Leveraging Technology Without Losing the Human Touch: A Conversation with Alicia Hughes

CommLab Podcast with Alicia Hughes

Sherna Varayath 10:02
Hello listeners. Welcome back to the eLearning Champion Podcast where we explore key strategies, emerging trends, and triumphs shaping the world of digital learning.
Are you seeking to innovate with technology while maintaining the human spark?
In today's episode, we are speaking about how L&D teams can leverage technology without losing the human touch. Get ready to spark joy as I introduce our speaker for the day, Alicia Hughes. Hi there, Alicia.

Alicia Hughes 10:55
How’re you doing today?

Sherna Varayath 10:57
Doing well. Looking forward to this interview.

Alicia Hughes 11:01
I am excited as well. Happy to be here.

Sherna Varayath 11:05
Alicia is the Founder of Sparking Up Leadership, enabling leaders around the world to build culture, lead virtually, and spark joy. A lifelong educator, virtual leadership strategist, and keynote speaker, Alicia has over 14 years’ experience leading South Carolina's largest public school. Her work centers on building culture, fostering authentic relationships, and leveraging tools including AI to empower teams to lead with clarity, confidence, and heart. We are thrilled to have you here, Alicia.

Alicia Hughes 11:41
I am very excited to be here, and I appreciate you having me.

Sherna Varayath 11:46
Thank you so much. So, before we dive in, dear listeners, make sure you're a true e-learning champion by hitting that Follow button wherever you're listening in to us from. All right, let's get started. So Alicia, could you share a bit about your journey into virtual leadership and eLearning? What would have sparked your passion?

Alicia Hughes 12:08
It was a happy accident if I'm being honest. I was in the traditional school setting. I was a middle school teacher, and I left for a few years when I had my children. After they got a little bit older, I wanted to go back into the classroom. And I literally stumbled upon a virtual high school position. This was back in 2009, long before virtual education was a known thing.

And so, I started at a pretty small virtual school here in the state of South Carolina, as a teacher. When I got there, I realized the power this place had to change lives. And when you become passionate about something, you tend to find your way into leadership. And so, after about 10 months as a teacher, I made my way into leadership at the school and became an Assistant Principal, then the High School Principal, and eventually the Executive Director leading the entire school. So, it was an accident, but one that I quickly gravitated to and loved, and became my passion.

Sherna Varayath 13:25
That's super inspiring to hear. So, in your experience, what's the biggest challenge that L&D professionals face when trying to build relationships in virtual spaces?

Alicia Hughes 13:38
The biggest challenge is not creating spaces that allow connections such as this. We are literally across the world from each other, right? And yet we talk and communicate and share smiles and joy. But if you don't create the opportunities, people are going to tend to stay hidden behind their screens or not connect and not engage. So, requiring things like cameras on or creating the time to say we're just going to get together and we're going to talk and we're going to get to know each other, that is crucial to building that foundation, to allow relationships to grow.

Sherna Varayath 14:19
Wow, very interesting. Spaces are very much needed in today's hybrid world.

Alicia Hughes 14:27
Correct, yes. And if you don't create them, and require is a strong word, or encourage people to do things like this, they tend to just stay off camera, stay behind that screen, and only engage when they have to respond to an e-mail or complete an assignment if we're in the L&D space. So again, just having these opportunities, that's the most important thing to do.

Sherna Varayath 14:55
Absolutely yes. So, what are your ‘go to’ strategies for making virtual professional development feel more engaging and personal?

Alicia Hughes 15:08
Go to strategies would be to sprinkle in the fun, right? I know that people are there to learn and people want the knowledge and the engagement piece from that academic standpoint, right?

But putting in some of those, let's get together as a cohort and just talk about our weekends. Or here's a fun little Padlet. Put here things that you like to do and use that to get to know each other, and so ‘sprinkling’.

Whether it's your courses or live sessions, just making sure you're adding in that little touch of fun that can spark those connections and allow you to say, oh, I looked on that Padlet and I can see that he or she loves cats. And I love cats, so maybe I'll feel comfortable going to them if I need help or if I have a question. It just allows those connections to grow because you have that commonality. And it doesn't have to be write a long essay about yourself and upload it, and share it out loud. No, just those quick little sparks, those quick little pieces that allow us in each other's lives.

Sherna Varayath 16:17
So you just talked about a virtual sparkle. Could you explain more about what that means and how leaders can ignite it in an online learning type of setting?

