I am a trainer for a large national corporation. Many of the seminars we do are delivered remotely to staff working across the country. Conference calls and sametime conferences are commonly used. My question is what methods have you found to generate feedback/questions from your audience doing remote training?. We all understand the value, heck neccesity, of the interaction a trainer needs from his students. Lately we've been doing leadership development classes with around 50 people and interaction with them has been limited.

This question pertains to e-learning situations as well. I've explored the bulletin boards but finally realized you guys are the geniuses. Any bright ideas?...tips and tricks?...structures.....technologies.....
Appreciate your help!!!

Daniel,

Whether on-line or in-person, I have never been smart enough to effectively handle the adult learning needs of that many people. Maybe it is time for your organization to consider taking the next logical step in the evolution of its delivery vehicles...and have self-directed learning activities located on your corporate site (intranet).

Compliment it with a blog/discussion board where folks who participate can share thoughts...with you or the SME's monitoring and plugging in responses when the community does not.

Daniel,

I have had success with participation on conference calls by setting the momentum in the beginning by telling them I will call on them by name/site/region etc. So for example I may say "The next question, I would like someone in NY to handle..." or "I haven't heard from a few people, and you know who you are so please comment on....."

It is simple, gives people a heads up and avoids you hearing nothing when you say "Does anyone have a question?"

Good luck!

If your sametime conference software has a polling tool, ask, for example, "how many have had this problem?" They show their answer by clicking on an icon or raising their hands. Then pick someone on each side to discuss his/her experience. Works for me.