to get five out of six. In the end I had to process of elimination to get the answer (multiple applicable responses and you had to match exactly the right one(s) ticked). I was yelling at the computer, calling it a fucking arsehole (in the middle of a work day) and basically having an adult tanty. Finally, I had to walk away, get some lunch, and have another crack at it. I even went into my boss to whinge about how fucked it was with the faint hope he'd just give me the answer.

He didn't. But he did give me some hints. Trouble was I was reading a whole bunch of 'well this could happen' into the answers instead of answering based just on the information given. So really I have myself to blame.

At one stage I was waving my fist ... at the monitor. That's like threatening the dummy in a ventriloquist act.

So fellow white collar types. If you have a choice between simply turning up for an hour and being marked trained by mere appearance or going the online at your desk ... just turn up.

At least you're getting out of the office.

What a beach pounder of a day.