The DACUM Virtual Institute

Abstract

When the domestic and international travel restrictions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic made face-to-face training and professional development activities impossible, organizations needed to shift rapidly to a virtual format. One such organization, the DACUM International Training Center at The Ohio State University's Center on Education and Training for Employment, was forced to reimagine its five-day, in-person DACUM Institute—a workshop with a 35-year history of training human resources and learning and development professionals in the DACUM method of job analysis. This chapter examines the opportunities presented by and the challenges inherent in deconstructing this face-to-face experience and reimagining it as a virtual one, the DACUM Virtual Institute. This online program, a mix of synchronous and asynchronous learning activities, puts into practice learning design methodologies and learner experience design principles to capture the essential components of the in-person workshop experience while also leveraging new opportunities afforded by virtual and online learning.