Over the years the concept of training people from afar has evolved from correspondence school to the televised classroom to webinars and most recently to mobile learning.
Its appeal: getting information to a dispersed audience at a fraction of the cost. Its challenges: getting information to a removed audience in a way that will stick.
How does curriculum design differ between webinar-based training and classroom-based training?
My answer: it shouldn’t.
The well-designed virtual classroom engages the learner to apply the information being presented. A poorly-designed virtual classroom attempts to dump the content into the attendees’ brains -- lecture-hall style.
A well-designed virtual classroom utilizes most of the facilitating techniques available to a real classroom facilitator. A poorly-designed virtual classroom is frequently one-way delivery, with the most engaged learners staring at a computer screen.(I kid, of course. When presented with a computer screen and a lecture, when is anyone content to remain staring at their screen?)
True, there are a few different facilitation techniques between the physical classroom and the virtual classroom. It's those challenges that make the job exciting -- the focus on vocal quality, the timing of when to use which tool, the gauging of your audience to determine how well they are understanding the content.
I will often design my web-based training courses as if I’m going to facilitate in the classroom, and then find a way to facilitate the same activity online. If I can’t, then I rethink the activity. But if I can…
This is what I like to share in my Total Trainer: Creating Training session. My session is titled "Distance Learning," a throwback to the days when "ASTD Orange County" was teaching how to facilitate over what was then a technologically innovative medium.
We'll touch on how the technologies constantly change, how a field once dominated by sophisticated software tools such as WebEx has been fragmented into a broad spectrum of products ranging from the robust to the cost-effective. We'll explore the features of ATD OC's web meeting provider, GoToMeeting, and compare them to a different web meeting provider to highlight the fact that while the even the virtual classroom venue might differ, the ADDIE model remains the same.
*This post title references (perhaps poorly) a stanza from Led Zeppelin's "The Song Remains The Same".
An Orange County e-learning designer whose portfolio includes webinar, leader-led, and blended learning programs. 2015 Recipient of the LearnX Gold Award for Rapid Authoring.
From designing and facilitating instructor-led training both in the classroom and over the web, to creating self-paced training that blends learner-led activities with eLearning modules, Paul focuses on interactivity, engagement, and overcoming learner performance gaps.
Paul joined ASTD-Orange County well over a decade ago because someone was networking, and had cued him into a vibrant organization devoted to the professional development of trainers just like him.
He has viewed ATD Orange County as the keystone for his professional development, and has advocated using both Chapter and ATD National resources as a source of information for those seeking to further themselves in this vibrant career.
Paul seeks to expand the viability of our professional network to create opportunities for our members to practice what they learn -- to do something that adds to their resume through experience and measurable accomplishment.
Total Trainer University is the county's leading Train-the-Trainer program. It consists of two courses:
Creating Training
Taught by some of the highest caliber training professionals from the ATD‐Orange County chapter, this program takes participants from the initial needs analysis through the development of training materials, the presentation of training and conducting the final evaluations.
Delivering Training
This program teaches you to design and deliver impactful presentations for business meetings, conferences and special events, or classroom assignments.
The learning environment is highly interactive and participants receive individual feedback for improved performance.
Sponsors and Partners
