The team approach when creating learning experiences can make all the difference in whether a virtual session is successful or not! It feels amazing when a producer can seem like they are anticipating the needs of the facilitator or speaker before they even ask. However, even if it seems like we can read minds, the anticipation is a skill that is developed over time with experience. It is fantastic to produce learning events as a partner with the facilitator and a support for the participants.

A few years back, InSync producer Jakob Hofmann wrote some fun producer haiku.

I don’t remember what prompted this tweet in January, 2012, but I feel it even more strongly now than I did then. Since the onset of COVID, we have seen 3 phases of its effects on training and training delivery:

Many years ago - can it really be nearly 20? - I was first learning to work in the virtual classroom. Back then, the tech was very new and still often wonky and unpredictable, so it was a given that this was a team endeavor, with the facilitator always working with a producer. I didn’t know at the time what a gift this would turn out to be: When I introduced virtual classroom events in my workplace, no one ever questioned the need for and the value of a producer, and no one ever asked me to try flying solo.

We often encounter some version of the following story when working with corporate teams and individual learners: “Well, my organization has made the leap to the virtual classroom. I’m now supporting live online sessions, but I don’t know how to use my existing skills while managing the technology.”

This kind of quandary results in the accidental virtual classroom producer. Trainers or learning professionals used to working face-to-face now have to support subject matter experts or experienced virtual facilitators in a completely different, though very dynamic, environment. So. what can you do if you find yourself, whether by circumstance or choice, working as a producer in the virtual classroom?

What do platforms like Webex Training, Zoom, Adobe Connect, and Microsoft Teams have in common? They all include a variety of virtual classroom tools!

When instructional designers incorporate their use into training programs and facilitators leverage them during delivery, tools can increase learner engagement. Learners feel more connected to their fellow participants, to the instructional team, and to the training content. Plus, when the virtual classroom supports active participation and collaboration, concerns about learning in a new environment fade away.

Right now, the state of the world demands a transition to virtual classrooms and remote work. Whether or not your organization started 2020 prepared for the rapid modernization of teams and training, the time has come to make the change.

Facilitators, instructional designers, managers, and learners all have to adapt to a new normal – a stressful process under standard change management conditions and a seemingly insurmountable task given today’s pressures.

February’s installment of the InSync 20th Anniversary Team Insight series pulls the curtain back on virtual classroom stagehands: The Producer. Read the other blogs in the series to learn about modern learning instructional design, facilitation, and implementation from the best in the business! 

In 2020, we are sharing the lessons we’ve learned about the virtual classroom over the last twenty years, and we’ll link back to our more detailed content around these topics, in case you want to learn more!  Take a peek at the entire Lessons Learned series by clicking here.

In 1998, I envisioned that the role of the producer in the virtual classroom would be to “make the talent look good.” My reasoning was, the virtual classroom facilitator lost the ability to take the pulse of the class using body language and eye contact, so the producer added a second set of hands that help manage learner engagement and increase the quality of virtual lessons. 

With the Thanksgiving dinner trimmings put away in the states, the busiest time of year begins to take on a life of its own.

With inboxes and fireplaces equally a-blaze, personal professional development and corporate training can wind up on the back burner. What can learners and learning leaders alike do to keep missed training opportunities from piling up like snowdrifts? How can you make your next blend more magical than the dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies?