The ‘Virtual Learning Facilitation’ Paradigm

"Online learning is not the next big thing, it is the now big thing.”

- Donna J. Abernathy, educational Author

It so happened that in the past few months we have suddenly woken up to the marvels of virtual learning and digital talent development solutions. Which though existed for quite a while but the current adoption rate and consumption have been quite a revelation. With offices and other work-places not opening up fully, the new guidelines being established and remote work becoming the new normal, most working-class and professionals have to adapt to the new scheme of things both for the delivery of work and building personal effectiveness.

To keep learning and improving, given the new set of challenges there is a huge need for additional resources to support the working class and for other commercial activities as well. On one hand, we have to keep in pace with the constant influx of changes and new rules coming in and the other, to keep remaining relevant with enhancing and expanding relevant competences moving ahead.

We need to understand two very important things here – one is definitely the modalities of VILT’s and the second and even more important is, correctly decoding the needs and mindset of the learners and the relevant cohorts. In the ongoing situation a right blend of learning solutions, customized to the requirements and built-in micro-learning chunks is mostly working well as I have seen from my experience, currently published write-ups & survey reports and discussions with Business Heads and L&D professionals.

These five things I found are very significant to focus on as we plan and get going on designing and facilitating VILT’s. This is beyond the tools of Zoom (with breakout rooms etc), MS Team rooms, Skypes, Webinars and the online tools which by and large most of us are getting used to nowadays and many seasoned L&D professionals must have been using them for quite a while now.

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1. Keep in Mind – Less is More. We cannot turn a full-day classroom session into a 90 mins or max 120 mins module and therefore micro-learning modules with adequate in-built learner engagement, not just the download from the facilitator is a key element. Keep the delivery simple and what people see on the screen should not be overloaded. Avoid too many messages in one slide. The learning agenda to be chunked into appropriate spacing and intervals. Chunking will assist and let the participant incorporate multifaceted information and into smaller, easy to comprehend bites of facts & figures to understand and remember. Learners one distracted, especially in the virtual settings - would need quite some time to get back in rhythm and with already so much going on, we have to keep editing the content and keep reminding ourselves ‘Less is More’.

2. Building quick Rapport and connect – We must keep in mind that the Leaners are also in midst of a lot to handle (new-normal) and adjust daily and then keeping the cognitive viability sharp enough for getting into the personal transformation journey, and to learn a new skill or reskill and upskill can be pretty tasking. Therefore, building a quick rapport at the start of the session is a very important understanding that the luxury of certain standard ice-breakers etc needs to be modified in terms of time and delivery to suit the purpose. Rapport is the starting point of any meaningful communication and particularly on the listening part when the distractions can be multi-fold at the time given to the learner’s surroundings, which by the way is no more in control of the facilitator in online learning space

3. Use trivia questions, quizzes, discussion forums, polling and Q&A – plan it very well and again with appropriate discretion of usage, we have to keep in mind the priorities and managing the online face-time to be at utmost importance. Combine the session by building in and encouraging participants to take part in trivia, quizzes, break-out discussions, Q&A etc. It can be done in after 15 to 20 minutes of content discussion and for feedback using the check yes/no or thumbs up/thumbs down feature. One can also have built-in chatbots or a round of emoticons in chat as a means of checking the level of presence in the program and engage the participants as well. In case access to a polling feature is not there, then set up 'Slido.com' app account or Kahoot or 'Survey Monkey' and so on there are multiple such choices to suit the need and cost parameters

4. Keep our focus strongly on the basic ‘Principles of Adult Learning ‘– Self-directed, goal-oriented and learnings that can be used for the workplace and personal transformation with given hands-on tools and expertise is very vital. Also that fact that every adult learner will naturally bring in substantial knowledge/proficiency with them. Hence it is but obvious that they would want to express themselves in the given context, contribute and take an active part (even the ‘introvert learners will start to participate faster than they would do in a live classroom) to the proceedings. Generally, it is observed that adult learners dislike long lectures and one-way communication. Adult learners need to work on with real-life issues and tasks, not on just only on the theoretical concepts but the application of the same to solve problems and improve on the progress ahead. They might lose interest and become restless if they feel that it’s a wastage of their time in too much theoretical and cumbersome downloads. Usage of story-telling at the utmost, will help knowledge retention and learner active involvement and avoid ‘fading off’ syndrome.

5. PST – Performance Support Tools - With virtual learning becoming increasingly in use and value, a carefully created & curated PSTs – Performance Support Tools will be highly essential and long-term development benefits for any organization or individuals with technical or behavioural training needs. PST’s are - videos, podcasts, infographics, quick reference guides, process maps, e-Learning courses that can be further incorporated in the org’s LMS, some selected e-Books, customized mobile apps and so on. PSTs helps fast-track the learning curve, as they are part of the learner’s work-flow and are accessible exactly at the time of their requirements. They are intended & made, to be easy to integrate and easy to apply for all categories of learners and even for their reporting managers and coaches to help follow up with the progress of the transfer of learning. PSTs can be planned and integrated into microlearning and social learning strategies and the application of the same would surely enhance the learner experience and org-productivity benefits.

With that time to say just one thing in the words of the great Bruce Lee –

“Knowledge is not enough we must apply. Willing is not enough we must Do!”