How To Give An Effective Virtual Training Presentation
In a work from home world virtual presentations and online meetings have become the norm. Almost all industries have had to shift their processes to virtual means and employee training certainly has not been an exception.
As the demand for accessing training materials and resources online has grown, many companies have been looking for ways to continue providing learning and development (L&D) training to their employees. The good news is that professional training opportunities can be provided to employees no matter where they are.
Adapting In-Class Training To Virtual Training: How Training Company Has Kept Up
Over the last few years, our team at Training Company has been working around the clock to ensure that all of our clients and their employees are provided with the content and tools they need to continue their upskilling journey while working remotely. Just like you, the Coronavirus pandemic came as a little surprise, but we haven’t let it stop us in our tracks.
We’ve been keeping up with your employee training needs by ensuring that all of our courses can be accessed and completed online from the comfort of your own home. One of the main questions that we’ve been asked is: How have you been converting in-class training?
While many of our training modules are offered as eLearning courses, through the help of virtual training presentations we can bring the value of an in-person training instructor straight to your home. These virtual training sessions allow for learner participation, feedback and real-time conversations.
Top Things To Keep In Mind When Transitioning To A Virtual Presentation
When transitioning a presentation that was intended to be delivered in-person, you must make sure to keep the following things in mind to make sure that it still packs a punch and provides the same value virtually.
Below, we’ve listed the top things a virtual training presentation and provider should do when ensuring that employees can continue learning and upskilling from home.
- Know the technology – Nothing screams unprepared when hosting a virtual training session than not familiarizing yourself with the video and web conferencing software that’s being used beforehand. Complete a dry run beforehand to make sure that the presentation flows well. Also, make sure that the platform you are using is accessible and easy-to-use by employees also.
- Keep content engaging – As in-class training sessions allow learners to engage directly with the trainer, virtual presentations need to have engaging content to make up for this. The last thing you want is for participants to be jumping between various window tabs. A virtual presentation should avoid being too ‘word-heavy’ and instead should include plenty of engaging visuals and funny memes.
- Include session activities – Just because you’re not together in person doesn’t mean that you can’t incorporate activities that encourage participation. These could be exercises, polls or pop quizzes. Aim to involve participants every 4 minutes.
- Provide post-training resources – Always make sure to follow up on a virtual training presentation with resources that employees can use to reinforce learning. Consider sending out a transcript of questions and answers once the virtual session is over along with additional reading resources.
What Programs Are The Best To Use?
There are multiple web and video conferencing programs available that cater to companies that want to transition their learning and development training plan to the virtual world. Choosing this program depends on the needs of your company and employees. For example, do you intend to host online meetings for up to 1,000 or just 100? Are your employees not very tech-savvy? That will also play into which platform you choose.
In our opinion, some of the best video conferencing programs currently on the market include Zoom (which we’ve all heard about by now), Cisco Systems Webex Meetings, GoToMeeting, Microsoft Teams and GoToWebinar.
When it comes to providing virtual training presentations online, you will need a program that provides features such as:
- High-Quality Audio & Video
- Easy To Use Interface
- Screen Sharing
- Chat Function
- Multi-Device Support
- File Sharing
Why Integrate With A Learning Management System?
If your company hasn’t already, it may be time to consider integrating with a Learning Management System (LMS). What is it? An LMS is an online software-based platform that allows a company to manage, deliver and measure employee training programs all from one dashboard.
Many companies have recently been investing in an LMS platform as part of their employee learning and development training program. Having one platform that allows you to not only deliver training content to employees but also, track employee participation is becoming a fundamental part for many when providing an effective training strategy.
Learning Management Systems are the perfect platform for providing blended learning opportunities to your employees. Not only do they host online training modules but they also feature in-built web conferencing that allows you to carry out your in-person training sessions online.
Another benefit that an LMS can provide is the ability to follow up training content with skills tests and other complementary courses to improve learning retention and engagement. Sounds almost too good to be true, doesn’t it?
How We Can Provide A Custom & Curated LMS For Your Business With Blended Learning
Here at Training Company, we offer all clients the opportunity to use our very own white-labelled LMS platform. Your learning dashboard and platform is completely customizable and created to reflect your visual branding standards, at a fraction of the cost.
When using our LMS, you can access our extensive library of over 90,000 training modules or upload your own content. You will also have full access to employee profile analytics, course progress metrics and tracking results. All while being fully customized to your brand so that you can provide a consistent learning experience for your company.