7 Tips for Converting In-person to Virtual Instructor Led Training

Whether your organization is heading back into the office, staying remote, or somewhere in between, one thing that’s clear is virtual instructor led training (VILT) is here to stay!  Out of necessity, many learning events transitioned from face-to-face to on-line abruptly. So, these rushed, band-aided learning solutions are all set for the next normal, right? Not so fast!  Simply switching a course from an in-person to a virtual format will not deliver the same nor desired results. As organizations and their learning models restabilize, it’s important that they revisit these converted VILT courses and take the time to do it right.  

Virtual Instructor Led Training Challenges 

Two of the biggest challenges associated with VILT are how to gauge how the material is received and how the content is understood. 

Level of Engagement 

In a virtual environment the instructor no longer has eyes on everyone in the learning experience. This makes it much harder to gauge the level of engagement and attention of students. Not only are there fewer visual cues for the instructor, but also it is far easier for students to get distracted in an unchecked virtual and sometimes home environment – by their phones, computers, household pets, or just plain old looking around. 

Level of Understanding:  

What about the confused faces? The instructor can no longer see them, but at least a few are surely there! How can instructors determine which students are following and tracking or which are falling off somewhere in the middle and are now lost? 

In a virtual environment, instructors must be much more intentional about how to maintain students’ attention as well as how to check that they have not lost anyone along the way. There are many strategies to maximize the effectiveness of VILT: 

1. Use Engagement Tools 

Break out rooms, chat feature, polls and even questions take on a whole new level of importance in VILT. Far too often when converting in-person to VILT, the activities get stripped out – the table discussions, the flip charts, the white boards – because people either don’t have the right tools or they are simply intimated by them, and instructors end up just presenting, just talking at their audience. Leverage these widely available on-line tools frequently and throughout on-line courses to create a two-way conversation and to pull people back into the material.  

2. Enlist the Help of a Producer 

One person alone cannot effectively facilitate VILT while leveraging technical engagement tools. The moment an instructor takes time away from delivering the course content to address a technical issue, they risk losing their once captive audience. Enter the Producer role. The Producer is an official training role that facilitates all technical and logistical aspects of a virtual training event to ensure that it runs smoothly: admitting people into the session, providing activity instructions, muting participants, facilitating questions and answers, conducting polls, managing breakout rooms, loading and displaying content, and troubleshooting participant technical problems. The Producer role enables the instructor to focus on their area of subject matter expertise, the content, while delivering a smoothly run session to the participants.  

3. Limit Class Size When Possible 

Class size matters! This is true for in-person learning, but even more so for VILT. The larger a virtual class gets, the harder it is to do all of the things there are to do, to execute a class, effectively. A good rule of thumb is to limit class size to no more than 20 participants. If the class size cannot be limited, be mindful about what works for a large group, recognizing that not all activities will scale well, and target activities that are most effective for the size of the group. The key is to design each class around the number of people; engagement of a class of 50 should look different from that for a class of 10. 

4. The Power of the Pause 

Take a moment to pause. Back to the participant who is engaged and listening, but is simply not tracking…with virtual instruction it is harder for the instructor to notice the confused student. Instead of motoring through the material, stop every few minutes, ask a few simple questions, start a dialogue to gauge the audience’s level of comprehension, before proceeding. This seems simple, however, in a virtual environment it can be too easy for an instructor to keep moving through the material when they can’t see the participants faces. Instructors must be intentional and build in frequent touch points with their students to ensure that they truly understand. 

5. Keep it Short 

Limit the duration of VILT sessions to 2 hours in duration, but no more than 3-4 if necessary. An 8 hour in-person instructor led training simply won’t translate nor work well as an 8-hour VILT event. What was an 8 hour in-person event, may convert well to 4, 2-hour virtual events. VILT must have shorter sessions, but not so choppy that the content does not flow well. 

6. Change it Up! 

Vary the manner in which content is presented and do so frequently. For example, the instructor can present a PowerPoint, move to a breakout room, present again, play a video, and then facilitate a discussion. Using different methods to present information and changing the format every few minutes, will help participants stay engaged. 

7. Seek Assistance from an Instructional Designer 

Does VILT play a significant role in your organization’s learning strategy? If so, you may want to seek the assistance of a professional Instructional Designer to help ensure that the design of your virtual education sessions delivers a rich and impactful experience. 

Cool Tool! In need of a tool to help increase the engagement of your VILT? Check out Mentimeter. Its capabilities include live polls, quizzes, word clouds, Q&As and more to get real-time input. 

Contact ChangeStaffing to learn how our consultants can help you design effective Virtual Instructor Led Training. 

A very special thanks to Jill Davidian, master Instructional Designer, owner of Learning Strategy and Design, and owner and lead instructor at Applied Instructional Design Academy, for her thought leadership, and for collaborating with us on this blog.