Interview with Darlene Christopher, author

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The Successful Virtual Classroom by Darlene Christopher

What motivated you to write this book?

I think that delivering training via virtual classrooms offers so much potential to organizations in terms of the ability to scale the delivery of training to dispersed audiences. The books I found on virtual classroom training focused on the "what" of virtual classroom training but I felt there was more to be explored in terms of the "how" so I decided to write about it.

I also included a chapter focused on delivering virtual training to global audiences since globalization is a growing trend affecting many organizations, yet little has been written about it.

If you could distill your message down to just one - what would it be?

Delivering training programs in a virtual classroom requires adjustments in two key areas in order to engage a live online audience: content and facilitation. Adjusting your content and facilitation techniques takes some time, but in return it saves travel time and cost for both the enterprise and learner.

How can trainers use this book to assist them in the work that they do?

The goal of this book is to provide facilitators and other training professionals with the tools and techniques to confidently design and facilitate engaging virtual programs. A supporting framework - the PREP model (plan, rehearse, execute, and post-session review) - is covered in detail.

The book is also filled with tools, checklists, and worksheets-as well as case studies from Oracle, UPS, and more. I aimed to make the book as practical as possible and I hope that training professionals will find the tips, sample exercises and icebreakers and real-world examples directly applicable to their work. 4

Darlene Christopher, Senior Knowledge & Learning Officer. World Bank

3 Tips for On-boarding New-Hires, Virtually

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With companies being so global these days, the old method for on-boarding new hires (gathering them together on a certain day of the month) is not realistic anymore. Many organizations have started to on-board their new-hires virtually, which may seem like an impersonal way to welcome someone to your company, however, when done effectively, the satisfaction rating for virtual on-boarding is just as high as for in-person on-boarding.

The Training Doctor has worked with a number of global organizations in the past few years to both design and deliver their new-hire on-boarding process. In this piece we will share with you some of the best practices we have established to ensure that your new-hires feel that they are a welcome and valuable addition to your organization.

Caveat: These tips are based on the assumption that the new hires are prepared to take this class. Preparation includes:

• They have a computer / work station

• They have an appropriate office set up

• They have tested their a connection to the online platform

• They know how to access the class

• You are NOT doing HR / administration tasks

Best practice tips for on-boarding new hires virtually

Tip #1: Make the welcome memorable

Most on-boarding training, when done for a global organization, asks participants to declare where they "are" in the world. This is extremely boring and doesn't make the new-hire feel as though they are really part of a cohort. However, introductions are crucial because you don't want a participant to feel isolated. You want to hit the ground running and have people feel as though they want to participate and that it is going to be fun to do so. One idea is to put a grid on the screen, have each new-hire claim a cell as their own, and then answer a series of questions that explore their personality and uniqueness, such as: what is your current position, what was your last job, what was the first job you ever held, what was the most unique job you've ever held, one thing your colleagues would guess about you based on your work relationship (we've had some fascinating declarations to this questions).

These things get people talking, get them fascinated in their fellow new hires, (they'll start having side conversations in chat which is FINE. You want them to make connections), it makes them feel as though they "know" everybody already and that they are not isolated at their desk in East Podunk (what do you know? We just Googled that and there actually IS an E Podunk, CT).

If the facilitator is really quick, you can take a screenshot of this introductory screen and then refer to it throughout the session rather than saying "Who was that again, that won the Jr Bowling championship?"

At this point in the orientation, the presenter is the focal point, so they have to show genuine interest in everyone who is in attendance. 

Tip #2: Spread out information about the company throughout the presentation

Don't spend an extended time on company information - it can become information overload and disengaging. Spread out the information in different ways throughout the session. You'll want to concentrate on things that will get people emotionally connected to the organization: things that are interesting, funny, awe inspiring, perhaps a comment from the CEO, pictures from over the years, awards the company has won, or activities that get the new-hires participating and learning about the company (like a company website scavenger hunt).

Another option for disseminating factual information about the company throughout the presentation is creating some kind of image or graphic which contains that information and have it pop up on various slides, a'la the factoids about musical artists that used to appear on VH1 music videos. 

