A few years back I was the facilitator of the “Total Trainer: Creating Training” Distance Learning module. At the conclusion of this course, a participant approached me and asked about best practices for facilitating a class that would have participants both in the room and online. My response was: “I wouldn’t recommend doing that.”
The challenge we’d experienced: having discovered how to transfer in-room engagement to the online environment, we were stuck managing that activity in dual environments simultaneously. In other words, the facilitator could have an activity made for the classroom, and a version made for the online room, but never one that broached the digital barrier so that the entire class was interacting as one.
I’d seen this in action before, and found it terribly inefficient. The facilitator was diverting his attention to one group or the other, never fully invested in either audience.
Of course, my response was no help at all. The participant had received a mandate from his boss.
And so, three, maybe four years later, I would like to amend my answer, and extend an invitation to that former Total Trainer participant to this month’s Learning Event. Because we’ve got some ideas. And they’re pretty awesome. And we’re going to try them out, live, in a session titled: “Blended Learning 2018: A Hands-On Evening Of Engagement.”
Practicing what we teach, folks!
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