For New Horizons Computer Learning Centers, headquartered in Anaheim, California, making the transition to live instruction on the Web was a calculated risk that paid off. With over 250 independent brick and mortar classrooms around the world delivering more than 3 million student days of classroom training, adding online courses had major organizational impacts--culturally and operationally, from instructor to sales person.

New Horizons’s version of synchronous learning is called Online LIVE Learning. It’s actually part of a larger strategy called Integrated Learning which blends 20 years of experience in learning with e-learning technologies to give customers a choice of learning medium, whether in the traditional classroom, facilitated instruction on the Web, or online self-study. The goal is to offer the same catalog of courses across all modalities. Indeed, many organizations are trying to create online learning experiences that go beyond adapting the classroom to the Web.

Like most companies venturing into e-learning, New Horizons looks to the classroom paradigm for its basic principles in creating the learning experience: a competent, engaging certified instructor; quality hardware to practice on; and a safe, comfortable learning environment. But the company enhances that experience in the new environment by adding services, such as archived sessions and online labs.

What pulls the process together at New Horizons are its online instructors. The key: All online instructors were once classroom instructors. Customer trainers and traditional New Horizons classroom instructors who want to teach in the synchronous environment take the New Horizons train-the-trainer course and certification for teaching online, which each instructor must go through before delivering their first class.

To get a better understanding of the transition process, let’s take a look at some of the differences between teaching in the classroom and online.

Schedules. The normal day for an online instructor may be quite different from the typical classroom instructor. Online classes take only two to three hours, with additional time for office hours before and after class. For the instructor, that translates to a day that’s split up more like a university professor's than a traditional technical trainer. Those hours can make for a very long day with classes in the morning and then in the evening.

Groundwork. Because most of the existing teaching materials need to be repurposed for online delivery, teaching online means additional preparation--especially for new courses. Each learning session must have detailed, to-the-minute plans, complete with electronic instructor presentation scripts, interactive questions, quizzes, and hands-on activities. Winging-it in this environment doesn’t have the same results as in the physical classroom.

Exercises. Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as Microsoft-authorized course materials for synchronous delivery. In order to teach an authorized course online you must repurpose each of the official courseware materials to work in a virtual lab environment. That requires extensive and frequent testing, and you may need to rewrite some of the labs.

Class preparation. By using such tools as imaging software, seasoned technical instructors can typically set up a traditional classroom in just a few hours the day before the scheduled course. The day of the class, instructors can arrive at the same time as the learners. Online, however, there are more tasks to complete and issues to consider. Instructors need to create and test new images that are stored offline and loaded minutes before the class starts. They also must load the class agenda and presentation, appending the slides and saving the environment. In addition, instructors may need to archive images, transcripts, and scores immediately following instruction, and they need to remember to start and stop the recorder.

New expectations. A significant difference between the traditional classroom experience and technical courses taught in an online synchronous environment is that all learning doesn't occur during class hours. Because time in class is condensed, there may be several homework assignments. Of all of the new challenges, getting learners to understand this new format and complete offline assignments is the most difficult.

So how do you get trainers up to speed? Here’s the transition training plan that New Horizons uses for each new course. The plan includes content conversion and train-the-trainer tasks.

• Provide departmental orientation
• Assign a teaching assistant for existing online instructor (2 classes minimum)
• Meet with experienced online instructor to review class
• Conduct orientation with the development team to review the technical environment
• Schedule train-the-trainer certification class

• Review upcoming teaching schedule
• Check with the teaching assistant
• Conduct technical orientation of the lab environment
• Attend train-the-trainer class

• Start preparation for upcoming class
• Continue to work with teaching assistant and practice

• Continue preparation for upcoming class
• Continue to work with teaching assistant and practice
• Build lab environment for upcoming class

Teach first official class (with teaching assistance from a more experienced instructor or training manager).

New Horizons has found that there's a 2-to-1 ratio between preparation and delivery time, which means for every day of instructor-led training, our instructors need two days of preparation.

Adjusting instruction methods

As a stand-up trainer, some of the ways that you teach probably include speaking, drawing on the whiteboard, presenting slides, flinging your arms around, and having learners perform exercises as you walk around the room. Right? All of those things fundamentally change in an online environment. When speaking, you now have to hold down a key as you talk into a microphone. You can't walk around the classroom to see who's having trouble grasping new information or performing exercises. Looking over the learner’s shoulder means viewing two dozen browsers on your screen--simultaneously. Writing on the whiteboard means using a mouse to draw. Have you ever tried to use a mouse to sign your name? It's not as easy as it sounds.

Basically, you have to be proficient on the technology. You need to read all the manuals and test all the buttons. The worst thing that can happen is for you to be helpless when a learner can’t connect.

Here are some tips for working online.

As a technical instructor, you’re used to just about anything and everything that can happen in the classroom. Power failures, locked systems, and user fears. It’s no different in an online environment. In fact, mishaps are often magnified. But have no fear, teaching online will become second nature with a little practice--and a lot of patience.