Survey Results: The Burden of Going All Virtual

Last week I asked a series of questions about how organizations are adapting to a more virtual-centric world. Some of these results may surprise you (for example, the number of organizations still doing a significant amount of in-person training!).

In a post last week, I asked a series of questions to get a better idea of the effort that you’ve needed to apply as you bring training programs to a completely virtual/online environment. If you didn’t have a chance to respond, I invite you to check out the survey questions and add your own responses here.

I promised to share results, and after a week’s worth of data collection, there are some interesting findings, including the fact that one virtual meeting platform is being used FAR MORE than any other, and there is definitely more in-person training that is still happening than I would have hypothesized. Here is the way the survey results have come in to date:

Which is easier:

Converting an existing program from in-person to virtual (59%)
Developing a virtual program from scratch (41%)

Approximately how long does it take you to convert one hour of training from in-person to virtual?

1-2 hours (32%)
3-4 hours (33%)
4-8 hours (23%)
More than 8 hours (12%)

Approximately how long does it take you to develop activities/lesson plan/slides for a 1-hour virtual training, from scratch?

1-2 hours (10%)
3-4 hours (46%)
4-8 hours (25%)
More than 8 hours (19%)

Which virtual delivery platform do you use most often?

Zoom (53%)
Microsoft Teams (13%)
WebEx (11%)
GoToTraining (7%)
GoToMeeting (5%)
Adobe Connect (5%)
Amazon Chime (2%)
Other (5%)

Are you generally happy with the platform you use most often?

Yes (87%)
No (13%)

During this COVID-19 era, what percent of your live training is being delivered virtually?

100% (67%)
About 75% (17%)
About 50% (5%)
Less than 50% (12%)

Which virtual feature do you use most often for engagement and interaction?

Chat (38%)
Breakout Rooms (27%)
Voice-based discussion (13%)
Polling (13%)
Allowing participants to share their screens (3%)
On-screen annotation (2%)
Other (3%)

How do you feel about designing and delivering virtual training?

I prefer it over in-person (13%)
It’s growing on me (70%)
It stresses me out (15%)
Yuck, I don’t like it at all (2%)

How do you feel about the effectiveness of live, virtual training?

It seems more effective than in-person training (5%)
It seems about as effective as in-person training (52%)
It doesn’t seem as effective as in-person training (43%)

There you have it, the results through one week of data collection.

Did anything here surprise you? Are there other questions you’d like to know the answers to when it comes to how organizations are adapting to a virtual-centric approach to training? Let me know in the comment section.

Brian Washburn

Brian has over 25 years of experience in Learning & Development including the last 7 as CEO of Endurance Learning.

Brian is always available to chat about learning & development and to talk about whether Endurance Learning can be your training team’s “extra set of hands”.

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