Ever since the Covid 19 Pandemic hit the world, there have been major and unexpected changes in the education system. Nobody expected the schools to shut down, but it has happened and schooling has stopped for over 1.2 billion students all over the world.

The students are studying from their homes and are reliant on the virtual instructor-led training imparted by schools. They are also using the e-learning courses imparted through major eLearning sites for extra coaching.

What is Virtual Instructor-led Training?

In a virtual instructor-led training (virtual ILT) program, the students and teacher are present simultaneously on their systems.

Since the virtual ILT is like classroom training, the students get the chance to interact with other students which leads to healthy discussions among themselves. The best part is that the teacher controls the live discussion happening between the students so that there is no chaos.

A virtual ILT course is delivered through video conferencing. The students can therefore take part in quizzes and polls which require large-scale participation. Just like classroom training; virtual ILT training must also include quizzes and visuals from time to time to maintain student attention. Virtual ILT emphasizes providing practical training to the students. So, there is also usage of remote labs where practical experiments are done and demonstrated to the students.

Since a virtual instructor-led training program is delivered synchronously where both the student and teacher are present at the same time, the learning facilitator should make sure that such a program allows maximum interaction between the former. In such a program, the trainer imparts the knowledge through a video, the listeners retain it better than by reading a book.

Apart from school-based training, virtual ILT can also be used for imparting job-related training to employees. Since there is the ease of access to this kind of training by participants, it can be used to distribute information about alterations in market trends and products sold. Even changes in a job profile can be communicated to the employees easily with such virtual ILT.

And the employees don’t have to attend a session outside their job schedules. They can attend it from their workplace itself.

These are the benefits of virtual instructor-led training:

• Scalability

One of the most important benefits of virtual instructor-led training is that more and more students can participate in it logged on to their devices. The organization providing such training does not need to incur more expenses to accommodate extra participants.

• Diversity

Since a virtual ILT session is given online, there can be students or learners gathered in such a session from different parts of a country.

• Interactivity

Since both the trainer and the students, participate at the same time in the virtual ILT, the latter can ask questions. Assessments in real-time can also be done. Examples of such assessments are role-playing and live polls. The best part is that the students can get their queries resolved instantly from the trainer. The trainer can also ask questions from students to adjudge how much they have learned. So, there is a real-time response in this mode of training.

Since the training is imparted by a human trainer, the participants can easily make notes. They can refer to such notes at a later stage.

• Feasibility

Various tools are used for this form of learning such as Camtasia Studio, Cam Studio, and Adobe Connect.

Many such eLearning programs provide complete availability of class-based software so that learners can find class timings.

Also, there is the provision of a virtual lab apart from remote labs. A virtual lab is software allowing users to test their practical knowledge. A trainer conducts training sessions in such virtual labs so that users can understand what’s to be done. And since it’s a virtual lab, the learners can repeat the experiment in their own virtual labs supplemented by a user interface on their PCs.

Requirements for virtual ILT

It’s important for such online classes that the trainers have prior experience in online learning. In that case, the trainers can deliver the virtual class perfectly.

Also, the trainers should be subject matter experts. They must have complete knowledge of the training tool to not face any hiccups during training.

So, virtual-led instructor-led training is crucial for an enhanced learning experience.