Training through Conference Call, Web Conferencing and Video Conferencing
Posted by Kathleen S on Mon, Dec 07, 2009 @ 09:31 AM
There was a time when national or international companies had two choices for training employees. For those employees who were not in the same location as the training department, a trainer had to travel to that remote location and stay for the period of the training.
The other option was to fly employees into a central location to provide training. Large companies also had to fly trainers into the corporate office frequently to do ‘train-the-trainer’ sessions. The net effect of all these scenarios was the inherent expenses for travel, lodging, meals, local transportation and sundry expenses. Training has always been necessary, but it has also been a stress on corporate budgets.
Training more efficiently
Different modes of conferencing over telephones, computers and video streaming have changed the face of training. Trainers can stay in one location and provide real-time training to employees in distant locales. This has allowed training departments to spend more time designing new training materials and courses, while spending less time traveling. It has reduced the training department budget and put trainers in front of web cams and at computer terminals and taken them out of airplanes and taxies.
The technology that has enabled these new capabilities moved from telephone lines to IP networks, utilizing a whole new set of hardware and software solutions. The training recipient can be sitting at a computer or in a special training room, at a monitor or watching a large projection screen.
The change to distance training
For the training department which has transitioned from traditional training modalities to web or video conferencing, the change has meant understanding the difference between watching a video and participating in a video. Professional trainers need to adopt their current understanding of curriculum design and instruction to this updated mode of instruction delivery in a virtual environment.
Fortunately for training departments and corporate trainers, there are numerous resources online designed by those who have gone before. Suggestions for a smooth delivery and tips on pacing and interaction are commonplace also.
There are also suggestions for dealing with unplanned events and increasing interaction and perceptual arousal. Methods of content delivery are also unique to video and web conferencing and are well detailed through the experiences of veteran video conferencing trainers. Keeping training participants involved in a dialogue, alternating between new content and review and varying the media used during a session can all be effective methods of successful online training.
Tips for web or video training
Some ideas that have already shown promise and effectiveness for experienced web and video conference trainers center on the recognition that the student is not engaged in the same way as they are when present in a training room. When the training is a two-way video conference, the student should be reminded that they can potentially be seen by all participants. All participants should be reminded of the proper etiquette of this manner of training.
Students should also receive instruction in how to operate any equipment that is required by the method of training. The instructor should remember not to speak for more than fifteen minutes without some student interaction. An ongoing monologue will lose the attention of students.
Training will never be the same. Training professionals will now only have a portion of their students in the same room or none of their students present. Adoption to this training methodology will make training more efficient, less expensive and assessable to all.
