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. 

Blending Digital and Traditional Leadership

How do you define digital leadership and how is(n’t) it different? Use evidence from real-world examples, scenarios provided in this class, and/or quality literature to support your response.

Our organization has just released a new leadership training course called "Turnaround Leadership" that is focused on step-up crew leaders, or non-leaders who are pressed into leadership positions during periods of significant work activities, which in our industry we call "turnarounds." In this training, we review the Ken Blanchard Situational Leadership model with our learners to provide a framework for how they should lead. 

This style of leadership is similar to the matrix that Oberer and Erkollar (2018) highlight in their article from Lussier and Achua regarding behavioral leadership theories; a mixture of consideration and structure. In the case of Situational Leadership, Blanchard promotes changing the leadership style to meet the needs of the employee. In their white paper Why a Situational Approach to Leadership Matters (n.d.), the Ken Blanchard company writes, "this leadership framework advocates that leaders change their leadership style depending on the situation and the person whom they are leading, and, as a result, this model puts leadership style flexibility at the top of the list for leadership effectiveness" (p. 3). We like using this as a framework for our leadership courses because it promotes flexibility, and adaptability and gives a framework for the growth of each team member regardless of experience or motivation, and thus for the growth of the team. 

When I juxtapose this with the article by Kane et al. (2019), I see many areas where a natural overlap occurs, as the authors write, "tied for the third most important capability, a leader must also be change-oriented - that is open-minded, adaptable, and innovative" (p. 36). The authors promote this as the third most important trait of a digital leader, right behind vision/ability to see trends and digital literacy, but I believe that adaptability is the first most important trait. Traditional leadership, like our turnaround leadership course, promotes and digital leadership may have different inputs and outputs but the ability to be adaptable, to adapt, adjust and overcome is imperative in both cases in order for a digital leader to have the opportunity to see his vision take place or for his understanding of digital literacy to be utilized or a traditional leader to work around a new subcontractor who may have showed up and changed the hazards on his worksite or to adapt to a new schedule because of delays in delivery of equipment. Adaptability is needed in both cases and a framework like Ken Blanchard's sets leaders up with an adaptable framework for team leadership. 

I was hoping that Oberer and Erkollar's article might discuss how best to adjust the framework to the digital age, to make a focus on the changing and evolving workplace to confront and overcome a more and more digital arena, but use the behavior leadership theories and situational leadership as a model for their new digital leadership framework, but found their 4.0 leadership framework less than complete. Instead what I found was I reverted back to what President Astrid Tuminez on UVU’s Digital Transformation (n.d.) said in the Community Conversations podcast about how every industry will become more and more digital and that it is important to "restore, evolve, and transform" as they continue to hit digital leadership challenges. 

References

Kane G. C., Phillips A. N., Copulsky J.R. and Andrus G. R. (2019). How digital leadership is(n't) different. MIT Sloan Management Review (Spring): 34-39

Oberer, B., & Erkollar, A. (2018). Leadership 4.0: Digital leaders in the age of industry 4.0. International Journal of Organizational Leadership, 7(4), 404–412. https://doi.org/10.33844/ijol.2018.60332 (Links to an external site.)

President Astrid Tuminez on UVU’s Digital Transformation [podcast]. (n.d.). Educause.Edu. Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://er.educause.edu/podcasts/educause-talks-tech/president-astrid-tuminez-on-uvus-digital-transformation

Why a situational approach to leadership matters. (n.d.). Kenblanchard.Com. Retrieved May 10, 2022, from https://resources.kenblanchard.com/leadership-skills/why-a-situational-approach-to-leadership-matters

More on Virtual Classes

I've been posting alot on the work I did in virtual classrooms in 2010 or so. I had no idea we were so cutting edge. We started a network of 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, 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. 

Another technique, irrespective of technology, that we found effective, was to engage the learners in frequent talk-back moments from the very start. The learners were encouraged through different means to engage with the facilitator and the other classrooms, and this helped them realize that the entire class was based on two-way communication and they were not expected to be passive receivers of the information. Another technique, was during the videos the facilitators and the producer made sure to say something to the class "Mike in Detroit, we need you to stop leaving the classroom so much or we will have to ask you to leave" or "Robert, can you please put your phone away during the video?" These little moments where the learners were reminded that they were on camera and being watched helped to ensure there was engagement and that the learners were not drifting. 

Lastly, as I see more and more organizations using zoom classrooms, I have found two other aspects. First, we had a mixture of classrooms with learners and the single learner who might be taking the class at home on his own PC. We found the classroom atmosphere, even though they were a part of a zoom network, acted as a natural facilitator. Those people who were solo were generally the learners who drifted off the quickest. 

We found that we had to have a suite of tools and techniques to keep the learner engaged, and it wasn't just one or two things, but an entire online tool and technique set. Sadly, the project ended when the company became too successful and we had to hire more and more people. We reached a max-out limit and had to find more scalable means of training. 

Anna have you seen success with any tools or techniques like these? How have you seen these problems overcome?

Imposters and Integrity in Training

I loved reading Susan's paper from the other night about integrity, imposters, getting around the system, etc. She is in medical technology. She also works with prisons and prisoners and she has found that prisoners find many, many ways to get around the rules and regulations that are in place. She's seen chemicals embedded into mail, drones being used to drop material over fences, and more. 

