Converting Classroom Training to Virtual Instruction: Some Tips

If your organization is like most, youhave a wealth of face-to-face classroom courses that you wish to convert fordelivery in a virtual classroom, an inexpensive and quick-to-develop form ofeLearning. While this is clearly possible, it does take some effort. Here are sometips that will help you manage this process.

Analyze your existinginstruction and your audience

Thefirst three steps in the conversion process are to edit, focus, and plan.

Putyour instruction on a diet

Virtual audiences will not sit througha long instructional segment. Most major television national news stories areonly two to two and a half minutes long, and local pieces get only 30 seconds.Strive to make your virtual instruction modules about 45 to 60 minutes long. Donot make your modules less than 20 minutes. Attendees tend to feel thatanything less than 20 minutes is trivial and not worth their time.

Analyzeyour audience

You need to determine how manyparticipants will attend, who they are, specifically how the instruction isrelevant to them, and their history regarding the topic. Also, be very clearabout what you would like attendees to do because of your instruction, such asbuy a product or fix a software glitch. Then focus your virtual instruction onwhat is most important to them, so that you can achieve the goal that isimportant to you.

Createand complete a virtual instruction planning form

Sit down with your instructionalassets (e.g., handouts, web links, and media) and determine the quality of yourmaterials. Are they serviceable? If not, you may as well start from scratch. Ifthey are, create an instructional plan that clearly identifies what you intendto do, when you intend to do it, and what virtual meeting or instruction toolsyou will use. I recommend that you document your plan in a chart identifyingeach of the above elements for every topic.

Carefully designyour virtual curriculum

At this point, you have analyzed yourexisting face-to-face instruction and the audience for your virtual instruction.You have also created a planning form to guide your efforts. The next step involvesseveral design decisions.

To chat or not tochat?

When you are presenting to largeaudiences, you may prefer the control that you have when you use chats. You oryour producer/moderator can determine which questions or comments you displayand respond to. You may also decide to group and answer them during a naturalbreak point in your instruction.

Who can talk withwhom?

Designers often believe that allvoices deserve to be heard during discussions. That works fine with smallaudiences. With larger audiences, however, it creates anarchy. In those cases,provide attendees with the ability to ask questions or make comments throughthe producer/moderator. You may also wish to provide participants with theability to chat with other attendees on a limited basis.

Webcams are aninteresting idea, but can you really live with them?

You may be enticed by the ability ofothers to see your shining face, but do you also want them to see you readingyour notes? Will you always look your professional best? Think about it. Also, webcamfeeds can run painfully slowly. As webcams get better and Internet connectionsfaster, this limitation will be less of a concern.

Will more bemerrier?

For larger and longer training modulesor courses, consider using one or more presenters, or even a panel. Be sure toprovide (or do a “quality assurance” review of) each presenter’s materials. Asbest you can, make sure that the presenters rehearse alone and that theyparticipate in at least one dry run all together (virtually or face-to-face).

Where can you planto be spontaneous?

Do you really think that Ellen DeGeneres, Jim Carrey, and Tina Fey do not work atbeing spontaneously funny? Well, think again! They do. You can seem spontaneousonly when you are meticulously prepared. Sure, you can improvise from time totime, but only when you have a wealth of routines nailed down that you can drawupon at will. As an example, most late-night hosts have prepared lines thatthey use when they fumble or when a joke falls flat on its face. If you payattention, you will notice at least one of these events during every monologue.

How can I getattendees to stick around until the end?

Hold back some useful content, such asa job aid, pocket chart, or timely article, and distribute it at the end of themodule. Let attendees know that you will be doing this. Try to make thislast-minute gift very “wow.”

Where can I findadditional materials for my instruction?

The answer is “just about anywhere.”These materials can include audio testimonials, quick yet professional videodemonstrations, collaterals, and graphics. Besides using your existingmaterials, I recommend that you speak with people in sales, product management,marketing, and a variety of other technical and corporate departments (e.g.,human resources, safety, and facilities) for materials that are appropriate toyour virtual instruction.

Meticulously developyour virtual curriculum

With your analysis done, and yourplanning form and current curriculum assets in hand, you can begin to modifyyour face-to-face instructional materials to support virtual training.

Here are a few activities that willmake your virtual classes resonate.

Increase thenumber of slides in your instruction

Break up key points into individualslides, and find graphics that emphasize and complement your verbal remarks.Since you are not there in person, the more visual stimulation the viewers haveto hold their attention, the better. In addition, breaking up the key pointsmeans that learners will not be staring at the same content for extendedperiods. However, consider the following point.

