More on Virtual Classrooms

The other day I wrote about my background in virtual classrooms from early 2010. My classmate Susan and I had a long discussion about this the other night. Her thoughts on a hybrid training approach resonated with me because of my history with zoom classrooms. 

We started a network of 50 zoom classrooms in 2011 using Google Hangout and ran them every day for over three years providing safety and skills training. Each class, every day, lasted 8 hours and we had a new class start each week. It was rigorous to keep up with that much training and in that style. We learned a lot very quickly. We made sure everyone had a participant handbook, we had lockers in each of the 50 training rooms that had real-world implements that the learners could touch and feel and try on as we went over the tools, and we had a variety of media to keep them engaged and entertained; lecture, PowerPoint, videos, case studies, interviews with experts, and we made sure everyone had a tablet or smartphone for intermittent quizzes with immediate feedback. 

In terms of technology, it was this last addition that seemed to have the greatest impact. That ability to utilize a smartphone to take spaced practice quizzes and see immediately how they did and how they performed in terms of the rest of the class, was a game-changer. I think it might have been the blend of being a part of the class and still being in their training room. It helped to break that 5th wall. 

To bring this around to your thoughts on a hybrid approach . . . We started this project with the thought of having an instructor teaching to a group of students in a classroom and working with the networked classrooms at the same time. We thought this would make the best use of the instructor's time and talent AND give the remote, networked classrooms the feeling of being more involved. It quickly became apparent that this was not going to work as we hoped. We abandoned it after a few months of practice and went to two models for new hire training, . . . One that utilized the networked classrooms a with an instructor speaking just to these zoom roomed students, and live classes were instructed by one live instructor. 

Since that time, and having had a bit more experience, and a few more opportunities to try networking in zoom classrooms, I have not changed my mind about this possibility. We were on the cusp of trying it again for a series of classes and during rehearsals, we saw more and more of the same issues that stalled our efforts in the early 2010s still cropping up. 

Despite the problems, I still think it’s a worthy goal and I hope that this class takes me a step closer to realizing how to achieve it.