How to Setup a Hybrid Training Classroom with Great Audio
If you are moving your virtual training to a hybrid model, you have your work cut out for you.
Mixing live and remote students requires more than connecting a Zoom Room to a Zoom Meeting. Care needs to be taken to ensure that remote and live students are treated equally. And that raises a few audio and visual technical issues.
We’ll leave the visual issues for another post and focus on the audio challenges.
In a live classroom, all learners and the facilitators can hear everything: facilitator instruction, presentation material, learner questions, and learner answers. Group conversations are easy, as are interactions between students.
In a virtual-only environment, like a Zoom Meeting, this is also the case.
In a hybrid classroom environment effective audio communication becomes much more difficult. Consider these issues
The facilitator needs to be heard yet not tethered to a computer. That leads to an interesting problem. If the remote students are hearing the instructor via the computer microphone, a podium microphone, or one on the instructor desk, how do they hear if that instructor moves away? Lets face it, a good instructor doesn’t just sit at their desk and drone on to learners. They get up, move around, offer assistance, and check exercises being done.
For a remote student attending a hybrid class, live classroom discussions can often seem one way. The virtual students can hear the instructor's voice, but not the in-class students. Because of this virtual students cannot truly participate in the classroom discussion, which can result in the loss of some really great insights.
In-class students need to hear remote students. Likewise, when remote students are asking questions, or seeking input in a group discussion, it's important to ensure they can hear the remote students.
Instructors need to hear remote students when they are not at their desk. As instructors are working throughout the room, they need to be aware of any questions being asked by remote students.
Sticking microphones and speakers at each set won’t work — feedback and latency is the issue. Having all live students and the instructor wearing wireless headphones is possible, but not really a viable solution. These issues need to be solved with the proper equipment and planning.
At LearnerFirst we have solved these issues by providing two crucial pieces to the puzzle:
LearnerFirst invested in a microphone / speaker system that creates a mesh of virtual microphones throughout the classroom. This allows remote students to hear the instructor or class participants regardless of where they are in the room. Even as an instructor moves around the room, the system is picking up their voice and equalizing it. The built in speaker system ensures that the entire classroom can hear remote students without any feedback or latency. This marvel of technology is Canadian based and we are proud to have installed in our state of the art corporate learning suite.
Remote Student Advocate / Producer — an optional add on. Learngistics can provide an experienced virtual producer to help ensure that remote learners are not left behind. The virtual classroom producer can not only help manage the technology for the instructor, but they can also moderate the chat and queue up remote students' questions.
The next time you are looking for a facility to run a hybrid training session, consider the audio implications. Hotel meeting rooms are great for connected meetings, but for actual training sessions you need a bit more. Let our expertise ensure the best learner experience for your participants and your instructors.
Contact us today for a tour of the facility or to check availability.