Best practices for successful virtual training

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM , VIRTUAL TRAINING , VIRTUAL TRAINING ENVIRONMENT , VIRTUAL TRAINING COMPUTERS

At the latest since home office became popular, it has become clear that virtual training is the new way to train customers/participants/employees. They are location-independent, flexible, environmentally friendly and save time for everyone involved.
However, many virtual training courses are rated poorly by participants because they do not take enough account of the special features of virtual environments.

Learn some best practices to ensure that your virtual training is a success for your participants.

Communicate the access requirements

Nothing is more frustrating than wanting to take part in a training course at the start, but failing because of the technology. You often read something similar to “One or two monitors, headset, Internet access” as an access requirement. Unfortunately, details were not mentioned, such as the need to download and install software or plugins in order to participate in the training. Or perhaps ports must be enabled in the firewall.
Clarify to your participants in advance what exactly the entry requirements are for the virtual training course. The ideal solution is to test access in advance.

Encourage webcam use

The same applies to virtual training as to online meetings. Seeing each other contributes immensely to participant satisfaction and training success.
The lecturer only sees questioning faces, boredom or even disinterest through the camera. Participants who see an enthusiastic lecturer are more likely to be motivated and inspired by them.
Ideally, the participants also see each other, even during practice phases. This sight alone contributes to a sense of community.

Actively involve the participants in your training course

Face-to-face training should not simply be transferred 1/1 to the virtual world. The participants should be involved even more in the training. Question rounds and exercises can provide support here, or simply let a participant solve a problem, task or exercise. Teamwork is another way of strengthening the bond between each individual and the training group.

Control, but not for the sake of control

Many participants are reluctant to express themselves in a virtual session. Problems and questions are therefore addressed less frequently. Therefore, check where your participants are as often as possible. You may have the opportunity to observe the participants’ progress during practice sessions.

Define the duration of the training session

Make sure that the training session is not too long or too short. Virtual training sessions that are too long cause people to lose focus or become bored, while sessions that are too short do not provide enough information to retain new learning content.

Ask for feedback even during the training course

Also check the participants’ feedback during the virtual training. Was the session too long or too complex? Were the participants overchallenged or underchallenged?
Web-based survey tools are particularly suitable for this purpose. Participants generally give more feedback here than in direct surveys. Such tools can also be set up in advance and the results automatically summarized.

You can also find more information on our website https://deskmate.cloud/de/software-training/.