Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2023 - 32

learning is critical and can be greatly
enhanced by a facilitated activity.
If possible, be consistent with the
time and day of the week the live
sessions occur so that they are
easier for learners to keep track of.
Allow time for Q&A segments. This
is your learners' opportunity to
make sure they are understanding
the content they have learned so
far, both from the live session and
from the digital platform.
Provide a pre-recorded option for
learners to view afterward if they
are unable to attend the live session
so that they can still engage with
the rest of the course.
4]Discussion
questions
Discussion questions offer an opportunity
to gather learner responses in a familiar,
forum format. It's easy for participants to
like and reply to each other's responses
and learn from each other. Our data
reflected moderate participation in
discussion questions. They were used
frequently throughout the course,
giving participants opportunities to
pick and choose where they wanted to
engage further.
Best Practices:
Ask open-ended questions that
elicit long, thoughtful responses.
Don't use discussion questions
to ask questions with a " correct "
answer. You don't want everyone's
responses to a discussion question
to be the same.
Rather than requiring participants
to answer all discussion questions,
give them the flexibility to respond
to the ones that resonate with them.
5]PoLLs
Polls are a low-effort interaction for
learners to share basic information about
themselves and their perspectives.
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In
comparison
to
other
learning
elements, polls fell on the lower end
of participation. However, they were
still useful in gathering at-a-glance
takeaways on learners' reactions to
key content.
Best Practices:
When asking an open-ended
question, follow up with a discussion
question to allow learners to
share more.
Consider what you would want to
know about your cohort as a learner
and craft polls around eliciting
those answers.
Make sure feedback provides the
" why " behind the correct response
to facilitate better understanding.
moVinG ForwarD
with Lessons
LearneD
One last best practice that can
be applied to all of the previous
learning elements is the use of a
moderator, facilitator or learning
community coordinator who can drive
engagement and interaction with
participants throughout the digital
portion of the course. By interacting
with discussion questions, submission
assignments and more, they can tag
specific learners, highlight themes
and make connections unique to
each cohort.
The digital blended modality allows
organizations to provide training to
individuals who might otherwise be
missed due to travel costs, scheduling
difficulties, lack of time and other
challenges that hinder professional
development.
Creating
6]quizzes
Quizzes provide opportunities to check
learners' knowledge and provide
feedback on critical content. Quizzes
were not a widely used element in
our digital blended course, as we
found submission assignments often
provided more insight into participants'
understanding. However, quizzes can
be very useful in course-corrected
participants if you don't have other
opportunities for feedback from a
content expert, such as a facilitator,
moderator or learning community
coordinator throughout the course.
Best Practices:
Use quizzes to check knowledge
on key content, but be careful not to
overuse them when other learning
elements that enable more social
interaction might be a better fit.
Consider allowing for multiple
attempts when testing challenging
content.
engaging
content that learners can access within
the flow of work and at their own pace
increases the reach and accessibility of
your training.
Rather than falling back on the best
practices for online or virtual training, it's
important to look at digital blended as
its own unique modality and play to its
strengths. Consider how you can take
your existing content and completely
revisit it in a way that not only embraces
the modality but also accommodates the
new ways of working that this modality
represents - a flexible, individualized,
hybrid experience.
Maggie Shibley is a learning solutions
architect at The Center for Leadership
Studies and a member of Learning 2021's
Thirty Under 30 cohort. Email Maggie.
https://situational.com/blog/four-tips-to-adapt-your-content-for-virtual-training/ https://situational.com/blog/four-tips-to-adapt-your-content-for-virtual-training/ https://situational.com/blog/four-tips-to-adapt-your-content-for-virtual-training/
Training Industry Magazine - Spring 2023

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