The rising trend of working from home has resulted in significant demand for virtual classroom training, where participants (employees, business partners, or even customers) interact with instructors and course material over the internet.

A virtual classroom offers many of the same benefits as a traditional physical one, including voice and video chat, collaboration with peers, and multimedia elements (PowerPoints, videos, demonstrations, and interactive elements).

Some implementations forgo the scheduled, instructor-led training model in favor of an unsupervised experience that allows users to go at their own pace. These types of classes are known as eLearning.

Advantages of Virtual Classrooms

Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of how useful virtual training can be for their purposes. Some of the benefits include:

• Cost. There’s no need to arrange employee schedules, pay for travel, or maintain server equipment when everything is available online from a third-party vendor.

• Accessibility. Whether it’s the coffee shop, your own living room, or out on the road, training is accessible anywhere with a laptop or smart device. You can even send educational materials to remote workers in different countries quickly and inexpensively.

• Comprehensive instruction. You can’t deny the flexibility of virtual training labs. They support many multimedia elements that can enhance understanding and knowledge retention, including interactive simulated environments for participants to practice the material. This benefit is especially useful in the IT training space.

• Feedback. Analyze the performance of all participants with instant feedback on test results and lesson performance. You can also use this data to improve the quality of your instructional materials.

• Scalability. Businesses demand scalability since they often add additional users to their courses rather quickly. As companies grow, the need for more scalable classrooms rises, and virtual training meets that demand much better than physical classes.

The investment you need to get started isn’t too high either. Many IT training lab vendors exist now to provide all the hardware and maintenance at a modest regular price.

Characteristics of an Effective Virtual Classroom

There are many options to choose from when it comes to online training platforms. Look for the following selling points the next time you’re searching for an IT training lab vendor.

• Communication tools like video conferencing
• Support for interactive elements
• Integration with mobile devices to maximize accessibility
• An easy-to-use interface

Virtual training is incredibly effective, whether you need it for your employees, business partners, or clients. Leverage CloudShare’s service for the job, as companies like Fortinet, Atlassian, VMWare, and ForgeRock have.