Flashback to March 11, 2020, at MiTek headquarters in Chesterfield, Missouri. Software training classes were humming along in-person, and we had attendees from all over the country, from Alabama to California. The next day, everyone was sent home and all travel halted for the immediate future. However, we were on week one of a six-week training session! Did we cancel the remaining weeks and hope for travel restrictions to be lifted in April? Did we send participants a string of PowerPoint presentations and schedule “office hours”? No. Instead, we regrouped and made it a goal to maintain, and even surpass, trainee engagement for online classes.
What has been the result of these redesigned online training classes? Mainly, engaged students who learn and walk away touting their online experience.
Learn how we accomplished this goal by first adopting tools that allowed for class attendees to interact, and then revisiting our class agendas and looking for ways to guarantee success, including establishing prerequisites and using such formats as open forums and roundtables.
Mark Kleinsmith, Steven Morgan