6 Tips for Delivering Effective Synchronous Instruction in a Virtual Classroom

By Emily A. Moore

As online presenters, instructors, and facilitators, we can’t force our audiences to be engaged, to participate, or even to pay attention. But by applying the following strategies, we can do the next best thing: we can encourage these behaviors, make interacting easy for our audiences, and reward audience participation with enthusiasm and real-time feedback.

To deliver high-quality virtual synchronous presentations:

1. Begin the presentation with an icebreaker question

 An effective icebreaker question is a question that:

• Doesn’t require a “correct” answer. To open your presentation, asking questions that involve opinions (such as “What are you hoping to get out of today’s session?”) vs. facts require no prior knowledge and can help all audience members feel comfortable participating.
• Doesn’t penalize wildly “out there” answers. Audiences will take careful note of how the presenter handles obviously incorrect, poorly thought through, or off-base answers. Praising the attempt (vs. dismissing or even mildly ridiculing the actual answer, which is never okay) helps set the stage for ongoing interaction. A heartfelt, “Okay, thank you,” is often the simplest and best response to an inappropriate answer.
• Encourages answers that will surprise audiences and pique their interest in the presentation to come. For example, “Research indicates there are three things job seekers can do that consistently provide the best results in terms of getting a job offer. Can you guess what one of those things might be?” would be a great icebreaker for a workshop devoted to job search strategies.
• Reveals a baseline knowledge of a crucial presentation topic. This type of icebreaker can be extremely useful to presenters in determining how to customize their presentation, especially when time is an issue. Example for a workshop on graphic design tools: “From 1 to 5—one being completely unfamiliar and 5 being an expert—how would you rate your competence in using Adobe Illustrator’s pen feature?”
• Encourages answers that others can relate to, to begin building camaraderie. Examples of this type of question include “What industry do you work in,” “Who’s your favorite author/actor,” and “Dog, cat, or neither?”

2. Pace your delivery

Rushing means audiences have a hard time keeping up—and speaking too slowly risks boring them.  

• Shoot for a happy medium (neither too fast nor too slow a pace).
• Pause regularly to allow your audience to assimilate what they’ve just heard and to encourage them to ask questions. Make your pauses at least four to five seconds, even if you have to count silently to yourself and even if it feels uncomfortably long. Less time than that subtly communicates that you really don’t expect, or want, to field audience questions.
• Incorporate humor into your delivery, if doing so comes naturally (but don’t force or overdo it). A little levity, especially at the beginning of a presentation, can set audiences at ease and make the experience more enjoyable. Just be sure to avoid any jokes that might confuse audiences with respect to content.

3. Avoid asking “Does anyone have any questions?”

Few adults will respond to this question in an online setting. It’s too vague and puts too much pressure on audiences, who generally want to avoid feeling uncomfortable or potentially looking foolish. Instead, try, asking this question: “If you had to write [the process or concept just described] down for someone else to follow, which steps would you find difficult to write down because they’re still a little fuzzy?”

4. Ask questions that have specific, correct answers

Audiences can feel foolish or uncomfortable if they misinterpret a question—and specific, closed-ended questions help avoid that. Bonus: Sticking to questions that have specific correct answers can help drive repetition, which helps drive mastery.

5. Ask questions of specific audience members

Calling out audience members by name (“Ralph, can you remind us what the next step of the process is?”) is a high-value approach because it not only allows presenters to spot check the audience’s ability to recall and apply instructional concepts, but also communicates to the entire audience that they might be next—and this expectation drives engagement. It also takes the pressure off (temporarily) everyone else while we engage Ralph.

6. Ask questions of groups

 Arbitrarily divide your audience into two or three groups (for example, the “blue team,” the “green team,” and the “yellow team”) and take turns asking questions of each group. Keep score visibly (for example, by keeping a running total of correct answers on a digital whiteboard.) This strategy, which works best in large audiences (25+), can motivate participation by encouraging healthy competition.

Class management and instructor-to-learner interactions are more difficult to drive in a virtual setting than a face-to-face setting for the simple reason that online interactions are mediated and limited by software and hardware. Applying the strategies listed above can help reduce those limitations, drive participation—and improve learning outcomes.

Image credit: CG Tan