Late last year, crime-scene tape was strung across 14 cubicles at Sprint Corp.'s offices in Mansfield, Ohio. It wasn't the aftermath of evildoing. It was the start of virtual training for Windows 2000 Professional.

"Do not disturb" signs and candy bars were strewn about, and the smell of popcorn filled the air. The props had one aim: to give employees the sense that they were in a classroom together, rather than sitting alone in a cube, staring at a computer screen.

From 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. twice a week for three weeks, the Sprint crew tuned in to a Web site for a live, instructor-led distance-learning class. Technical engineer Rick Toomey describes the instructor as a "top-40 disc jockey," who employed sound effects, humor and music to keep students tuned in. "He was clearly trying to offset our tendency to wander," Toomey says.

Toomey, a former middle school teacher, says he vastly prefers classroom learning; however, he acknowledges that the virtual classroom was a "good compromise" to reduce the expense of a classrom setting. The biggest deficiency of online training, he says, was the potential for interruptions by e-mail pop-ups.

"A PC is, by definition, a multitasking instrument," says Toomey. "You have a tendency to do more than one thing when you're sitting in front of it. It takes a certain kind of discipline."

Whether they have that kind of discipline or not, increasing numbers of IT workers are finding themselves face-to-screen with online instructors, as electronic-training is starting to cut into traditional classroom time.

Like other IT professionals who have tinkered with distance learning, Toomey has learned its limits. Distance llearning may be well suited to some entry-level technologies, but more advanced training and hands-on labs still work best in a classroom, according to IT managers and students.

Sometimes, that's because simulations work better on dedicated PCs. And sometimes, it's just more engaging to be in a room full of people taught by a live person who can answer questions immediately and respond to nonverbal cues such as a sea of puzzled faces.

Measuring Results

Despite the deficiencies that Toomey describes, many consider the type of highly structured, live training that his team underwent to be the best kind of distance education. Other options include live Web lectures and go-at-your-own-pace tutorials. However, self-paced tutorials often leave employees to their own devices, and, without significant oversight, it can be very hard to measure results.