Does Size Matter?

Very often, when organizations move to virtual training, they think that the constraints of travel and space (learning space) are removed and it is now possible for a larger audience to take part in the training offering.

Not true! Compare these two simple visuals:

• A circular table of 8 where everyone can see each other, hear each other and be involved with one another in an engaging and collaborative way.

• A town-hall meeting in which a lot of people are in attendance, but only a few get to take the floor.

If YOU wanted your opinion heard, or you wanted to come away from the meeting having developed a relationship with the others in attendance, which meeting would you want to attend?

The circular table of 8 is the visual we need to keep in mind when designing for virtual delivery of training. Our learners are already hobbled by the fact that they cannot make eye contact with one another or read one another’s body language; but they CAN make connections with each other when there is a smaller group involved.

The real benefit of virtual delivery is that you can deliver the same topic as many times as you like, at any time that you like. So you can run 3 sessions, of 8 learners, in one week.  This allows for more interaction and engagement among the learners. When the facilitator asks a question, it is quite obvious if 8 people have answered or 3 people have answered.  When you poll them for their opinion, there is actually time to hear why people chose the answer they did – and allow for comparing and contrasting results.

With larger groups, we might undertake the same activities, but they will simply be ‘watched’ by some in attendance – it is not possible to involve everyone, in every activity, to the degree that they feel they are contributing to the content.

Smaller groups enhance learning outcomes, and virtual learning deliveries allow us to economically utilize smaller groups.