This event particular event attracted around 60 attendees, primarily drawn from the UK, with a preponderance of pharmaceutical company staff (75% +), with a smaller group from CROs (15%) with a minority (10%) from health service, academic groups and independent consultants/freelancers.
Format of the day
The days’ agenda had been developed by the Steering Committee, which has a mission to support the interests and further development of trainers within ICR by providing topical meetings, with expert speakers from within and beyond the pharmaceutical industry. This event was prompted by the rapid development of remote delivery methods within our sector, with a wide range of solutions being implemented across the industry.
Equally, the competence and comfort levels of those working in the area seems to be highly variable. The terms “digital native” and “digital immigrant” have been applied to differentiate two major groups. The “digital natives” are those who have often been educated in the age of computation, who have a high level of comfort in the new media and adopt the emerging cyber solutions willingly, and with ease. “Digital immigrants” are those who find that they are forced by circumstance, business pressures and relentless technological advance to adapt to a new set of tools, practices and expectations of delivery where the digital media are an inherent part of the process.
While a few attendees and contributors to the meeting may feel that they fall into the former group, the majority were firmly in the “digital immigrant” camp. Of this majority, some may be said to be adopting the digital media with reluctance and even resentment…
Sessions & contributors
The Forum was presented and chaired by Barbara Hepworth-Jones HonFICR, Principal Education Advisor at GSK Academy of Pharmaceutical Medicine and Chair of the ICR Trainers’ Forum Steering Group.
The morning session was made up of:
- The ‘e’ Factor: Training Delivery in the Digital Age by Anna Elliott
- E-Learning by Kathryn Whitby
- Perfecting the Blend by Merryn Collard
The afternoon session comprised:
- Preparing and delivering a virtual training session - Hints and Tips by Neil Sharpe
- Delivering Systems Training Remotely by Karen Ruthven
Workshop sessions took place in both the morning and afternoon sessions, carried out in sub-groups.
The ‘e’ factor: Training delivery in the digital age
Anna Elliott’s animated and energetic session gave a sampling of the ways remote delivery training systems, both routine and experimental, were currently being used in Higher Education, indicating what might be available to our industry now and in the future.
She started off with a lively overview of how electronic communications have developed rapidly in the 21st century. Virtually everyone now has the capability to communicate electronically, but this has been available to a selected proportion of the population for many years. We were surprised to learn that this has been used for remote delivery of training for a considerable time!
She then guided us through the many different and potentially confusing terminologies for describing remote delivery, and the technologies used. It was good to hear that much of the technology is readily available, cost-free!
Make it social and collaborative
Much of the learning being designed today is centred on the idea that learning needs to be social and based more around the ‘learner’. Having herself participated in courses based entirely around remote learning, Anna was able to give a personal view of how this felt from the learner’s perspective.
Learning in the online environment can be very isolated, so it is important to encourage students to use collaborative elements, which foster a sense of community and social learning, such as Second Life, Discussion boards, Facebook chat groups, online messaging services and Twitter.
There is also a broad spectrum of ability and of confidence in using technology. It is vital to teach all participants how to use the technology. In addition, trainers will need to establish principle of ‘netiquette’ for the group, since the lack of visual cues or body language in typed communications can sometimes leave the writer’s intention ambiguous.
Key messages
- Tools for remote learning are effective, available today, and low cost or even free
- Learning is social and collaborative and, to be effective, designs for remote delivery must incorporate these aspects
Preparing & delivering a virtual training session
Neil focussed on running effective remote learning sessions involving online meetings and telephone conferencing. Delivered entirely without the aid of PowerPoint, his presentation very effectively demonstrated how interactive group sessions can be facilitated by a trainer when there is no projector screen or whiteboard for everyone to look at. Using group discussions, he took us through preparation of meetings, the actual logistics of setting up the technology and the immediate preparation required for a remote meeting. While all of us were familiar with these areas in a general way, Neil pointed out that remote delivery added its own particular twists.