Alicia Hughes 16:37
Well, I think your viewers can see that I come with all the energy and all the passion and all the excitement and hand gestures and all the things, and that is my personality. But I tend to turn it up just a bit when I'm on the camera. Because this space can be very cold, very isolating, and very boring if you just come in and give information and read from a script or just talk in a monotone voice. It doesn't excite, it doesn't draw people in, right? It just, Oh gosh, I'm going to look at my second monitor and stop paying attention to what's happening right in front of me. Whereas if you come in with that excitement and that energy and that passion, it's kind of hard to ignore. I'm not saying you have to be this huge performer and that you have to come in all loud. But bringing yourself with that energy and that excitement, that is going to have people say, Wait, I need to look at this screen and not this one over here, or answer that e-mail in the middle of this conversation. And so, bringing your true self, but maybe turning it up just a notch, is crucial to this space.

Sherna Varayath 17:41
Right. It makes people notice.

Alicia Hughes 17:55
It does. I have heard this now for 14 years, that when I enter a virtual room, it's hard to not pay attention, good or bad.

Sherna Varayath 17:58
OK. So that's about a virtual sparkle. How can organizations cultivate a culture and connection with their digital learning programs?

Alicia Hughes 18:20
It comes back to putting yourself into the mindset of how would I do this in a brick-and-mortar face-to-face setting, right? What would I do to build connections, to build relationships, to bring joy, to bring connection? And so, you have to think of how it can apply to this space.

I always tell leaders, it's important to connect in the one-on-one, it's important to build those relationships. So maybe it's a quick little e-mail to someone with a, I noticed in our session that you seemed really engaged or confused or sad. Taking the time to connect outside of this space is crucial. And then doing the things like giving shoutouts. If you were teaching in a brick-and-mortar classroom and you saw someone raise their hand, and said something that was just so inspiring, you would stop and say, Oh my gosh, that's such a great point. Thank you for sharing. And so making sure you're doing the same thing virtually, whether it's in that chat pod or out loud or if you're doing asynchronous learning, taking that time to highlight it, share it out with your class, or your group, or your cohort, making sure you really recognize individually, both on that grand scale in the whole group, but also in those one-on-one interactions.

Sherna Varayath 19:38
Right. What role does feedback and communication play in a successful eLearning design?

Alicia Hughes 19:56
I have taken courses where I have felt like I am literally the only person in the course, knowing full well, if it's a large course, that there are many others out there around the world doing what I'm doing. And so that becomes very lonely and very isolating. And it can be confusing. If I'm taking a course and I'm like, Hmm, I don't quite understand that concept or I need more help, and I don't know who to turn to. That can be frustrating.

So making sure that you have built in opportunities for your group, whether it's five people or 500 people, to connect and engage not only with you, if you're the leader of the course, but with each other so that there isn't that feeling of isolation. I have found those courses tend to be the ones on click, click, click, click, clicking on and not as engaged, not really reading, not really digesting the information, applying the information. Rather, it becomes this checklist mentality. I've got to do this today, let me get through it and get it completed, so I can move on.
Whereas the courses I've taken where it's like, put something in a discussion, put something up into a place where you can discuss with others.

Or here's an opportunity to meet us all together on this day, at this time. Even if they're optional, at least allowing that group to get to know there are others out there and they're not just working in isolation all alone in their Home Office.

Sherna Varayath 21:23
Right. OK. What tools or platforms have helped you enhance collaboration and connection in virtual training?

Alicia Hughes 21:46
I have seen so many over the years, of course, and there are some that I might reference today that are no longer in use. I loved flip or jam boards. All of those have kind of gone out to pasture, if you will. Really, it's finding a tool that works for you and the group that you are engaging with because there are a plethora, they're a mural. There's Miro, Canva does a good job. I can go on and on, but it's finding a tool that you are comfortable leading, you are familiar with. There's nothing worse than being in a training where the person's like, I'm not sure how to work this tool. So, finding that tool that you are comfortable with and making sure when you push it out to your group, to the cohort, your learners, that they also are comfortable with it.

Because if they get in and they're trying to engage and they're frustrated like, I don't know how to add a comment to this or I don't know how to even like that. They're going to quickly disengage, so making sure that it's a simple tool. It's not cumbersome, it's not confusing, you are comfortable with it and the learners are comfortable with it, is crucial. My personal favorite is Canva. I love me some Canva, and it could be because of all the sparkle options that you can do and the colors and the fonts. But when I notice that my learners are having trouble just getting in or they can't understand where to go, I will quickly make sure I find something else that is a little bit less flashy, and easier to manipulate and helps the learner to understand. And for those I go to like a Padlet, that's a pretty simple click. You can add your post and then comment on others. So those types of things tend to be good second choices if I need something quick that's easier for my learners to get into and access.

