You can lead a horse to water

Hypothesis: A proposed explanation made on the basis of limited evidence as a starting point for further investigation.

The hypothesis

This week two potential clients asked about live classroom training. Both of them suggested that their staff did not benefit from virtual training.

Their hypothesis is that their staff will learn more in a live classroom. Dictionary.com has a few definitions for the term "hypothesis". One of those definitions is "a mere assumption or guess".

Some evidence

I know that there can be a gap between virtual training and in-person training. But there doesn't have to be.

Johann F attended Renier's Advanced C++ course last week. He previously attended the same course pre-Covid as classroom-based training. This is what Johann wrote after last week:

"The virtual training was as good as the classroom version. Renier has complete knowledge of the language and its different evolutions C++ 98, 11, 14, 17."

Thank you, Johann! (Johann is a software developer at a long-standing client. And he gave permission for me to use his comments.) We always love positive feedback. But this comment was so pertinent that I had to share it.

You can't make the horse drink

As fabulous as our lecturers are, they can only do so much. Knowledge is not transferred by magic. It requires active effort and the desire to learn on the part of the student.

We've been presenting virtual training for almost 2 years now. And there have definitely been challenges. If a delegate switches off his (or her) camera all the time and never asks a question, then we can't be sure he is even there. Sometimes you feel like you are talking to the green dots.

But, as Johann proves, we've also had wonderful courses. I've heard delegates laughing and animated discussions.

There's a Zig Ziglar quote that goes like this:

“If you are not willing to learn, no one can help you.
If you are determined to learn, no one can stop you.”

We've had people on live courses that were only interested in their phones. And we've had delegates pulled out of live, in-house and virtual training by their managers.

You can encourage the horse to drink

(Apparently you can lead a horse to water and make it drink - if you feed it salt. 😣 I'll leave that for another day.)

The two people who called about classroom training did not want training for themselves. They wanted training for team members. So here are a few tips for any managers reading this:

• Give your staff enough band-width so that they can keep their cameras on at least part of the time. It makes a huge difference to them and to us.
• Make sure your staff are off-limits if they are on course. Nobody can pay attention on a course if they also have to solve work issues. I am an avid multi-tasker: I even read while I brush my teeth. (That's why my Kindle has toothpaste splatters on it.) But I know that learning anything needs my full attention.

A footnote about Zoom fatigue

Professor Bailenson at the Standford Virtual Human Interaction Lab is researching "Zoom fatigue". He suggests four reasons why video conferencing makes us tired:

• There may be excessive amounts of close-up eye contact. (This assumes everyone's camera is on, which isn't the norm in SA.)
• You see yourself constantly.
• Video chats reduce your mobility.
• You have to work harder to send and receive signals.

He also writes that Zoom is an amazing tool, and most of these things are quite easy to solve. Lewis is much happier with virtual training now that he can walk to his whiteboard, and draw diagrams. We humans have adjusted to many things, from elevators to ride-sharing to Covid. Now we must make video-conferencing work for us.

A footnote about the future

Will we go back to classroom training? Honestly, I don't know. Covid is still here. Most of our delegates say that they prefer virtual training. And while we can adjust for Zoom fatigue, the same is not true of traffic jams.

I would love to hear your comments on this topic.