difficult virtual teaching

[ATempUserName]

Please be kind, I haven't slept and I have generalised anxiety disorder. I didn't know where else to post though and I thought as this board is busy, you might be able to give me some advice and tips.

I work for a MH charity as a MH awareness trainer. So I deliver training internally (to new starts) and externally to organisations of all sizes.

This training can range from a 1 hour webinar, lunch and learn sessions, to half day sessions. It can be virtually or face to face (covid rules allowing obviously). So this is relevant as it shows organisations have a choice in duration and delivery.

I only started at the MH charity 6 weeks ago and in that time I've shadowed my manager and learned about the training materials and how to deliver. I have now delivered 6 sessions myself. two webinars which went fine, 1 internal lunch and learn, which went fine, and 2 half day sessions to organisations that were disasters and has left me wondering what am I doing wrong? Is it me?

All sessions were virtual. For the organisations, the following happened:

I was told 'Hello beautiful / bye beautiful' - I said 'my name is....'
Participants (managers) ranted about their psycho employees - I responded by talking about appropriate language
Participants disclosed their conditions and tried to take over the session by complaining about their employer - I tried repeatedly to steer the conversation back
Participants sat on their phones texting the whole time on screen - I asked if people could put their phones away and got ignored
Participants were audibly typing - I asked people to go on mute and got ignored
Participants saying I have another meeting and dropping out and only coming back at the last slide, missing the entire training
Numbers were meant to be 30 people, for one session I got 3 participants, meaning the activities I had planned and timed for were impacted. It was meant to last 3 hours, it couldn't possibly, even though the organisation had paid for that length.
Participants refusing to answer any questions or engage in any activities despite prompting from me and using silence to give them time.
Participants saying 'you tell us' when I tried activities such as "can anyone tell me of any mental health conditions you are aware of' - I mean they could have at least tried!
These were large multi national organisations who claim to be disability confident.

I have another employer session to do today, another big name, and I haven't slept. I'm really nervous. I don't know what I am doing wrong . How can I get engagement? How can I improve participation? How can I better handle difficult people?

I should add that each half day session costs that organisation £1500 so they are paying for participants to behave like shits, or for me to do a shit job - I don't know.

Can you record the sessions and then playback with your line manager for feedback?

Or send the recording to the companies to show them how rude their staff are?!

Are these sessions recorded? If not maybe start doing so for your own learning/proof you have tried to deliver the content to a hostile audience.
It sounds like you are doing a great job at being professional with a load of rude audience members. Do the people paying ask for feedback?

@ATempUserName

I should add that each half day session costs that organisation £1500 so they are paying for participants to behave like shits, or for me to do a shit job - I don't know.

It's really not you. They should be embarrassed to be behaving like immature school children. Worse than most school children

Is this mandatory training and this they are being forced to be there? I am not excusing the rudeness but this could be the cause rather than your delivery.

If you can record, note the bad behaviour so you can feed it back.

A lot of what you have described though is bad behaviour or apathetic behaviour people who don't want to be there.

Also - if a course runs early due to low attendees - we as attendees rarely ever mind. Time back in the diary.

Could you outline boundaries and expectations for the sessions? When I've done mental health training the trainers often share guidance on what the training space is for, explain the space is confidential for the purpose of sharing appropriate examples but that it isn't a ranting space or a therapy space to offload.

Is this mandatory training or optionals? It's hard to get buy in for training that people don't want to attend, but they still shouldn't be rude. If it's optional are you getting a larger than normal group of attendees who are looking for an afternoon out the office?

Could you have a sign in sheet for participants so the organisations know who has attended. I'd be surprised if they are paying that much for only 3 people to attend.

I think recording is a good idea. Also I would go through general rules at the beginning which include : talking in turns, etc. And mute them if they are noisy, it’s what DD’s club leader does on Zoom sessions: she muted them and then they can unmute if it’s their turn to talk.
I don’t think you are doing something wrong. I had some sort of councelling sessions in a group online and we were divided in small group each time for tasks/ discussions . Each time I was with different people and each time it went differently: some stayed on track and worked on a task, a couple just talked about themselves, asked a lot of irrelevant personal questions and so on. Some people are just dicks.

Sounds like the problem is them. It is painful as a deliverer and a participant when people don't engage. I might give feedback to the employer if they were that disengaged and rude. People also tend to do this when they really don't want to be on the training.

Not allowed to record due to people potentially sharing personal experiences. We do an evaluation form where people give feedback - for one of the sessions no one has returned it yet despite me emailing the organiser at their end repeatedly to remind them we'd like feedback. I did email my manager about it and she asked me to reflect on what I could do better but I don't know what I could do better . I was really tearful all night and haven't slept properly for worry about how today's session will go. My manager did also say that I can continue to observe her delivery. She never seems to have any of the problems I do but then she's been doing it for longer. I've gotten good feedback from other sessions though so maybe I'm just being unfair on myself.

It sounds like them not you & they don't want to do the training. I think this is an issue with online sessions.

