Virtual Learning Best Practices with Cindy Huggett

“What do they need a facilitator for vs. something they can learn on their own?”
-Cindy Huggett

Virtual online training has been around for decades now. And yet many organizations firmly resisted it beyond those annual mandatory trainings.   Covid pushed many outside their comfort zone to finally start to leverage technology and yet the quality of virtual offerings varies widely!  Today’s guest provides practical tips and questions you can ask to assess the state of your own virtual learning programs, given they are here to stay.

My guest is Cindy Huggett. As a leading workplace learning expert and 20+ year pioneer of virtual training, she, has vast experience delivering engaging learning solutions via the virtual classroom. She’s the author of five acclaimed books on the subject, including The Facilitator’s Guide to Immersive, Blended and Hybrid Learning and Designing Virtual Learning for Application and Impact: 50 Techniques to Ensure Results.

Cindy partners with organizations to create engaging virtual training solutions. She upskills trainers and designers, maximizes online learning design, and facilitates actionable virtual training and hybrid learning. A sought-after speaker, Cindy has taught thousands of people how to leverage live online training through her cutting-edge workshops and presentations on topics related to leadership, learning, and technology.

Based in Raleigh, NC, Cindy serves clients globally. To learn more, visit www.cindyhuggett.com.

In this episode of Talent Management Truths, you’ll discover:

• Creative ideas to make your virtual training more effective and engaging
• Tips on how to combat video fatigue 
• 5 questions every organization should be asking about virtual training

Links

• Cindy Huggett on Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cindyhuggett/ 

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Transcript

LM Ep 122

 [00:00:00] Virtual online training has been around for decades now, and yet many organizations firmly resisted it beyond those annual mandatory trainings. COVID pushed many outside their comfort zone to finally start to leverage [00:01:00] technology, and yet the quality of virtual offerings today varies widely. Today's guest provides practical tips and questions you can ask to assess the state of your own virtual learning programs, given they are here to stay.

My guest is Cindy Huggett. Cindy partners with organizations to create engaging virtual training solutions. She upskills trainers and designers, maximizes online learning design, and facilitates actionable virtual training and hybrid learning, a sought after speaker. Cindy has taught thousands of people how to leverage live online training through her cutting edge workshops and presentations on topics related to leadership, learning, and technology.

In this episode of Talent Management Truths, you'll discover creative ideas to make your virtual training more effective and engaging tips on how to combat video fatigue. And five questions every organization should be asking about virtual training. Such a great conversation. I learned lots. Enjoy. [00:02:00] 

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Hello and welcome back to Talent Management Truth. I'm your host, Lisa Mitchell, and today I'm joined by Cindy Huett. Cindy is the principal of Cindy Huett Consulting, and she specializes in virtual learning. And Cindy, just thank you for coming on the show. You were referred to me by Bo Bodo, who's the previous guest and who spoke very highly of you.

So I'm, I'm excited to, to finally get this chance to have our conversation.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: It's so great to be here. I'm still looking forward to our conversation. As well.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: So let's begin by hearing a little bit about your background. You know, your career.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Yeah, so I've been in and around talent development for over 30 years. I started, I won't tell you exactly when, but a long time ago as a software trainer, when I was looking for what do I do out of grad school, and my older brother gave some advice, you know, find where you want to live and start from there.

And so I started. Teaching [00:03:00] software programs. DOS programming Lotus 1, 2, 3 word star, the internet when it first came out. And, and, you know, that was great, but what I realized was there was this whole field of workplace learning and adult education and I just fell in love with it. And so I moved into training manager roles and director of training roles and started training functions and in the midst of the, I'll say highlight, right? A job that I loved. I found myself out on my own. It was a company. I was a one person, global training department. And the company went through some changes and almost everybody in the HR department was part of a mass layoff. But in that same conversation, my supervisor, the VP of hr, who was one of the very few staying on with the organization, said.

