Virtual training

Best Practices for Instructor-Led Training in an Enterprise Environment

Jeremy Hess

Nov 04, 2022 - 2 min read

Virtual instructor-led training, or VILT, is a popular and effective tool for scaling business operations and raising the bottom line. When employees and business partners have relevant knowledge and experience, they can do their jobs more productively. Sometimes, even clients need guided training to get the most out of a product or service.

Why Choose VILT?

In today’s environment of social distancing and working from home, getting new recruits and even current employees up to speed can be a challenge. VILT enables companies to provide training over the internet, negating the need for physical meetings and on-site server hardware.

The business only needs to pay a regular fee for a virtual training lab that participants can access from any location at any time. This amount of flexibility is necessary in today’s age of remote work.

Hosted online instructor-led training is also more effective than simply handing out PDF guides or PowerPoints. The “instructor” component ensures that every user stays up to date on class progress and can have questions answered at any time.

Virtual Instructor-led Training Best Practices

What are some considerations to make as your business switches to VILT? A significant change in your organization’s training process requires your company culture to accommodate for it.

Setting Goals

What do you want to accomplish with virtual training? Is it to help your clients achieve more success with your product or service? Or do you need to boost your sales department’s performance using virtual instructor-led software sales training?

Have measurable goals in mind that fall in line with the goals of your organization as a whole. The typical results of VILT adoption include better knowledge retention (measured by test scores), higher consumer satisfaction rates, and higher ROI (return on investment).

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Developing the Content

You’ll need more than just text to promote a productive learning environment. Modern VILT platforms can access videos, images, audio files, and other multimedia to enhance knowledge retention. Online training labs can also provide simulated experiences for users to practice their knowledge.

It’s also worth planning out some discussion prompts and activities to encourage peer-to-peer collaboration and take advantage of the “instructor-led” aspect.

Testing It Out

Switching to VILT doesn’t happen smoothly overnight. It’s worth consulting with your provider about a trial session, where users can interact with the platform and engage in live chat. IT staff can help get inexperienced users acquainted with the new service. You have an opportunity to collect feedback afterward as well.

Making It More than Just a Webinar

You’re not getting your money’s worth from a VILT provider if you’re only providing webinars in your training. Instead of allowing your users to absorb the information passively, have the instructor play an active role in their development.

Standard eLearning elements like YouTube videos and webcast lectures are mostly a one-way avenue of communication. Under VILT, an instructor can share files, screens, and tips in a live classroom setting. Participants can collaborate with their peers as well, learning after each other.

It’s these differences that make virtual training environments so effective compared to other forms of online learning. Don’t forget to take advantage of them.

Looking to Implement VILT? Get Started With CloudShare

How do you choose a cloud provider with the experience and reliability your organization demands? CloudShare is a trusted partner to leading companies, including Check Point Software Technologies, ForgeRock, and VMWare.

Are you interested in learning more about how CloudShare can help you create successful virtual training environments? Get in touch with CloudShare today for all your virtual training and sandboxing needs.