No recent virtual classroom experiences for me, but I agree with you that creating an engaging and interactive training format is important. Otherwise it could be like a group conference call with crickets chirping whenever you ask for feedback, or if anyone has questions. Much falls on the shoulders of the instructor to keep a live and dynamic atmosphere, but the students need to also have a clear understanding on their engagement levels and expectations too. The media/tooling plays a big role in this too - not the differences in operational ability between SAP Connect and Skype. Raise hand options/polling or engaging pre-staged questions all help augment the leader's ability to not only create the dynamic atmosphere, but also ensure people are engaged with proof points :)

I've not done any virtual classroom training. I have given webinars, and I have to say that they are much harder than face-to-face seminars. The lack of connection with the audience makes it really hard to tell whether they are understanding or not, whether I am too fast or too slow, etc. I would expect a virtual instructor's experience to be similar, and so yes, regular check-ins makes a lot of sense to me.

My daughter is currently doing an degree with the Open University here in the UK, which is all distance learning. She has regular tutorials which work very much as you have suggested. The tutor will set small exercises throughout the session and say, "Raise your hand (virtually, obviously) when you are finished." And he or she will ask questions and pause to give people an opportunity to answer, without making anyone feel compelled to join if if they don't want to. They have a lot of experience working this way, and they do it very well. It does make it feel much more interactive and engaging than just sitting there and listening.

Hi Susan,

It depends on the experience of the trainees.

With seniors you know that they will immediately ring the bell when they encounter something that they don't yet understand, so a virtual classroom is a good way to teach.

With beginners, or young'uns you have to pull it out of them or you can gauge it from their flummoxed faces as you said, so a physical presence is the preferential way.

I also haven't done any virtual learning that would require any active involvement. I've only been on both ends of the webinars so far with varying degree of success. :)

In a webinar, I feel it's a good idea to have a clear agenda that attendees can follow. (E.g. if I'm interested only in some parts then I could take time during other parts for a quick break.) And definitely stop frequently to ask for comments / questions. Don't expect the attendees to hold their thoughts till the end for you.

Ideally, it'd be nice to have some kind of "teacher's assistant" to keep track of the feedback. It can be challenging for a presenter to do both. The application used and features it offers also play a big role here.