So I got this writing prompt last year: What makes a teacher great? I’ve held it in my drafts for a while because one of things that I’ve wanted to talk about is what makes an instructor great. Teaching at all levels requires certain soft skills that can be learned but can only really shine after deliberate practise. Now teaching K-12 is different than teaching at a college/university. Even more different is teaching at a corporate level — and oddly enough, is rarely talked about.
As I’m doing my job searching these days, I see lots of positions for L&D (Learning and Development). Now this is a kind of HR training. You know, those training bits you get on how to be a better manager, a better employee, how to sell, etc. This is different than technical corporate training, which is often very deep and technical (often focusing on specific products and how to use them); and compressed for time (somewhere from 1 day to 5 days; usually 9-to-5 but some are brutal fast tracks or bootcamps that squish in 8-to-6 or even 7-to-7).
That all said, teaching — in a general sense — is the same. And there are some tricks that are common regardless of audience.
Teaching Tips
For years, I certified a lot of people on how best to teach VMware products when I conducted our Instructor Certification Workshops (ICWs). These were weeklong affairs that had 6 candidates teaching our core course. Our rubik for evaluation included both technical expertise and soft skills. Technical expertise can be learned either through experience as an administrator, consultant or whatever. Soft skills, however, can be a challenge. As someone who is a self-identified “neuro-spicy”, sometimes those soft skills can be a challenge but let’s talk about dos and don’ts of instruction.
Clear Communications
Always start the class by being clear about what is going to be covered, what each day will be like (e.g., when are breaks and lunches), and what you expect from students. Teaching is not a one-way street. Students only get out of the class when they put in. Now, there should be some expectation that an adult student knows the importance of attending the class but often, they are also doing their job while at the training. This means that their attention is split from paying attention to the training versus clamping down on fires at the job.
Having these clear communications at the start, often referred to as “setting expectations” helps both the instructor as well as the student. It becomes a kind of verbal agreement between the two as to what to expect during class time and what not to expect.
Know your topic
Some people think that just reading slides is teaching. It’s not. And this is my biggest pet peeve about adult education. Often the slide reading comes with a monotoned, bored voice. Look, the students often get collateral as part of the course. This may be something as simple as a PDF of the PowerPoint (or whatever you’re using). They can read the slides (it’s always assume that read comprehension is the minimum requirement to attend the class, and it helps a lot when reading lab instructions) so having you read them makes no sense.
The slides are meant to be guardrails: they keep you on topic and keep you at the right point of the story. Each module or section is a chapter of the story you are telling. How you tell the story and what you put into it is the “special sauce” that you add. Often the instructor adds the “why” portion of the story — why is this part relevant for your career or job function; why it matters to you; and so on. The ability to speak to the why can only be achieved when you know the topic.
Telling a story
One of the things I’ve often seen are people are technically deep but don’t know how to reach their audience. This is one of the best tricks by those who know how to teach: reaching the level of the audience they are talking to. One of the things that helps is the use of analogies. What I’ve often suggested to new instructors is imagine your teaching your grandparents this specific technology. How would you explain it so that they would understand without using technology?
This is where great analogies come from. One example was an instructor who used blank pieces of paper to describe how transparent paging worked in ESX(i). The topic is highly technical and if you really wanted to get technical about it you’d have to explain the algorithm and how it works. (if you want the nitty-gritty technical, you can find it here).
Time Management
Because corporate training is often limited to a specific time frame, time management becomes really important. Regular classes that fit into a 9-to-5 generally can be paced easily with some side discussions or tangents but when a class is packed (or a combination of 2 or more other classes) you have to be more cognizant of time. There are tricks to help recover time if need be: tie labs into lunch hour; shorten lunch time to 30-45 minutes; be diligent about leveraging a “parking lot” for tangent discussions; and so on.
Be clear with students if you feel that things are behind but try to pay attention to this at the start of class, evaluate at the end of each day what is left to cover and what the timing looks like. One trick that I’ve done in the past, particularly on the last day is to “front load” all the “talking head” stuff and then leave the remaining part of the day for labs. Some students may well be ahead on labs while others may stay until the lights are turned off (or the Zoom meeting ends).
Leverage the right tool and Use it well
Most training today is done online, using tools like Zoom or WebEx for an online class. Personally, I prefer in person for this (and I say this as someone who loves Work From Home). Part of why I prefer in-person is my own learning style, as I can sometimes get distracted by shiny objects online. Imagined peer pressure can sometimes help me not be so distracted. Now that said, doing online classes have benefits but you can only truly achieve them when you leverage the functions of the tools well.
For example, most online platforms have a whiteboarding function but it can be cumbersome and clunky to use. Leveraging a tablet or iPad with a whiteboarding app can help. Switching between the main presentation function to the other device can help with that. It’ll give a more in-person experience.
