Webinar: Beyond the Content: How Assessments and Profiles Can Enrich Virtual Learning

Webinar: Beyond the Content: How Assessments and Profiles Can Enrich Virtual Learning

Recorded Thursday, May 13, 2021

Hosted by HR.com and Dr. Casey Mulqueen, Director of Learning & Development, TRACOM

Many companies have adapted their training programs for the virtual environment. However, moving content online is only part of the equation. Most programs include some type of individual assessment, such as behavioral style, personality, emotional intelligence, or competency. During training, participants receive a profile describing the results of the assessment. In the virtual world, especially when relying on co-workers’ input for multi-rater or 360-degree assessments, it can be difficult to get accurate feedback due to people working mostly in isolation and apart from one another—they don’t have the opportunity to observe others closely enough to provide accurate feedback. Also, the profile itself can lack clarity and purpose when training is delivered online. With less opportunity for one-on-one feedback and interaction with a facilitator, the profile might not be integrated into the course in a meaningful way, decreasing its value.

Assessing people’s behavioral styles, or personalities, can be tricky even under the best of circumstances, but doing this with teams that work virtually raises certain dilemmas, particularly the inability to observe one another closely in the work environment. In addition, the content of the profile itself has to be critically evaluated for its ability to provide information that is targeted and actionable, especially given the limitations that virtual learning places on facilitators and participants. The profile has to become a valuable resource in its own right, as opposed to a purely informational tool for use during the training event.

This session will describe strategies for understanding and managing these new challenges. We’ll show how we’ve updated a behavioral style assessment to be more efficient and effective with virtual workers, and how we’ve enhanced the profile content to provide richer information that adds to the learner experience in a virtual program where individualized attention isn’t always possible. Attendees will leave with a new understanding of how to evaluate and effectively utilize assessments and profiles in virtual training.

In this webinar, you’ll learn:

• How the integrity of assessments is affected by virtual work groups, and criteria for evaluating assessments.
• The shortcomings of common profiles when used in virtual training, and strategies for avoiding these pitfalls.
• A success story of how an assessment and profile evolved to meet the needs of virtual training.
• How Social Intelligence training can be successfully deployed in virtual environments.