10 Ways to Improve Remote Online Training
10 Ways to Improve Remote Online Training
All online, remote training should strive to be as effective as in-person training. The pandemic has accelerated remote working cultures, to the point where we should expect a level of remote interaction even once this is over. If virtual meetings are here to stay, then we cannot afford for our team's training to suffer from the distance.
To make your remote training more effective, take the following 10 steps:
- Use a variety of learning styles.
- Don't cause death by PowerPoint.
- Use an interactive white board.
- Stand away from the camera and give a performance.
- For each major concept, prepare visualisations and catch phrases.
- Engage people in conversation.
- Create involvement exercises and practice sessions.
- Relate every point back to their personal reality.
- Create a supplementary written document to support the presentation.
- Ensure the main learning points and "takeaways" are clearly marked and understood.
1. Use a variety of learning styles.
People learn in many different ways, so we should use multiple presentation styles. If you choose one style and stick to it, you will lose your audience.
So, change the pace, change the approach, change the mood, and keep them "on their toes".
2. Don't cause death by power point.
Don't rely too heavily on PowerPoint presentations in your remote training, because they quickly become boring.
3. Use an interactive white board.
Supplement your PowerPoint with an interactive white board, which allows you to draw diagrams, write ad hoc notes, and draw amusing cartoons.
Bonus tip: Learn to draw. The ability to draw quick, simple, but convincing sketches, is a tremendous asset for an online trainer, because it introduces spontaneity and fun.
4. Stand away from the camera and give a performance.
Too many remote trainers sit too close to the camera and become yet another talking head, which is boring. Instead, stand back and let your audience witness a whole person, giving a performance. This is much more interesting for the learners and will keep their attention, if you do it right.
5. For each major concept, prepare a visualisation and a catch phrase.
The human memory uses words and pictures to encode information. Therefore, it is important that for each major concept, you appeal to both sets, by inventing an image and a catch phrase for each major concept, which hooks onto their memory.
6. Engage people in conversation.
Humans are social animals. We learn from conversations with knowledgeable people. The key concept here is "conversation".
We don't learn well by simply listening for hours. We learn by conversing. So, trainers should present a "structured conversation". Remote training is a learning-teaching session, but it should feel to the delegates as if it were a conversation.
How would you achieve that? Here is how....
7. Create involvement exercises and practice sessions.
All good training involves the active participation of the delegates. So, remote trainers should prepare interesting, suggestive and entertaining exercises that will bring their key concepts to life. The exercise should inspire conversation and questions.
8. Relate every point back to their personal experience.
True ideas work in reality. To prove your training ideas are true, relate them to the delegates, using your own personal reality and experience.
Ask them directly, "How could you all use this information, in practice?" If they don't see it, explain how you personally use the ideas you are presenting, to make life better.
9. Create a supplementary written document to support the presentation.
Trainers should take the lion's share of the responsibility to create excellent written notes for the delegates. You cannot expect the delegates to make excellent notes because they don't know the subject as well as you, and don't know how to recognise the most important points from the trivial.
In addition, on first hearing, delegates often don't fully understand what you said, so they write down their misunderstandings into their notes, which they later memorise.
To avoid this common error, trainers should take the responsibility to prepare 70% of the notes for the delegates, and ask them to complete the exercises and additional notes, which make up the other 30%.
10. Ensure the main learning points and "takeaways" are clearly marked and understood.
All good trainers make their main points clear and distinct. So decide in advance, what are the main takeaways and learning points, that the delegates should gain from the course, and double down on them. Then you know that every trainee who attends your presentation can achieve their learning objectives.
About the Author: Chris Farmer
Chris Farmer is the founder of the Corporate Coach Group and has many years’ experience in training leaders and managers, in both the public and private sectors, to achieve their organisational goals, especially during tough economic times. He is also well aware of the disciplines and problems associated with running a business.
Over the years, Chris has designed and delivered thousands of training programmes and has coached and motivated many management teams, groups and individuals. His training programmes are both structured and clear, designed to help delegates organise their thinking and, wherever necessary, to improve their techniques and skills.
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