The arrival of COVID-19 saw the departure of the traditional training room, at least for the foreseeable future. As a trainer, it suddenly became necessary to explore new opportunities to deliver learning to delegates. Whilst self-directed learning, previously distance learning, has been around for many years and blended learning has grown in popularity, the virtual classroom still remained unexplored territory for many trainers.

Before COVID, Microsoft Teams, Zoom or GoogleMeet were alien programmes for many trainers. Yet each of these offer an opportunity to extend learning into workplaces and homes to provide development to those who were sufficiently motivated to want to continue. Researching each application, it became obvious that whilst some offered good features others were overly complicated. Zoom provided everything that I needed – provision to share the slide presentation or the screen with delegates, opportunity to split people into small groups or ‘breakout rooms’ which could be done automatically or manually and to pop in to the breakout rooms to check people were working together. The whiteboard facility is even easier than the traditional flipchart – no problems over poor writing as everything is typed in! The chat facility provides another communication channel for those who want to ask questions without interrupting and is particularly useful where delegates don’t have a working microphone. In short Zoom became my new essential for running training!

Yet it is not as straight forward as it sounds. As with everything else, there are often unforeseen problems. These include the obvious internet failures and technical hitches. I do admit to losing a couple of delegates into cyberspace when trying to transfer them between breakout rooms. Fortunately they quickly re-joined! Whilst some learners are in the comfort of their own homes, others are in public areas like cafes where background noise becomes intrusive or shared office spaces where their considerate colleagues think nothing of interrupting their learning to ask questions. One added bonus is the additional delegates who join – over the past fortnight, I have been privileged to meet Minnie* the cat, a black Labrador, a rather shy toddler called Harry* and a very enthusiastic little girl, Freya*, who was quick to say hello to other learners. Anyone is welcome to join!

Certainly the advantages outweigh the disadvantages and one of these is that the learner’s name appears with their picture on your ‘grid’ – no longer do we have to try and remember names! The principle benefit for me is that my clients are happy – they are even booking more Zoom classes as the ever-tiresome problem of finding a venue has now disappeared, providing additional flexibility for them and their staff. And whilst a seven-hour training session over Zoom is mentally exhausting, the two hour commute each way to work is now a distant memory!

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Top Twelve Tips for Using Virtual Classrooms successfully …

1. Check your material beforehand as a lot of the traditional activities just do not work in a virtual environment and may need to be changed

2. Be flexible and adapt to the learners’ needs

3. Be patient – technology brings its own problems for both trainer and learner

4. Give regular breaks and lunchtime just as you would in a normal classroom environment

5. Set ground rules and do housekeeping at the outset as usual

6. Ask delegates to mute their microphones during a presentation to avoid unnecessary background noise

7. Encourage learners to ask questions and participate in discussion

8. Vary the activities and use breakout rooms, whiteboard sharing and group discussions

9. Pop into breakout rooms to ensure people know what they should be doing

10. Broadcast a warning before bringing learners back into the main classroom

11. Save the whiteboard feedback and send to delegates afterwards

12. Encourage learners to use their video so you can see them and ensure they are fully engaged

*names have been changed to protect the innocent!