Many people work with teams which are globally distributed,
this has some logistical issues, one being how to implement useful and practical training approaches. One common approach used is C.B.T. (Computer
Based Training). This is where participants
login in and listen to pre-prepared exercises and videos, sometimes with a
test at the end. Another approach is to arrange
a video session with an online tutor where they go through the material and the
participants can ask questions whilst listening to the tutor. These are OK as learning tools, but it is
difficult for the participants to apply the knowledge learnt to their daily
role.
There is an alternative distance learning approach that I experienced whilst attending an online workshop run by The Growing Agile team (Samantha Laing and Karen Greaves). I have since this course created my own remote
workshop using this approach with some success.
What follows is an introduction to this approach. Hopefully you can take this and adapt it for your own teams.
The basic principles of this remote training approach is
based upon the 4Cs as described in the book “Training
from the back of the room” by Sharon Bowman. Each of your learning elements should include all elements of the 4Cs in each module.
For each module of the course I create a workbook which goes through each
aspect of the 4Cs.
The first ‘C’ is Connect
Before you start teaching the students ask them what they
already know about the topic. Create activities
they can do offline to find out how the topic is relevant to their current role
or what they currently know about the topic.
The next ‘C’ is Concepts
This is the traditional learning part, where you can introduce
and explain what the topic is about. You
can do this as either a series of written articles or pre-recorded videos.
The third ‘C’ is Concrete practice
Students apply the concepts in practice. If you are running this remotely you can set up
activities and exercises related to the concepts which the students should,
ideally, apply to their own working domain.
The final ‘C’ is Conclusions
This is best to done as a small group, maybe as an online video
call. All the students get together and
discuss what they have learnt. This is a
great way to reinforce the learning since each person should bring different examples
of applying the learning to the discussion and provide a more context rich learning
experience.
When you are looking to create any remote learning experiences
it is worthwhile making sure that each of your training sessions covers all
aspects of the 4Cs. An advantage this learning approach gives is that it requires
only a couple of hours of learning from each participant. They can do this at their own pace and then discuss their learning and how it applied to them during a
weekly hour long video conference call with the others taking part in the course. It is crucial to set your expectations of the
participants and get them to give a commitment to spending some time doing the
exercises before the video call.
As an additional
option when I ran my remote workshops I set up a closed wiki site so that the participants
could have discussions and provide some information about what they have
learnt. Also with permission from the
participants I recorded the video sessions
and uploaded them to the wiki so they could go back and watch them
later.
