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Hi all,
I'm just doing some thinking around the length of virtual classroom (not webinar) sessions. Often they can be an hour, 90 minutes or more, but obviously can be 30 minutes or shorter, a couple of hours or even all day.
How do you decide how long your virtual classroom sessions should be?
I know some clients where they find 30 minutes or less is great, because it gets people back to fee-earning or whatever their productivity is really quickly.
Others have said that if they do sessions less than 90 minutes, and ideally 2 hours, people in their audience say that there isn't the value in them attending.
Most of my own session for teaching virtual classroom training skills are two hours long. I'd run them even longer, maybe 2.5 hours, if people would let me! I like the longer sessions to really get into the "meat" of the topic, as long as there is enough itneractivty and a break in the middle.
What about you - are you driven by your attendees? Business constraints? Manager suggestion? Something else?
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Currently the length is in our hands. We are considering trying trying 'cafe sprint' 30 mins style - I'm not totally convinced about this format, certainly cuts the waffle, but you're lost if you experience techie issues no chance to catch up. I also found the break out session quite exposing when little time to warm up and feel comfortable with people.
My own sessions are around 45 to 60 minutes.
Interested in others thoughts on the 'sprint' style of session.
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Most of my work focuses on interactive skills. Creating time for input, practice, feedback, discussion, means that online classroom learning sessions are minimum 90 minutes. Since Covid hit, I'm finding that people also want to include the time for social connection that we lose from a) not being face-to-face and b) the relentless Zoom meetings focussing on task and neglecting connection.
With any virtual learning it's important to start with the question: "What do I want my participants to leave with?" This helps me to shape the design and therefore the length of the session. The shorter the session the more likely it is to be input biased, so how do you know any learning has occured?
We focus a lot on what's done before an online classroom session starts: tech tests, pre-work, expectations setting. It helps to save time from the valuable workshops.
I've been doing 90-minute sessions and only one has client asked for a smaller duration - an hour. I like the idea of several shorter workshops over time; want to test if people a) retain more and b) apply more. What do people on here think of David Rock's idea of 45 minute sessions, spaced over time?
 https://neuroleadership.com/your-brain-at-work/how-to-make-virtual-...
Really interesting read, thank you so much for sharing!
The answer of course is ... depends!
30 mins works if its just a quick "check in" session for a small group but ...
As most good VCT are ideally a suite of sessions, I'm really not sure that you can do much in under 45 minutes. By the time youve done the social chat (as someone has already said, this is now even more vital), an ice breaker, caught up on peoples learning and set post course exercises there is not a lot of time left for engaging input and exercises!?
I dont have a problem going up to 2 hours but anything over 50 mins realy does need a formal 5 minute comfort break half way through.
And as we all know Jo it is ALL about engagement. We think nothing of sitting on our sofas binge watching 5 hours of Succession on Sky catchup (just done it!) without hardly a break .. yet we think people cant concentrate for more than 20 minutes at a time if on a VCT session.Â
If we make make it relevant and engage them then time really does fly by. For the trainer as well as the learner!
I wok on a basis of 90 minutes maxium, 60 minutes ideal.
It depends upon the subject matter though, and what else is being done to support the classroom session (asyncronous content etc)
I have been facilitating virtual classroom sessions for the last few years. Our sweet spot has always been 2 hours. Due to the pandemic, we have had to shift our mindset to meet our training demands. Our biggest challenge was taking a face to face, 80-hour supervisor development program virtual. In the face to face construct, we were delivering ten 8 hour classes. For virtual delivery, we settled on two 4 hour virtual sessions a week. The timing and duration have been surprisingly well-received. We use breakout rooms, annotations, polling, whiteboards, videos, and off-mute conversation to increase engagement.
Wow Bryan - that's an impressively chunky project you have there. I can only imagine just how challenging 'virtualising' the F2F program has been.
Good for you if your participants can find 2 x half-days each week for training. I'm guessing that you have a cohort doing this program? If so, it would be great if you can share how you virtually hold participants accountable, i.e. track progress and back-at-the-job application.
Good luck with it!
Very chunky! We have three cohorts currently in progress. This is state-mandated training for new supervisors. Since the time in class is required, everyone makes the time on their calendar. The big gap is ROI. Typically another agency would run the training and there would be zero follow-ups. What we have done is taken a day's training (8 hrs), and broken it up into two 4 hour chunks. Typically, we deliver these two 4 hour sessions on a Tues. & Wed., every other week. This allows practice and implementation during the period in between classes. We have set up communication groups in MS Teams to afford communication, idea sharing, success stories, and questions. The expectation is that the class comes prepared to share their experiences in class, as well as in MS Teams. Not all topics can be practiced (e.g. corrective or adverse actions), but we have built-in networking with support groups and resource sharing as part of the learning experience.
From what I know as a producer, you should aim for 60-90 mins if you can. People's attention starts to wane after that.Â