How to run a virtual classroom - Five ways to make virtual classroom events come to life.

Many organisations are keen to maximise the impact of their L&D budgets and seem increasingly willing to explore different ways of interacting with the learner.  This is all good stuff in my mind, allowing providers to use a wider range of interventions in delivering effective learning. 

One such approach that we are finding an increased appetite for is virtual classroom technology. Typically for us, part of the 20% solution (70:20:10 model).  For the uninitiated virtual classroom a realtime live training session held over the Internet for participants that can take part using their laptops and PCs while remaining geographically dispersed.  As part of a blended learning solution virtual classroom makes complete sense, providing an effective way of getting a cohort together to further the learning experience. 

As with any style of learning intervention it can be delivered effectively or badly, so here are our guiding principles to make sure a valuable learning experience is secured:

1.  Select content that fits. 

There are two obvious things to consider here; the need to keep the session duration short and the need to select topics that will lend themselves to the approach.  With an open mind you can find ways of using a virtual classroom for all kinds of topics, you just need to be creative in working out compelling ways of structuring and delivering it.  The bigger challenge however is to select enough content to deliver value, whilst being concise enough to fit within a short timescale.  We like working within a 45 minute session. 

2.  Make it really difficult to drop out. 

The design of your virtual classroom session is critical.  We all know how it can be very tempting to drop out of a conference call, start looking at emails or maybe divert our attention to work on something else while the call takes place.  The temptation is no different when attending a virtual classroom.  There is though a viable solution to this, it is to develop the session so that it is highly interactive.  We need to design content that relies on the participation of all the attendees and therefore becomes almost impossible to drop out of.  At least to drop-out without being noticed.  Aim for very high levels of participant interaction, we think at least one interaction every 2 to 3 minutes throughout the entire session. 

3.  Maximise the cam, minimise the ppt.

Virtual classroom is no place for death by PowerPoint, as it will result in death of the virtual classroom!  Instead maximise the human element by making a lot of use of the trainers cam.  In our experience if your cam quality is good it’s very credible to use a trainer and flip-chart approach, at least for some of the session.  

4.  Attendee numbers. 

Perhaps this goes without saying, but a smaller class size works better for virtual classrooms.  We would rather run two groups of 6, than one of 12 simply because the trainer will be more able to manage all the interactions / questions.  

5.  Always record it.

Most virtual classroom environments allow you to record the event.  If your’s doesn’t then dump it ;-)  It is so useful to review the session afterwards so that the trainer can assess and learn how to improve next time.  But even more importantly participants can revisit the session at a later date, and those that missed the live event (for whatever reason) can catch up later at their convenience. 

  

Virtual classroom is a great tool if it’s applied appropriately, it can add significant value, just keep it as part of the overall blended learning mix.  If you’ve never experienced one, then seek them out, or even get in touch with us at iManage, perhaps we could run a company demo for you?  If you apply the simple guidance above you will be well on your way to effectively increasing the intervention options you offer your learners.  

Are business serious about 70:20:10 development? Or is it becoming a lazy way of reducing budgets while expecting already over stretched staff to take on increased responsibility for there own learning?

70:20:10 Development models seem to be gaining an increasing number of supporters in organisations HR and L&D departments.  The idea itself is great and one that we actively encourage our clients to adopt, 10% traditional or formal learning (courses, workshops, academic studies etc) 20% supported learning (usually limited to coaching and mentoring) and 70% on the job learning.  The frustration we have with this model is in the way some businesses are applying it.  We are seeing organisations talk about the 20% and 70% with enthusiasm, yet in practice they are putting very little in place to facilitate it. 

So here is what we suggest, seven practical things that you need to do if you are serious about implementing a successful blended 70:20:10 learning and development strategy. 

The 70 element

There are 4 vital aspects of at the job learning, or ‘action learning’ 

Action learning is an educational process where the participant studies their own actions and experience in order to improve performance.  It is learning acquired knowledge through actual actions and repetitions, rather than through traditional instruction.  It is proposed as particularly suitable for adults, as it enables each person to reflect on and review the action they have taken and the learning points arising. This should then guide future action and improve performance.

Reg Revans summed up the action learning set process in the following formula:

Learning (L) = Programmed Knowledge (P) + Insightful questioning (Q) 

Programmed knowledge is the knowledge in books / what we have been told to do for years.  It also refers to our own acquired personal knowledge. Both of these need to be questioned.  Questioning asks what aspect of that knowledge is useful and relevant, here and now. It is also a way of saying 'I do not know'.  Learning results from the combination of P & Q.

Action learning sets (groups of learners) can be engaged at any time, but we advocate that the following 5 concepts are required to support 70 At the job learning

1.  A learning culture is facilitated through the use of formal performance management processes:

Organisations that are successful in creating a learning culture take care to embed learning into the formal routines, rituals and processes of the organisation.  

Learning needs to be positioned as an organisational value which cascades down into the day to day practices of the business.  

