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Hi there,

I am helping a client to migrate face to face content into live virtual classroom sessions and he is getting push back from the business on how effective  virtual classrooms are versus face to face training sessions.

Does anyone know of any resources I could use to show that the results obtained in classroom training are not impacted when the same material is delivered in virtual.  Many thanks.

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  • Liz, brilliant question and one that will help us all. 

    Here's some stuff:

    I'm sure I have more, but that's a good start!

    What thoughts/contributions do we all have?

    6 Reasons Blended Learning Works -- Campus Technology
    Research suggests that blended learning is more effective than both face-to-face and online education, according to a new e-book released by the Onli…
  • Hi Liz, was any of that useful or did it miss the mark? I know you've been on holiday, so no worries if you haven't had time. Will add something more as and when I come across it :D

  • Hi, just found these:

    http://online.illinois.edu/articles/online-learning/item/2017/06/05...

    https://www.healthcare-management-degree.net/faq/are-student-outcom...

    5 Benefits of Studying Online (vs. Face-to-Face Classroom)
    • I thought I'd report back on my progress with researching the question:

      Are the results obtained in classroom training impacted when the same material is delivered in virtual?

      One of my clients was experiencing resistance from the business and wanted to know if I knew of any hard evidence or case studies he could quote, which would encourage his stakeholders to really engage with virtual classrooms.

      So my research threw up there appears to be zero research into the impact of a piece of training delivered face to face and then the same material delivered on line, in a non academic environment. There is plenty of data about the academic world, largely because they adapted to online working a long time before we did in the corporate world.

      However there is still some useful stuff in the links Jo very kindly sourced for me, notably the Routledge report which although based on year long university courses did give me some useful soundbites. 

      I approached Cindy Huggett directly and she gave me a link to some US academic papers which again focused on university courses. 

      What we do in the business world versus the university world is so different and it is difficult to compare.  For example university courses have used videos of lectures as the virtual component, something I would never do - virtual to me is very well designed and facilitated virtual classrooms run on either Adobe Connect or Webex.

      In the end all I could say to my client was you are the ones to generate this research data!  In the meantime, I suggested they manage expectations and use a marketing approach through giving a series of short taster sessions for line managers prior to the virtual classroom sessions for their staff.  This is what I have done for the last three years and with great success.  This alone gives virtual the edge as such sessions are easy to attend, take minutes and the technology really wows the managers.  On that level alone they are very interested.

      So, what conclusions did I extract from the research?  Well there appears to be no measurable difference in learning outcome between face to face and virtually run courses.  However, when those virtually run courses are part of a blend, there is a difference and virtually run courses deliver better leaning outcomes. This is not surprising at all.

      I attach two slides which I eventually put together showing what the academic data was saying generally and a second slide talking about some of the great features of virtual classrooms which give them the advantage over face to face.

       

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      • Thank you SO much for sharing Liz! Really pleased that you came back to us on that. 

        It's a pity there isn't more research from a corporate point of view and with the way that we facilitate live sessions, but I guess it's not where the academic interest is at the moment. 

        Hopefully work like yours and that other people do can generate some data and make some changes!

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