WAKE UP, Virtual Trainers!
As a corporate trainer, facilitating mostly in the live classroom, for the past fifteen years, I find myself in the virtual classroom more and more. My work has taken me all around the world without leaving my home office. No travel, no airline delays, no crappy hotel food! And most importantly, no time away from family.
I have served both as a facilitator and a host/producer in the virtual classroom. And as a host, more often than not, I have witnessed horrible virtual trainers. And I also came to the realization that I am guilty of the same, at times.
And so ... I am on a crusade ... to rid the internet of bad virtual trainers. I know it seems idealistic and daunting ... but if we all commit to some basic changes in the way we conduct online training ... the world will be a better place.
As the training world evolves and more companies are cutting costs and saving money by switching to instructor led web based learning, so too must we evolve our skills. But not really. Most instructor led web based trainings are dull, boring and not engaging and it is because of one simple reason. We don’t bring our “selves” to the session. All the tools and techniques that have proved successful in the live classroom seem to be lost.
Some examples:
You wouldn’t read from a script in a live classroom, then why do you do it in a virtual classroom?
You wouldn’t sit during a workshop, so why do you do it for your virtual workshops?
You wouldn’t conduct a classroom training session in your bathrobe, so why do you do it in a virtual session?
I have created a workshop and content that focuses on some tips and tricks that help to improve the quality of training in the virtual classroom.
Some topics include:
Communication Considerations- speak slowly, even more slowly than a live classroom
Interaction Insights- Allow for time to answer questions, it takes time to get off mute.
Engaging Environment- How to manage the CHAT function
If this is of interest to you, if you'd like to hear more contact me via my website: JMD Partnerships
Both individual coaching and group sessions are available