Cindy, would you stay on as a control? Would you stay on [00:04:00] as a contractor? Would you stay and help us with our training? We still need these things. And I thought, sure, I'll do that. I can do my job and still keep working. And it was a blessing in disguise. So in 2004, trying to make sure that's the right year, 20 years ago.

Yeah, 2004.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: I got married. Look at that. Okay.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: A long time ago I went out on my own. I many of the people who also left that organization at the same time started calling on me and saying, Cindy, can you help with this project? Can you provide some training? Can you do this? And well, I intended to go back inside. Here we are 20 years later and I'm still consulting, still helping organizations with talent development projects and programs.

With a real specialty in virtual learning. We can talk about where that came from in a moment, but over the years I've worked with organizations, big, small, global government, nonprofit, [00:05:00] manufacturing, financial, almost across all industries, and I, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's been a great journey

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Beautiful. Well, and I just laughed. Out loud at the Lotus Notes reference and the dos

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: so long

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: I came out teaching, you know, and, and I remember teaching myself to use words so I could write my resume and try to get a job and, and you know, I was going back quite a while and then we were on green screens, kicks, interfaith.

And then we moved. It was a big deal to move to Lotus Notes and so called gooey interface, sort of that We built software in that. And yeah, so interesting. So I, I too was a technical trainer for a while and teaching, you know, new CSRs on how to use the systems and as well as do the piece. But yeah, it's fascinating to, to to hear just the, the, the, you know, the transition through the years.

So in your business, so 20 years, congratulations. That's a huge accomplishment. 20 year anniversary this year. Sydnee. Oh my god. 

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Thank you. 

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: So your focus, it's, we've said virtual learning, but [00:06:00] you're also a published author. So tell us a little bit about, you know, what kinds of projects you tend to work on.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: it really does start back in the early two thousands, over 20 years ago when I was still part of that global organization and they were struggling financially. I was told to cut my budget, stop traveling, but still provide training to my global workforce. And at that time, our executive team was using WebEx.

WebEx has been around for a really long time. There's other platforms. To and I thought, well, if they're using that to meet, I could use that for training. So I took that technology background, that tech trainer, Microsoft certifications that I had, and I took what I knew about adult learning and workplace learning and started putting the two together and took one of my management development programs and moved it online 20 plus years ago.

And so when I was consulting, when I was. In those early years of my consulting business, I was folding in [00:07:00] virtual learning and technology based training to the solutions, and I didn't think anything of it until Lisa. I kept getting asked, okay, well yeah, this is interesting. How are you doing this virtual?

Stuff and, and I kept over and over getting asked, tell us more about this. Help us with this. We wanna explore it too. And so around that time I was volunteering with a TD, it was a STD at the time, the Association for Talent Development today, and. Had an opportunity with a trusted colleague to write an article about virtual learning, and it did pretty well, right?

It got a little bit of interest and so we wrote another one together, and that turned into writing a book. And my first book, virtual Training Basics was written in 2009, and at the time it was. One of the first on how to move your training, how to start using this virtual learning, and [00:08:00] from there the books just kept coming.

So I'm on book number six, although I dunno if you count second editions. I've got two. Like is that a new book? I think it is. I'm, I'm working on two second editions right now of the virtual training guidebook and virtual training tools and templates. Two of my most popular books. And I'm pretty much starting from scratch 'cause so much has changed about virtual learning over the last 10 years.

Over the last four years. So, maybe I'm up to book seven and eight if we're gonna count Second editions.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: allowed. Let's give those to you. That's amazing. So, so you've got all of these research, so, so it sort of sounds like an organic shift, you know, with just wow. The market's telling you we're at a point and, and what the need is. So I, I really love that. So. When you think about, you just sort of referenced that there's been so many changes in the last 10 years, and then certainly pre covid, post covid, and, and even you and I were talking earlier before we hit [00:09:00] record, just about the changes just to zoom and, and so on.

