Remote Training Perils!

A couple of years back, I was training a group of students remotely using an Adobe Connect online classroom. It was a five-day class, and I was in the beginning of the third day.

As a rule, I make my classes highly interactive. I use every possible opportunity to review material I have taught earlier in my class by asking questions. Obviously this is a very effective way to reinforce learning in the minds of students. I found out that there is another benefit from this method.

One particular trainee (let me call him Mr.P) seemed completely lost about the material I had covered in the previous two days. I found it rather surprising because, over the first two days of class, he had demonstrated a good grasp of the subject matter. Also, he seemed very reluctant to participate in the class discussions - a total deviation from his behaviour over the first two days. In fact even my direct questions to Mr.P elicited nothing beyond stony silence.

As the class progressed, I felt very uncomfortable about Mr.P's silence and lack of participation. Finally, I sent him a private message enquiring whether everything was OK, or if he had any problems with the network or audio. This brought a response that had me completely by surprise.

Mr.P sent me a private reply confessing that, in reality he was not Mr.P, but his friend Mr.Q. Mr.P had simply connected up to the online classroom and had asked Mr.Q to sit in front of the computer while attending to some of his personal business!

Now this is a grave issue..a student being AWOL and asking someone else to be his/her proxy without informing the instructor. An even more serious issue is intellectual property being at stake. How would I know if Mr.Q was actually from our competitor, trying to steal our company's IP.

What I learnt was that, it is imperative to engage students intensely in a remote class even more than a direct class.

Teachable Moments

When I was preparing to be a corporate technical trainer, my mentor introduced this concept to me. A couple of years later, I read the same phrase in a speech by US President Barack Obama during the controversy surrounding the arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates in 2009.

Let me quote Obama's use of this phrase:

"My hope is, is that as a consequence of this event this ends up being what's called a "teachable moment", where all of us instead of pumping up the volume spend a little more time listening to each other and try to focus on how we can generally improve relations between police officers and minority communities, and that instead of flinging accusations we can all be a little more reflective in terms of what we can do to contribute
to more unity."

Obama's use of this phrase generated a lot of interest in the media and among language and training experts.

So what is a "teachable moment" ?

WikiPedia defines a teachable moment as
"A teachable moment, in education, is the time at which learning a particular topic or idea becomes possible or easiest."

Robert Havighurst in his 1952 book, Human Development and Education, explained that, "A developmental task is a task which is learned at a specific point and which makes achievement of succeeding tasks possible. When the timing is right, the ability to learn a particular task will be possible. This is referred to as a 'teachable moment.' It is important to keep in mind that unless the time is right, learning will not occur. Hence, it is important to repeat key points whenever possible so that when a student's teachable moment occurs, s/he can benefit from the knowledge."

This is a very insightful comment. When a concept is first presented to a trainee, learning may not occur. The trainee might not be motivated enough, or s/he may simply not be paying attention. This is one of the reasons why repetition is important.

In my opinion, it is very important to capitalize on teachable moments especially when teaching adults.

Another thing I have noticed in my personal experience is that, a teachable moment can occur when the learner is away from the trainer or from the learning environment. The mind can regurgitate a concept from its database anytime. For example, a concept you learnt in a training session can recede into the depths of the subconscious mind, and later surface when you are on a train. And suddenly your mind can become receptive to learning and you might experience a teachable moment when you can teach yourself effectively.

The Power of Training

A successful training professional must really believe
in the power of training to improve performance. Training
can create value, make lives better and in some cases, even
save lives - as this example shows.

I read this on the website www.answers.com and was impressed
and inspired.

"Spotlight: One of history's most devastating earthquakes hit
Tangshan, China, on this date (this article appeared on July 28)
in 1976, killing approximately 250,000.

The Tangshan Earthquake registered about 8 on the Richter scale;
an aftershock registering 7.1 occurred less than a day later,
adding to the carnage. Nearly 80% of the industrial buildings
and over 90% of the residential buildings in Tangshan were
destroyed in the quakes.

In nearby Qinglong, where they had been warned some two years
earlier of the danger of earthquake, people were taught safety
measures.

The result: there was a single death in Qinglong —
of a heart attack."

A great example of how training can create value for mankind.