Using a ‘virtual teaching assistant’ in live webinars

One of the items we had identified on our roadmap in the introduction of AI technology into our work was the use of AI generated avatars used in the delivery of on-line material. Why is this important? – Well, one of the challenges of running effective ‘live’ on-line training is that it is difficult for the trainer to concentrate on their presentation AND keep tabs on what is going on in the ‘chat’ window, or seeing if any participants have raised their hand because they are having problems or tracking questions being posted by participants. Many companies recommend using two trainers on virtual classroom sessions for exactly this reason.
Profile learning Technologies ran a series of workshops where short blocks of the content were delivered as video presentations involving an avatar – a sort of trainer’s ‘alter ego’. The alter ego, was logged into the session, shared their screen and delivered a short piece, after which the course returned to the plenary discussion for questions and clarification.

Overall, this approach has been a big success. using this technique has several advantages:

  1. The trainer can concentrate on the learners
  2. the session has pre-determined discussion breaks
  3. the delivery of content runs exactly to time!

Sample video module

Tools used:

Adobe Premier Pro, D-ID Avatar Creation tool