Setting up
Tips for organisers when setting up remote training sessions included:
- Allowing plenty of preparation time to ensure the technology is behaving according to plan
- Having two computers or laptops, so that the trainer can view the online presentation from the host and attendee perspective simultaneously
- Having another individual there to watch for typed questions from participants, to note down comments from attendees or supply general administrative support.
The last of these points is especially relevant when the trainer’s attention is stretched between operation of technology, facilitation and delivery of content.
Finally, Neil highlighted the importance of ‘changing the state’: making sure all participants are aware when the focus moves on to another person or another topic. As participants could not see each other, some event or action should be used to mark the change, such as passing control of a virtual whiteboard to another individual.
His key message was that remote learning sessions can be very successful, both for participants and for trainers, but it is essential to prepare thoroughly.
E-Learning
“E-Learning” is a term applied to training that utilises LAN, WAN or Internet for delivery, interaction or facilitation. Kathryn led us through the benefits and some of the pitfalls of this approach to training.
Benefits
Computer-based e-learning can be self-paced, and may also be modular, carried out at the participant’s desk at a time convenient to them. This offers great convenience for trainees by minimising travel and giving flexibility across different time zones. “Off the shelf” modules (eg, those offered by ICR) ensure consistency of messages and enable tracking of training attendance and test results to confirm understanding. E-learning modules are most effective as part of a blended package.
Pitfalls
Kathryn stressed that e-learning should not be used to replace face-to-face delivery purely because of reduction of costs. If modules are too long or only used for SOP or regulatory training then outcomes may be disappointing.
E-learning will be ineffective if it does not hold the participants’ interest and attention. Best practice should involve putting the learner first and ensuring e-learning is as interactive as possible, eg, by using quizzes, web links, etc. Keeping sessions short and snappy helps keep the learner’s attention.
Technology does not always function as assumed or expected, and people’s reactions to it will vary depending on background, culture and context. It is vital to test any new delivery system before it goes live.
When selecting a vendor, Kathryn suggested starting small but thinking big, balancing the business need with the learner’s requirements. Generic claims by enthusiastic suppliers may be hard to realise in one’s own particular environment, so one should always ask to try out a system before making a commitment.
Perfecting the blend
“Remote learning should not be considered second best”. Merryn began by
confidently challenging the perspective of the audience towards the
broad topic of remote learning. I wonder if I was alone at this point
in experiencing a bit of a ‘head versus heart’ internal dialogue?
Surely remote learning will always be second best? You can do so much
more when you’re meeting face-to-face, can’t you? Well, maybe. But
there’s a lot you can do remotely too, and this is where Merryn’s
‘blend’ came in. She described it as using a variety of different
techniques and interactions to try to ensure the audience get the best
experience possible.
Harder work for the trainer
Capturing and keeping the attention of your audience is a lot harder
when you can’t see them. Merryn emphasized this with an effective
illustration: simply turning her back on the audience as she spoke (she
was only looking away for a few seconds, but I’m sure I saw someone
send a text message). Key to engaging people is trying to create a
sense of community (helped by adding photos to presentations for
example). It’s also vital that you maintain energy and enthusiasm in
your voice, and switch between different learning styles and media to
keep people awake. To ensure that everyone participates, check off
people on the attendee list as they contribute, and consider
specifically directing questions at the quiet ones.
Adaptation of workshops
This part of the session included some useful tips:
- Don’t listen to someone if
they say ask you to deliver a face-to-face via an online system such as
WebEx, and say “Don’t worry – just leave out the exercises”! Group
activities can be difficult, but as trainers we need to be creative and
think of another way of ensuring the participants ‘do’ something.
- When
‘converting’ face-to-face materials into WebEx exercises, reduce the
volume and complexity of the materials you use. Aim for simple outputs.
- Be clear about instructions, and keep the ‘thinking time’ and ‘feedback time’ short. Keep it fast-paced
Merryn concluded by emphasizing that remote
delivery of training is here to stay, and it’s up to us as trainers to
maximise the effectiveness of our sessions. We can do that with the
right preparation.