Tangibly this means that every individual must have (in addition to  their operational objectives), specific and personal learning objectives which are to be attained.  These learning objectives must have equal weighting with the business oriented goals individuals are targeted against in the normal business cycle.  If performance related pay is part of the existing Performance Management process then reward should equally be linked to changes in learnt behaviours.  

2.  70 at the job learning requires a consistent long term marketing strategy. 

A true learning culture does not come about by chance.  Like any good product, consumers need to be constantly reminded of it’s availability.  Individuals therefore need to be frequently reminded that learning is a constant and continuous goal.  The design and implantation of an internal L&D marketing strategy is core to 70 at the job learning, ensuring that learning is constantly ‘front of mind’ instead of ‘bottom of draw’.  Both traditional and social media should be used to create interest, enthusiasm and deliver a drip feed of learning content. 

3.  Supporting resources.  

Providing a mobile workforce with powerful sound bites of learning gives users access at the point of need.  A rich library of self help learning materials can be tailored and made available to staff to support the learning experience.  Using reading materials, pod and vidcasts provides highly accessible training materials for those on the move, enabling a significantly higher number of touch points with the learning content.

4.  Utilisation of formal assignments:

Personal assignments requiring research and a formal documented conclusions remain an effective route to individual 70 on the job learning.  

The 20 element

By providing the learner with multiple touch points with experts, we are able to enhance the depth of understanding attained and spread domain best practice.  Our approach to this involves two concepts:

5.  Formal Mentoring (directional input):

By establishing a formal developmental mentoring programme learners are provided support from acknowledged (Internal or external) experts.  Training for Mentors and mentees should be provided to establish effective mentoring behaviours where:

• Two way learning is encouraged
• The power and authority of the mentor are ‘parked’.
• Mentors helps mentees decide what they want and plan how to achieve it.
• Begins with an ending in mind
• Built on learning opportunities and friendship.
• Most common form of help is stimulating insight.
• Mentor may be peer or even junior - It is experience that counts.

6. Informal coaching (non directional input):

Alongside a formal mentoring structure the organisation needs to instigate an informal coaching culture that simply becomes “the way we work around here”.  Understanding the concepts of a non directional coaching needs to be taught and embedded into daily practice.  

7.  Access to Short on demand learning interventions:

Learning applied at the point it is needed helps to facilitate immediate adoption and behavioural change.  By providing access to bite-sized education in practical techniques we become more effective and we get more out the resources we have.  For example we offer two solutions to deliver this demand lead learning: 

120 minutes of high impact education:  Short focused workshops lasting just 120 minutes, or sessions like our lunch and learn 60 minute interventions provide frequent but manageable sized learning opportunities.

Virtual Classroom:  Live training, carried out online. Using for example Adobe Acrobat Connect™ you can do all those things you do in a traditional face to face workshop. Input content, discuss ideas with the group, breakout into small groups, work on exercises, and come back to share plenary findings. This is an incredibly cost effective way of delivery training to dispersed workforces, and a great way supporting other blended learning interventions.  

Blended learning refers to a type of learning that combines multiple delivery methods throughout the learning process. The 70:20:10 model is an ideal way to structure those different intervention methods.  Today more methods of delivering learning exist than ever before, and successful blended learning maximises the use of all possible delivery methods.

It is true that some users experience of blended learning has been disappointing, disjointed, a cobbled together blend of different solutions. Learners are left feeling that they are enrolled on a number of separate learning interventions not one continuous programme delivered through a variety of methods.

A totally integrated 70:20:10 blended learning solution will have multiple delivery methods, but just one continuous stream of learning.  Done well this model is a great guide for bringing about change and improvement through learning and development.  Remember that the 20% means twice as much learning as the traditional solutions, and 70% means seven times as much learning!  That will only happen if HR and L&D teams help facilitate it through ideas and efforts such as these outlined.  

Patience was a virtue!

I sat down in the breakfast room and waited for my full English order to be taken. I was on a reasonably tight time table and so was pleased to note two menu options. The express grill which promised to be delivered within 5 or the fresh cooked breakfast that would take 15 of my precious minutes.  Hmmm, I would definitely prefer the fresh cooked option, but this time speed was of the essence.  I still had to drive the short distance from the hotel to the clients premises and get the room set up for the day.  

But where were all the staff?  Minutes passed me by as my agitation level rose, "what's the point in a 5 minute delivery option when it takes longer than that to take my order!"  On this particular morning patience wasn't my strength, the pressures of the day seem to be bearing down on me. 

Twenty minutes later I was enroute, navigating a particularly tricky junction coupled with the complexity of road works and temporary traffic lights over a pelican crossing (why are they called that?), with cyclists and buses everywhere I looked.   It was after all one of those cycling towns, Cambridge.  I still have no idea who was at fault in the following seconds, but I eased forward just at the same time as a slightly more elderly gentleman proceeded to do the same across my path on his bicycle.  By the way he looked, he was no doubt a learned professor, or if not then definitely one of my course delegates for that day!

I’m pleased to report that no harm occurred accept for the penetrating scowl, quickly followed by a hand gesture cast in my direction.  The Prof proceeded to carry out (as he calculated the pressure that was needed to be applied to his braking system) something involving complex scientific algorithms, and pulled to a stop as I went past. 

