Overcoming 7 Common Challenges of Online Internal Auditor Training
Published on: February 17, 2025
Upskilling in any capacity always requires two things: focus and commitment. Focus is required not only when engaging with skills-building courses, but also to determine which courses best align with your ideal career trajectory. As for the commitment aspect of upskilling, there are undeniably major barriers for professionals with full-time workloads when it comes to taking up short courses – that is, until online learning.
Flexible online courses have made upskilling far more accessible for professionals. The sheer variety of tailored digital courses available has also allowed online learners to take full control of their professional development, and enjoy the benefits that accompany curating your upskilling to align with your unique professional goals.
Whilst online learning capabilities have equipped professionals with more upskilling opportunities, digital classrooms and courses aren’t without their own challenges. In designing our own courses in the ISO space, our experts tackled some of the most common challenges of online learning in order to identify the best possible solutions for internal auditor development.
We’ll be sharing our findings today, alongside outlining how our Management System Internal Auditor course has been expressly designed to maximise the allowances of online learning and support efficient upskilling for busy professionals.
7 Common Challenges of Online Learning
To begin, let’s examine the top 7 most common challenges of online learning as identified by our experienced course developers at ICExperts Academy. We’ll also be providing insights into the most suitable solutions to each of these online learning challenges below.
1. Lack of face-to-face engagement
A lack of face-to-face interactions with peers and educators can strip digital learners of vital opportunities to reinforce new knowledge via classroom discussions. For visual learners, having information provided not only aurally but also by a present educator, with eye contact, and with accompanying visual aids (i.e. animations, graphs, interactive whiteboards, etc.) supports the absorption of course materials by engaging multiple senses, building correlations, and better triggering memorisation.
To mitigate this challenge, our courses use rich media content (i.e. videos and quizzes), direct channels for questions to support engagement virtually, and include access to the Exemplar Global professional network for one year.
2. Lack of student motivation
As online learning courses are typically less cost-intensive and may even be less time-intensive than courses that are delivered on-campus, online students can experience a lack of motivation in accessing and engaging with their coursework. This can be due to underestimating the level of engagement required to make the most of your digital learning experience. Yes, online courses do provide more flexibility, but like all experiential learning opportunities, you must be actively engaged to effectively absorb course content.
The solution here is to ensure that you:
- are fully aware of the immediate benefits of completing your online course, and
- have the tools you need to meet all outlined learning outcomes and objectives.
It’s a lot easier to reach an established checkpoint if you know what’s needed from you along the way. Our online course has been designed with this ethos in mind, providing internal auditors in training with three structured chapters that all include well-defined modules and learning objectives to support student engagement.
3. Requires self-guided study skills
One key concern for all online educators is ensuring that their digital course material is accessible to all types of learners. Sadly, students who haven’t developed self-guided study skills independently may struggle with the reduced support of online courses.
That’s why our internal auditor course integrates study practices into lesson and module materials, ensuring that students aren’t just engaging with course material, but also actively applying the framework and utilising the tools that will support knowledge retention. Our internal auditor course doesn’t just highlight theory, but also includes:
Compared to traditional courses that focus mainly on theory without practice, our internal auditor course is rooted in real-world applications, allowing students to hone self-guided skills that they can use throughout their careers.
4. Tech inaccessibility
The issue with providing online learning modules and rich media content is that not all students may be able to access this content due to tech limitations. For instance, if you’re facilitating digital classroom environments and a student doesn’t have access to a webcam or a reliable internet connection, that student will be at a disadvantage.
Digital classrooms can also cause frustrations in the event that students experience technical issues like lost connections, lagging video feeds, and glitches or operating errors within their learning platforms.
Our internal auditor course is designed to support students in accessing course materials at their own pace. Our course materials can be accessed easily online from our cloud-based platform, from any device and without the need to install any applications or plugins whatsoever.
And unlike other online courses which use some pretty clunky training platforms, our course platform is designed to be user-friendly, with easily digestible content and even ready-to-use templates for students to download freely.
5. Spatial/time limitations
Alongside requiring self-motivated study skills, online courses typically also require students to maintain access to reliable study spaces and study windows. This can result in spatial and time limitations (i.e. finding a quiet space to study or managing learning schedules amidst other responsibilities).
A common concern amongst online students who are also juggling full-time work responsibilities, this learning barrier can be addressed by designing courses with flexible deadlines and asynchronous content, allowing students to study at their own pace and manage their study environments more effectively.
6. Inefficient course structures
Efficient course structures with a well-designed information flow help students to follow lessons and grasp key concepts, by equipping them with the thought process they need to identify correlations between foundational and advanced course content.