Delivering systems training remotely
Karen started by making some of us feel nostalgic. She spoke wistfully
of the ‘good old days’ of clinical research when all a CRA needed was
just pens, papers and post-it notes. We were all drifting gently into a
sepia-tinted haze… when we were suddenly jolted from our reverie by a
shocking fact. Now, on the other hand, a new-hire CRA may have up to 14
systems to learn. This can include CTMS, EDC, status trackers, resource
forecasters, a Learning Management System, metrics reporting, time and
expense systems, document management systems… and so the list goes on.
The systems mentioned above aren’t just, ‘nice to
haves’. In many cases, a new hire (no matter how much prior industry
experience) can’t function in their role till they can work the
systems. Combine this with the fact that we now work more globally, yet
perhaps travel less, and you can see a good rational for delivering
systems training remotely. What however are the challenges specifically
of system training, via remote delivery?
Challenges
- How do you make it
engaging, and how do you know whether they understand? This may be a
challenge of any remote training, but with systems you’re primarily
giving just a set of instructions, so it’s hard to make it exciting.
- New
systems: it’s hard to swiftly produce ‘training environments’ or
‘sandboxes’ to use for demos and exercises. Systems sometimes break,
crash, freeze, act ‘vindictively’ and generally go wrong. It’s also a
challenge for trainers to get up to speed on a brand new system they’ve
never used.
- Technophobes versus
Technophiles: this can make a significant difference in the speed
people want you to go. (“Hang on, I just want to put the monitor on a
photocopier so I can remember what this screen looks like” versus “Well
this is all blatantly obvious, but why aren’t you using the
little-known keyboard shortcuts? Your way of doing it is really slow…”)
Solutions
- Use practical real-life
role-based scenarios. Restrict the training only to what the
participants need to know, in terms of the specific s of how they will
use the system. Make it interactive: pass control to individuals, with
the other participants acting as ‘trainers/helpdesk’
- Always
have back-up slides with screen-shots in case the system has a hissy
fit. Test environments with dummy data are however a good way to learn,
try to make these as relevant and realistic as possible.
- Small
groups, short sessions, focussed objectives. Make sure there’s time for
everyone, schedule ‘catch-up’ or ‘mop-up’ sessions for people who don’t
get it. Try to keep idiots and smart-arses in different groups (Karen
didn’t really say that, but I think it’s a good approach).
Having inspired us with the possibilities, Karen
then concluded by wondering whether we actually have to train ‘like
this’. For some systems, it may be better to take a self-paced
approach, such as eLearning or interactive games. But the fact is, no
matter how technical we all get, we all sometimes just want someone to
show us what to do. I don’t think that’s going to change… my ‘computer
says no’, anyway.
Summary & impressions
The flavour of the meeting was one of intrigued interest from many,
scepticism from some and baffled resignation, tinged with slight
resentment from others.
Overall, all those attending recognised that the
virtual methodologies are here to stay and were keen to understand the
current state of the art, while retaining the many good features of the
traditional approaches that have been so successfully deployed in the
past.
The difficulties seem to lie in understanding where
the current Gold Standard lies, especially as it is such a fast-moving
field, with new approaches continually under development, deployment
and evaluation.
Many of those present were motivated to spend a day
of their busy working lives at the meeting in an effort to understand
the work of others, and where their own current practice lies in the
spectrum of current virtual training activity.
For a few, what was described was almost
self-evident, for many it was reassuring re-iteration and for others it
was a revelation, This reflects the wide range of skill sets, practices
and approaches across training roles in our sector.
Sharing our knowledge can only help us and our colleagues. Long may it continue!
Future plans/events
The next
meeting of the ICR Trainers’ Forum will address Evaluation Methods and
Practice and will be held on Wednesday 21st October. Please see
www.icr-global.org/community/forums/trainers-forum for further details.
