Online learning needs

When you move to online training, you also need to know other things about your learners:

  • how confident and familiar they are working online
  • what technologies and online tools they are already familiar with (e.g. video conferences, webinars, social media)
  • how easy it is for them to get internet access
  • what devices they are using to get online (e.g. phone, tablet or computer)
  • whether they need any extra resources to make online training accessible to them, for example screen-readers or writing tools.

Activity: Learning to train online

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Watch the video where Charlotte Chishava, who works as an international development consultant, talks about what happened when they moved their training online as a result of Covid-19.

Download this video clip.Video player: nc4868_tyto_2021_vid002_1920x1080.mp4
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By reflecting on their new knowledge about the volunteers’ online learning needs, Charlotte and her team were able to redesign the course so that it worked much better.

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Ensuring online training is accessible to people with disabilities and those with additional needs is particularly important. Online training has the potential to be much more accessible than face-to-face training, because participants do not need to travel to training venues and with asynchronous training they can study at their own pace and at a time that suits their needs.

Understanding your learners’ characteristics

Barriers to online learning