7 Questions

In this article we’ll talk about adapting classroom based training for remote delivery. We’ll touch briefly on some technology, then take a look at a few of the factors that differentiate classroom and remote training environments

The More Things Change
A number of years ago, before the Internet was the Internet, I developed a remote training program in conjunction with five community colleges in Ontario Canada. The program was used to deliver programs with titles like Using Microsoft Word and The Principals of Small Business Accounting. Development included working with IT, traveling from college to college conducting train the trainer sessions, and even creating a technical support queue for students and instructors.

Contrast that with the latest remote training program that I facilitated. The program, a customer service training curriculum, included all of the standard call centre agent elements – scripting, quality, hands on practice with company’s customer tracking database. None of the participants left home to take part at any time and I often had someone on one coast of the country or the other in control of my computer for purposes of demonstration.

We’ve come a long way. And, with the financial and customer service benefits of remote agents becoming clearer with every new report that’s released, software vendors are certain to continue developing for remote environments.

Remote Training Technology
The very first programs that I created were little more than text based discussion forums. Many of the participants had only low speed modems. Long distance charges were an issue. The idea of exchanging streaming video and distributing PowerPoint presentations was still the stuff of science fiction movies.

The whole thing seems rather quaint now.

Since we’re limiting this discussion to instructor led training, we won’t have the opportunity to talk about some of the Learning Management Systems (LMS) that offer independent study, scoring and advancement tracking. However, in as far as they may incorporate instructor led components, the following will be applicable to them as well.

Software developed to facilitate Web-based meetings is a common choice for implementing a remote training program. Adobe’s Connect and Cisco’s Webex are two examples of solutions offered as either hosted services or licensed to run on company servers. Microsoft, with its Live Meeting, the successor to NetMeeting, is another player in the market. It’s even possible, although I’ve never tested it, to have a limited meeting using Skype, the free European designed program and granddaddy of VOIP services.

All of these programs emulate a classroom through the inclusion of live video by webcam, application sharing, white boards, remote control of participant and facilitator computers and conference audio. They are relatively inexpensive to implement and provide a cost effective avenue to test the suitability of remote training for your curriculum.

Speed is Key
Before we talk about actually converting course materials, I think its worth making one additional technological note. Speed is key. No matter what you intend to do across the Internet, access to reliable high speed connectivity will be crucial to your success. We’ll talk more about connectivity in another article. For now, I’ll just briefly mention that there are three potential bandwidth bottlenecks – the company network (or training host if you’re using that service), the trainee’s Internet Service Provider (what happens when every teenager in town gets home from school and logs onto MSN?), and the trainee’s internal home network (especially if they have one of those teenagers on MSN).

A New Environment
The most fundamental and obvious difference between a physical classroom setting and a remotely delivered program is the almost total lack of visual cues between trainer and trainee. For example, the instructor can no longer survey the class at a glance to assess the engagement of students. Is it time for a break? Do they need to review a point further? Things that were previously obvious to the instructor’s eye become invisible.

Conversely, the instructor no longer has the ability to move around the classroom or work directly with students. He or she is limited to their voice and perhaps some version of streaming video or webcam functionality. This impacts all other aspects of program development and implementation, including class size, pace of delivery, testing methods and student interaction.

Let’s look at student interaction first. I’m talking here about the small group activities and partnering exercises that are a staple of classroom training. These are difficult to translate to a shared remote environment. The audio portion of the class is generally provided through some version of a conference call, and all participants are viewing a single shared desktop or screen. This means that all actions by definition involve the entire group.

The higher the small group component of your curriculum the more creative you will need to be in adapting it. One tactic is to place more emphasis on independent exercises. Many small group activities can be revised for individual use. Other forms of team activity that don’t require simultaneous interaction can be added. For example, each student might develop a scenario that is then exchanged with another student to complete, after which it would be shared with the group.

Other ways to facilitate student interaction in a remote environment, such as separate chats, require varying degrees of computer or Internet literacy. When including these elements in the curriculum, it’s important to also include testing for literacy in the recruiting process.

Comprehension and retention testing methods are also affected in a remote environment. In a classroom setting, trainees might be given a set of exercises to complete while the instructor walks through the room answering questions and checking for accuracy in real time. In a remote environment, it’s only possible to review one student at a time.

This is usually done by allowing the student to take control of the shared desktop. Other students either continue to work independently or act as coaches to the student who’s demonstrating. The process is effective. However, it also has significant impact on the pace of delivery which we’ll get to in a minute.

This can be challenging to address. It may be possible to adapt the exercises in the training to have the student submit a completed project sheet, or to work on a training account that can be reviewed by the instructor at a later time.

Another option is to employ additional tools such as online quizzes. Quia is one of several Web-based quiz tools that allow the instructor to create quizzes using multiple question styles. Results can be measured individually and overall as a class. Scores can be emailed to trainees for review. Questions that do not perform well across the class can be highlighted to identify areas requiring additional work.

A third factor that needs to be considered in a remote environment is the pace of delivery. As well as the situation we’ve just noted, Internet connectivity and other technical issues can affect the speed at which information can be disseminated.

Delivery is also affected by the trainee’s level of concentration. In a classroom setting waning attention is generally easy to identify. In a remote environment, with the participant sitting in front of a home computer, perhaps in a corner of their basement, it’s not always as evident. For example, in one instance a trainee seemed to be having difficulty completing an exercise. The reason became clear when he neglected to mute his headset and the basketball game could be heard on the television in the background.

All of these factors should be taken into account in determining effective class size for remote training. The more interactive the program, the smaller the class size should be. A program that is primarily lecture based for instance, with occasional questions from participants, can accommodate a fairly large group. “Webinars” often have dozens or even hundreds of participants.

In general however, a remote version of a classroom curriculum will ideally have about half the enrollment of its counterpart. A program designed for 20, with a modicum of interaction, may begin to lose effectiveness as class size increases beyond 10.

There is often resistance to the idea of smaller classes, usually related to the perceived cost. However, remote training is significantly less expensive than training conducted in a classroom. Running additional sessions with lower enrollment will almost always prove to be cost effective.

Summary
The potential advantages to utilizing a remote agent/training program are enormous. However, careful consideration must be given to the unique properties of this environment to ensure a successful implementation.

This article was only able to touch on some of the more significant considerations in implementing a remote training program.

For a more in depth review of your specific needs, please feel free to contact me.