Sherna Varayath 23:29
Right. How do you see artificial intelligence influencing the future of eLearning? And how can we use it to enhance and not replace human relationships?

Alicia Hughes 23:55
I believe with every fiber of my being AI only helps these connections and these relationships. I'm going to put on my school leader hat for just a second. When I was a school leader, I spent a lot of time looking at data and looking at reports. And then taking that data and turning it into documents or turning it into presentations or turning it into e-learning. And I spent a ton of time on those things. Now, there are so many tools that can analyze data for you. You always have to check and make sure, but it takes that time and really shrinks it down. And then you can take that data and put it into tools like Gamma or even Canva’s doing a great job, taking that and creating presentations and reports. Again, you have to check. It's just the first draft; it's just a springboard. But it takes that time and shrinks it down, which gives you time back to then say, OK. Now I want to meet with this learner that I can see is struggling or this employee that's having a challenging time with this concept. And so, you've got that time back to build those relationships as opposed to spending all your time in isolation, reviewing data, creating reports, creating presentations. So, I believe it is going to transform if we allow it to do so. I know there's still fear and there's still confusion and a lot of trepidation that you and I are no longer going to be doing this because there'll be two bots doing it. But I cannot believe that will happen. I only think of it as a tool that we will use to help maximize our time.

Sherna Varayath 25:41
Right, absolutely. So, could you share an example of a virtual PD or eLearning session you led that really stood out and why it really worked so well?

Alicia Hughes 25:56
I was in that world for 14 years and now I've been out here on my own for about a year and a half. The most impactful ones were those that were starting out, which sounds weird, where we were getting to know each other, where we had a problem, and we came together to try to come up with a solution. But we were new to each other. It wasn't a group that had known each other or worked together. And when I created those, I made sure to embed many opportunities both directly and indirectly for teams to get to know each other. And so you might start off with that first little ice breaker, what's your favorite movie color, car, whatever. But then you take that and use it to create groups, and so we would always do breakout sessions, and I would do the grouping. I'm going to put these two people together and these two people together and allow them that opportunity to talk, to brainstorm, with those platforms that are mentioned as collaborative tools. So, they could have these documents that they could use both in the moment and then after the session had ended, refer back to and also share out with the whole group. And so again, building the opportunity to connect, but then giving the opportunity to actually do is crucial.

The professional development or professional learning that I've led where it is me talking with a presentation of some sort on my screen, those are always disasters. So, you can share information, of course you have to, but it should be very small pieces of information. And then you give it to your learners and say, Let's manipulate this, let's talk about this, let's discuss this and come up with a solution that is the most effective way to lead these sessions.

Sherna Varayath 27:50
What advice would you give to L&D leaders trying to elevate their virtual programs and create a lasting impact?

Alicia Hughes 28:21
Well, number one would be do not sit in front of your computer talking at your learners. That has never been found to be effective, but again, to really focus on those on the other side of the screen. And it can be done asynchronously or synchronously. But making sure you are remembering who is on that other side, what they need, what questions they might have, and being available to support them throughout the whole entire journey. Simply pushing something out into the Internet world and expecting those on the other side to receive it, understand it, digest it, will never work. I have not seen it work in 14 years, ever. So, making sure again, as you're pushing things out, that space is created for those to enter it and say, I don't understand, I need support, I have questions.

Truly engage with that learning, making sure there's an opportunity for engagement, both asynchronously and synchronously, and then follow up. That is my final piece of advice. Following up after the learning is over, whether it's a week course, a one-year course, whatever it might be, having that follow up at the end to say how can I do this better, and do you still need more? Are you OK? Are you ready to take whatever knowledge you have gained and go apply it? Or are there some other things that you need to be successful? So never pushing something out and just thinking it's going to go fly on its own, but making sure that you are there every step of the way, and even afterwards, to make sure that the learning has occurred and is being applied.

Sherna Varayath 30:05
Wow, that's a very interesting piece of advice. This actually was the last question and that brings us to the end of another insightful episode of the eLearning Champion Podcast. Thank you so much, Alicia, for the treasure trove of inputs you’ve shared today.

Alicia Hughes 30:25
Thank you. This was great and I hope it's helpful, and I appreciate you having me.

Sherna Varayath 30:29
Yes, thank you so much. I hope, dear listeners, you're walking away with some fresh ideas and actionable steps to spark joy in your L&D activities. Becoming an eLearning champion is a journey of continuous learning and sharing. Please do share this episode with your fellow peers. Find us on your favorite social media platforms. We love hearing from you. Thank you so much for tuning in to the eLearning Champion podcast. Until next time, take care and happy learning.