Instructor-Led Virtual Training

More companies now than ever are experimenting with remote workers and hybrid schedules and in some ways, the whole paradigm of the employer-employee relationship is beginning to shift. In order to meet the demands of a more remote labor force, companies are turning to instructor-led virtual training to provide onboarding services, training, and certification training for remote, hybrid, and on-site employees. 

Virtual instructor-led training examples may include webinars, workshops, lectures, one-on-one training sessions, and small group training sessions as well, among others. One-on-one training sessions, for instance, are great for intensive training modules involving complex material or procedures. Small group training sessions offer similar benefits; small sessions like this allow the instructor to more readily keep trainees focused and on-task, and keeping the trainee pool small helps to create a personalized atmosphere so people feel more comfortable asking questions, responding to feedback, and earnestly engaging with training materials.

Some virtual training activities for employees might involve team-building exercises, virtual coffee breaks, or even open office hour-type gatherings that enable remote employees to maintain a sense of belonging with their colleagues and ultimately the broader scope of the company. These types of gatherings can help your organization meet training requirements, but they can also strengthen camaraderie among your employees, and foster healthy relationships with employees that may not come into the office and may not even live in the same time zone.

There are even virtual instructor-led training certification programs that can help your organization maintain adherence to various industry compliance regulations. As remote work becomes more commonplace – especially among larger organizations with sizeable workforces – those companies are finding more accessible ways to provide employees with the necessary training. Regardless of your company’s specific industry or marketplace, there are likely dozens of certifications that are required to maintain compliance. 

As more companies figure out ways to make remote labor work within their business model, those companies are searching for collaborative and synchronous solutions to training their employees. When combined or used in conjunction with other training materials, virtual instructor-led programs can provide a wide array of benefits. One of the first steps in implementing a virtual training program at your company is to familiarize yourself with the available options. From workshops to lectures to webinars – each type of “class” can fulfill certain needs. For instance, if your organization wants to train new hires in larger batches, it may be more beneficial to utilize a lecture model or a series of webinars. This way, a large group of people can all receive the same training and information at the same time (from anywhere in the world with a reliable internet connection). 

If, on the other hand, your company has a handful of employees that need to have certain certifications in order to perform their duties, you might see if a workshop model or small-group training sessions would be a good fit. Virtual instructor-led training programs can offer a lot of flexibility and accessibility for many different applications. And since everything happens online within the realm of cyberspace, there’s no need to worry about reserving the right conference room, travel expenses, or any of the other headache-inducing attributes of in-person training programs. 

Benefits of Virtual Instructor-Led Training

There are numerous advantages of virtual training applications. Some of the benefits of virtual instructor-led training include the ability to convert practically any in-person training program into one suited for a virtual audience. Relying on technology and the use of digital learning tools can help streamline the training process, and because there are no spatial constraints, you can actually save costs and potentially increase attendance. 

There are also numerous benefits of virtual workshops. A common reason many modern employees cite as a reason when leaving a job or moving to a new company is a lack of career growth opportunities. Virtual workshops can provide your employees with additional training and resources to help them develop their careers while strengthening the skills and competency of your organization’s workforce. Virtual workshops can also bring teams closer together, and allow coworkers to learn more about each others’ strengths. When companies can unlock more of the potential already within their workforce, the positive benefits compound and can really make a difference in the long run. 

Virtual training articles can also provide a wealth of insight and ideas about how your organization can make the most of virtual training applications. Scholars and industry professionals alike tend to agree that virtual training is here to stay for the foreseeable future and companies that make the most of the technology available to them will be the ones that can succeed and adapt in an ever-changing world. And as marketplaces and industries become more competitive, organizations are going to need to adapt to retain their employees and provide them with the necessary tools they need to perform at an optimal level. 

Some disadvantages of instructor-led training in a virtual capacity limit its effectiveness in certain situations, but we will discuss more advantages and disadvantages in greater detail later on. While some may decry a loss of personal connection, many virtual learning applications are not prohibitive of enabling meaningful education and growth possibilities.

Virtual Instructor-Led Training Best Practices

Virtual instructor-led training best practices generally include items like maintaining engagement with an interactive presentation or activity, minimizing distractions, and keeping audience sizes at a reasonable amount.

Firstly, interactive components of a training module can get viewers engaged with the material being discussed – this helps people retain information better and it can also minimize possible distractions on their end as well. And from the perspective of the trainer, it’s important to present in a manner that is not distracting – no movement in the background or extraneous noise, not checking a phone, tabbing to other screens or devices, etc. A little common courtesy and professionalism can go a long way, and it’s especially important to maintain an air of professionalism within a virtual training capacity so that the audience feels their time is being respected. 

Whether you are interested in best practices for virtual training or best practices for virtual teaching – there are innumerable scenarios in which a virtual instructor-led course can provide your organization with an effective and affordable solution. Virtual training can be an efficient way to orient new hires, especially for businesses that are relatively new to remote workers and hybrid work schedules. Because they are easy to set up and easy to access, virtual learning applications are rapidly becoming the preference for many industry-leading organizations. 

Virtual instructor-led training can also help your organization fill any gaps that in-person training cannot provide. If, for instance, circumstances dictate that in-person training sessions can only take place during certain hours, virtual options could be provided for employees unable to attend in person. If your organization is growing nationally or internationally and you want to quickly be able to provide your new teams with the same level of training your current employees received, a virtual application is an ideal solution. 

Instructor-Led Training

Of course, your team will likely want to consider all virtual instructor-led training advantages and disadvantages before deciding whether your organization will provide in-person or virtual training sessions. The primary benefits of instructor-led online training are cost savings. Not only are they generally more cost-effective, but virtual training programs provide employers with measurable insights about how effective the sessions are. 

Some instructor-led training examples could include a workshop or a small group session to help train a department on how to use new software. Workshops are great for providing hands-on training and trainees can have their questions answered in real-time since the instructor is “present” with them in the virtual space. 

The advantages and disadvantages of in-person training are somewhat similar; while there are undoubtedly several instances in which in-person training is necessary, the drawbacks far outweigh the benefits and flexibility of virtual training solutions. Virtual instructor-led training can largely fulfill the same purpose as in-person training and it can also help improve retention. Employees are generally more likely to stay with an employer for longer when their employer invested in learning opportunities and career advancement opportunities. 

Since we’ve already touched on instructor-led virtual training best practices and disadvantages, it may also be helpful to cover instructor-led training methods and the primary differences between instructor-led training vs. e-learning. Instructor-led training and e-learning are similar yet distinct operations. E-learning is a broad term generally used to describe any situation in which instruction is being delivered electronically. This can be synchronous, asynchronous, led by an instructor, or led by a script. Instructor-led training generally refers to a synchronous training session in which a human instructor leads a seminar, a workshop, or any kind of training session. Since virtual training continues to increase as a popular alternative to in-person training applications, there are now companies that specialize in providing virtual training solutions for employers – professionals that are skilled in the art of presenting in a virtual setting. 

If your organization is considering virtual instructor-led training or instructor-led online courses to help your company, there are numerous options and approaches – take the time to find out what kinds of training your employees are interested in. Investing in your own workforce’s professional development is a great way to decrease turnover figures while improving the quality of labor of your employees. Learn more about how Skytap can support your virtual training.