Engaging Online Workshops

Even amidst the increasing shift to virtual and remote spaces, instructor-led training remains a staple format of workplace training, allowing for a facilitated learning experience and real-time interaction with other learners. Online workshops have many advantages, such as allowing for learners to be geographically far from each other and being run at a lower cost. However, building and maintaining learner engagement during a virtual training session can sometimes be challenging.

In this whitepaper, we share our top tips and some useful reminders for building highly engaging and effective virtual workshops for successful workplace learning. Community and accountability are key drivers of engagement, and both can fade without the physical presence of facilitators and fellow learners. This means that in a virtual or remote setting where distractors abound, lecture-style delivery should last no longer than 10 minutes, and content should be predominantly reinforced through active and participative forms of learning. Activities such as quizzes, discussions, and polls give learners an opportunity to apply their new knowledge while also boosting engagement by making use of the online tools available. It’s also important to keep the learners’ motivations in mind throughout the workshop design to ensure that the format and delivery are best suited to the training needs. That includes ensuring that the training content is useful and directly applicable, that the learning targets for success are clear, and that learners have opportunities to direct their own learning.

Want to know more? Dive into our whitepaper for more of our experience-tested tips and the nine rules we follow to build virtual workshops that keep learners engaged.