Facilitating an interactive virtual Instructor Led Training (vILT) class is completely different from creating a more traditional webinar or an instructor led training (ILT). While moving to a virtual classroom doesn’t mean throwing out the entire traditional handbook, it does mean adjusting what you are doing to engage a virtual audience and communicate effectively.
Familiarize Yourself with Your Tools
What tool will you be using to give the interactive vILT? Always familiarize yourself in advance with how you will be training with it. Review the functionality and see if you are able to perform all of the actions you need to during the interactive vILT. Whether you’re using AdobeConnect, GoToTraining, Zoom or WebEX, play around with the different tools and interactive elements including:
- Whiteboard
- Poll
- Chat
- Notepad
- File Sharing
- Breakout Rooms
Preparation is key to using tools effectively and not stumbling through your training session to find what you are looking for!
Start off with an Interactive Welcome
In a traditional in-person setting, businesspeople will often network and enjoy a cup of coffee before sitting down for a training session or workshop. In the same vein, you should have an activity prepared for early arrivals to complete to get to know each other and prepare for a fun learning experience. This activity could be something similar, like marking off where participants are located on a map, or something more personalized like having participants write down two things that they can see in the room they are located in.
Additionally, encourage learners to turn on their video for introductions. While some webinar platforms handle this better than others, if the video streaming is stable and your learners are connecting from a reliable connection, video really helps connect your learners.
Incorporate Interaction
During a traditional ILT, many seasoned instructors have building rapport and engaging learners down pat. This doesn’t always translate to a virtual training environment. When leading an interactive vILT, trainers should be very thoughtful about how often and where they will incorporate interaction. What can interaction with your learners look like?
- It could be as simple as asking a question and learners take themselves off mute to answer, or type into the Chat window.
- Incorporate an activity where learners practice using the interactive tools.
- Ask a poll question to get feedback on what they might already know about a topic.
- Ask learners to categorize concepts on a whiteboard.
- Ask learners to identify something in a graphic using the whiteboard tools.
Use Breakout Rooms
One of our favorite interactive tool that is often underutilized are breakout rooms. Breakout rooms are a fantastic tool available on almost every platform. They are particularly valuable when you want to do small group discussions, share learner experiences, role-playing, collaborating, or brainstorming. If you plan to use breakout rooms, make sure that you have one audio bridge available for each breakout room. This can be time consuming, so it works the best when you are going to have a 10-15 minute separate breakout activity.
Follow up
Interactive vILTs are most effective when you have some sort of application of learning that you ask learners to do. Ask them to apply what they learned in a real-life job situation and then, follow up to see how it went. This extends the learning, allows for higher level thinking and application, and makes the content more relevant.
Partner with Zenith Performance Solutions
Zenith Performance Solutions wants to transform the way that you and your employees learn. We offer a comprehensive range of training course design services, including converting your ILT courses to interactive vILTs. We work with companies of every size to create innovative and instructionally sound learning experiences that boost employee performance and satisfy your business objectives. To learn more, please contact us by calling (970) 409-4013.