Like her, we deal with challenges to the integrity of our processes that our learners work to overcome. We differentiate ourselves by ensuring that the learner is known at the time of the training and that the learner who checked and registered for the training is the same who finishes and passes the test. Often our learners work to take advantage of this. We catch an imposter a week. 

What I find interesting is that there is a lot of focus on having IDs to vote, and yet we ask for ID for every course we provide and there is never a question about the validity or applicability. Additionally, we are starting to offer remote proctoring capabilities and are enforcing the same high standard of ID integrity via remote training that we ask of our learners at our campus. This too has its problems that we are working hard to overcome. 

What I also find interesting, as a naive and trusting person, is that often these imposters think of things I would never dream of in a million years. Some of the examples you cite would never have come to mind. I’m glad to hear about your challenges if only because it might help me become more cynical and prepared to meet these same issues if we see similar ones in our organization. 

Virtual Classrooms Past, Present, Future!

In class the other night we were discussing virtual zoom rooms for training. I have some deep background in that, but one that is getting shallower each day. It was intriguing to hear how my classmate, Zach's, organization dealt with the impact of a Covid, and compare it to my organization’s problems and solutions. 

Our organization was quite proud of the fact that we never shut down. As a non-profit that is built around the “health and safety” of the contractor workforce that supports the energy industry we thought it was imperative that we not shut our doors to these essential workers, but also to prescribe to every single abatement measure put out by the CDC. We invested heavily in handwash stations, social distancing communique, KN95 masks for the entire staff, and tons and tons of plexiglass. In the end, we never became a hotspot for Covid exposure, and many other organizations and schools came to our campus to see what worked for us and model themselves off our successes. 

What I found interesting is something you allude to. At the beginning of the response to Covid, we launched a zoom option that our contracting companies could utilize. No one used it. Well, we used it three times in two years, but in each case, it was to provide international classes (1 to Mexico and 2 to UAE). None were regional or local. Instead, we found that the barriers to entry to utilize and create a zoom room classroom were so low our contracting members were doing it themselves and bypassing us. Additionally, when we did offer the ability for contractors to work from home or train remotely, invariably they came in for face-to-face and CBT learning at our brick and mortar campus. This was a complete surprise to us. 

What we are seeing now is that there is a hunger to get back to the in-person meetings and training classes we support. Zoom and remote have been seen as temporary instead of a hard and fast change for the industry we support. 

Army 365

I really enjoyed reading a paper by Scott about Army 365. As anyone knows who reads this blog, I'm a former Army (2/75 RGR) and have a passing familiarity with Fort Benning. I also just got a sample of a Tradoc document on “red teaming,” (see HERE). I was just talking to a colleague about creating a software package that does many of the same things you seem to say A365 does. Obviously reading his paper came at an apropos time. 

The software I was discussing with Mark was more of project management and campaign tracking tool that worked with training and learning as well, . . . And as I come from a smaller training organization, reading about how large organizations like yours are working complex projects and communicating well is intriguing. 

What I really liked though was Scott's final statement on a Deloitte article we read and the difficulty he saw in asking executives to predict and be ready for the future when there are so many unknowns. I felt the same sense from the article that what they were measuring and reporting on was a bit shallow and worthless because of those unknowns. I also wondered how many of these executives might not be as upfront in their responses as they might otherwise be if only because the questions (I’m assuming) seemed pretty ambiguous. 

Finally, I think Scott is right that the future is quite unknown regarding technology and innovation, and worse for these leaders it’s happening so quickly. I think the best thing a leader can do is be as knowledgeable as possible to stay on the cutting edge of any and all of these advancements, and have an organization that is as open to change and quickly adaptable to positive changes as possible. This would allow them to be early adopters of beneficial innovations, unlike organizations that are hard-wired into staid or slow to change processes. 

I hope Scott writes more about Army 365. I wonder if there are tie-ins for what we are doing. 

Marketing in the 4th Industrial Revolution

My classmate, Shannon, and I had a great discussion the other day on advertising and marketing. she has a wonderful and unique perspective. So often we get trapped in our own silos of information it takes a post like yours to help us bust out of our internal lines of thought. 

Before speaking to her, I hadn’t considered how a marketing organization might have had to change in the past two decades. I’ve seen of course how our own marketing department has had to adapt and change, but an entire organization dedicated to marketing would have greater and more specific challenges. 

The way she discusses this, moving from print, television, and billboard, to a more digital world has to be tough. I think of when I was in recruiting and we could do so much with Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and chat, for very little investment of money . . . and yet our leadership who grew up in a different era wanted to put up billboards to advertise. The challenge as I see it from your post is that your organization has to not only understand, embrace, and perfect the new innovations as they come online, but also has to keep a toe in the old and be able to work them all together in a healthy, sustainable mix. 

The challenge my organization has in this regard is that our learners utilize chat (heavily) but not many other forms of social media. I see people mixing their work lives and social media presence in other industries far more than in the ones we support (which is typically field contractors in the energy and construction industry). I look forward to hearing more about how she has had to mix technology into your organization's capabilities and deliverables.