And I use Zoom constantly for facilitations, for coaching, for all sorts of things. And it's added all sorts of different like I'm looking at them right now, like different reactions and apps that are linked and so on. So tell me what you're seeing in the industry with, you know, both the software, the.

The the different tech coming in, but also people's response to it.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Yeah. You know, I think we could probably talk a long time about this, Lisa, because the rate of change has been speeding up and, and just for example, let's take a platform like WebEx. If you're not familiar with it, it's just like Zoom or Teams, right? Similar product. And it used to be that a program like WebEx would update maybe once a year, once every other year, right?

You'd get a new software update and now I. Those programs are updating once a month, once a week. In some cases, the rate of rapid change, and it's easier now for a [00:10:00] program to push out an update. Lisa, you and I remember, maybe not all of our listeners do, but some do. You used to have to get a software program on a CD and load it?

Right. Those just, and now it's just over the internet. It, it's because of the advances of technology, changes are happening at a much faster speed, a much faster rate. So when we look at a program like Zoom or Teams, we're talking about synchronous meeting, learning, training, facilitation. Tools like raising your hand or chatting or pulling or whiteboarding are not new.

Those have been around since the beginning 25 years now. But what is new is the interface, the way they look, the ease of use. You used to have to find a raise hand button and click on it. And for some people just trying to find that button was a hurdle. Now it's a a little bit easier, but now there's [00:11:00] hand gesture recognition.

You can toggle that on and instead of needing to click on the raise hand button, you literally just raise your hand and that symbol next to your name goes up alerting the facilitator or your colleagues that you have something to contribute. So. We're seeing a change, a shift in the technology, and that Lisa has opened up so many possibilities for creating engaging learning experiences.

So before we maybe talk about that as a response, organizations, facilitators, designers, anybody who's involved with it has the challenge of keeping up. How do we keep up with, now that we. avatars we can use. You know, for example, a long time we've been talking about the struggle of showing up on camera.

I don't wanna turn my camera on. I didn't brush my hair today, or I have too much going on in the background or whatever [00:12:00] it may be. Well, now we have avatars. Instead of showing up yourself, just put your avatar on screen like this. And you don't have to have brushed your hair, but this is still my mouth moving.

This is. Still my eyes blinking. It is just a new way. So how are we as organizations and traders keeping up with that and not using it just 'cause it's a shiny new object, but because it really adds learning value.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Right. It was, it is so interesting because I was on I was in a three day course last week and it was virtual and it was around a, a new tool, amazing tool. great people. The design though felt sort of half-baked when it comes to a virtual delivery. Let me explain. And I, and I'm not trying to throw them under the best because I really enjoyed learning about the tool but.

they did use something progressive, which was mural where we were able to interact, you know, on a, on a mat or a board, right? So each person's around a little circle and you could drag where you saw [00:13:00] yourself in this one particular exercise, which is great, right? People like that. I've used mural in the past, something similar.

When I've been training virtually. But then the first day was extremely long, eight 30 to nine to five virtual. And you know, I think we had an hour break for lunch, but the other breaks, it was more than two hours at a time sitting and it was intense, you know, and, and mostly kind of lecture people talking at you and a bit of discussion.

But there was only one tiny breakout. Now it got better from there, but it's sort of like, when I say half baked, it felt like they'd. They thought a bit about like, oh boy, you know, this used to be always be in person. And usually that's how they do it. But then we do more and more globally, need to offer these virtually and, and they just sort of had only gone a little ways and it felt like there was, were, there was so much opportunity I was dying to just say, Hey, can I help you tear this apart and redevelop it?

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Oh, it's needed. It's needed. I'm so sorry you experienced that, right? My heart [00:14:00] is beating faster just listening to it because Lisa, think about it, back in 2020, so many organizations had to almost overnight shift their in-person programs to online, right? If we look at. The history of virtual, even though it's been around for 20 years, it was still relatively low adoption rates.

