The New Frontier of Remote Learning
Introduction by Kevin Doherty, Senior Marketing Specialist for ICAgile
ICAgile — a leading accreditation body for agile learning — has seen its fair share of good (and bad) online classes. As agile thought continues to reach new audiences, the need for flexible and widely-distributed training opportunities has also grown.
As with any new frontier, the discipline of facilitating effective remote learning remains largely undefined. Experienced instructors struggle to keep pace with the ever-emerging competencies required for remote facilitation. A tension between convenience and quality is wrought as traditional “in-the-room” approaches falter in the digital context, and even well-designed courses have to ultimately be refactored.
ICAgile works closely with its community of Member Organizations and Authorized Instructors to ensure their accredited online agile classes achieve a rigorous standard for quality. To help instructors deepen their skills in remote facilitation, ICAgile also partners with leaders in the field to offer practical workshops on quality online instruction.
Read on to learn from one such partner, Judy Rees, in this bite-sized interview with ICAgile on what instructors can do to facilitate exceptional remote learning.
ICAgile: First off; do you think remote learning can ever be as good as in-the-room training?
JR: In some ways, it can be better! For example, it’s more accessible: instructors who’ve found themselves unable to travel due to illness, disability or family circumstances have been the pioneers in this field. It’s accessible to participants from all over the world, including those who aren’t able to travel, which means that training groups can be more diverse. As a result, remote learning can help to spread important ideas, approaches, and skills around the world, potentially reducing inequality.
Another advantage is that remote learning can be more closely interwoven with the real world of work. The “training day” is an artifact of the need for travel. When instructors and participants don’t have to travel, training can be divided into shorter blocks and delivered just when it’s needed, with on-the-ground practice between training sessions.
And that’s before we even start on the environmental cost of the training-related travel…
ICAgile: What do you see preventing some remote learning experiences from being effective?
JR: Truly effective training, whether remote or in-the-room, prioritises “individuals and interactions over processes and tools” (to quote the Agile Manifesto). What matters is human connection: between participants and trainers, and between participants.
We’ve had the basic tools to do this for many years: think about the School Of The Air in Australia, connecting kids in the outback over short-wave radio.
Teachers and trainers do have to learn new processes and tools when they start a new way of training: those Australian teachers had to learn to use short-wave radio and to develop class formats that worked in that situation. Nowadays, our “basic” tools are much more sophisticated: Zoom with its full-video breakout rooms has changed the game, for example. It is quite easy to get lost in the tools, and in technical struggles with the tools.
One of the worst ways to deliver remote learning experiences is as a “hybrid”, where one or two people ask to dial in to an existing in-the-room training. It’s very, very difficult to make this work well. I strongly advise people not to do it.
Another major challenge to effective remote learning is the lure of “scale”: the idea that you can reach thousands of people at once by pumping out audio or video over the internet. Just because you technically can reach thousands of people at once doesn’t mean that you should. “Infotainment”, whether it’s in the form of podcasts, webinars or recorded videos can be useful, but it’s not really training. For behaviour change, humans need social learning.
ICAgile: What are some features of top-quality remote learning?
JR: Top-quality remote learning experiences are carefully designed to be brain-friendly, not boring. Participants interact easily and frequently with each other and with the trainer; there’ll be a real buzz of community as they get stuck into well-designed small-group activities. You’ll notice that people are fully engaged in the training. Even though they’re on the internet, they aren’t constantly distracted. It might even look as if they’re having fun!
ICAgile Authorized Instructors are invited to an exclusive workshop with Judy Rees on Facilitating Exceptional Remote Learning this Fall. Register today and secure early bird pricing!
