Help! My live training techniques are not working virtually! (part one)

While mentoring new trainers, the most common question I receive is one that concerns all trainers: How do I teach a group of attendees who have varying levels of skills, background, and proficiency with the subject matter? This is a common challenge for us technical trainers and there are many helpful techniques we can implement to solve or at least mitigate this particular problem. No doubt, you have some solutions that you have acquired over the years and implement on a regular basis in your live, on-site instructor-led classes. But what about the “virtual” class? Do those same techniques work or are they impossible to replicate?

This article is the first in a series of articles that challenge technical trainers to implement best practices today. Today, meaning the virtual environment we find ourselves in. In other words, how do we implement our go-to techniques for live, on-site training in the virtual world without losing their effectiveness? We will begin with the problem described above: a mix of skills in the classroom.

Before we tackle that specifically, let us remember disparate skill-sets are not the only differentiating factor within our cohorts. For example, we often have attendees who must code after class as well as managers who will not be coding but need to level up their skill set and overall knowledge. We may have both junior and senior level developers. Each individual, regardless of the group they are in, may be intimidated for different reasons. They also present us trainers with various issues to resolve. A case in point: a class attended by the “team lead” can often result with the attendees following his/her lead instead of the instructor. Other issues include junior developers or new hires intimidated by the presence of senior developers. Thus, leaving the trainer to reverse that feeling with the notion that these junior developers are now in a unique position to learn from the senior developers who have vast project and technical experience, turning a perceived negative into an exceptionally large positive!

Now, let us review one technique many trainers are familiar with and adapt it to the virtual environment: pairing students. For the purposes of this discussion, “pairing” is defined as seating the students next to one another physically (at least in the live classroom environment) and encouraging them to work together and ask one another questions when the instructor is busy assisting other attendees.

The general premise behind the technique involves pairing experienced learners with less experienced learners. This is different from pairing fast learners with slow learners. There are, however, potential pitfalls to both scenarios. So, before we discuss how to implement this technique, we should see it from all sides: positive and negative. In the case of the pairing of fast and slow learners, the trainer must be aware of the feelings of the fast learners. They can feel “used” and conclude that the training session is not advancing their skills. At the same time, the slow learner may feel intimidated; two instances where not being physically in front of the students can be a handicap. If you find yourself facing this situation it can be helpful to take the opposite approach: pair fast learners with fast learners and slow learners with slow learners. This allows both learners to relate to one another, feel comfortable and advance their skills at the same rate of speed. This is just one example that brings to light how often we trainers rely on intuition or that gut feeling we get from seeing our students faces and body language. Absent that, I rely heavily on chat, chat and more chat (specifically private chat).

Now let us move on to pairing more experienced attendees with less experienced attendees. This is a favorite technique of many instructors I know and the reason may be somewhat selfish (albeit ultimately in best interest of the attendees): it moves the class along at a faster pace than it might without the pairing because you effectively now have a handful of teacher assistants. In large classes this can be extremely efficient because as we help one student we know that others are simultaneously being helped by their co-workers. Be aware that some of the same downsides for pairing fast and slow learners may present here as well. Always remember to thank both parties for their patience and understanding.

Finally, let us discuss how we might exercise this technique in the virtual classroom. The answer is “breakout rooms” and they are available in Zoom, Webex, Adobe Connect and GoToMeeting. See the end of this article for detailed Zoom instructions. Breakout rooms allow you to virtually sit the students next to one another. They can be ideal when you have determined that for a portion of the class pairing students will provide benefits. To illustrate this, I will impart the experience of a trainer I have been coaching who implemented it for the first time with caution, ultimately ensuring him a confident delivery. What did he do right? As it turns out many things; by following best practices he followed these basic steps:

1. He made sure he got to know the students first, so the pairing would be deliberate and deliver the highest rate of return.
2. He did if for only one lab exercise for the whole class, so as to secure his comfort level for future endeavors. This allowed for better scrutiny, a more direct feedback loop and the opportunity to focus on what he did right and what if anything could be done to improve the experience.
3. He clearly defined the objective of the task, the success criteria, and provided some hints to get the students started on the right track.
4. He briefly discussed the fundamentals of pair programming.
5. He set the ground rules regarding the expectation of the two-member groups.
6. He set an appropriate time limit for the task.
7. He monitored the groups throughout the task while simultaneously understanding that one of the goals was to have the attendees rely on one another as opposed to the instructor.

All in all, it was a success. The only item I would recommend is asking for specific and immediate feedback in the chat window in order to determine if the effort was an effective use of class time. I would ask this question directly. In addition to the technical task being taught at the time, it was awesome but not entirely surprising to hear that the students also learned how to communicate effectively with a teammate, use nomenclature while adding new terminology to their vocabulary, and get a sense of the pair programming experience.

The Technical Details

Breakout rooms provided by virtual environments are, for the most part, extremely similar in what they offer and how they function. I have provided details for setting up and using breakout rooms with Zoom at the end of this article. Here is a brief summary that may answer some of your questions around breakout rooms.

Hosts and co-hosts can:

• Hop between rooms
•  Broadcast messages to all rooms
•  Join rooms
• Monitor what is going in the room (watch activity and screen shares)
• Close all rooms which provides a default one-minute timer for the participants (the timer can be changed to countdown more time before closing)
• Reopen rooms as needed
• Set breakout room options

Room participants can:

• Chat
• Share screens

How to use breakout rooms in Zoom

Enable the breakout room feature in Zoom

1. Sign into your Zoom Account

2. Using the left-side navigation section, go to:

Admin > Account Management > Account Settings > Breakout Rooms > Enable

3.      Scroll to the Breakout room section and activate it using the radio button.4.      

You will receive the following prompt:

4.      Click “Turn On” and you will see the following prompt:

* Scroll to the end of this article for instructions on this feature.

Activate breakout rooms (while in the Zoom Classroom)

Once class is in session and you have decided that an opportunity for pair programming has presented itself, follow the instructions below.

1.      Click the “Breakout Rooms” button using the navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen.

Choosing automatic assigns participants automatically but you will still have the opportunity to move students between rooms. In most cases, you will choose “Manual” because you have already determined who should be paired together.

2.     Choose manual. You will be prompted to save or cancel. Choose “Save.”

3.      Add participants using the “Assign” button to the right of the Breakout Room dialog box.

Notice the buttons at the top of the dialog box allowing you to rename and delete rooms.

Notice the additional Options drop-down shown below.

4.      Click “Open All Rooms” button.     

Participants will be presented with the dialog box shown below asking them to join the room. The host will see who has joined each room.

Allowing hosts to assign participants to breakout rooms when scheduling.

1. Go to the class that has already been created in your zoom portal     
2. Find your meeting
3. Scroll to bottom and click the “Edit this Meeting” button
4. Click the breakout room pre-assign button
5. Create the room
6. Upload a CSV with participants which prepopulates the room with the participants

In Conclusion

If you are already using breakout rooms, please feel free to share your experience and also try translating some of your other “live on-site” techniques in the virtual environment. What works? What does not? If you have not tried breakout rooms, I hope this information proves helpful and you have a successful experience in which your students reap the rewards!

Answer to the question: Can you find at least three activities in this picture that we can no longer practice? 

1. Sit together closely
2. Fist bump
3. Sit together without wearing a mask

Thanks to Doug Purcell for sharing his experience with me.