What? Successful Virtual Instructor-Led Training Has Nothing To Do With the Technology?

There are a LOT of virtual training platforms out there. Zoom has become the “Kleenex” of the industry as of late, but there are easily a dozen more. If your organization is new to Virtual Instructor-Led Training (vILT), the good news is: It doesn’t matter which platform you choose, they all pretty much work the same. What you DO want to ensure is that participants have the ability to chat with one another, write on the whiteboard (also known as annotate), and go to breakout rooms. With those three features you can recreate virtually (pun intended) anything you might do in the classroom. All other features are nice-to-haves but aren’t going to measurably increase the effectiveness of your virtually-delivered training.

Now that the technology is out of the way – let me tell you what is critical to successful virtual instructor led training:

·       The content

·       The skill of the facilitator

·       The behavior of the learner

The Content

Designing a course to be delivered virtually is not an easy task. I often say it is 30% harder to design for vILT than it is to design for the classroom. Why? Because there is a third “entity” that needs to be designed for. In the classroom our two main entities are the facilitator and the learner. Everything we design impacts one or the other (or both). But in vILT we also have to design with the technology in mind, and this requires a whole slew of decisions we’ve never had to make before.

Example

Let’s say you want to have participants discuss three questions related to a case-study you had them read as pre-work. Do you do that in a large group? If yes, do you have a verbal discussion or have people write out their responses (in chat or on the whiteboard)? Is it important to have consensus or just an airing of opinion? Each of those answers will sway me towards one tool or another.

If the learning outcome I want to achieve is a well-rounded discussion, then I would choose small groups and use breakout rooms to ensure everyone gets to voice their thoughts. If consensus is the ultimate goal, then I would keep the whole group together and use chat or annotation because I would want to ensure that everyone understood and accepted how we came to the one outcome.

The choice of the tool is important for two reasons:

1.     To achieve the intended learning outcome (as described above)

2.     It affects the length of my class – a breakout room is going to take longer than a group chat

 Just from this one example you can see, the technology takes a lot of thought and planning in order to create the appropriate learning outcome. 

TIP: It is critical that you know all the features of the platform your organization uses, so that you can choose the best tool for the learning outcome, desired.

The Skill of the Facilitator

In the beginning (sounds like the start of a movie, doesn’t it?), 15-20 years ago, online facilitation was new to all instructors. Some of them were adaptable and some of them were not. A skilled vILT facilitator actually speaks very little and instead encourages the group to continually contribute. A skilled vILT facilitator pulls the content from the learners, rather than “delivering it” webinar style. Ideally the facilitator is a wonderful multi-tasker because it is jarring to have long pauses waiting for the facilitator to do something technical (like pull up a poll); it’s worse when the facilitator announces, “now, I am going to launch a poll.” That’s akin to saying in the classroom, “now I am going to write your responses on the flipchart.” 

You know how sometimes you drive to work and think to yourself “how did I get here?” A skilled facilitator is so good at using the technology that they don’t even think about it, which allows them to concentrate on the content and the success of the learners.

Learner Behavior

An additional thing that changes in the virtual world is learner behavior. In order for the learner to have a successful outcome (e.g. they have learned and not just observed) they must be an active participant in the class. In the classroom, we often cram 20 or more people into the room – which easily allows some people to “vacation” in the back of the room. We don’t want that to happen in the virtual classroom – especially because we cannot see the participants and they might simply walk away. 

It’s also important that learners do any pre- and post-work that ensures the complete learning “experience.” For example, if learners are to read a case study off-line in order to have a robust discussion in class, they have to read the case study. The learning outcome is missed if they don’t participate in all parts of the learning process. (Why would we have them read a case study on their own time you might be asking? Because there’s no reason to bring people together to have them do independent work. A culture change that needs to occur in the organization is the realization that some vILT learning will require off-line work – and learners need to be given the time to complete it. But that is a topic for another day.).

You will have more successful virtual instructor-led workplace training if you concentrate your attention on the content and its intended learning outcome, you purposefully choose the tools used to teach that content, the skills of the facilitator(s), and ensuring the learners know their new “responsibilities” in the online classroom. 

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For more tips to ensure your organization experiences successful virtual instructor-led training, check out my new eBook, available now at The Training Doctor.

Download it here.

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About the Author:

Nanette Miner, Ed.D. is Managing Consultant of The Training Doctor, LLC a future-leadership development firm that believes Leadership Begins at Day One. She has over 25 years’ experience creating customized curriculums that get results.

?Learn more about The Training Doctor's offerings, here, or give us a call at 843.647.6304 (US)