Tip #3: A message or involvement from Sr. Management is critical

This idea originated with Jack Welch who made it a point to address each management class at their Crotonville facility. Some ideas include a video from a Sr. leader of the organization, or having a leader personally appear for a period of time during the orientation. The leadership message should include information about the company such as its competitive advantage, what drives results - quality, service, low-cost, how the new-hire's job assists in achieving the above two items. Many of these topics are covered during interviews but the amount of time between interviews and actual hire is often enough that individuals forget this information. Plus, during an interview, individuals are nervous and may not give their full attention to information of that nature.

So it's always a good idea to reiterate these concepts and having a leader of the organization deliver them helps the new-hires to realize that their contribution to the organization was a thoughtful hire and is appreciated by the senior management of the organization, and that this on-boarding isn't simply an administrative task that needs to be accomplished by HR.

Contrary to what you might think, it IS possible, with planning and attention to detail, to create a welcoming and inspiring new-hire on-boarding experience. If you'd like to learn more about on-boarding new-hires virtually, please contact us. We are happy to share our other best practices.

You're Probably Wondering Why I Invited You To This Training

As our newsletter subscribers know, one of the services The Training Doctor provides is "Training Triage," that is, helping companies to redesign training they already have in place, but which doesn't hit the mark, for some reason.

One of our more recent projects highlighted one of the more typical situations we encounter: there was not much point for the trainees to be there. It was a three-hour class - delivered online - which was strictly lectured. This approach violated a number of learning principles - both general, classroom principles, and more specifically, online learning principles.

One of the easiest ways to determine if you are designing a quality learning experience is simply to ask yourself: What is the audience doing during this class? If the answer is "nothing," then you really have not designed a class at all!

One of the wonderful things about technology is that it freed us from having to bring people together to simply transmit information. We now have the ability to create e-Learning, podcasts or videos which allow for self-study.

So, if your audience is truly doing nothing during your class time, then you need to take "classtime" out of the equation. Look to an alternative means of relaying your content. The adult learning principle that was violated in the course that we were assessing as that it was strictly lectured and there was no purpose to having the learners gathered together. The online learning principle that was violated was that live and online learning should be reserved for those topics which truly benefit from having "minds together."

The benefit of bringing people together is to achieve more creative ideas and benefit from the collaboration and synergy which results from having many thoughts on one topic. A simple question to answer, but a hard objective to achieve: What is the audience doing during this class?

Virtual Training Saves Best Buy Big Bucks

Through the use of virtual training at Best Buy, the company saved $630,000 in travel expenses and an additional $120,000 in labor expenses in fiscal year 2015.

Adobe Connect Tip

Adobe Connect Tip

If you like to make engaging, visual, dynamic slides for use in your online sessions, you undoubtedly love the SmartArt feature of PowerPoint. However, if you use Adobe Connect you undoubtedly are also frustrated by the fact that Connect doesn't always display your beautiful creations. 

Here are two work-around tips that can fix that:

1) Try loading your slides to the Content Library of your Connect account, then load your Share Pod from there (rather than loading the slides directly from your hard drive/server). Choose Browse Content Library rather than Browse My Computer  when choosing what to share.I

f that doesn't work -

2) Go back to PowerPoint, click on the SmartArt to highlight the whole design (not just one segment), and then right click to display sub-menu options. Choose "Change to Image."  This will make your SmartArt function like a .jpg that Connect will recognize.

The downside to this approach is that if your design builds, it will have "fused" it in to one image, which isn't always the reason you chose to useSmartArt in the first place.

WebEx Tip: Pop-Up Note

If you'd like to have a pop-up welcome note as people join your WebEx Session, you can program it when you schedule your class, OR if you are opening a session spontaneously, go to the menu bar: Meeting > Welcome Message.  It will open a new browser window and you can type your message. Be sure to check "Display this message when attendees join the meeting."

The result: As each new attendee joins, this message window will pop up over the WebEx interface.  Useful for introducing yourself, giving instructions (e.g. "Be sure to close down your email."), or providing alternate call-in numbers, if needed.

Why Utilize a Virtual Classroom?