But £1500 for half a day? That's crazy expensive. I assume they pay per participant or something.

Record & mention to managers as it's a waste of their money and your time & expertise.

@LolaSmiles

Could you outline boundaries and expectations for the sessions? When I've done mental health training the trainers often share guidance on what the training space is for, explain the space is confidential for the purpose of sharing appropriate examples but that it isn't a ranting space or a therapy space to offload.

Is this mandatory training or optionals? It's hard to get buy in for training that people don't want to attend, but they still shouldn't be rude. If it's optional are you getting a larger than normal group of attendees who are looking for an afternoon out the office?

Could you have a sign in sheet for participants so the organisations know who has attended. I'd be surprised if they are paying that much for only 3 people to attend.

I do housekeeping at the start of the session - please mute when not talking, speak one at a time, camera on, does anyone have any accessibility needs (I ask that one in advance of the day too), this is a safe space, what we will cover and not cover today...

Whether its mandatory or optional depends on the organisation. In one of the bad sessions, it was mandatory and all the (small) organisation's staff attended, including the owners themselves but only the owner spoke!

For the second session (and also today's session) as they are large organisations it is optional. As we have a rule of no more than 30 per session, anyone can sign up from those organisations and if the organisation wants more sessions we can do that. If its a webinar we can have more people, but a half day training is not really training if you have 1000 people to train, hence having a numbers limit.

I keep a note of names and numbers for every session, yes.

Definitely sounds like a “them” issue and not a “you” issue. Fingers crossed the next one has better engagement! Just a thought but as a host - on both teams and zoom you can mute participants yourself. I often do that if people are being particularly noisy (shuffling papers, radio on in the background) and they haven’t muted when asked. I have also muted someone mid rant just so I can advise we will deal with their particular individual issue outside of the meeting - I couldn’t get a word in up to that point. Be firm but fair and good luck.

Yes its expensive but that's what the MH charity charge and as I said in my OP, organisations have the option of shorter sessions, webinars or half days, so they could go for an alternate option if they wished.

The global organisation who I delivered to yesterday probably see the £1500 as pennies. I'm sure their customers would love to know about the waste of the money they pay that organisation for their services!

Could you manage observe your session to give your feedback?

Sorry mean “you” not “your”

Could it be that your manager is purposefully giving you the difficult ones so she doesn't have to do them? You sound like you're doing exactly what you should be but no one could deliver successfully to such an unwilling audience.

All this housekeeping at the start might be a bit of a bore. It's essential, but maybe you could add in something about the session needing input to be successful, so the more you engage, the better the session? And maybe up the energy. Get then to get up and walk around every now and again. Breaks up the whole sitting down for hours?

But to be honest, this is a problem with the attendees, not you.

@Burnt0utMum

Could it be that your manager is purposefully giving you the difficult ones so she doesn't have to do them? You sound like you're doing exactly what you should be but no one could deliver successfully to such an unwilling audience.

This is exactly what I was thinking.

To be honest in the vast majority of external zoom/teams training/meetings there's a few key speakers while everyone else has their mic off. Most people are probably expecting a similar format where they can pop off and do a few other jobs etc.

If yours is more extensive and needs input, a lot of people won't be prepared for this, so in advance of the training send an email out explaining the format and that cameras need to be on, mics muted unless people are talking, hands up, explain participation is required, questions in advance etc etc.

As a participant I’m more likely to interact more if it’s almost anonymous. So get everyone to use the annotate tool on screen and give people the option of writing in the chat rather than speak on mic. And start the ball rolling with an example yourself.

Also be explicit at the beginning: participation is required.

Could you do online polls during the training, to keep people engaged?

Some people don't like to talk on screen. Perhaps encourage them to use the chat function

Perhaps worth asking your manager to observe one of these sessions, so they can see for themselves. Difficult for strangers on the Internet to say if the problem is the training, or the participants

But if some of your training has gone well, that tends to suggest that the problem isn't new. My money is on participants being sent on a course that doesn't really interest them, so it's difficult for you to get them to engage

We do polls, we have the option to use chat if you don't want to speak, we have break out rooms, whiteboards, videos to watch, case studies to discuss...it was like pulling teeth and I did provide all information in advance as to length and format but it seems people maybe didn't read it!

It’s Zoom. I’ll be honest and say I’ve barely listened to a thing since training moved online. No matter how much the presenter tries, it’s just not engaging and you don’t feel part of the session. There’s too many people that you don’t know and you don’t want to be the one that sticks your neck out and unmutes. You might be better asking people to type the answers to your questions in the chat.

All the training we do has some sort of quiz/ assessment at the end.
We are issued with a certificate for the training only if we pass the quiz.
Maybe you could introduce a few mandatory things they have to complete/do in order for it to be registered that they have attended.

The best online sessions I've been part of have been ones where the expert presenting shares their knowledge, makes materials available and then I can write notes and listen to them as I'm having a cup of tea. I'm guilty of treating them like a live podcast, but I get much more from them than ones with lots of polls and activities