Federal regulations require all Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP) participants to meet minimum training requirements each fiscal year (October 1-September 30). Annual CACFP and Civil Rights training requirements vary by state. We encourage you to check with your state agency for specific requirements.
One way to offer training to your sites, providers, and staff is virtually. Providing training virtually can increase flexibility and convenience as well as reduce cost to your organization.
Here are 10 Best Practices for Virtual Training
Make sure you have stable technology. In order to host a successful virtual training session, consistent and stable technology for the presenter is a must!
Record your session. Many video chat platforms used for virtual training include recording features. Let your participants know that you will record the session for them to refer back to at a later time. This recording can also be used for those that could not attend the live session, were late to log on, or had connection issues.
Start your training on time. Arrival times for online trainings are not always consistent. Make the time well spent for those that log in on time.
Encourage active participation. Allow participants to ask questions and share their experiences. You may want to ask attendees to enable their webcam.
Educate participants about the platform. Set expectations and review the basics. Show participants how to use the chat window, mute their microphone, raise their virtual hand, or vote in polls.
Utilize the chat window. In addition to pausing to allow participants to ask questions, use the chat window within your video tool as a method for participants to ask questions. This will discourage interruptions.
Interact with your attendees. If you do not actively engage your audience by asking questions or using polls, they may not pay as much attention. This can lead to the training not being as useful as you had hoped.
Take breaks. Just like in a regular classroom, it is important to take breaks during longer training sessions.
Don’t read to or lecture participants. Keeping participants engaged while not in the same room can be tricky. Mix it up by using video, slides, musical interludes, short quizzes, or polls.
Ask for feedback. In order to make sure trainings are effective, it is always important to ask for feedback on both the content and the delivery. Use a survey to collect feedback on your session.
You can use My Food Program to record the documentation of your staff and sponsor level training, help track who needs new or updated training, and run reports documenting all training requirements. See the links below to learn more about these features.
And if you’re interested in using My Food Program to make participation in the CACFP and SFSP easier, contact us today.