The A TD State of the industry reports had it pegged at about 14% of all formal learning hours in 2019, which is a lot, but you know, 14, 14, 1 4

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: 14% so pre covid. That's interesting, Chris. Because I remember when it hit, like I immediately lost all of my pre-booked facilitation revenue from right from March 13th. I, like, I had done a webinar, got off the phone and it was the one of the most frightening days of my life, literally. 'cause it was like, you know, I.

Like a third of my revenue minimum that was just literally canceled within the course of that day, all the way through to [00:15:00] September. And you know, I can tell you the reason I wanted to interject is one of the banks. So I'm in Canada, you're in the us, you're referencing a TD here at Institute for Performance and Learning the equivalent.

And so we have the charter bank system. They're huge entities and you think very progressive and they are in many ways, but they're also dinosaurs in others. And, and this one bank that I was doing facilitation for, had had a whole bunch of stuff booked. They canceled and then they did not want to rebook.

Through all of Covid pretty much because they were waiting for a return back to the office. They, their preference was in person no matter how hard we tried to explain, you know, and, and show how we could be very engaging and, and so on virtual in a virtual classroom. So anyway, it was just interesting. So you probably saw some too, right?

Like re wholesale resistance, like dragging and screaming.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Absolutely. And what many organizations did was what, what they did either. Nope, we're not gonna do training at [00:16:00] all. And then we have to figure out, well then how do we equip our associates, our employees, our workers, our workforce with the knowledge that they desperately need? Or they took those three day, two day, three week in-person programs and just tossed them online.

And you know, we, we understand in a quick pivot like that you do what you need to do, but now is the time, if not already, for organizations to be looking at those learning offerings and say, what's the best method for us to offer this? Required. Needed, necessary learning to our workforce. Is it all virtual?

Is it back in person? Is it hybrid? Is it a mix of both? Is it a blended journey where we have some in person and some online? So I work with many organizations who say, scheduling wise, we. Although we know it's ideal to do virtual classes in short chunks, [00:17:00] 60 minutes, 90 minutes, we scheduling wise, aren't able to accommodate that for various valid reasons.

And so it may make sense we've gotta block a half day or a. Full day. But that doesn't mean we spend eight hours staring at a screen passively listening. That means we go back and look at the design and say, well, what do we need a facilitator for? Versus what can they learn on their own? And maybe just maybe on a Tuesday at 8:30 AM the group gets together, you have a kickoff, you meet your colleagues, and immediately you're sent off into.

A small group case study conversation, something, and that can be inside your virtual classroom using breakouts, but it could also be alright, go for an hour. Work through these. We'll meet back here at 10:00 AM to debrief, to provide feedback, to have conversation. And we'll meet together for 30, 45, [00:18:00] 60 minutes.

And then you'll go off to your next. So it's still a full day. But it's chunked into manageable learning segments that make the most sense. Sometimes spacing that out over a few weeks makes sense. Sometimes spacing it just over the day, but really least now's the time for organizations if they're not already to be looking at that and saying, what are we gonna do with these really critical learning programs to make sure it's a good learning experience so that we're not, getting in our own way, but instead leading to learning transfer.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Yeah, so, so much goodness there. So just to, to kind of, underscore a couple things, like when you were talking about chunking the learning into manageable segments, that's, I'm a huge advocate of that. And you know, it makes me think about. You know, when you were talking about what do we really need, the facilitated part for what, what, what part of the, the content, the experience lends itself best [00:19:00] to having a facilitated experience versus a peer learning experience or, you know, coaching ourselves, kind of, you know, peer peer related learning.

So it's, it's interesting 'cause it makes me think about return to office, you know, and, and this comes up so much in the people that I talk to. Where they've gotten really intentional about when you come into the office. 'cause typically it's hybrid. You're coming in to collaborate 'cause that's the best use of time you're coming in to see people, not to sit behind your desk the whole day.

