My Virtual Training Assessment Experience with Course Conductor
Last month, a Virtual Training Assessor from Course Conductor attended three hours of my virtual ITIL 4 Foundation training course. They were there to observe and evaluate my training facilitation and delivery effectiveness, as well as the virtual training experience we provide for our customers. It’s a bit like a secret shopper, although not a secret because I invited them. A few days later, I received a call letting me know that I had scored well on the evaluation. This means I am officially a Trusted Virtual Trainer … woohoo!
I can now use this digital Trusted Virtual Trainer credential and hang my Trusted Virtual Trainer certificate on my virtual office wall (which is my LinkedIn profile these days). If you’re a great virtual instructor, I recommend going through this process. It’s certainly worthwhile because it’s completely independent, which gives students confidence that you really are an expert that can be trusted.
If you’re a student looking for a class for you or your team, I strongly recommend checking that your instructor has been accredited by Course Conductor. Doing so will ensure you’re signing up for a high-quality virtual learning experience. On that note, our entire Beyond20 virtual training team will be evaluated over the coming weeks because I want everyone to achieve Course Conductor’s Trusted Virtual Trainer accreditation.
Why Independent Accreditation for Virtual Training Is More Important Today Than Ever
Everyone wants to do well in assessments but passing this one was particular important to me. Here’s why.
The impact of COVID-19 on the training industry has been huge. Millions of classroom training sessions have been cancelled, which has caused a mass migration of trainers to deliver training virtually. Fortunately, at Beyond20, we’ve been delivering virtual training for years, so we were able to seamlessly provide this service to our customers. Having a fully established foundation for virtual delivery has allowed us to experiment with new tools and activities and continue to improve the learning experience each time we deliver a course.
On one hand, the increase in virtual training is great for people because they now have access to so much new content and learning potential online. However, the drawback is that there is just so much virtual training to choose from and anyone with a Zoom account can call themselves a virtual trainer; there’s a lot more noise (and, frankly, less-than-great training) in the marketplace these days.
This explosive growth in the virtual training industry has made it particularly difficult for people who want to invest in virtual training to know which trainers can be trusted to deliver a high-quality training experience. That’s exactly why we wanted to have our virtual training independently assessed.
Course Conductor is a trusted independent accreditation firm that works with the best training professionals globally. This Trusted Virtual Training Assessment means we can give our customers independent assurance that the quality of our virtual training is excellent, just as it is in the classroom.
Delivering Virtual Training – The Same but Different.
Even though classroom and virtual training events are both live, virtual training requires a completely different skill set than in-person classroom training. Just as in real life, you have to create an engaging learning environment where students can share their perspectives and learn from one another, facilitate interactive and thought-provoking activities, share stories and lessons learned, and allow students to take their learning back with them to their organizations and implement what they’ve learned in class.
What Course Conductor Assesses During Class
To assess whether the above is happening and that the virtual training course is effective, here’s some of the virtual training criteria that the Course Conductor assessment checked during my virtual ITIL 4 Foundation training course:
Virtual Training Delivery
Course material, interaction, flexibility to accommodate various learning styles, listening skills, pauses and silences, creativity, enjoyment, motivation, use of visual cues, timing, conversation.
Virtual Interaction Design and Experience
Use of real-time, collaborative, online technologies to foster participation, engagement, interaction, and feedback such as through virtual collaboration whiteboards, surveys and polls, chat, breakout rooms, use of virtual activities, use of various technologies, motivation and engagement, curating a safe environment for people to contribute and collaborate, consistency of design and, course navigation.
Technical Mastery of Virtual Training Platform
Use of virtual technology, ease of use, appropriateness of activities, enhancement of learner experience, student response to use of technology, and management of the instructional process using the technology.
One of the things that is not included in the assessment is cuteness of dogs (or at least I think it’s not). If it were, then I would definitely earn extra points because my dogs, Maggie and Lana (pictured below), decided they wanted a cuddle during this particular course. Oscar, my cat, was also on hand to ensure order and overall quality of the course (and make sure my materials didn’t blow away at any point).
