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With travel restrictions in place, and more people than ever working remotely, now is a great time to train your employees!
During times of physical distancing, and with remote or teleworking, we need to create ways for our employees to stay connected. Maintaining employee connections is key during this crucial time. The virtual classroom environment is a great way to train your employees and keep them connected since sessions are conducted live with an instructor and other learners.
When we return to business as usual, live online training will continue to be a successful, engaging, quality learning experience. One that can help reduce costs because there’s no need to travel or pay for facilities, catering, material production, shipping, etc. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, saving money is a factor management will always be happy to hear about.
For virtual classroom training to be successful and yield
performance-based results, make sure you design and deliver the content
correctly. There are many best practices to consider for live online training. For
instance, in a traditional instructor-led course, we recommend changing
activities every 20 minutes. Whereas in a virtual class, we recommend changing
activities every 3-5 minutes to ensure learners stay engaged.
Are there other best practices to keep in mind? Definitely! Take a five to ten-minute break every hour, limit class size to twelve to fifteen participants for maximum engagement, schedule only one session per day, and include only one intersession activity per day.
Keep in mind, not all content fits in the virtual environment so knowing your content is key. Conceptual content (e.g. problem solving, decision making, analytical skills, etc.) and interpersonal content (human to human behaviors such as handling customer complaints, conducting sales calls, etc.) work exceptionally well in an online environment. Certain technical skills can be taught successfully in the virtual classroom but some are better suited for traditional instructor-led and/or on-the-job training.
At Langevin, we have several workshops to help you navigate the virtual environment. And if you just don’t have time to convert your courses to the virtual classroom, let Langevin convert them for you!