F2F vs Virtual – its never going to be the quite the same thing. We are now a couple of years post COVID lockdowns, and the debate is raging on. Virtual training is here to stay as an option. We all have our preferences and prejudices. We have all had bad experiences. The biggest complaint is usually that virtual training lacks the interaction that is possible with face to face sessions.
We get that, but we do believe that virtual training can become more interactive when you tweak a few things – training virtually is no excuse to switch to lecture mode!
- You love face to face table teams – Use virtual break out room teams
- You think flipchart paper is fabulous – give virtual whiteboards a go
- You like to know everyone has the concepts – use polls and online quiz formats
- You have favourite super fast activities that ensure everyone has to contribute or reflect – use the chat and reactions functions to try and create a similar expectation
- Team mind maps are your go-to review activity – give a virtual version a go, or try a word cloud
- You love to demonstrate how to do a skill – start that Youtube/Tiktok channel and show it off
- You look forward to the coffee breaks – we highly recommend you have those during virtual sessions too. Possibly even more than during face to face (now here is a great chance to introduce your group to Office Chair yoga).
Many interactive features come built into (or can be added onto) the big platforms like Zoom and Teams. It does take a little experimentation to find what activities work for you best – great news is there are so many different options to try.
We challenge you to take your favourite face to face activity, give it a tweak and make it virtually possible!