And as much as I know that people hate having their video on for these types of training it can be helpful at giving a more in-person feel. As part of the class expectations, remind students that participation (usually in the form of doing labs and asking questions) is part of the key for their learning. You could say that the students must have their video on during lecture times but can turn it off during lab time, breaks and lunches.
S*&t happens. Adapt.
No matter how great technology is sometimes things happen. And the key is to adapt. I’ve had it where the computer I was using died (and I mean, smoke coming out of it); no network access; lab environment not available due to a city wide power outage where the labs existed; and so many more. Things happen.
The first thing is to not let it upset you or derail you. It can be hard and frustrating but the primary focus, as an instructor, is your students. So keep teaching and then during break or lunch see if you can find an alternative way to address the issue.
Laptop dead? Use your tablet or phone to project slides. Labs not available? stick to lecture and when labs are available, do a lab-a-thon. Network rules blocking access to labs? If the labs are available after hours, give the students home work and end a couple of hours early to give them time to work on them.
Students understand when things happen beyond our control but are often very appreciative when we are able to pivot and focus on their education rather than navel gazing at the problem or issue.
Be Present
I cannot emphasize the importance of being present and being engaging. This is particularly important as technical (and even non-technical) corporate training is shifting more and more from in-person to online and/or to an e-Learning modality. When doing live teaches, try to avoid being distracted by the noisy neighbours, the sirens, the snow storm outside (unless it potentially would make dangerous for the students to commute home), and so on. They’ve paid to be at the training (or their company has); your mind needs to be there too.
If something has happened in your life that is pulling you away from the here-and-now, take 5 minutes in a quiet space and meditate (there are lots of YouTube videos that can help with this as well as many smart phone apps). It may sound “wishy-woo” but it works. Life happens all the time around us; how we react and deal with it will be the impression we leave. Now this doesn’t mean that you should just do the “buckle-up, buttercup” response to everything. Sometimes, you have to know when to call for help. I’ve asked for replacement instructors when I’ve had dire family emergency situations. In those cases, I let the students know and teach until the replacement can take over.
… and Engaging
I mentioned my dislike for monotoned voices. I’ve sat through classes, particularly online, with little to no engagement from the person leading it. Usually, I fell asleep about 30 min in (I always mute my microphone so I don’t disturb the other sleeping students). Engagement isn’t just the voice intonation but also asking questions and probing students for more when they ask questions.
One of the worst habits (and I admittedly have used this after a long week) is asking the dreaded, “Does anyone have any questions?”. This will be followed by awkward silence and no questions. There are a few tricks to this. One can be starting off with “Has anyone every experienced [insert technical-issue-related-to-lecture-topic here]?”. Instructors aren’t the only ones that love to talk. Students love to tell their own war stories (and it always ends with “we walked uphill, both ways, in 8 feet of snow with plain pizza as our meals for the 120 hour work week we survived”). It is important to let students tell their stories but try not to get too many and know how to gently shutdown the storytelling when appropriate.
You can also create mini-quizzes for each section and have students compete for top place (maybe even offer some simple schwag like a sticker or something to the winner for the week). Something like Kahoot! is a great tool for this and you could even use the music from Jeopardy for each question. These types of engagement techniques can be used for in-person or online.
It’s ok to say “I don’t know”
Now at the start of this blog entry I started with knowing your topic. The reality is no matter how much you know about something, there is always something more to know. No one will know everything. That’s ok. The best instructors know where their limits are and it’s ok to say, “I don’t know.”.
But, more importantly, this should be followed with “let me get back to you on that topic. I’m going to get a response by [insert time/date]”. Make sure you meet this date or, if you cannot, let the students know and ensure that you follow-up with the information once you have it. Part of this is to include it on your parking lot. Now, for those who’ve never used a parking lot, it is generally a place on a white board, piece of paper, text document or whatever where you place topics that need follow-up so you don’t forget them. Life can get crazy at times and it’d be easy to forget.
Practise, practise, practise
Last but not least is repetition. The reality is learn what you do well and continue that. When you don’t do well, don’t repeat those habits and don’t beat yourself up over it. Use it as an opportunity to improve yourself. If you aren’t used to teaching in front of an audience, leverage Toastmasters program as a way to practise good form, speaking confidence and trying new things.
For years, I’ve recommended this for those switching from one kind of technical career to an educating role. They can help with things like body language, voice projection and general speaking — which will all help build up your own confidence in speaking. One of the things that comes across clearly is when we smile — and smiling comes through how we speak.
Now, of course, this isn’t the be-all-end-all of what makes a great instructor but it certainly is a place to start.
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