How should you get feedback from delegates who have attended an online training session?
I was interested in the advice given on this topic to someone who’d attended training to become a Certified Online Learning Facilitator.
The programme had recommended a series of questions that could be used to gather feedback at the end of an online training session. There were some really good practical ones about joining instructions and technical issues, and four about content:
- Did you feel involved, engaged and comfortable during the session? If not, why?
- What did you think of the PowerPoint Slides? Did they support the content? Were they engaging?
- Was the pace too fast/too slow/just right?
- What could I as the trainer done differently?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with any of these questions, so why did they leave me feeling just a little disheartened?
The reason is that inbuilt assumption that remotely delivered training will involve PowerPoint slides. And, whilst I acknowledge that the questions pay lip service to engagement, I sense too an assumption that the training will be presentation and trainer-led.
My greatest fear when the pandemic forced learning onto a virtual platform was that all that we’ve learnt about learning might be jettisoned in favour of an easy path back to old-style presentation-based training.
Let’s be clear; on the whole presentations are an incredibly ineffective tool when it comes to delivering change. And, ultimately, that is the purpose of training; to inspire change.
For that to happen, training itself needs to achieve three feats; retention, inspiration and action. How often have you sat through a presentation and a) remembered most of what was covered, b) been inspired by it, and c) been so inspired, that you’ve gone back to the workplace and taken immediate, tangible, lasting action as a result?
In my view, training is most likely to result in real, determinable and long-lasting change when it is learner-led, experiential and requires learners to step beyond their comfort zones (with the support of the facilitator) to make their own discoveries.
Just because we’re delivering training remotely, doesn’t mean we’re restricted to PowerPoint presentations. There is a plethora of tools that can help us create training that is just as participative, just as learner-led and just as engaging as the very best classroom training.
If you believe that remote training has, by necessity, to be dull and presentation heavy, please, please take a look at our library of remote delivery materials. I guarantee it’ll make you think again. With some creative planning, remotely delivered training can be every bit as engaging and learner-led as classroom training. I’m currently working on a new virtual treasure hunt, for example, that tests teamwork, collaboration, attention to detail, accuracy and much more.
And, if you’d like to find out more about how to deliver truly creative training in the classroom or virtually, why not attend my remotely delivered Creative Training Essentials, which involves story, metaphor-based tools, a video exercise, quizzes, a bridge planning activity, the treasure hunt I mention above, and very few PowerPoint slides, most of which are completed by the participants.
Returning to where I started, what questions should we ask to get feedback about our remotely-delivered, or indeed, any training. How about:
- What do you remember?
- What has inspired you?
- What actions are you going to take as a result?
As always, I'd really value your thoughts, feedback and ideas.
