Virtual Training - Does it work? more important, what is it?

If you have read my other articles, or possibly you have been trained by me, you will know that I am firm believer in classroom training. I have spent most of my working life teaching people in a classroom, and yes I think it works.

Now in the middle of the current pandemic we cannot do this, but people still need to be trained, in fact its probably one of the best times to actually attend some training. If you have furloughed staff, they can still attend training courses which means they would come back to work all refreshed, full to the brim with new knowledge that they cant wait to try out in practice.

So how can we get the knowledge into people's brains ? E-Learning I hear you cry - well yes that does have its place, but will people actually sit down and stare at the screen for hours going through videos ? Probably not, they will see an interesting topic on This Morning or Loose Women and their concentration is gone.

E-Learning is good, in my opinion E-Learning is best used in a blended learning environment, so you start the learning in a classroom, and the E-Learning is used to cement what people have learnt in the classroom, and take the next baby steps into intermediate and advanced training, then have them back in the classroom to bring it all together. However I have just said a few paragraphs ago that we cant teach people in the classroom at the moment.

If you are still at work, you will have probably seen the meteoric rise of video platforms such as Zoom and Teams, everyone is staying connected using these platforms, and they are great, would people have survived as well in this crisis if we didn't have this technology? People are having virtual meetups, talking to people they have not spoken to in years, they are staying in frequent contact with friends, colleagues & family using these tools, I even play cards every Friday night with my friends, which I probably only did a couple of times a year before Covid. Its brought people together irrespective of distance or location.

But.......

Can you actually use these tools to successfully teach ? No I don't think you can. You can probably happily use these tools for some quick sessions no more than an hour, but a 3 or 4 day course ?

The problem with these technologies is they simply were not designed for learning, people are making do with what they have, getting a little bit of success and thinking its the best thing since sliced bread. The way people are thinking at the moment, is that they are simply glad to get some outside interaction, so asking them if video sharing platforms worked, they will answer yes most of the time. The proof will be in the pudding when these people get to actually use these new skills they have learnt.

I have always been a great believer in the old saying "if its not broke, don't fix it" so if classroom training is the best way to learn something, surely what we should do is try and replicate that, but when all the learners are sitting at home in their pyjamas.

This is what I see what Virtual Training is, or to give its correct term Virtual Instructor Led Training (V.I.L.T). Training Pro's know that you learn by doing, there are different learning styles from Theory Learners or Activist learners, Audio and Kinetic learners, and many more. When we are teaching we need to cater to all of these different types of learning. So naturally just sitting in front of zoom watching someone talk all day will not cater to different learners. You need different activities, you need to get information into them in different ways.

We have tried to implement this at @symetrieurope. We are trying to cater to all different types of learners, yes we cannot teach you in a classroom right at this moment, but the way we are doing it is very close to it. When I was given the task of finding a method of still teaching during the crisis, I was'nt going to do what everyone else is doing and try and get up and running as quick as possible. If we were going to do it, we were going to do it right.

If we did it right, then this would not just last during this lockdown period, it would continue long into the future. During my many years as a trainer, I have spent many a lonely night in a hotel room, I would much rather sleep in my own bed, and I imagine most people think the same. So next time, why not teach it virtually ? if the technology and the theory behind VILT works then there is no reason we cannot. How many of you reading this work for a multi national company, in these types of organisations sometimes training is at a premium because it costs too much to fly people around the world to get the same training. So they simply don't get the training, with virtual training that can be a thing of the past, everyone could be trained by the same trainer no matter their location.

So to summarise my long ramblings. In my opinion classroom learning is the best way to learn, so what we have done is simply put the classroom 'in the cloud'

So to answer my questions in the header, Does it work? - Yes if it is done correctly.

If you want to try some VILT we are doing some taster sessions which you can register here

But why believe me ? There is a great article here from our trainers who have been delivering these courses