Virtual and remote training is on the rise, in part to innovation and partly because of good old COVID. Whatever the reason, there is no denying the cost savings and time effectiveness of remote training.
Healthcare company Sysmex implemented virtual training for all of their new customers, jumping from 900 training sessions per year to over 2,000.A Citrix benchmarking report noted that virtual training saves between $9,550 and $15,870 per training session. Even for training in which no travel was needed, companies still saved $1,910 and $2,535 per session.
But with all the benefits of remote training comes its own set of challenges. And with most firms new to remote working, looking at onboarding or conducting on-going training and development may seem daunting.
Because of the nuances involved in maintaining remote team members, your training needs to evolve from being just a slide presentation and lecture to an actual learning experience. How do you do that? I am glad you asked!
There are three different choices when considering a learning model: synchronous, asynchronous, and blended learning. Synchronous learning involves a group engaged in learning simultaneously and can happen in a training room or online.
Your idea of using slides and lectures, that counts as synchronous learning. So, a facilitator and training schedule are required. Asynchronous learning allows the group to learn the same material but at different times and locations. A facilitator is not needed for this, but all the materials, videos, and activities are planned out in advance.
Once the learning materials are set, then you just need to add deadlines for when each piece should be completed. Blended learning is a combination of both. This model brings in the online element and more face-to-face time with a facilitator.
Thank goodness we have cool options, so we are not limited to just a video call link, spreadsheet attendance tracking, and a slide presentation!
A reliable conferencing or webinar platform is a good starting point. Just make sure it offers the features your team may need, like screen share, interactive whiteboard, text chat and file sharing.
Depending on the size of your teams, include capabilities to broadcast to large passive groups. You could also choose to go with a virtual classroom instead. Those are specifically designed to run training and offer additional features like virtual assessments and breakout rooms.
A Learning Management System (LMS) will help you track, manage and house your training. You can upload videos or build out course materials and then assign different modules as needed. You will also be able to pull reports to see how well your team is doing overall and at an individual level, and it creates tracking for what has been completed and where different team members may be struggling.
While you can upload PDFs and Word documents to an LMS, a basic eLearning authoring tool will allow you to make that same content more engaging.
Look for authoring tools that are HTML5 based, allows for easy content creation, and supports multiple output formats. Authoring tools can also automatically prepare your courses to function on mobile, tablets and any browser.
Be mindful not to let shiny things distract you from the end goal. Whatever tools you decide to use should meet the requirements of the courses and processes you have designed. If the tools are getting in the way, reconsider your options.
Building out your content can be the most significant piece of building your remote training.
The aforementioned Citrix study highlighted that 49% of trainers develop content in less than a week. Make sure you allow for enough time to create content. Otherwise, the investment of not only your time but also your team's will not be well-served.
You will need to start by identifying what the end goal of your training will be. Use that to begin outlining your high-level plan, and then break that outline down to courses, then dig into content for each. When you have written and gathered all your learning materials, look at how the remote team will be given all that information.
Do you need to record videos? Are there activities to flush out? When will knowledge checks take place? Will those assessments just be testing, or should they combine essays and presentations? Are there modules that would be best suited to having each team member complete on their own?
Each of these considerations will also vary based on which type of learning model you decided on. However you decide to work out all of these details, remember to keep it simple. If you get wrapped up in all the bells and whistles, your overall plan will be lost.
Now that you have about half the content you need to implement effective remote training, do not forget to come back next week for the rest.
Same Woodard time, same Woodard channel. And this time, we will look at making training interactive, proper scheduling and overall facilitation.