At ICExperts Academy, we regularly review course designs with student feedback received to ensure clarity, logical progression, and alignment with learning objectives. We uphold the quality of our internal auditor course by:
Our Management System Internal Auditor course structure is designed in a logical and practical way, providing key principles, and then going through the steps that an Internal Audit would in the real world.
7. Undelivered course outcomes
The single most important element of management system internal auditor training is making sure students develop the key skills needed to perform well in their new role. If online courses fail to provide these outcomes, they will likely leave professionals feeling unprepared, which can naturally then affect employment success and/or role performance.
Alongside ensuring that our online courses are designed with intuitive structures, we also establish clear course objectives and offer a Competency assessment to ensure students are ready to conduct Internal Audits of Management Systems.
The Certificate of Competency is optional and provides the students an opportunity to have their internal audit process and report assessed by one of our Experts. Note that during audits with Conformity Assessment Bodies, the Certification Auditor will usually ask how the internal auditor was deemed competent to conduct the organisation’s internal audits, and this Certificate, in addition to the Certificate of Completion, will ensure that criteria are met.
How On Learning Supports Internal Auditor Training
As you can see, online learning has its fair share of challenges – but some digital courses contend with these barriers more than others. In fact, in the context of internal auditor training, elements of online learning actually work in tandem with course materials to help students develop hands-on auditor skills.
Here are just some of the ways that the elements of online learning can actually enhance the efficacy of internal auditor courses:
Self-study
Conducting management system internal audits requires a strong foundational understanding of the many components and processes that must be followed when meeting requirements of the ISO Standards. Understanding the difference between audits, inspections, and checks, and even understanding all the different types of audits is essential when both gaining qualifications to become an internal auditor, but also when planning, preparing, and reporting on audits throughout your career.
For Management System Internal Auditors, engaging in self-study and revision of their industry knowledge is key, so honing self-study skills via online learning can only provide benefits to newer generations of auditors.
Organisation
Creating an internal audit schedule requires a high level of organisation. The compiling of documentation and protocols for Management Systems and their implementation are time-intensive processes that are only exacerbated by poor organisational skills.
Thankfully, the self-guided nature of online learning requires internal auditors to develop high-level organisation skills alongside engaging with industry knowledge through their formal auditor training. The detailed, linear structure of our online course is also designed to mirror the flow of an effective implementation strategy.
Consistency
Internal Auditors know that adhering to ISO Management System Standards doesn’t just stop at achieving Certification. Maintaining conformance requires consistent management reviews, routine internal audits, and a commitment to supporting business process improvements.
Just as consistency is key in implementing a Management System, it’s also vital to embarking on the next steps following achieving Certification to ISO Standards. Consistency and comfort with routines and schedules is also vital for students enrolled in online courses.
Proactive participation
Internal auditors, unlike Certification auditors, can involve themselves in management system improvements. So, Management System Internal Auditors should feel comfortable to go where the action is and ask their auditees all the necessary questions that will facilitate continual improvement and help them achieve and maintain Certification.
As internal auditors are typically required to jump in with both feet and have difficult conversations or perhaps even deal with difficult people, a proactive, can-do approach is vital for our graduates. Proactive approaches are also vital for academic success as an online student, which is yet another reason why online learning is so effective for internal auditor training.
Technological proficiency
The process of integrating a Management System commonly involves utilising and understanding operational technologies (i.e. business management software, office computing devices, factory/production equipment, etc.). As a result, Management System Internal Auditors are required to develop a high-level understanding of various industry technologies to assist their auditees.
The self-guided and digitalised nature of online learning provides students with ample opportunities to build foundational digital and computer literacy skills, equipping internal auditors with the necessary technological training right alongside their preliminary engagement with industry knowledge.
Harness Online Learning for your Internal Auditor Training
At ICExperts Academy, our training courses are internationally recognised by Exemplar Global. Providing theory along with templates, accessible short videos, exercises and real-life examples, our Management System Internal Auditor online course provides all the necessary structure and materials to feel prepared when starting out as an internal auditor.
Our course materials are also guaranteed to be valuable resources for your ongoing auditor growth, allowing you to maintain access to fundamental knowledge bases alongside building on your foundational auditor skills with the main ISO Management System Standards.
Want to learn more about our Management System Internal Auditor course? Get in touch with our team at ICExperts Academy or call us at 1300 614 897 for more information on our online learning resources today.
Andressa (alias Andy) is the General Manager of ISO Certification Experts and ICExperts Academy, heading our Marketing department and coordinating the internal improvement initiatives and projects. With an MBA in Project Management, and over 10 years of experience in customer service and project management across many industries, she brings valuable knowledge to the business and our operations. Alongside her professional expertise, Andressa holds a genuine passion for sustainability and the environment.
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