Table of Contents

Still looking for ways to engage people during virtual meetings and training sessions?

Here are 3 pieces of advice for anyone who's still looking to find the right formula to engage their learners when it comes to virtual meetings.

Just last week, two things happened to make me realize that even though Covid-related lockdowns began in March 2020 (leading to a complete shift from in-person to virtual meetings and training sessions), there are a lot of people who still aren’t quite sure how best to leverage virtual technologies to engage people.

First, someone who I used to co-facilitate training with reached out and asked if I had a lesson plan template and some best practices for how to engage people virtually. Second, there was an article in the Washington Post last week entitled: Workers are putting on pants to return to the office only to be on Zoom all day.

Know Your Platform

My first piece of advice is to make sure you are familiar with your virtual meeting platform and the variety of features available to you that can help you engage your learners. Earlier this year, my colleague Lauren Wescott wrote a series of quick reference guides that can help you grow familiar with the most common virtual platforms including Zoom, Adobe Connect, WebEx, GoToMeeting, GoToTraining, Microsoft Teams and Blackboard Collaborate.

Define Your Learning Objectives

A second piece of advice I have is to make sure you know exactly what you want people to be able to do new or differently or better as a result of your virtual meeting. If you only have 30 minutes, it’s unlikely that someone will be able to master your content. They may, however, be able to make a list of key concepts, explain particular terms or definitions, or compare and contrast the impact of various choices they can make on the job.

The tricky part is determining how exactly you’d like your participants to show you they’re able to do those things. Polling features can be helpful in getting people engaged, but is that the best virtual feature to use to have people demonstrate that they can explain certain concepts? Or should you either use the chat feature or simply have people take themselves off mute and share some thoughts?

When you are specific with your learning objectives, you can be specific with your engagement strategies and you’ll be able to choose the most appropriate virtual platform feature(s) to aid in engaging your learners.

Embrace Dialogue Education

The final piece of advice, which is actually plagiarized from education pioneer Jane Vella, is that people learn best through dialogue. Dialogue education is an education concept rooted in 12 principles that can help encourage dialogue, engagement and an environment conducive to learning – all of which are essential to keeping people focused on your virtual meetings.

Of course, if you’re simply looking for activities, check out my friend, Kassy Laborie’s book, Interact & Engage: 50+ Activities for Virtual Training, Meetings, and Webinars.


Need some help putting together your next training program? Whether you’re putting together an instructor-led training that will be delivered in-person or virtually, or if you’re simply looking for some help putting together an elearning module, drop us a line we’d be happy to talk with you and help you find the best way to build a training program that will be engaging and lead to change!

Instructor-Led Training Resources

These are some of our favorite resources to support everyone involved with instructor-led training.

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

The Role of Co-facilitators

Co-facilitators play an important role in a training workshop. The most obvious benefit is that when you co-facilitate, you get a break from leading the

18 Instructor-led Training Activities

Engaging, intentional, face-to-face and virtual instructor-led training activities can make the difference between a session that helps learners to apply new skills or knowledge and one that falls flat.

Articles Similar to Still looking for ways to engage people during virtual meetings and training sessions?

facilitator competency rubric
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Training Delivery and Facilitation Competency Rubric

A rubric is a way to assess performance with a standard set of evaluation criteria. The next time you need to assess the performance of someone delivering training (even if that someone is you), you may find this rubric helpful.

instructor becomes the pupil with kassy laborie and zovig garboushian
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Turning the Tables: From Trainer to Student

As people who have designed and delivered effective training, Kassy Laborie and Zovig Garboushian know a thing or two about good learning experiences. So what nuggets have they gleaned from a 9-month course that they’re both attending, and that all of us should consider when designing our own programs? Today’s podcast answers that question.

John Crook on role play
ILT & VILT
Brian Washburn

Is this the world’s most effective role play?

When it comes to your training participants, two of the dirtiest, or perhaps scariest, words you can say during a session may be: role play. In today’s podcast, John Crook, Head of Learning at Intersol Global, offers some thoughts on how to make role plays more authentic and robust.

Subscribe to Get Updates from Endurance Learning

Brian Washburn, Author

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll send you the latest updates from our blog. Thanks for following!

activities cookbook

Download the Training Activity Cookbook

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Endurance Learning Activity Cookbook.

training facilitator evaluation rubric - page 2

Download the Facilitator Evaluation Rubric

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the rubric to help you assess the skills of someone delivering training.

Find Your L&D Career Path

Explore the range of careers to understand what role might be a good fit for your L&D career.

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the What’s Possible in L&D Worksheet.

What's possible in L&D

Let's Talk Training!

Brian Washburn

Brian Washburn
CEO & Chief Ideas Guy

Enter your information below and we’ll get back to you soon.

Download the Feedback Lesson Plan

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the lesson plan as a PDF.

feedback lesson plan
MS Word Job Aid Template

Download the Microsoft Word Job Aid Template

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the Word version of this template.

Download the Free Lesson Plan Template!

Enter your email below and we’ll send you a Word document that you can start using today!

free lesson plan template
training materials checklist

Download the Training Materials Checklist

Enter your email below and we’ll send you the PDF of the Training Materials Checklist.

Subscribe to Endurance Learning for updates

Get regular updates from the Endurance Learning team.