In today’s world of hybrid and remote work models, virtual instructor-led training (vILT) is a key, foundational piece of the learning ecosystem—organizations can’t afford to treat it as an afterthought. But what is virtual instructor-led training, and how do you know if vILT training is right for your team’s learning and development? How do you begin to build out the most appropriate and effective vILT training to support your organization?

Let’s explore how vILT works and assess if it’s the answer to your training challenges.

What is virtual instructor-led training?

Virtual instructor-led training meets learners where they are—regardless of location or experience level—and connects them with dedicated instructors through customizable digital learning or video conferencing platforms like Zoom and Teams. According to Training Industry, “Successful VILT requires the seamless interplay of three important factors: technology, content, and delivery.” A strong implementation of instructor-led training is visible through high retention rates and satisfied learners.

What is virtual instructor-led training, and how can it boost organizational training efforts? vILT is versatile, cost-effective, and maintains the personalized feel of in-classroom traditional learning approaches with the convenient amenities of the virtual world. It’s adaptable and flexible, but it differs from non-instructor-led training by delivering active engagement alongside peers to apply concepts and receive direct instructor feedback.

Our webinar, Five Practical Strategies to Maximize vILT, is an excellent place to expand your vILT knowledge and learn more about the necessary framework to strategize and grow impactful vILT for your team. You’ll learn how virtual instructor-led training creates space for deeper learning and engagement while receiving dedicated time to review challenging concepts and have their questions answered.

Virtual instructor-led training best practices

An impactful vILT training session may focus on organizational education, professional development, onboarding, sales education, or a more specific issue that continually crops up. To make the most of vILT for your organization, the first step is to analyze your team’s current weak spots and conduct a learning environment analysis, which helps identify your learners’ exact needs and motivations and fills learning gaps. This analysis generates a robust understanding of learners and their daily workflow before developing a solution, resulting in training best tailored to your organization’s needs.

It’s always a good idea to reach out to subject-matter experts to enrich your virtual instructor-led training best practices with field expertise and fresh perspectives. When developing material, it’s important to look back to your original problem and reasoning for considering virtual instructor-led training and let it be your guide. It’s tempting to associate problems with stress and negativity, so take a moment to shift your perspective and remember that your organization’s struggles are an opportunity for fresh training and growth.

Five steps to maximize vILT

Our on-demand webinar, Five Practical Strategies to Maximize vILT, dives deeper with virtual instructor-led training examples and best practices. We will briefly outline one of the strategies here:

vILT with a flipped-classroom approach: Tell, Show, Do, Review

A flipped-classroom approach works by implementing a Tell, Show, Do, Review approach, increasing collaboration between learners and building a deeper working connection. First, learners are provided with materials and a pre-recorded lecture to study on their own time to build an initial knowledge base. This approach differs from a traditional classroom and allows learners to have an opportunity to research and dig deeper into information at their own pace. This “homework” time jumpstarts learning and frees vILT time for team activities to deepen understanding.

When learners are brought together virtually as a group, they’ll have the chance to discuss their individual understanding, educate each other through conversation, and unravel the value of the flipped classroom approach by applying learning to solve organizational issues. By merging new knowledge into an area where learners see fit, creative training and development flourishes and learning sticks. The vILT training application process also helps avoid the illusion of explanatory depth—when learners believe they understand the subject matter better than they do.

As learning leaders, remember that effective learning trickles down from inspirational and engaged leadership. Building time for Q&A and open discussion into vILT encourages learners to speak up and deepen comprehension, and it creates space for discussing future session improvements in real time. Some training and development materials are untouchable once they’re developed and validation is complete, but since vILT is human-led and operated, there’s always room for improvement for the next vILT session. An open Q&A session is a prime opportunity to gather feedback and ask questions on how learners perceived your vILT, which areas needed additional clarity, and to encourage honest input on how vILT can be optimized in future sessions.

vILT grows with your organization

VILT is malleable, but to make the best use of its intricacies for your organization, consider outside learning experts or coaches to help strategize or facilitate sessions. By recruiting trusted experts to plan or run sessions together, learners take in another perspective, and your vILT learner-to-instructor ratio decreases—ideal for breakout sessions with an added source for educational support.

Dedicating time to discuss your vILT with an outside partner also delivers another perspective on how instructor-led training can be edited for future sessions with maximum impact. As an external expert learns more about your organization, they’ll become a valuable resource on how to deliver dynamic results that directly impact learners’ organizational roles.

Developing a high-performing, engaged team takes time and effort. When vILT is applied with our five practical strategies, creative learning and development grows and flourishes within learners. To broaden your vILT knowledge, check out our free, on-demand strategic vILT webinar and assess if vILT holds the key to unlocking your organization’s ultimate potential.