Unlike in the, in the past it was a blend of the two. So now if it's really behind your desk, you don't need to interact with anybody in person. That can be done at home. So it's the same idea. We're taking that principle, applying it to learning. The other thing too, about this idea of sending people away to make meaning to converse, to work on a case and so on, and then come back and brief, I think there's more and more room for that.

I think there's still a real tendency to hang onto the traditional methods and feeling very content heavy. That's kinda the way I came up originally. And to create learning that's more spacious. [00:20:00] Right. And giving people time to, to talk through, even with the most technical stuff, like how would we apply this?

What you know, what are the questions anyways?

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Yeah. And I think some training professionals, organizations, they're afraid to release control really when you're doing that. When I'm sending a group offer, sending an individual off to work on something, then sometimes they get fearful around, well, how do I know they're doing it?

How do I know they're not just off? You know, checking their email and, and maybe they do quickly check their email. That's okay. We're adults. But how do we know? Well, that's where accountability comes in. That may be why you send them with a partner with, with two or three people. Not a large group, but a, a smaller group.

And one really specific example is working with one of my clients. They had a technical training program and we were looking at a design like this where they needed to learn a software program and then they needed hands-on practice. You know, they're not gonna learn just by watching a demo. They've gotta do it.

But there was [00:21:00] some, some nerves, there was some fear over, what if I just send them to do it? What if they get stuck? What if they have trouble? What if they need questions answered? And so what we did. Is in the design. Each of the, and it was ideally 12 to 15 learners in the cohort, is we set up 15 breakout rooms.

In the virtual classroom, you typically think of a breakout room for small group, but each individual learner got their own breakout room. Show that they went for 20, 30, sometimes 45 minutes to work through practicing on the technology. When they needed help, they could click on the raise hand button. The facilitator would see it and can get into the breakout room.

That person in the breakout room could have their screen shared while they're working in some virtual classroom platforms. When you, the facilitator in the main room, you can keep your eyes on what's happening, what's everybody doing, so you can [00:22:00] track that progress. So the technology is there to make all of that work that.

Almost ties back to what we were talking about before, keeping up with the technology, the new changes, the what's the right platform for us to use. So all sorts of good, good questions to be thinking about.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Yeah, well I like, that's such a great example because I think in a lot of cases people would just not think to do 15 breakout rooms with one person. 'cause you think of it as a way to collaborate, right? So it's kind of saying, well, what's another way to, you know, to leverage the technology? So listers, I think that's a really good, if you're, driving or whatever, just sort of make a mental note to, to, to think about like.

What are some other ways to leverage the capabilities in whatever platform we're using? Right? That, that we haven't.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Yeah, almost any challenge that an organization or a training department brings up related to virtual training or learning, there's a tech solution for it. You know, I know I showed the avatar just a little bit ago, but the challenge of, well, people [00:23:00] don't want to come on camera because of bandwidth issues.

Well, there are now, maybe not five years ago, but now so many different settings that help reduce. Bandwidth challenges or we talk about video fatigue. Well, now there's settings like hide self view or in a really well designed program. We have the cameras on for a while and then we turn them off and then we turn them back on again.

Almost everything, accessibility, global issues, certain topics you name it, there is now a tech solution for so many of those items.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: I just noticed that hide self view recently, it's so funny that you bring that up, right? Like, 'cause sometimes it's like you don't wanna see yourself. I, you know, I, I tend to, you know, in these kinds of conversations, I only see you, I don't wanna see me. And in the gallery piece a large training, I don't really wanna see me either.

I wanna focus just on people. So it's very handy. That's a great example. So, alright, so let's, let's talk a little bit about an article that you wrote because I think there's [00:24:00] some really excellent tips and food for thought here. So you called it, I have it here. Five questions five key questions for virtual training.

Would you mind walking us through just really high level you know, the best practices that you've got outlined there?