Book Excerpt from "Tailored Learning":

The ability to interact with experts and peers in real time is a comfortable and familiar environment and eliminates the isolation that often comes with asynchronous technologies. Often a participant requires live interaction with an instructor or an expert, but that interaction does not need to be face-to-face.

For example, medical students observing surgery would, arguably, benefit from being physically in the operating room or a surgical observation area. However, those same participants do not need face-to-face interaction to ask post-operative questions of the surgeon. Questions can be asked and discussed among all of the participants via a virtual classroom. If a recording is made of the synchronous discussion, all the participants can go back and review the recording, at any time, to ensure that they understood the answers. One of the most common reasons for organizations to implement a virtual classroom is an audience that is dispersed across a large geographic area (oftentimes worldwide). Compared with traditional classroom delivery, the money saved in classroom costs, travel, and time away from work quickly becomes apparent. In addition, organizations may choose to deliver content that they never would have scheduled in a more traditional (classroom) setting. For example, an update to a computer system may only take one or two hours to teach, but an organization would rarely convene a training program for such a short period of time because it would be cost prohibitive. The virtual classroom makes this type of content easy to distribute.

As organizations become more global, and the need to collaborate across a distance is becoming more important, a virtual meeting place can help close the distance gap by providing a forum through which employees collaborate in real time.

Adobe Connect Tip: Polls and Chat Pods

If you are setting up your classroom in advance, and you'd like to bring in a poll or chat pod to place over a share pod (rather than going to a new layout), you can open, size, position and then hide all your pods in advance. When you then again pull them up from Pod > type (e.g. Chat) they will appear where you "last left them" - avoiding you having to maneuver them around the screen while learners are watching.

Managers want training in using virtual tools; in order to do their jobs better

While 87% of managers say that online meeting tools such as WebEx and Lync are mission critical, only 10% say they're competent and confident using those types of tools.

Source: Virtual Leadership - Closing the Distance, in Training Magazine, May/June 2015  

Funky fonts in WebEx? Try this tip...

If your organization has its own "branded font" (and this is especially prevalent when using branded PowerPoint templates), you will often find that WebEx will display odd things on your slides such as words falling out of tables, headlines breaking where they did not break in the original PPT, etc. 

The best fonts to use for smooth WebEx integration are Helvetica and Arial. Rather than muddle through each slide, simply go to your master slides and change the fonts there. You may still have to do some refinements, but it is still a much faster approach than editing each slide individually.

Successful Virtually Delivered Training Is Dependent On...

Many organizations are using virtually delivered training programs due to companies’ widespread geographic locations and the just-in-time nature of delivery that the synchronous platforms allow. Unfortunately, not many organizations are doing it well. 

At a minimum, there are three key components for successful virtually delivered training.  None is more important than another – all must be created, tested, and executed to perfection.  The good news is: all are completely within your control.

Content

Many organizations are moving what used to be delivered in a classroom to an online format.  This requires translating concepts and content into a new format.  The face-to-face class simply cannot be replicated in the online environment, so it is important to make critical decisions about what to keep, what to distribute in another way (such as reading or an e-learning module), and what to deliver in another way (such as on-the-job coaching).

Virtually delivered training, by default, is blended learning.  There is no way around it.  Not everything can be delivered successfully in a synchronous online environment, nor should it be.  For example, reading a case study might be done during 5 minutes in the face to face class, but it is not a good use of online time. Therefore the case study should be read at another time (what to distribute in another way).   Doing some work asynchronously (independently) and some work together, during the online session, is the very definition of blended learning.

Materials

Materials are critical in the online environment.  This include slides, because it is a very visually-oriented delivery medium; Participant Guides, because very often a learner will be the sole individual enrolled in a class at his/her location, and the learner needs some sort of reference material or supporting documentation in order to follow along in the class; and scripted Facilitator Guides to ensure the training achieves the intended learning outcomes while ending in the allotted time (virtual, online training is very tightly timed).

Most especially, when it comes to slides, get rid of the PPT templates, get rid of the bullets, and create visual, engaging “canvases” for creating.

