TIPS FOR VIRTUAL TRAINING SUCCESS
Virtual coach-led training sessions that are not only cost and time effective but also encourage two-way collaboration. Given the explosion of webinars and other virtual classroom tools, some facilitators struggle to make their virtual training a success. One might have all participants present but not concentrating. Working from come comes with many distractions that can affect a virtual training session. Below are effective strategies that you can implement to properly plan and execute a successful virtual training session.
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Invest in Stable, Reliable Virtual Technology
This is the most important consideration that the facilitator has to make sure of and encourage the participants as well. The greatest mistake anyone can make is to not take virtual preparations seriously. This starts with connectivity, ensure that your internet is reliable and can handle that platform you are going to use. The platform itself needs to be tested for you to see if it has all the functions you need and can handle the number of participants you have for one session. The device to be used has to have rested prior to the virtual training and has enough space so that it does not crash or freeze midway of the training session.
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Prepare pre-session activities
For participants who join the session early, there could be word puzzles, exercises, and polls programmed on a loop. These will help prepare them mentally for the information to come and sets the virtual environment for later participation and interaction. The facilitator can also do technical checks such as sound volume and clarity in order to reduce glitches during the presentation. Those pre-session moments can be a useful time for the trainer to connect with their participants by finding out how they are and sharing some information about themselves.
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Encourage Interaction During the Workshop
The good thing is many virtual platforms have got the option of raising hands, chat boxes and even break out classrooms. All these functionalities can help to encourage interaction. Allow participants to ask questions as you go then midway, the breakout and discuss what they would have learned. This helps to make the virtual training success because they won`t feel redundant but be attentive for group contributions. Breakout sessions and group tasks help them get to know each other, share insights and experience to deepen the learning outcome.
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Include Powerful and Impactful Visuals
Virtual Training Sessions full of slides with lots of text are very boring. You do not want your participants to start yawning before you even start presenting. Create virtual training that is more engaging through videos, audios or get a graphic designer to demonstrate real-time visuals. It is important to ensure that the visual is not divorced from the topic of virtual training. To add on, you can also use the visual and voice chat option where the participants can share their own video or unmute and ask questions themselves. This helps to encourage participation and adds variations in the presentation which prevents monotony.
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Remove any distractions and ask participants to do the same
Cell phones, email and message notifications must be turned off. It is too easy to sneak a peek at messages and lose focus. For the online training to be a success both the facilitator and the participants have to give each other the maximum attention. Since these sessions are from home, prevent others from disturbing you and your workshop, keep pets out and ensure that from your end the potential for disturbance is minimised.
Virtual workshops are a powerful tool for engaging participants and they can help organisations save money. There are so many other tips and ways that we can make use of when conducting a virtual training session.
References
https://www.td.org/newsletters/atd-links/7-tips-for-virtual-training-success
https://www.mimeo.co.uk/blog/5-tips-make-virtual-training-interactive/