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Absolutely, and we'll link to the article in the show notes for those of you that would like to follow along. And we've already talked about the first one, Lisa, that idea of what learning programs should stay virtual, what belongs in the in-person classroom, kind of what's the right mix for that. It's a, it's a great place to start as you're looking at your strategy and the.

You mentioned in your example just a few moments ago, three days of heavy lecture with no breaks. I mean, the reason we come together if we're going to come together at 10:00 AM on a Tuesday is for social collaboration is for interaction. If it's just [00:25:00] gonna be a lecture, you can record that, make it a video, make it a self.

Paste something or other, turn it into an email or, or some other format. But if we're coming together, it should be for interaction for engagement. And so looking at your programs, one of the things I do for my clients is audit their programs based against some design standards to look at their levels of engagement.

So that's the second question to ask. The third one is what are the platforms you're using? What are the technology tools? What's your tech stack related to virtual training? There are so many meeting and collaboration tools out there that are great for meetings and collaboration that you know, and I know and the listeners know, learning and training programs often have different needs.

Thinking about that in-person. Conference room that has a massive boardroom table that's not able to be moved in the middle of it. [00:26:00] How many trainers have walked into a classroom expecting to move the tables around? Let's make small groups, and

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: You got the big heavy wood monolith in the middle of the room. Oh god.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: So can we make it work?

Of course we can. But is it ideal? No. And virtually it's the same thing. Can you make a meeting tool work for virtual training? You can, but it's not ideal and it requires a lot of extra work around and energy and things, and so. Is your organization using the right tools? Have you equipped your learners with headsets?

Do you have webcams that are easily accessed? I worked with a client recently and the laptops that they were assigned, Lisa, I'm not joking, the web cam lens. Was down on the keyboard bar just to look at it. You had to have your head completely down, and that's right. It's just not appropriate [00:27:00] for a collaborative conversation and definitely not flattering.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: So.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: I mean. Let's look at that. Yeah, let's look at that. The fourth question has to do with support of your facilitators. We've talked a lot about the tools and not as much, but still really important. The methods that we use to engage a remote audience. Have you upskilled or reskilled, are you equipping facilitators with the time they need to explore the platforms, the learning they need for this?

Scale example I share quite frequently is we've all been in those virtual sessions where somebody asks the question and nobody responds. You know what we mean?

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Mm-Hmm mm-Hmm. 

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: so typically that's because of the way the question was phrased. The way we phrase a question in person is different than the way we need to phrase a question online and do your facilitators know that [00:28:00] simple, but really powerful technique that helps the learners stay involved.

So that's number four. And then number,

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Wait, I wanna hear five, but what's the question? What's the, what's the distinction?

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: That's right. You know, that's so important. We can't leave everybody

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: can't leave us hanging. No.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: That's right. Thank you for that. Don't let us forget to get back to number five. But you know, so we're in person. We ask the open overhead question, who has experience with a, B, C? And you look around the room and you get the head DODs and the smiles and the, the body language.

But if you ask online and open-ended broad question. Most of the time people will stay silent because they're not sure. How to answer the social norm. Am I supposed to raise my hand or come off mute or type in chat or is she opening a poll? You just don't know like how to do it so people don't, and then there's also the fear of talking over other people.

There's the, I need time to think, maybe I need time to [00:29:00] translate if English isn't my native language. There's just so many things that get in the way, so it is much more successful to start with a closed question. Who has experience with A, B, C? Click on the raise hand button. Oh, I see. Lisa, Joanne, Emma, sandal.

You all have your hands raised. Tell us more about that. Right? You're starting narrow and then opening it up. Now that's not even the end result, Lisa, because you can take it a step further. Who has experience with a, B, C? Click on the raise hands button. If you don't, just click on No. That way. If you have 20 people in your audience, you're not just asking those with experience to raise your hand, you're asking everyone to do something.

