Great Instructors Seldom Rely on Technology….Four Tips for Creating Great Virtual Classes
We’ve all seen how technology can help organizations and people accomplish great things; things they normal could not do on their own. As the leader of an innovation and technology team working less than 50 miles from Silicon Valley, I’m sold on the benefits of technology and have been an advocate and avid user of virtual learning technologies for the past 10 years.
On the flip side, like many of you, I’ve attended more than my fair share of bad virtual meetings and webinars in the last few weeks during this season of shut-in. You’ll no doubt recognize the meetings or sessions where someone finally says: would every stop talking at once, could someone just mute all of us? Can anyone even hear the instructor?
At the same time, I’ve been on first-time Zoom calls with my in-laws who are in their 80s and watched the joy on their face as they tell me: Wow! This new technology is great and will really revolutionize how individuals connect. And they’re right. When the technology works as it should, people can be transported to another place and experience something new. The key to this kind of magic is not just the technology — it’s a combination of technology and the person using the technology in a way that is true to the skills and leadership qualities that have stood the test of time (and modality!).
So in what ways will technology in concert with sound learning principles revolutionize how we approach training in the future? In my organization, this transformation has been on hyper-speed for the last four weeks. We’ve learned a lot in a short time (isn’t there a saying about necessity being the mother of invention?). To understand the recent lessons of our forced transition to virtual training, I took a moment to chat with one of our best in-person instructors to gain his perspectives on what makes a great virtual class or meeting?
Below are four recommendations that have very little to do with technology.
1. Give participants something tangible that they can use immediately. It can’t all be theory! They need to be able to apply what you share with them immediately.
2. Use real life examples that are memorable. People relate to stories and experiences — this helps them remember the content, and understand how to use it.
3. Make a personal connection with your attendees. Keep your session’s conversational, challenge attendees, let them know you’re listening,asking and answer their questions.
4. Remember to have fun. Really, who wouldn’t want to go to a class that isn’t a little fun?
While these are simple practices, I’ll bet all of us can think of sessions we’ve been on this week where we wished even just one of these practices had been followed.
As we look for opportunities to make virtual training more impactful, reflect back on your favorite teacher. Mine was Ms. Davis (not her real name) — my high school journalism teacher. I looked forward to her class every day, not because of the technology that she used (think transparencies, mimeographed handouts, chalkboard). But because of the experiences and interactions she created around the content (the lesson), how we applied those lessons, and satisfaction in the stories we crafted. As learning leaders, when we explicitly design and plan for application, personal experiences and memorable stories that can be used at work or home, it becomes clear what technologies we should use — and their role in our learning journey.
For now, my hope is to start by fixing some of those audio issues. In my next post, I’ll share specific techniques for creating virtual engagement, making content more relevant, and crafting a memorable online learning experience — stay tuned.
Chris has the privilege of leading a team of innovation and technology consultants solving some of the biggest challenges facing healthcare. He is a recognized leader for learning and innovation at one of the largest healthcare systems in Northern California, providing care to 3M patients. This article is the first in a series of blog posts on effective virtual training. He’ll be posting a new article each week.
