It was a dark and stormy Tuesday, and all across the globe seasoned virtual classroom facilitators faced a malicious monster: a modern classroom meltdown. “What happened?” you inquire.

Well, the things that go bump in the night during training programs seem innocuous enough, but they send shivers down the spines of training practitioners and scare modern learners from engaging in future programs.

Two particularly terrifying tales may have you preparing for your next training session a little more seriously.

To be or not to be in the virtual classroom – that is the question, right?

Well, to find the answer for your training, take this quick quiz.

Flipping the classroom marks a big step towards truly modern learning. Organizations, for a variety of reasons, have transitioned face-to-face training content to the virtual classroom. The process, complicated by the very nature of including technology in learning, can become even more difficult without the right instructional support.

In the two decades that InSync has designed, delivered, and supported virtual training, one factor has proven essential for success: the virtual classroom producer.

A hallmark of our approach, we encourage all teams hoping to incorporate live online sessions into the blend to seriously consider investing in this invaluable resource.

First impressions are key to developing rapport with learners in any classroom, but especially in the virtual environment. Facilitators in the virtual classroom must grab the attention of the learner right away and keep it to be successful here.

When trainers fill their delivery with verbal crutches, learners get distracted and possibly annoyed.

Virtually There Session Recap

When thinking about designing or facilitating live online learning, what scares you the most? For many, the technology feels like an intimidating part of the equation.

• What if learners can’t navigate the environment?
• What if we lose audio in the middle of the Subject Matter Expert presenting key information?
• What if the slide deck fails to load within the platform?

What is there left to learn about designing, producing, and facilitating virtual learning? So much! This blog is the second in a series recapping the recent Virtual Classroom Panel hosted by eLearning Guild during their 2018 Learning Solutions Conference. Read the first post, What are the Biggest Virtual Classroom Tool Challenges? Experts Say…

With all the virtual tools in all the land, creating successful live online learning programs requires planning. How do we set people up for success in this training environment? What do we, as the people designing and facilitating the learning experience, need to do in order to create a really positive virtual experience?

Recently InSync Training worked with a multinational software company to maximize the value of their existing learning content by transitioning it to the virtual and blended classroom.

During this process, we discovered seven specific areas that we needed to address to facilitate this transition. We believe these challenges are universal to virtual classroom implementation. Many other organizations are undergoing this evolution, with seasoned learning professionals assisting the process.

In the spirit of the modern classroom, a learning environment defined by the accessibility of knowledge, we will detail these challenges and our approaches for overcoming them in this seven-part blog series.

To achieve the greatest understanding of virtual classroom strategy implementation challenges, begin with my first blog post, Redesigning Content for the Virtual Classroom.

Virtual Classroom Implementation Strategy Challenge: Prepare Learners

The final step in this process is to prepare learners to be successful in the virtual classroom. It’s not enough to have great content and highly skilled facilitators. Your learners need to know how to learn and be successful in the virtual learning environment.

Training Magazine Network Session Recap

Building successful virtual and blended learning initiatives require purposeful planning and implementation. We have been working with global organization SAP to support a redesign and redeployment of their training programs in order to make them more engaging, more successful, and more modern.

Our friends at Training Magazine Network generously hosted a live online presentation featuring InSync Training President Jennifer Hofmann, and Malte Bong-Schmidt, Virtual Learning Lead for SAP. Over the course of an hour, Jennifer and Malte reviewed their virtual and blended learning strategy, and how it impacted the organization.

Recently InSync Training worked with a multinational software company to maximize the value of their existing learning content by transitioning it to the virtual and blended classroom.

During this process, we discovered seven specific areas that we needed to address to facilitate this transition. We believe these challenges are universal to virtual classroom implementation. Many other organizations are undergoing this evolution, with seasoned learning professionals assisting the process.

In the spirit of the modern classroom, a learning environment defined by the accessibility of knowledge, we will detail these challenges and our approaches for overcoming them in this seven-part blog series.

To achieve the greatest understanding of virtual classroom strategy implementation challenges, begin with my first blog post, Redesigning Content for the Virtual Classroom.

Virtual Classroom Implementation Strategy Challenge: Establish the Value of Virtual Learning

After redefining virtual learning within the organization, it was imperative that we established the value of this learning approach.

As we navigate designing, producing and facilitating virtual classroom and blended learning, we identify solutions to common challenges. To support the mobile, social, and modern virtual classroom, we share our findings and lessons learned with our audience to encourage the creation of training that sticks.

For example, as anyone who has taught or participated in a virtual learning environment knows, audio plays a key role in a program’s success. Audio connectivity issues can quickly derail a session, making effective planning essential. How should you encourage learners to connect to audio? As virtual learning architects, how should you think about audio in relationship to the overall learning experience?