This blog is contributed by Ruchi and Sanjil

We have been doing zoom class for sometime now, but it used to be the live relay of a physical class with lot of participants present physically at IWC and few connected online.  We had our own reservations with respect to exclusively online classes –

·        How will we guide participants through practical?

·        We always encouraged interactive class, How will participants ask questions?

·        Will participants be able to feel the personal connect that one feels in a physical class?

·        What about forms, certificates, kits, etc….

·        How would it be to lecture without seeing the reaction of others, as if talking to oneself?

But as the divine plan had it – situations became such that we were forced to rethink. With series of lockdowns and scare of Covid-19 we had a choice between waiting impatiently or moving ahead with new options. As an ardent follower of Guru, we remembered his teachings and choose to go with the tide and adapt accordingly. We did thorough research in this area, made an action plan to overcome the challenges. 

We knew that same old static contents are not effective for such workshops, in order for workshop to be effortless and successful the presentation style has to be upgraded. As a result, for last two months we have been working extensively to improve the contents of the workshop presentation to match the challenges of communication specially on presenting the techniques while conducting online classes.  We realised that it will become very simple and interesting for the participants if each of the technique can be shown visually through animation.  Our IT background encouraged us to take up this challenge and we were able to transform the teaching material of all slides of the recent classes i.e. Advanced, Psychotherapy into more of a live, moving, visually informative contents. We are continuing to work on others and complete before they are scheduled.

Second challenge was the infrastructure to support fully online class which will help us in interacting, connecting, monitoring and guiding the distant participants seamlessly. We did thorough preparation after watching the online tutorial on how to make it more effective. We converted our 32 inch TV as a bigger screen, so that we have more view area that allows us to see each participant clearly. We already had a good camera with good mic. We arranged for good lights, and a dedicated class setup. Familiarized ourselves with more technical details of Zoom to make most out of it.

We also stream lined the registration process by using online forms, zoom registration, online fee payment well ahead of the workshop date to avoid last minute hitches. This is a big change compared to physical classes where registration process goes on until few minutes before the start of the class.

The result – class was a great success. We were thinking that making it interactive would be a problem, but it was not so. Current movement of everything going online including offices, schools helped. The participants are already familiar and comfortable with zoom now. Even though we had kept separate time for QA, in between, those participants who were quite familiar with Zoom mechanism remained interactive, by raising hands (using Zoom feature) and asking queries and getting response in between. 

When compared to physical classes, it was a different experience for us. We missed the warwellness meditation of physical presence but on the brighter side it was more comfortable for us as a teacher, less tiring, as we were sitting on a comfortable chair. We were with our friend (laptop) on which we have spent most of the working time being in IT.  Communication was seamless. Workshop started dot on time (no loss of time in commutation for participants), it was more focused and interestingly a lot of new things which we added in the workshop content got covered thoroughly in more or less same time frame.

We have received a very delighting spontaneous feedback from the participants.  All this is so encouraging that we would be glad to share this with you…

Feedback received on Advanced class: Class strength: Total: 16 members including 12 freshers, conducted on 23, 24, 30, 31 May as four half day sessions.

[4:22 PM, 5/31/2020] A N Rao: Ruchi, Sanjil .. thank you very much for an extremely well prepared and wonderfully delivered session. As someone who spent and spends a ton of time in the learning space, I came away very impressed with the instructional design. I was hesitant about the program getting delivered virtually but I am so glad I attended it. Thank you and I look forward to the psycho therapy session next weekend .. 🙏

[2:59 PM, 5/17/2020] Srividya: Thank u , for the lovely session🙏

[5:06 PM, 5/17/2020] sujatha: Thank you so much for great session 🙏🙏

[7:42 PM, 5/17/2020] Naina: Namastey 🙏🙏, Thank you so much for such a wonderful session. As always, a beautiful learning experience.

[3:46 PM, 6/17/2020] Sangeeta Bhalla: 🙏🏼For the wonderful workshop with beautiful illustrated visuals, practices, and examples.  Physical one has class energy and social stuff.

However, this online version kept my focus very sharp with super animations and slides.

The presentation was very accessible informative!

Very clear concepts and guidelines.

Feedback received on Psychotherapy class: Class strength: Total: 19 members including 12 freshers, conducted on 6, 7 June as two half day sessions.

[4:11 PM, 6/7/2020] Ruchir: Thank You for the truly informative session. Learned loads .. 😊– Ruchir

[4:58 PM, 6/7/2020] A N Rao: Dear Ruchi, Sanjil ..  the psychotherapy session has really been the best so far as I get a deeper understanding of the underlying principles and the incredible depth the art and science of Energy Healing are built on. You two did a phenomenal job of bringing it to us ( me). Thank you very much. I now have the foundation to internalize it all and start practicing in my own personal wellness journey 🙏

I think this is working extremely well for us as the students. It is almost like a personalized 1 on 1 coaching. The construct and the content of the PPTs are great instructional design practices and learner experience design practices.

In all, a great journey way beyond what in anticipated when i attended the basic session.

[5:15 PM, 6/7/2020] Sonia Gill: It had been a wonderful journey to get into more depths of Energy Healing .The sessions were seamlessly designed .Very informative. Thank you for the wonderful knowledge shared 🙏🏻.

[9:46 PM, 6/7/2020] Vaishali: Thank you for the awesome session.

[5:33 PM, 6/7/2020] Bhagya: Namaste,  I  attended only first session. I could not attend yesterday’s session.  Even though this is my review session I got to learn about lot of new things in this session. I did energy healing courses with others. 🙏🙏

[2:32 PM, 6/6/2020] Pratibha Rani: As you have already observed that understanding of concepts due to animation has become fast.  What I missed was doing practical on fellow participants. Due to this practice opportunity I like physical one more but unfortunately physical ones will take long time in current situation…So given the limitations. The class went really well.. thank you 🙏😀

[1:32 PM, 6/8/2020] Sanah: Namaste! 🙏🏽 Thank you for the lovely and informative online Psychotherapy session over the weekend! The online format worked great and the animations in the PowerPoint made the content even more engaging. The practical demonstrations were also easy to follow through the video! Overall, felt like a very interactive session. Thank you again! 😊😊

 May this experience of ours motivate you all in taking obstacles of life as challenges – an opportunity for new beginning……

Be blessed

Ruchi, Sanjil