"How rude, why are people so impatient" I piously muttered to myself!  

So is that it? Patience is something that we may expect much of in others, but exercise little ourselves?  I rather hope not.  

At least the mornings circumstances caused me to reflect on the worth of patience, whether it was still a virtue in our hectic world, while at the same time pondering whether or not I needed to increase my own forbearance with other people and things.  Have we forgotten to be patient? Would we do well to calm down and enjoy the moment a little more?

In the 1960’s Stanford University started what became known as the marshmallow study. In it, four and five year olds were brought into a room and sat in front of a marshmallow. They were told that if they could wait to eat it until the researcher returned, they would be given two marshmallows.  About a third of the kids couldn’t last the 15 minutes, some grabbing the sweet even before the researcher left the room.  A follow-up study done after the kids graduated high school found that the ones who delayed were happier and more successful in their lives.  The ones who grabbed the treat right away were “more troubled, stubborn and indecisive, mistrustful, less self-confident, and still could not put off gratification. They also had trouble subordinating immediate impulses to achieve long-range goals.  In short the study advocated that patience was a huge indicator of success.  

Stamford have recently extended the study to understand how the less patient can be taught to be more patient with some simple diversions.  They observed that success in resisting the marshmallow came when the child was less fixated on it.  Those that focused on the gooey blob were doomed to fail.  However those who diverted their attention from it  by playing with their hair, sitting under the table, running jumping around or exploring the inside of their noses to find their own gooey blob succeeded in resisting.  

William Penn the 15th century entrepreneur and philosopher wrote “patience and diligence, like faith, remove mountains”.  So having spent the last couple of weeks being more grateful for many good things around about me (and enjoying the result of my endeavors), this week I’ve determined I’m also going to work at learning patience.  

I’m hoping that the result will be calming, enabling me to enjoy more of the moment I’m in, making me someone others might appreciate being around more, and them someone I’m less quick to judge.  

Bob Bannister

Thank you for what I’ve had. A lesson in gratitude.

I’ve been quite inspired this week by an idea tweeted and blogged by @stress_info.  It was a simple but helpful encouragement to journal things that you are grateful for.  I learnt that internationally acclaimed author Thich Nhat Hanh said, “We don’t notice our teeth when they’re feeling well, but we notice the toothache”.  How true this is, so many things simply pass us by, while often those pain in the butt things inform our daily commentary. 

I was reminded of a cheeky post meal grace that my Father allegedly prayed after he and his mates had decimated my grandmothers Sunday tea table:

Thank you Lord for what we’ve had,

Had there of been more we would have been glad, 

But as we’ve had enough we won’t be sad. 

Amen. 

Now that’s gratitude for you!  

In 1936, (long before Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman took to traversing the globe) a pioneer by the name of Robert Edison Fulton Jr. set out to ride his British built Douglas motorcycle around the globe.  

Writing about one of the many days he spent crossing the desert in Iraq he wrote “In a fatigued brain there is no restraining imagination and a thousand mental tragedies took place before anything really happened.”  

Somehow, and maybe as we get older (I speak of myself) we have an innate tendency to seek out more of the downside of life; the toothache, the economy, frustrations, trouble.  Looking forward we can do the same, filling those fatigued areas of our brain with potential fears that loom larger than life, when we know in all probability they will fail to materialise.  

To me this is interesting simply because I am one of life's optimists.  My optimism is boundless, I know of few more optimistic people than myself, yet the pressures of middle age responsibility and commitment serve to drag even my positive energy down.  Too quickly I can find my internal commentary being informed by life’s pains in the butt.  Without such an optimistic outlook to keep ones pecker up, I can only imagine the going can become very much like a 1930’s motorcycle struggling through the soft sands of a burning desert.  

I’ve been shadowing a colleague on a management training course we’ve been running at iManage this week, and I picked up on one of those small throw away comments that can sometimes serve as an ‘aha’ moment.  It was simply this “If you cant change the situation, change how you feel about it.”  A simple way of achieving this goal is to become more proactive in capturing and expressing our gratitude for the simple things in life that we are glad about.  So following the advise of the tweet earlier this week I’ve been keeping a Gratitude Journal to serve as a constant reminder of those things that I appreciate yet often overlook.  It’s been a helpful exercise and one I intend to continue with.  

Here are some of my entries so far this week:

• Beautiful morning.
• Beautiful wife.
• Feeling well.
• Dog didn’t sick and poo on the carpet!
• Finding Twuffer.com.
• For the very good response we’ve had from HRD this year. 
• Hot Water (Our boiler had to be repaired).
• Being asked to do an HRZone profile. 
• No Dog poo or sick this morning!
• Wife looking hot today.
• And another HRD lead enquiry.  

I like the idea of being grateful.  For me it definitely has links to having a strong faith, but surely each of our worlds are likely to be better places if we focus on counting our blessings.  There is good scientific evidence that support this being the case.  So why not give it a try?  Start your own Gratitude Journal or join me tweeting on the hashtag #gratitude and share with others some of the little things that we can be thankful for.