Virtual Training

10The Brain on Virtual Training

Take a moment to imagine if  TV shows and movies looked like most virtual training sessions. You'd be instantly turned off by the poor production quality. You certainly wouldn't want to pay for it or come back for more.

Traditionally, the phrase virtual training production has been an oxymoron. Little value was placed on production quality to make the on-screen visual experience equivalent to what we expect to see on a TV screen. Trainers just spin up Webex, Adobe Connect, Go-To-Meeting, Teams, or Zoom, throw up some slides, and start talking—from wherever they happen to be. This is a key reason why the virtual learning experience has been so awful for learners.

When watching a video, your brain attempts to interpret the picture it sees on the screen and compare it to what it expects things to look like in real life. When the picture on the screen does not look natural, the brain must work harder to fill in the gaps. This increases the viewer's cognitive load,¹ meaning the amount of work the brain has to do, to fill in the gaps. This requires the brain to exert extra energy and computing power to scan the patterns on the screen in an attempt to make sense of them.

If we were to take an MRI scan of your brain during a typical video call, it would appear stressed and overheated. This is exactly why even 30 minutes on a video call can leave you feeling exhausted.² Most video calls, by their nature, are poorly produced. So many things are out of ...