You know it. I know it. Heck, We all know it. Learners have been quietly doing it for years - burning up the fast-forward button on online mandatory training. And yet, here we are, tiptoeing around the topic like it's a dirty little secret, trying to pretend it doesn’t exist or worse, that restricting it somehow guarantees better engagement.

Well, let’s talk about the elephant in the room. Forward Scrubbing on online mandatory training videos.

Let’s face it: a lot of mandatory online training is either repetitive, boring, or both. There, I said it. And it’s no secret that some learners will do anything to get through it faster - whether that means hitting the fast-forward button when it's allowed or simply zoning out when it's not. The question is, what’s the real problem here? Is it the forward scrubbing itself, or is it something deeper?

The Good: Trusting Learners and Their Knowledge

Here’s the thing: most adults don’t need to be spoon-fed. They’re already capable of assessing what they know and what they don’t. When we trust them to make those calls, we’re fostering autonomy and treating them like the professionals they are. By forcing them to sit through content they’ve already mastered, we’re not improving their skills or increasing their engagement—we’re wasting their time.

Imagine going to a lecture and already knowing 80% of what’s being taught. Wouldn’t you want the ability to skim through the parts you already know? We don’t learn in a straight line, and forcing people to sit passively for hours doesn’t equate to understanding.

A well-designed assessment at the end (or the start - but don’t get me started on this here) of the module should be the true test. Do they know the material? Can they apply it? If so, who cares how fast they got there? The focus should be on the outcome, not the process. Shouldn’t it?

The Bad: The “Just Sit Through It” Mentality

We’ve all seen it. Learners who can’t fast-forward but have mastered the art of the blank stare. They’ll keep the training running while they answer emails, scroll through social media, or (my personal favourite) watch Netflix and Chill while the video drones on in the background. They’re not learning; they’re just ticking the box. And let’s be honest, no amount of disabled scrubbing will stop them.

So, let’s call a spade a spade. Restricting forward scrubbing doesn’t solve engagement problems. It creates an illusion of participation while learners disengage in more creative ways.

The real question we should be asking is: What’s the true value of forcing people to complete online training in this way? If we can’t measure engagement through seat time, why are we clinging to it as a marker of success? But what about the payments, you say?

The Ugly: Money, Money, Money

But here’s the counterargument, the one some organisations live by. “We’re paying people for their time, so shouldn’t we ensure that they’re spending that time learning?” From this perspective, every minute of training matters because it’s time we’re paying for. The fast-forward button becomes a perceived threat to the organisation’s bottom line, and there’s an instinct to control it.

After all, if forward scrubbing is allowed, what’s stopping learners from skipping entire training plans? How can we be sure we’re not paying them for only 3 minutes of assessment time? More importantly, how do we explain to our Overlords that every dollar spent on this training is well-spent if learners have the option to speed through it?

It’s a fair concern. Especially when you’re in an industry where compliance is non-negotiable, and regulators are watching closely. But if I’m really blunt and reckless here, I honestly feel like healthcare workers should just get their learning time paid no matter whether they forward scrub their life away or not! They are on unacceptably low wages for the work they do (even with the recent increase), working long, unpredictable hours with inconsistent breaks and often in highly challenging, sometimes even violent and toxic environments.

“How dare I,” you say. But I’ve been there, and I’ve trained in that. The only ice cream and lollipops in this industry are when Mr Whippy's cart rolls through the dementia ward! If an organisation isn’t sustainable, it's not because of the training time payments made to its staff.

The Solution: Challenging the Institution

Here’s where the gloves come off. Actually, they may have just come off in the paragraph before, but you may not have noticed that if it got edited out. (Note from the editor: I left it in!)

Instead of focusing on time spent and button disabling, we need to start challenging the very institution that forces these constraints in the first place. Why are we so fixated on measuring learning by time?

What we should be focusing on is outcomes. If someone can demonstrate the required knowledge and skills through assessment or clinical outcomes, why are we still tying learning to hours spent on a screen? Especially in an industry like healthcare, where real-world application should be the gold standard, shouldn’t we be linking outcomes directly to the need for learning?

Conclusion: Where is the Real Battle?

The fast-forward button isn’t the enemy. In fact, the real enemy is the outdated notion that time spent equals learning outcomes. Yes, disabling scrubbing might give some assurance to the Overlords, but it’s a false sense of security. It doesn’t actually tell us whether learning occurred or whether the outcomes we care about—better performance, improved safety, enhanced skills—are being achieved.

The solution isn’t to make learners sit longer; it’s to fight the very structure that forces us to equate time with value. We need to push back on the regulators, the Overlords and the system that keeps us locked into these outdated measures. So where to from here? I’ve got four steps for you:

1. Keep paying your learners for their module time. If you want to do this differently, then start the EBA fight; don’t fight with your valued employees.
2. Stop caring about scrubbing - backwards or forwards - it’s irrelevant.
3. Trust the elements of assessment—whether pre-, post-, or throughout the module—this is the fundamental way for employees to demonstrate knowledge, and if these are ‘passed, ' then the learning outcomes of quality education will be met.
4. Focus on your outcomes - clinical, safety, risk, quality - and link your learning to these.

Now it's time to be fearless, take on the Overlords, and stop pretending that forward scrubbing is the real problem.

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