With more and more job training conducted via a computer in an unstructured learning environment -- or on-the-job rather than in a classroom -- trainees must be self-motivated and take more responsibility for their learning.

"Both e-learning and on-the-job training provide individuals with more learner control," says the ILR School's Brad Bell. "They often need to make decisions about what they should study, how much to study."

Employers can help by tailoring materials to different kinds of learners, says Bell, associate professor of human resources and director of ILR Executive Education, who published a study last year in the Journal of Applied Psychology with Steve W.J. Kozlowski of Michigan State University on how training can be designed to address varying styles of learning. The paper was recently named one of the top 50 business and management articles of 2008 by Emerald Management Reviews, which selected 50 articles from a field of 15,000.

In describing the growing role of active learning, Bell said, "In the past, in the classroom, [many] decisions were made by instructors" that today are made by the learner.

"People need to be able to self-motivate themselves, because there is no instructor or other students to motivate them. They must also self-manage their emotions if they get frustrated," Bell said.

There is no universal prescription for what helps active learners best master material; tailoring training to fit specific learner traits makes sense for organizations, Bell and Kozlowski said in their most recent article on implications of the shift to e-learning.

Some employees are so stressed by training, for instance, they benefit from learning how to control their emotional reactions to training; lowering anxiety levels helps some learn and perform, they said.

Abilities of trainees should also be considered, said Bell and Kozlowski. For example, they found that high-ability trainees excel when they have more control over their learning through exploratory instruction.

Mary Catt is a staff writer for the ILR School.