Everything You Wanted to Know About VILT

Although VILTs have been around for some time now, there still is a lot of ambiguity around what exactly constitutes a VILT. To leverage this format optimally, it is important to have clarity on what it is and equally importantly, what it is NOT.

What Is Virtual Instructor-Led Training?

Virtual Instructor-Led Training or VILT is a form of synchronous online training that is delivered in a virtual environment with the instructor and learners participating in the session at the same time, but from different locations. It offers learners all the benefits of human interaction in a brick-and-mortar classroom without the hassles of travel, logistics, and space.

Organizations often use VILT as part of a blended learning strategy for employee training, especially for product and sales training and employee onboarding.

The main advantage of VILT is its ability to connect learners of different backgrounds from different locations on one platform. Other advantages of VILT are its:

• Convenience and flexibility (learners can engage at work, at home, or on a mobile device, wherever they want)
• Cost-effectiveness
• Ability to upskill employees
• Customizability

It’s a fact that classroom training can be highly engaging. But the good news is it is possible to replicate that experience in VILTs as well. Like the physical classroom, virtual classrooms also give participants the opportunity to:

• Participate and collaborate actively
• Engage in group activities
• Share their learning

What Is NOT Virtual Instructor-Led Training?

Virtual instructor-led training is neither a webinar nor presenting classroom material in a videoconference. Why not?

Though a webinar is also a synchronous training format, it is mostly a one-sided communication from the presenter to participants. Participants are encouraged to share their opinions, feedback, or answer questions through polls, but the main essence of virtual classrooms – collaboration – is missing in webinars.

The 2 Pillars of the Virtual Classroom

The effectiveness of virtual classrooms hinges on 2 elements – Content and Technology

Content: Content is the most important component of the virtual classroom. If you already have classroom training material (PPTs, facilitator guides, manuals, etc.), you need to identify important need-to-know content from them to be included in the virtual session. It’s important that classroom material is not used ‘as is’ as the virtual classroom needs to factor for the absence of the instructor and collaboration. What you need to do is to organize the content and activities to be used:

• Before the training session – to build rapport and trust
• During the training for effective teaching – with different instructional activities
• Collaboration activities – to be used throughout the session

Technology: Several technological platforms are available to help conduct your virtual classroom sessions. Popular ones include:

All these platforms offer a variety of tools to enable information sharing and collaboration (replicating the environment of a physical classroom) – each with its own limitations and strengths.

The virtual classroom has very different challenges when compared to the physical one.

Establishing goals and ground rules is important for any classroom, and the virtual classroom is no exception. In addition to being courteous in their communications, ground rules in a virtual classroom would include:

• Turning off phones (both office and personal)
• Not sending or responding to e-mails
• Actively participating in chats
• Asking questions

When we try to replicate the physical classroom training experience in the virtual classroom, some things may differ slightly because of the delivery format. However, the main principles for delivery stay the same. Let’s consider how Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction can be used in VILT with the aid of technology.

With a little bit of planning and sound instructional design, you can make the VILT as effective as an ILT. However, there are a few things you need to put in place, such as making participants familiar with the technology platform, “planning” your spontaneous activities, and so on.

Tips to Get Started

• Set up a GETTING STARTED session for facilitators and participants to get familiar with the virtual format and tools.
• Ensure all reference materials and prework are sent to the participants.
• Explain how the sessions are structured and what participants can expect.
• Share a roadmap of the entire program, with clear timelines and the road ahead.
• Specify community expectations and etiquette.
• Introduce participants to their smaller groups.

What do You Need for a VILT Session?

• An introductory Getting Started webinar with opportunities for hands on practice
• Facilitator PPTs
• Facilitator Guides with:
  • All content rewritten for the virtual session
  • Information on how to use the chosen platform
    • WebEx training center/GoTo
    • Teams
    • Poll Everywhere (or whatever Poll they want to use)
  • Participant materials
  • Reference materials for activities/post work/next steps

How do You go About Converting ILT to VILT?

As with any other training initiative, we need to have a robust process in place when converting ILT to VILT. The process has three main phases as shown below.