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Designing Engaging, Interactive eLearning for the Virtual Classroom: Cindy Huggett, CPLP
Cindy Huggett adviseseLearning practitioners on choosing and using virtual classroom technology. Sheis the author of The Virtual Training Guidebook: How to Design, Deliver, andImplement Live Online Learning. Her next book, due out in the summer, will discussdesigning and facilitating engaging virtual-classroom training. Huggett is afrequent presenter at eLearning Guild events. We spoke in January aboutconverting in-person training to successful eLearning. The interview has beenedited for length and clarity.
Pam Hogle (PH): Manyof our readers are new to eLearning and might be moving from face-to-face toeLearning. You’ve done a lot of work around that transition, helping people doit successfully. What are the first or most critical steps an instructionaldesigner or instructor needs to take?
Cindy Huggett (CH): It’sso much more common to convert a classroom program to online than it is tostart from scratch, so it’s a great question. It is a common question, and myanswer is a little bit untraditional or perhaps not what you would expect.
I believe the very first step is to remember everything thatyou already know about what makes really good training. I think that people,organizations, trainers, designers think, ‘OK, I’ve got to design for this newmodality, so what’s the first step? … What’s the process to follow?’
The very first process to follow is the one you alreadyknow. Design is design. Adult attention spans are adult attention spans. Adultlearners are adult learners. You’re still trying to meet a business need, solvea business problem, get results; it just so happens that technology can helpyou reach an audience that maybe you didn’t reach before. It’s a different typeof modality. That’s really step number one: remember everything you know aboutgood design and adult learners.
Once you remember that—I’m going to talk specificallyabout the virtual classroom, live, online synchronous, facilitator-led—the nextstep is to start asking yourself: What of this belongs in that onlineclassroom? Of all the content I have, of the eight-hour program, or thethree-week program, or whatever length of time it is—what needs to be done with afacilitator versus what of this can they do on their own? What can they read?What can they watch? How do I chunk this program into segments, into componentsthat make the most sense for learning? That’s really the next step; step backand look at your big-picture design from the lens of, ‘I already know what makes good training; I already know what makes agood learning experience.’
Think about, ‘How canI leverage the technology?’ Not: An eight-hour classroom program means aneight-hour online program. It doesn’t translate that way.
What can they just read? So that, when we come together,with the facilitator and other learners, we need to talk about it or we need topractice or we need to do hands on. That’s where you’re going to get the bestvalue and the best benefit from it.
The question then always comes up: ‘But my learners don’t do stuff on their own. What do you mean, havethem read it and then show up?’
Well, you always start with an in-person component. … Sessionone is: What we are going to do; what’s the program? What are you expected todo? Here’s the platform. And then you make an assignment. So, think of it adifferent way.
PH: It’s not sodifferent from planning for in-person teaching. But much of what is, or hashistorically been, taught in person doesn’t need to be.
CH: True. Let’sthink of an example; an organization that’s going through some sort of changethat’s going to conjure up emotion. Some people don’t like it; they mightresist it. So, even though it might be something that people could learn ontheir own, because of the attitude around it, you might want to do that in thein-person classroom or the facilitated online classroom. A new systemimplementation—people don’t like the new system, they resist it, they like theold way—so even though they could do a self-paced tutorial, you’re going tobring them together to just help with that.
That is why I recommend starting with stepping back. Thefirst step is not, ‘OK, let’s take thisPowerPoint slide deck and start thinking about how to convert it or think abouthow to throw it online.’
No; the first step is remembering what you know about gooddesign and adult learning and then looking big-picture—holistically—atthe whole program: What makes sense to go online? How do I chunk this down? WhatI’m seeing is short, mini- or micro-sessions. So you are wanting to think aboutchunking this down; from there, you can start designing individual sessions.
The other thing I want to say is about the length of aprogram.
Imagine something like a roller coaster ride. At thebeginning, you pop into your seat and they put the seatbelt on. Some of myfavorite rides are the ones that start Pow!And you go 60 miles an hour in five seconds, and you’re like, ‘This is gonna be fun.’ But you can’t beon a roller coaster for an hour. There’s a limit to the amount of time that youcan be in that hyper-sensitive, hyper-engagement, hyper-interactivity.
I think of a virtual class like that. You’re not going to dothat for three hours straight. If you happen to have three hours of content,you’re going to do 45 minutes of content and then take a 10-minute break. Andthen you’re going to do 45 minutes and take a 10-minute break. I mean, you’regoing to chunk it down—at least, you should. Because if you are hyper-involvedas a learner—we want you to be involved in your own learning, butwe also know that, just as human beings, we need down time, we need reflectiontime, we need time to process, we need time to learn. And so it’s stepping backand looking, big picture, at what you have and knowing that, in shorter chunks,we can be really engaging.