Mastering Technology

Luckily, technology is rather fool-proof these days unless something is done that purposefully interferes with its operation.  Like most physical skills, using technology only gets better with practice.  A best-practice is to always rehearse the delivery one or two days in advance of the scheduled class.  No matter how many times a facilitator has delivered the same session, it’s always a good idea to practice it –in the synchronous environment – to be comfortable with the tools, their location, their execution, and their results (e.g.  does it look better to highlight a particular piece of text, or underline it?).

Creating and re-designing training to be delivered via a virtual technology can be a daunting task. 

There are many details to be aware of and manage.  If you find yourself being overwhelmed, concentrate on these three things and you will more than ensure your success.

Adobe Connect Tip

Load your files to the Shared Content Library first, then load to your share pod from the library.  This prevents errors when the pptx is "converted" for Adobe Connect use.

One common conversion error is bullets that don't have space between the bullet and the text (even though your slides, in PowerPoint format are perfectly bulleted).

Adobe Connect Tip - for easier classroom management

One of the wonderful things about Adobe Connect is the fact that the pods make it so malleable... one of the maddening things about Adobe Connect is trying to get all those pods in place easily and at the right time.

One option: Create a layout for your activity instead.

Say, for example, your activity is for participants to respond to the question, How Do You Create the Perfect Impression on a New Client? What do you do before, during and after the sales call? and you have a separate chat pod for each response (before, during, after).  Rather than try to move the pods in to the participant viewing area quickly and neatly, use a separate layout where they are already set up. Then, with one click, you can move the whole group to the layout.

• From the menu bar, click Layout > Create New Layout

• Then choose to create a blank layout (you will have to bring in every pod you want in this layout) or duplicate an existing layout (if you know you want video, attendee list and chat, you might want to duplicate the standard 'sharing' layout)

• Give the layout a name so you can easily find it in the list of layouts on the right of your screen (using our example above, we'd probably call this layout Before, During, After)

• Click OK. Populate the room with whatever pods you need (again, using our example, we'd need 3 chat pods)

Now, when that time in the course arrives, simply click on the Before, During, After layout thumbnail and voila! your three chat pods are at the ready and participants can begin their activity much more quickly.

Success when Training Multi-Linqual Audiences

The virtual learning environment is a heavily auditory environment. The primary means of communication is through audio which is supported by visuals. The least successful format for transfer and comprehension of information is in an auditory manner.

Therefore, here are some tips that can be utilized in order to have a more successful auditory environment when teaching an online class.

Tip #1: Say Less

It takes people longer to process information auditorily. Therefore you want to give them less words to process. You can either say “I’d like for you to take out your workbooks and turn to page 52 in order for us to review the chart;” or you can say “Turn to page 52 in your workbook.” In the online environment, the latter is preferable.

Tip #2: Be Direct in Your Language

In alignment with the suggested dialogue in the first example, take out all the superfluous words from your vocabulary. Be very purposeful in your word choice and very direct in the way that you speak. For example: Please respond to the poll you see on the right of your screen vs, in a moment you’ll see a poll appear on the screen. It contains 5 choices. Choose the on that you think best answers the question posted.

Tip #3: Repeat Instructions more than Once

When you are about to engage in any kind of interaction, give the instructions at the start of the interaction and again at the end. This alerts the people who are paying attention at the start and those who were lagging and need the instructions in order to go forth and execute the activity. For example: In a minute you’ll go to a breakout room and discuss these three questions with your teammates, I’d like one person to take notes and another person to report back to the larger group when your breakouts are done. Keep in mind you have three questions to answer (repeat of the instructions) in those 15 minutes, so pay attention so that you have sufficient time to discuss each one.

Tip #4: Say the Exact Same Thing the Exact Same Way

Because this is a medium in which people have a hard time quickly grasping what you are communicating, you don’t want to further confuse them by changing the message. Simply say it again. Poor example: (1st time) Please respond to the poll you see on the right side of your screen; (2nd time) On the right side of your screen you’ll see a poll that has three questions, please choose only one. Instead, simply repeat version one as many times as necessary for the learners to grasp what you are asking them to do.4

When you watch what you say, you can assist your learners in being more accurate in the work that they do in the virtual learning environment.