The phrase ‘virtual training’ is talked about a lot more lately, and for good reason given recent global events. Virtual training takes the fundamentals of face-to-face, classroom training and replicates the experience online, in real-time. Virtual training uses live, interactive online workshops to provide training to your employees through virtual classroom platforms. Delivering training virtually mitigates the need for any travel or large financial expense, while still providing the required learning transfer in a fun, engaging way for all learners, regardless of their location.
What is a virtual training program?
Virtual training software creates an online, virtual learning environment for employee training. Virtual training resources are becoming a great alternative to the traditional form of learning thanks to the modern platforms available for virtual instruction. The role of virtual classroom software is to provide everything employees need for rewarding job training in one place.
With the constant improvement of virtual training tools and the improved ease of use, companies can run more virtual training workshops via live virtual classrooms than ever before. It also allows employees to interact with colleagues from different locations or countries across the globe.
Employees can still practice, debate, share ideas, and work on their soft skills—everything that can be achieved in a traditional training workshop, yet it’s live and online. The results and experience are just as good and often better than in-person, traditional 1-day sessions, and online teaching software fosters inclusivity as it caters to all team members no matter their location.
See why teams love training with Lessonly.
Benefits of virtual training
Finding the right training solution for your company requires balance. Your teams need the latest information on ever-changing technology to be productive, yet product updates and changes never stop. In our experience, there are endless benefits to virtual training, and here are some that stand out.
Spend less
This goes for money AND time. Ever considered the cost of an employee being away from their desks and the expenses for airfare, hotels, car rentals, meals, and more? Those costs all come Before you even figure in the cost of the actual training itself. Yikes! Expenses add up quickly, which means you may not have the budget to train as many people as you’d like. But, when you use an online employee training platform, you minimize the cost per employee while reducing the time that your staff is away from the office. You can extend training to more of your team or allow your staff to take additional classes without inflating your training budget.
Improve efficiency
Online teaching platforms have the ability to compress two full days of training material from a physical workshop into shorter training sessions in the virtual classroom, spread out over multiple modules. This is done not by sacrificing meaningful content, but rather by eliminating the noise and focusing only on the significant and most relevant content.
Convenience breakthrough
It probably goes without saying, but the benefits of keeping learners in the office or field during training are enormous and warrant repeating.
The benefits of keeping learners in the office or field during training are enormous.
Need to hear it again?
Okay, okay. We’ll stop now.
But seriously, with live video training platforms, learners can connect training to their jobs and engage with key projects and opportunities. They can better integrate training into their day-to-day activities as well as reduce travel-related hassles. All of these aspects contribute to improved quality of work-life… and who doesn’t want that?!?
Incorporate spaced learning
This is when you spread the training experience across a greater number of sessions that consist of shorter periods. This style is characterized by spacing out the instruction and is critical for driving retention and engagement. It also allows for more immediate practical application, which is when learners have an opportunity to apply what they have learned earlier in the training experience.
Also, incorporate on-the-job application
Spaced learning is in critical contrast to traditional classroom learning, during which concepts are not applied until after the sessions are complete. On-the-job application means your team can return to the next session with an understanding of how the concepts work in real-work scenarios. And, we’ve found it’s easier when learners can immediately transition from the classroom to their field without delay.
Boost engagement
Virtual training platforms mimic live workshop interactivity using tools like polling, chats, and breakout groups. These elements not only expose learners to input from other participants, but they also create a cooperative learning environment. The effectiveness of cooperative learning is that participants share knowledge and work together to make each other’s understanding of the material complete. Employees become active participants in the learning process rather than relying entirely on the instructor.
When it comes to providing virtual training solutions, there is no one-size-fits-all option. Different learners, groups, and industries have different needs for a successful training program. See how our virtual training software helps teams deliver training and coaching scale.