The final thing that is related: Think about something thatinterests you for hours and hours and hours on end—maybe it’s binge-watchingyour favorite TV show on the weekends. You can be engaged in something for alonger period of time, if you’re interested in it.
So thinking about it overall—the learning topic, thetraining program, whatever it is we need the learners to learn: Do they knowtheir buy-in, what’s in it for them? Hopefully, that’s being communicated aheadof time or as part of the program, and they’re really seeing it. And the designand the facilitation are matching up with that relevance; I think that’simportant, too.
PH: If you don’thave a facilitator or producer, if you’re designing a virtual session that youwill conduct all by yourself, do you do less interaction? Do you plan itdifferently?
CH: I don’t. Itis a best practice to have a producer. I highly recommend it, and if you think,‘But I don’t have budget for it,’ thinkof all the dollars you’re saving by doing virtual training. You can outsource;you can find producers; you can get technical experts to join you, even for thefirst 15 minutes—there’s all different ways you can get producers.
If you think you can’t get a producer due to costs or otherrestrictions, you can! Get creative and find a way.
With that said, OK, so let’s say you still don’t have aproducer. I have facilitated many, many, many sessions without a producer. Whatdo you do?
I don’t do any less interaction. I don’t do anything reallydifferent. I prefer to use a platform where I can set as much stuff up inadvance as possible. Some platforms that are very popular out there are ‘perpetualclassrooms,’ like Adobe Connect. You can set up the breakout rooms; you can setup all of the technology so that, when you go to facilitate, you can just clickfrom layout to layout to layout.
With other platforms, you can’t set that up in advance. Youare literally running it on the fly, or you’re logging in an hour early toupload things. So, if I know I don’t have a producer, I try to make sure thatthe platform I’m using is one that’s a little easier to run without a producer.[See “Five Questions to Ask When Choosing a Virtual Classroom Platform” for moreguidance on choosing a virtual classroom platform.]
And then I might get some of my participants involved. If Ineed somebody to scribe, who from the group is going to do it? You take some ofthose producer roles and you ask your learners to help with them.
PH: Is there anydifference in the way people should create learning objectives for the virtualversus the in-person classroom?
CH: None.Learning is learning is learning. It doesn’t matter what modality you have. Ifyou’ve got a learning objective, that’s what people need to do on the job. Itshouldn’t change, no matter what the modality—whether it’s live online orself-paced eLearning. The learning objective is what the learning objective is.
PH: Are there anycommon mistakes or pitfalls that people should be aware of and avoid whenmoving from in-person to virtual?
CH: There are acouple of them. One of the benefits of online platforms—and it’s true of allonline platforms—is that you can put a lot of people into a virtual class. Youcan put 100 people, 300 people, 500 people—1,000 people. They fit. Justbecause you can put that many people in a virtual classroom doesn’t mean youshould. I hear from trainers and organizations all the time when I say that.They say, ‘Can you please tell my managerthat?’ Organizations look at it as economies of scale. But what happens is,it’s not the same learning outcomes.
You would not think of an in-person class and say, “OK, this is designed for 15 or 20 people,this management development program where we’re going to do skill building androle-playing and coaching from the facilitator; let’s invite 100 people becausewe can hold this class in the local auditorium.” You just wouldn’t do it,and you shouldn’t do it online either. Just because you can doesn’t mean youshould, if you’re looking for the same outcomes.
Where you’re going to find the economies of scale is whenyou’re doing a presentation. So many managers and business executives—they don’trecognize the difference between training and presentation.
The other common mistake is switching from trainingfacilitation and getting into presentation mode. Designers do it because theydon’t recognize the tools or they don’t learn all the tools that are availablein the platform. They don’t realize they can do all the things you can do.Facilitators tend to err on the side of presentation because they can’t see theaudience. There is silence, so they just keep talking. Participants do it; theythink, ‘Oh well, they can’t see me, sohow do they know I’m surfing on Facebook on my second monitor?’ Everybodydoes it, and it’s a mistake. It’s not making the best use of the platform andwhat we’re able to do with it.
PH: Anything elsethat you would like to share with our readers?
CH: I think it’salready been said, but just the idea of getting to know the technology and notbeing afraid of it, and remembering that it is still learning. Those are two ofthe key messages that are important to keep in mind.
