Like every year before it, 2019 proved game-changing, awe-inspiring, and insightful.

With only a few weeks left until a new decade, our team felt nostalgic.

What did we learn in the last 365 days? Quite a bit, and we’re sure you did too.

The modern classroom brings with it many tricks.

Technology failures, webinars-that-could’ve-been-a-job-aid, and lecture-heavy sessions with few opportunities to practice new skills can plague blends.

But, in spite of all the possible horrors, blended training can still treat learners to meaningful professional development.

Competent virtual facilitators have quite a few enviable skills.

They’ve been trained on the nuances of how to teach virtually and have mastered their virtual classroom platform. (Zoom, Webex, Adobe Connect, etc.) They consider the principles of adult learning throughout every delivery. They manage the entire experience. And so much more!

The infographic associated with this post provides a pretty detailed list of the qualifications and responsibilities of a good virtual facilitator, in a “job posting” format. (Download here and feel free to adapt for your own use!)

But how does a facilitator go from good to great?

Jim Collins, author of Good To Great and Built To Last, reminds us that it is not possible for EVERYONE to be above average. Exceptional virtual facilitators need to learn and exhibit advanced facilitation skills.

But what are advanced facilitation skills?

We talk a lot about learning journeys. The modern learning landscape has evolved, and standalone programs no longer exist.

Learners reasonably expect personalized, relevant training experiences. Designers understand that their role has changed to accommodate complex perpetual learning programs that resemble winding pathways.

But what about facilitators? How has their responsibility shifted in the age of learning journeys?

Think back to the last webinar or virtual training session you attended. I’m willing to bet that you divided your attention between the event and other things like email, lunch, or a pressing project.

We don’t judge! Even the most committed learners and seasoned virtual classroom experts have a tendency to multitask in this learning environment. And for good reason – we all juggle an increasing number of competing priorities, and our organizations keep decreasing the amount of time available for learning.

Trainers must not only support learning objectives, but also business goals. More often than not, our stakeholders include our learners’ managers. Their involvement in our initiatives impact the outcomes we see.

In our experience, if managers undervalue components of a blend – for example, virtual classroom sessions – their teams will lack the necessary support and resources they need in order to successfully participate in learning activities.

The best bet for overcoming leadership leeriness? Training, of course!

Workflow learning is something we're starting to hear a lot about. It's the concept of embedding content into the flow of work at each moment of learning need.

I think this is a great idea. But it’s not really new. Our children are already doing this.

And, as is typical, they can't believe we haven't been taking advantage of all of the technology available to us to support our workflow all along. (Admittedly, they aren’t using these words.)

I’ll share a personal example.

Learning does not just happen. The success or failure of knowledge transfer and behavior change depends on many factors such as engaging facilitation, thoughtful instructional design, and purposeful training deployment and management. And, many would argue, that underlying all of those elements lies a bedrock of neuroscience.

Learning theories, which attempt to define how students gain, process, and retain information, have a storied and stormy history within the Learning and Development field. Some experts swear by their efficacy and rely on them heavily, while others dispel them as pseudoscience bunk.

Let us count the ways!

Valentine’s Day encourages us to fill our hearts with love and our bellies with chocolates. Not a team to ignore tradition, InSync, hit by cupid’s arrow, considered all the reasons we adore the modern blended classroom.

Whether a learner or learning industry leader, a facilitator or designer, manager or new practitioner, we can all find something that gives us training butterflies.

All instructional designers have a toolkit: a set of processes, applications, and approaches they use to create modern learning programs. High-tech, low-tech, paid, or free, they rely on a myriad of sources to design training that sticks.

While toolkits may vary, many instructional designers face a common obstacle: communication. How do we make sure that our stakeholders and teams understand the design vision, execution plan, and associated benefits? More often than not, designers spend a majority of their time in meetings, talking about the nitty gritty details and the high-level overview of programs. Every element discussed and revisited. Designers, by default, can’t extract themselves from their work.