Designing Online virtual training| Knowledge Transfer Methodology|

Online sessions can sometimes be very creative and supportive to knowledge
transfer or a behavioural change; based on the methodology and design. During
pandemic online courses became extremely popular and were a way of
entertainment for learning enthusiast!!! Some of the best trainings, that I
have attended have been online. Some of the notable ones being I-coach academy
program on coaching certification, Harvard program for Design Thinking and also
Svyasa -Yoga certification! All were skill based programs with active
participation to demonstrate the skills we were learning.

Facilitation of an online session is very different from a classroom or face
to face workshop. Thus the activities -pre-work, learning iteration and
participant engagement needs to be premeditated. Learning often becomes a tick
mark activity unless the facilitator or the program owners keep engaging with
their respective cohorts. Thus it’s imperative to focus on the learning
transfer strategy, even if the topic of training is very simple.

Its not the time taken to design the solution that gives it depth,
its the clarity of objectives and outcomes of the intervention.
Sometimes when I talk to program designers, I feel they focus too much on their
models of Blooms taxonomy or ADDIE and forget that engagement with stakeholders
who want the program. The proof of the pudding surely is in the outcomes seen
in creating a learning culture, subsequent touch-points to receive candid
comments from target audience or even the business results. As a learning
evangelist and content designer, I feel the design of any learning material can
be better accomplished when we are clear about the outcomes and also the target
audience involved.

The 6 important aspects of creating and running a successful virtual session are following:

1. Design -The design of a virtual program is very critical as participants tend to multitask if the content is not powerful. Thus replicating a classroom session into a virtual program can be disastrous. Design should also be customised to the job roles and context of the target audience and not be generic one size fits all.
2. Pre-work -The objective of a pre-work is to set the context at least a week prior to the program, so that the participants are looking forward to come for the program. The pre-work could be like a trailer to the upcoming knowledge gain. Apart from evaluating the participants’ current skill or knowledge level, the pre-work should be able to create a pull factor to the program.
3. Knowing your audience – Understanding the profile of the audience and customising the examples, anecdotes, story telling can be very helpful in holding the attention of the audience. Case in point if the audience is from a aviation background/domain and your examples -role plays etc are aligned to bird sanctuary the training objectives maybe compromised.
4. Using technology effectively – Running quick poles, breakout room activity, using chat window. and using virtual while boards. Also making being on camera one of the mandatory requirements as a part of the pre-read and invites sent.
5. Interactive sessions – Apart from context setting on the topic right at the onset of the program/session, sharper slides, POV sharing by some participant volunteers… its also critical to keep the session interactive by quick energisers (customised to online environment) Calling out active participants to sharing understanding of the knowledge or topic from time to. time is also critical to keep the audience engaged. The topics of discussion should be related to your training.
6. Experienced & Agile Facilitator -The facilitator needs to be able to.evaluate. the audience engagement and tweak the flow accordingly. If it is a session and not a talk that is being delivered, the facilitator needs to be actively involving the participants as per their experience. The energy and confidence of the facilitator would also impact that of the audience, thus the more receptive they are to the participants’ reaction the better would be the learning outcomes.

The topic of the learning session also determines the modality and the methodology of the program. Thus one needs to be watchful of what is it that one is training on before deciding the method. Knowledge based lectures with specific learning outcomes seem better suited to online webinars. For behavioural changes or competency enhancements a face to face workshop or a well designed self paced e-learning module (scenario based) works better. Depending on the time and commercial investment, organisations can always plan the same.

Do share your experiences while running webinars or virtual sessions and what has worked best! Experience sharing on this regard can go a long way in best practice leverage.

For more on this you could explore the following reads:

The Virtual Training Guide Book

The Art of Conducting Powerful Virtual Training