In 2020, the world went into lock-down.
Colleges, schools, and training providers all panicked in the Spring of that year as they scrambled to figure out how to deliver their established courses through screens, rather than rooms – several of which approached me for support with this, as someone who’d been exploring and thinking about how to do so successfully since 2017. And testament to how well I seem to do this, is that there’s no discernible difference in the satisfaction that learners report from sessions I deliver, nor in the impact is has on their knowledge and confidence about the subject matter, based on whether I’ve delivered it on-line or in-person.
The below offers a collection of my approaches and ideas for how to best fully engage learners in an-online environment, including when you sometimes can’t see their faces (or know if they’re even still listening…)
- Don’t assume everyone is as comfortable or familiar with different technologies as you are – not everyone will be a miro boards expert like you, nor have a high-speed internet connection; some people may be joining from older laptops that struggle to run video calls as well as other applications you’re asking them to simultaneously open and interact with. Simplify things as much as you can in what you’re asking learners to be able to do, know, and have access to, before they even start your session. Just because you can add all these extra tech bits to your delivery because it’s on-line rather than in person, doesn’t mean you automatically should. But don’t be afraid to give clear instructions that tell people to ‘stay away’ unless they’re able to meet a certain minimum criteria relating to the above if your course design means you can’t avoid using such additional apps and settings.
- Things take longer to do on-line than in a room – budget for more breaks, know that people will need a few more moments to think about things before responding through their chosen medium, and for inevitable delays (joining an on-line session means people are more likely to be distracted for a few moments by needing to let a dog out, or take a parcel in at random times).
- When on-line distractions happen (like those above), don’t berate or make the person feel embarrassed about them: remember that everyone is actually quietly relieved that it hasn’t happened to them; so pause to celebrate them – this encourages learners to subsequently feel able to be more open with each other in their discussions and reflections on the session topics (i.e. ask who else has a dog who they can introduce on screen in the next break, and to do a live unboxing of their parcel so everyone can share in the excitement). That’s because these apparent ‘silly moments’ usually help people feel more engaged through the screen with each other by creating more social points of content, and so have a better experience of the overall training.
- Try and imitate real world practices as far as possible to help people connect the feelings and thoughts that they’d be having from an in-person session, with doing it on-line. For example: how many training sessions have ever actually started on time owing to people’s trains being delayed / struggling to find a parking space / going to the wrong room / etc? The same happens on-line: people loose the link / the app wants to update / etc. Allow a few minutes grace on-line as you would in person, and use the same small talk and meanwhile prompts as you would for those who’ve been able to get in on time.
And there are several benefits that on-line training can offer that in-person can’t:
- It’s harder for any individual learner to dominate the session through their body language or presence, to the cost of others’ experience in the session (as the host of the call, you have the power to mute them when you see it may be getting too much).
- Accessibility is easier to arrange: automatic subtitles, the ability for each learner to change the volume they hear things at, etc.
- People are more likely to engage in learning, as they have a hiding space (muting themselves and turning their video off) which they wouldn’t have in a physical room with other people. This can mean people are braver to contribute, or to even sign up, who might otherwise have been too fearful to.
- There’s less disruption for people if joining on-line: no need for ‘lost time’ due to travel and the stress associated with it - finding parking, etc. Which means people are likely to be more relaxed as they join, and less distracted about getting parking tickets or making sure that they can leave in time to pick up the kids from school (or such like).
There’s a lot more on this topic that can be said and explored, but hopefully this initial blog has offered some starting prompts that will mean you’re either less dismissive of delivering training on-line in the future, or can find ways to make it more engaging and enjoyable for the people sharing a screen together when you do.
Adrian Ashton is a freelance trainer, and an associate with the international Co-operative College, Anglia Ruskin University, and other Universities.
He has designed, reviewed, and delivered a range of training and learning programmes for over 30 years, as well as supporting peers by leading ‘train the trainer’ courses for both in-house teams as well as wider sector advisors.
Partly because of his work and approaches around ensuring inclusivity in how people can fully engage with, and access a range of learning on different topics, and in different formats, he was recognised as a UK Progress Champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Gamechangers global awards in 2022; and offered a life fellowship of the RSA in 2024.