“Social” is Back! Instructor-Led Training on the Rebound

I’m a huge proponent of self-paced online learning and can trace my enthusiasm back to 1999 when my first graduate course was offered online. In retrospect it was pretty awful – scrolling pages of text with an occasional image – but I saw how this approach could solve many expensive workplace problems. At the time my organization was, for instance, having new hires drive sometimes hundreds of miles and stay in hotels to sit in a conference room for 2 days while subject matter experts from HR read policies to them. (Sorry, but that’s really what it was.) I sold management on elearning as a way to save those dollars and worker time out of office while meeting compliance requirements, and set to learning how to design asynchronous online training.

26 years later we are overwhelmed by a tsunami of acceptable-but-not-usually-exciting online training content. It’s not awful, it’s just… more than we ever intended, and accelerated by the pandemic-era rush to get everything online. Also at play: while people love remote and hybrid work, post-pandemic we are seeing a surge in reports of worker feelings of isolation and loneliness. And there are recent alarming news about the “failure” of educational technologies in improving learner outcomes.

The answer: Increased instructor-led learning experiences, facilitated conversations, and broadened opportunities to connect. Technology by itself cannot replace the social framework provided by an instructor/facilitator/connector.

The catch: Not all human instruction is created equal. While a standalone eLearning module is what it is, the variance in social experiences is infinite. Skilled facilitators can, via the use of strategies like live Q&A, group activities, facilitated chat conversations, and adapting content on the fly, create an experience equivalent to that of face-to-face learning experiences. Notice the emphasis on skill: good designers and facilitators are needed to bring the critical sense of social presence. Simply “pushing slides” is no more effective in the virtual classroom format than it is with an unenthusiastic subject matter expert reading content aloud in a face to face setting.

Social learning requires design, facilitation skill, and intentional structure. When these elements are present, instructor-led environments — whether in person or virtual — can support the kinds of interaction that help learners build competence and confidence in enacting new skills.

One of the best recent testimonials to the power of instructor-led training comes from L&D favorite Tim Slade, who recently announced he was adapting his popular instructional design course from asynchronous self-paced modules to a facilitated live experience. Using as his mantra “connection before content” he says: We were teaching people how to do instructional design. But we weren’t teaching them how to be instructional designers.” The role goes beyond learning to use an authoring tool to put content on screens.

As Slade found, human interaction contributes to learning in several important ways. It provides immediate feedback that helps learners calibrate their understanding and exposes individuals to alternative approaches and interpretations; enables narrating real work, which is often how tacit knowledge is transferred; and strengthens social ties that support ongoing collaboration.

These benefits extend beyond the learning event itself. In environments where workers feel socially connected, engagement tends to be higher and knowledge sharing more frequent. Collaborative training experiences can act as a buffer against the disengagement sometimes associated with prolonged remote work. Simply put, interaction is not simply a “nice to have.” It is a multiplier of learning effectiveness.

Learn More:  Listen To Jane Bozarth and David Kelly in their Podcast  The Future of Learning Is More Human, Not Less

Coming next: Suggestions for building human connection beyond the walls of traditional training.