Use less text andmore graphics in your slides

Stop using your slides as an outline.Remember to design your slides so that they are visual and telegraphic. Getover the feeling that you must usetext or that you need to use full sentences when you do use text. When you are creating orrevising slides, they should look more like signs than like paragraphs. Theyare aids for your attendees, not a crutch for you.

Transfer detailedinformation to handouts

Large amounts of text, data, graphs,URLs, or other reference information should be included in handouts that areseparate from your slides. Make your instruction about the value and use of thecontent, not about the content itself. If a listener cannot actively use thedata while listening to you, the data does not belong in the presentation.

Get rid ofextraneous graphics and video

Do not use cute visuals that are notcritical to your message. As important as it is to hold your audience’sattention, your visuals and video presentations should be more than just eyecandy. A simple visual theme, such as a timeline, can be helpful. Make surethat the graphics and videos that you employ serve a purpose. Otherwise, getrid of them.

Reformat yourslides to make them easy to read in a smaller area

Use high-contrast colors that allowthe reader to easily see the foreground text and read over the background. Thearea in which you display your slides in your virtual instruction is small, andyour slides need to be completely readable.

Reorganize your instruction,placing the most important information up front

Because virtual instruction tends tobe of shorter duration than face-to-face instruction, you should ensure thatthe most important points come early. Identify slides near the end of yourinstruction that you can skip if you are short on time. It is better toeliminate content than to rush through it in a panicked attempt to jameverything into a time slot. If you do elect to leave out information to meetyour schedule, do not call attention to that fact. Let attendees think that youhad always planned to deliver exactly as much information as they heard or tohave them do exactly what they did do.

Use webconferencing features wisely

If your web conferencing softwaresupports them, small and subtle animations can be useful in focusing youraudience’s attention. For instance, you might use animation to add an arrowpointing to a key item on a slide. Avoid the temptation to add repetitive anddistracting animations. You can also use annotation features in your webconferencing or virtual instruction software to quickly draw lines, arrows,boxes, and other highlights “telestrator style,” pulling your audience’s focusto the screen and synchronizing their attention.

Do not make your attendeeswish they had a pillow

Sitting quietly and staying fullyfocused is tough enough in face-to-face training under the gaze of all yourcolleagues. Doing so when you are alone with plenty of distractions is muchharder. It’s your job, as a facilitator, to keep your attendees tuned in towhat you are saying. Add rich interaction and variety to your instruction, sothat your attendees stay engaged.

Plant and you willreap

Prepare planted questions for eachimportant topic. Your producer/moderator can use these questions to seeddiscussions and question-and-answer sessions.

Make life easy onyourself—be prepared

There are many more ins and outs to avirtual instruction learning experience than to an in-person one. You want todouble-check to make sure that you square everything away before you getstarted. Place copies of your media in one folder. Create files of pollingquestions, planted questions, and URLs labeled by when you will need them.

Small can still bebeautiful

The presentation window on attendees’screens will be much smaller than the attendees are accustomed to in a meetingroom or standard desktop presentation. To make sure that your presentation isstill effective, you need to take a few precautions, including testing thatyour presentation is readable when you resize the main slide area to 50percent.

Use simplebackgrounds, fonts, and colors in your content

Complex backgrounds may look cool, butthey distract attendees’ attention. Too many fonts and colors begin to lookamateurish. Stick to a couple of fonts and maybe three “related” colors. Usefont sizes of 30 points or more. You may be able to go as low as 20 points in apinch, but never below that. Do not use shadowed type styles because they donot translate well into most virtual meeting services and applications. Utilizelabels and directional cues (e.g., arrows or boxes) discreetly and well.Simplify, simplify, and simplify some more. Avoid using builds. The meaning ofa click changes when you use a build. This increases your chances of making amistake during the instruction itself. You can always fake a build by usingmultiple slides. Design the last build first, and then work backward bydeleting selections.

Create a quick anddirty instructor’s guide

This should be the shooting script foryour instructional presentation. It should include the following:

• Handoutsof your presentation with two or three slides to a page
• Talkingpoints on the right-hand side where they are easy to see
• Acompleted virtual instruction planning form
• Carefullyscripted notes for your introduction and ending; this will help you begin yourinstruction forcefully and end with a bang.

Conclusion

Plan to update and simplify yourmaterials as you gain more experience conducting your virtual instruction.

Converting classroom training tovirtual instruction is an organic process that merits ongoing refinements bycontent-development practitioners. Temper it with your own intelligence, andenhance it with your own expertise to make it work for your organization.