Or it's similar to if you have a question about this, type it in chat. If you don't just type, I'm good or I don't have any questions. That way everybody. Types in chat if you start your session that way and [00:30:00] continue throughout. It's a constant invitation for involvement, not eliminating people who maybe prefer to be doing something else.

So that's the technique 

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: So those are really, that's really practical and, and generous to share that with us because I, I, you know, I learned something there too. And, and, and, you know, I'm actually pretty good at that. I think that, you know, 'cause what I do, and I think it's important to mention is I. As I position it to you up front, right?

As I tell people, depending on the size of the group, you know, this is when I ask questions. You know, I invite you to use chat. I. Or come off mute, depending on the size, on the size of the group. Right. Like telling them what you're expecting. So they're not just going, oh wait, where am I supposed to put this?

Or how should I respond? And what are the ways? And we kind of agree. Usually there's some contracting I do left team coaching, so we're talking about how we wanna work together and, and what should be ways of operating. But I, you know, I like how you're talking about, you know, starting narrow and then going, you know, opening up from there.

I think that's really, really practical and [00:31:00] useful and I. I'm gonna pay attention to how I'm doing that next time and make sure I'm, I'm on the ball. Alright, number five.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Number five, just as an offshoot of participant preparation. You know the hallmark, the best part of virtual learning is that they don't have to leave their workspace. They can at 10 o'clock on a Tuesday hop into a virtual classroom, but they're surrounded by competing priorities. And so what are we doing to equip them?

We often think about, let's create a. Engaging design. Let's give the facilitators the resources they need, and then organizations forget that the learners are the third, but very important part of the equation. And so how are we preparing them? What messaging do they get in advance? What support do they get from their managers if they're inside an organization to carve out time for learning?

What accountability is there afterward? Are they. Encouraged and rewarded for [00:32:00] staying on Slack or Teams Chat or whatever it is? Or are they given that space? Is it a culture in the organization that's being created around being on webcam? I talk with many organizations to, well, my leader never turns the webcam on, so why should I?

And I, you know, certainly not saying they need to be on 99.9% of the time, but the we're creating an atmosphere. For learning. You know, when we bring people together in person, the facilitator sets the environment, the lighting, the temperature, the what's on the desk. But when it comes to virtual, we leave that up to the learner.

So are they equipped? Do they have, do they have what they need to successful? One of the things I love to do as a facilitator, when I have a group coming to a class, they always get a personal message from me. Above and beyond any automated reminders they might get from the learning management system.

[00:33:00] They always get a personal note from me and that personal note is always helping to set or reinforce any expectations. Hey, we're gonna meet at 10, we're gonna start right at 10, or. A lot of times I do 10 15, knowing we're giving a little buffer time, not back to back to back meetings. Plan to have your camera on, right?

That shouldn't be a surprise. Have this handout available or this document available. Here's what you can expect. You'll be working in small groups, and I always ask for a response, a, a simple. Question and depends on the topic, the audience, what that question is. But I want to know who read it and I can tell who read it often by that response.

Nothing involved. Quick response. 'cause they can do it on their mobile device. Right. Make it easy to respond. And I find that if I don't get a lot of responses, I will send the morning of a quick reminder, Hey, today's the day. Right. It just shows up in their inbox. By the way, here's a [00:34:00] couple of things to remember, and it's not in a punitive type of way.

It's just, you know, let's, let's be at the top of their inbox that morning of the event. So little things like that you can do to prepare your participants.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Yeah. Well, and the, the, the, the participant preparation has always been important. Like I remember, you know, creating this whole process, I think it might still be in place around pre you know, training or learning experience, conversations that leaders would have with the people going right. And post conversations.

We kinda had a, like a guideline and reminders and so on. Giving them like some key questions to ask and like stuff like. So you're enrolled in this training, so what are you, look, you know, what are your expectations? What are you looking to get out of it? What are you worried about? What you know, what questions are in your mind?

