As much as we love elearning here at LearnDash there will always be a need for in-person (live) training.

Instructor-led training (ILT) is a critical component to most training programs. In fact, the more complex a topic the greater the need for instructors and traditional classrooms.

Often times you just can’t beat the live interaction that comes with in-person training.

Break-out session have proven to be quite valuable as well as the ability for learners to ask questions to the instructor directly.

I have worked on quite a few consulting projects and only on a few of them did we only use elearning. At some point we needed to create live training materials in order to present the content via a workshop setting.

On these projects (and in many projects that I’ve seen), this combination of elearning and live training is extremely effective. Often times the elearning courses are for the simpler topics while the live event is tailored to in-depth practical application.

But just presenting content in-person doesn’t make it more effective. It’s important that whoever is presenting the information does so in a way that is conducive to learning.

At some point we have all attended live training where the instructor wasn’t adequitely prepared.

It’s painful.

Whether they just don’t know the content or they have poor presenting skills the end-result is the same: we don’t learn as much as we should.

When a presenter is not very good what usually happens is that we get so distracted by the presenter we miss out on the key learning concepts.

In short, the presenter can “make” or “break” the live training course.

This being the case it is important to practice your presenting skills. The infographic below (created by Presentation Deck) offers up five qualities of a great presenter.

It’s important to note that these five qualities aren’t “automatic”. They need to be practiced. Over time, they will become second nature.