The distributed mode does have some shortcomings and is not always appropriate for the acquisition of new skills and knowledge. First, there may be certain skills and knowledge that a new employee must acquire before entering the workplace. This is why flight attendants receive intensive training before they begin serving real passengers. This is why physicians don’t practice on patients before they are fully prepared and why engineers get degrees and licenses before they begin to design a real bridge. In most instances, distributed modes of development should be used for the transmission of “nonessential” skills and knowledge. It is unfair, to either the new employee or those people whom the new employee serves, to let these neophytes out on the street without adequate preparation—regardless of how motivating this challenge might be.
There is a second drawback. The distributed mode is not very efficient. Any training or education program requires a warmup period during which the participants are getting back into a learning frame of mind. This often takes one or two hours. Thus, the warm up period reduces the amount of time devoted specifically to the content to be learned or skill to be acquired. When the training or education is broken into a series of short sessions, there must be a warm period at the start of each session, thereby reducing the amount that is learned at each session. Other factors also tend to reduce the amount of time devoted to new learning. Information that was conveyed in previous sessions typically must be reviewed at follow up sessions. This increases the retention of previously learned information, but further reduces the amount of information that can be conveyed in any one session. The repetition and review help insure that the participants do retain the information being conveyed, but it requires lowered expectations regarding the amount that is learned.
A third drawback can also be identified. The distributed mode is often a logistical headache for those managing training and education in an organization. Multiple sessions must be scheduled. Participants must be reminded of the follow up sessions and there is the inevitable problem of some participants being unable to attend all the sessions. What do you do with those who have missed a session? Provide them with individual sessions? This can be very time-consuming and expensive. Does the training staff just let them skip the session? If the information indispensable? What do you do when they ask questions at future sessions regarding material that has already been covered in the session they missed? Does this set a bad precedence for other program participants?
