To convert classroom training to e-learning, don't move it as is into a video or a video call. Go through it sequence by sequence. For each one, decide whether to keep it in the room, move it to a virtual class, turn it into an online module or drop it. Start with the lectures: anyone can follow them alone, at their own pace.
Lectures go online; practice stays live.
Before you convert classroom training to e-learning, list its sequences
Start from the session plan, or rebuild it with the PowerPoint and the trainer. Write one line per sequence, meaning each moment when the learner does a single thing: listen, practice or discuss. For each one, note its materials and its actual length, not the one in the program.
Room, virtual class, module or nothing: 4 questions per sequence
Ask these questions in order: the first one that settles it decides.
- Does the sequence serve the training goal? If it only exists to run the room (introductions, agenda, recap, going back over the slides), drop it or replace it with an email or a questionnaire.
- Do you need to watch and correct someone's technique? Handling a product or a piece of equipment, holding the right posture with a customer: keep the sequence in the room.
- Does the group need to talk live? Case study, debate, experience sharing, questions for the trainer: move it to a virtual class.
- Otherwise, can each person follow it alone, at their own pace? Lecture, demonstration, instructions, knowledge check: turn it into an online module, with a question after each concept.
If you have to move instructor-led training online with no room at all, have the practice filmed, with the participants' consent. Review the footage in a virtual class, knowing it's less precise than in the room.
In a meta-analysis by the U.S. Department of Education published in 2010, fully online courses did as well as face-to-face ones. Blended courses did better. According to the authors, this advantage isn't necessarily due to the medium. These courses probably included more learning time, more resources and more chances to collaborate. So what you put into each sequence matters more than how you deliver it.
Example: a 7-hour day, sorted sequence by sequence
Take a fictional course, "Advising a customer in store": a 7-hour classroom day for 10 sales associates.
- Welcome, introductions and agenda (30 min): dropped; the agenda goes out by email, and expectations are collected at the start of the module (question 1).
- Lecture on the 4 steps of an advisory conversation (1 hr 15 min): online module, with a question after each step (question 4).
- Presentation of the season's products (45 min): module, or product sheets to look up (question 4).
- Oral quiz at the end of the morning (15 min): replaced by the module's questions (question 4).
- Case study in small groups, then a debrief (1 hr): virtual class, with a breakout room per group (question 3).
- Role plays in threes, product in hand (2 hrs): room, where the trainer watches and corrects posture and technique (question 2).
- Debrief and individual action plan (30 min): virtual class, 2 weeks later, on what each person tried in store (question 3).
- Recap and end-of-day evaluation (45 min): dropped; the evaluation becomes an online questionnaire (question 1).
Out of 7 hours in the room, 2 remain, all for practice. The virtual class takes 1 hr 30 min, in two sessions, and the module 2 hrs 15 min, though its online length still needs measuring. The remaining 1 hr 15 min disappears or fits into an email and some online questions.
How do you rebuild the program over time?
The module first, practice second: that's the principle of the flipped classroom. David van Alten and his colleagues (2019) pooled 114 studies from secondary and higher education. They found that it has a small positive effect on learning. Results were better when class time wasn't reduced, or when quizzes were added. So the module frees up time for practice: if classroom hours go down, the lectures are what should go.
Spread the program over a few weeks. John Dunlosky (2013) reviewed 10 learning techniques with his colleagues. Spacing study sessions out makes learning last longer than massing them, even with the same total time. He writes about students and sets no interval. The example puts the module in week 1, the practice in week 2 and the debrief in week 4.
Where to start: a first module, tested before the session
Start with a module for the lecture the trainer delivers the same way at every session. If it fits in a PowerPoint, see how to turn a PowerPoint into e-learning.
Have 3 participants from the next session test this module before their classroom session. Note how long each person spends on it and which questions everyone gets wrong: go over those points in the room. Then move on to the next sequence.
For the module part, Complement can generate a module from your training materials, quizzes included. An avatar presents the course, quizzes the learner and gives spoken feedback on the answers. The dashboard shows the average time to complete the module and quiz success by chapter. The module can't be exported, to SCORM or any other format. It is shared through a link or, on a quote basis, inside your learning management system (LMS) via the LTI 1.3 standard.
To test this first module, Complement offers a 7-day free trial, no credit card required, with up to 5 learners and 5 hours of cumulative use.