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I was at a networking event a few weeks ago, when I told people that I worked with virtual classrooms many of them declared to me they knew what they were.
I sat back and listened as people spoke about the following regarding virtual:
A webinar but longer
Everyone shouting at the same time
Like a terrible phone conference call with delay and people talking over each other
It is pretty much the same as E-Learning
A video can achieve more
Everyone just checks their emails
I was a little bit dismayed at all these comments! When I started to explain what a real virtual classroom was with a good facilitator, providing engaging live online learning and utilising various tools and techniques to maintain engagement and learning! They all quickly realised that they had never been in a proper virtual classroom, they had all been in a different version of a webinar or an online conference meeting.
I found it interesting that these smart people had such a wrong impression on virtual classrooms, the real issue though is that what they had been told was a virtual classroom was not actually one.
I wondered if anyone else had similar stories and how they either overcame the objections or managed to educate the person on what they really are.
I think these types of challenges most of us likely find and must deal with often or will at some point. Having some great responses to quickly change mindsets and educate will benefit all of us!
Please share your cringe worthy moments and how you dealt with them!
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Replies
Yeah I've had some similar conversations mike! I find that getting people into the platform and really explaining it can help. they have to see it to beleive it.
Similar to e-learningÂ
People have gone through mind-numbing crap 'click next' stuff and think that's what elearning is. I'm guilty of creating some of that in the past so can't say I'm clean there.Â
However I've learned over the years and same with virtual classrooms or live online sessions or webinars (whatever you call them) - put the user first and think about it as an experience. I always try and build confidence in the tools and features first so ppl are OK with the room and know they won't break anything.Â
Recent cringe worthy moment was an hour long virtual session where the facilitator just talked at us with NO interactivity at all - how did we deal with it - they got that feedback and we won't be using them as a supplier - EVER!
OMG what a terrible experience! We can offer them some skills training if they need it ;P
But you are right, so many people experience terrible, mediocre or even just satisfactory sessions of all types, and don't get the amazing experiences that they deserve.
Hah, yes, I can relate to some of this. I have found that you really have to champion it. This has been some journey over the past 12 months but now people understand the value and this is making a real and tangible difference to the business.Â
This is very fresh in my mind as this morning I have just done a Virtual Classroom discovery session in Helsinki for some of our support office team members in Copenhagen.
To get to where we are now, we have chosen a great platform (Adobe Connect), learned how to use it and trained the whole team, created our own accreditation process to raise the facilitation bar, created a specific design workstream and library with pull-down sessions in each language, launched it at seminars and meetings for stores, connected closely with our LMS as one place to go to learn, delivered sessions for support office and field management, used it for commercial product, campaign and specific customer journey training and are now targeting specific clusters with issues and opportunities to provide real value for participants.
Our mantra is few materials, small participant numbers and high interactivity, in my head that is at least 50/50, using all of the tools available via the platform. Personally, I think Virtual Classroom is just that...a classroom, where facilitation is the key, not just presenting to a mass audience as in a webcast.
Next step for us will be to raise the bar on facilitation, expand the use of the platform, increase the experts we use through hosting, introduce it into the BAU course blend and replace face to face classes where appropriate.
Virtual classroom is the most exciting tool to appear in L&D in decades. Loving it! Â
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John I love it, pretty much everything you have said there is utterly quotable!
Feel free to quote me anytime Jo. Looking forward to working with you in September!
John Swallow - "Our mantra is few materials, small participant numbers and high interactivity"
Spot on! As Jo has said, really loving everything you have put there John!