And then after like, what's been the biggest takeaway and starting to talk about, well, how are you gonna apply it? Right? So this is going one step further and saying, you know, this is a virtual environment. So not only are you thinking about the content and questions that might [00:35:00] be on your mind, it's about how can you.

It's not the same as you show up in a training room. You kind of turn the switch because the context has changed and so therefore your expectations have, this is a bit different. We have to be a little more intentional, is what I'm hearing you say.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Absolutely. So important.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Oh my goodness. Well, we have covered so, so much ground.

I really appreciate you walking us through those, those five key questions that, that listeners could be asking themselves to assess how they're doing with virtual virtual learning. So, before we end, I, I have one more question for you. I'm just curious, like if you were to say, you know, 2004 we're, we're recording this in January of, of 20.

24. I don't know what I just said. 2004. Which, 'cause we were talking about that earlier. Your anniversary date. So this year it sounds very futuristic actually, in some ways. 2024. What do you think we can expect as, as you know, throughout the course of this year and, and going into next, given that the technology is changing so rapidly, I.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: I think that's it. The technology [00:36:00] is. Changing so rapidly, and we're looking at artificial intelligence. We're looking at the release of Apple's new virtual reality headset, which cascades down into so many other hardware wearable type of devices that are out there, and I think it's organizations and learning professionals.

It's really easy to get overwhelmed with. All of the new technology, how do we know what to pay attention to? How do we know where to right, where to look? And so it's going to keep coming at a rapid avalanche style pace. And I'm gonna encourage us learning professionals. That one, we're connected to a community, whether that's a social media community, whether that's an online, whether that's an in-person, local community of like-minded professionals.

So many industries and organizations have that one to, you know, just help talk through what are you doing, what are you finding, what lessons [00:37:00] learned, what are some of the things you have your eye on? What have you tried, right? I think having those conversations is really helpful. There are so many online conferences.

If you're traveling, you can go in person, but many conferences now have added in online components. Even if you don't go to those, you can scan through the different topics that are being discussed. Look at what organizations are using. Often somebody in an organization uses something, try something, and then they present about it at a conference.

Right? Keep an eye on that to help know what. What's happening out there? So I think that's a big theme. We're gonna keep seeing change, but what practically can we use and adopt and to not be afraid of new technologies? I think about ai, for example, artificial intelligence. It can very quickly help you write out a video script or to create a case study.[00:38:00] 

But it's still a, a computer generated something, right? It's not taking away the human touch. It's not taking away it's just adding to what we do. And so I think that's coming, and I think we as learning professionals are at a really unique time to be helping one another navigate these new technologies.

And we can do that together in community.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Yes. I, I couldn't agree more. I think I'm gonna make this a topic of one of my future talent talks, to be honest that I offer to the community. So, because, you know, it's a, it's a chance for people to reflect and talk about what's, what are they doing, what questions do they have, what are they challenged by, and share and hear from each other, right?

So I think you're right that that is so critical. 'cause you know, you called it an avalanche style sort of. Barrage of, of new stuff that's coming at US tech-wise. And it could be easy to feel like we're, we're getting, you know, drowned by rocks. So I think it's important to just kinda slow down.

Remember, we're not, you know, it's not about doing all of the things all at once. It's keeping [00:39:00] an eye, right. What's happening, what, what might gimme the biggest bang for my buck to start moving some, automating certain things in a way that elevates the skill that. I bring that listeners bring right the human touch to really make output even better, you know, versus being something that's competing or, or complicating.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: Agreed. Agreed.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Beautiful. 

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: been so great to talk to you. 

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: Agreed. Yes, 

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate2: this conversation.

Cindy Huggett GMT20240123-181006_Recording_separate1: my pleasure. And thank you very much for coming on and sharing. You're, you're very passionate about your topic and I really appreciate that and I know listeners will as well. Thank you. [00:40:00]