We have never thought of conducting online yoga teacher training before the pandemic arrived. There was no need for us to dive into it, setting up teaching portals and conducting zoom classes. For us, that was unnecessary.
The 200 Hour Yoga Teacher Training has a lot of interactive activities, making online classes for us unimaginable.
When we teach it in person, we use a mixture of teaching methodologies: whole group, small groups, reflection, feedback from others, brainstorming, even writing on a flip chart to reinforce concepts. All the basic techniques used by trainers for successful learning.
If you had asked us at the beginning of 2019 if online learning could be as effective as in-person, we would have said no.
Then we faced the dilemma of moving the entire 200 Hour training online or to stop offering it.
We had to choose between pausing our business or moving along with the transition of businesses to the internet world.
We moved online.
Of course, the first zoom training was complicated by looking for the buttons to do the things we wanted.
Once we got used to training on zoom, we realized that people are people, and we can still connect whether online or in-person.
There are 5 things we learned about conducting online training.
5 Things we learned about Online Training
- Small group work can be done in breakout rooms – During the in person training, we usually have small group work so students can discuss the questions and topics together, and connect. We never thought of having group work in an online training, but we did. We uses Zoom.us as our video conferencing tool and luckily, it has breakout rooms to separate students in different small groups during training sessions.
- Trainees can be co-hosts and share assignments or practice teach – As the trainer, you can set your trainees as co-hosts when it’s their time to present their outputs, and share their knowledge.
- Assessments can be completed through online quizzes – You won’t have to spend time checking their quizzes. The online portal where you put your assesments will do this for you. You can set passing grades and enable retake (whether limited or unlimited), and students can take the assessments at their comfortable time.
- The whiteboard can replace the flip chart – this helps you write during online training without needing a paper beside you.
- The chat and comments can create conversation and people can ask questions just like in a live class – with the bonus that the trainer can continue the lesson with fewer interruptions and then read questions in the chat at the end.
The Facebook group we created just for the people in the training, which we already had before, didn’t change at all. We still have it and will continue to have it now that we have transitioned to online yoga teacher training classes.
The big lesson we learned is that everything we did in person, we can also do online.
What we believed in 2019 about online training, is not what we know to be true now.
That being said if you’re curious about running a teacher training, either online or in-person, you have both options with the Trainer Fast Track.
We can help you get your training started here.