Best Practices: Deliver a Great Virtual Training Event!

Everyyear since the late 1990s, more and more organizations use virtual classroomsto deliver instruction. This is true whether the organizations are corporatetraining departments or educational institutions ranging from K-12 throughgraduate studies. Changes in business practices, changes in the studentdemographics of higher education, changes in the technology available toprimary and secondary schools, and changes in the character of daily life allcombine to drive this trend.

But an effective virtual classroom is still driven bythe performance of the instructor, and the practices and skill set needed foreffective online delivery are not the same as they are for the physicalclassroom. Effectiveness online requires particular preparation beforehand, andit takes a different kind of attention to detail during delivery. In a previous article, I offered best practices for planning andpreparation. In this article, I’ll outline some best practices for delivery:

• Use Level 2evaluations, which are assessments in the Kirkpatrick Model
• Use PowerPoint templatesto provide consistent wording across events
• Use webcams toenhance contact with your learners
• Help students andfacilitators use audio options

Ensurelearner understanding by using Level 2 evaluations (assessments)

Using assessmentsin the virtual classroom will provide you with data to ensure your students understandthe content you are presenting. In the virtual classroom, you can’t see the learners,so you must take positive steps to gauge whether they are “following” you. Pollsdo not track correct and incorrect answers and they do not generate a “score.”You must build an assessment where you judge answers and compile a score. Youcan do this outside of your virtual classroom when your virtual training eventis over, or right inside the training event if your platform supportsassessments.

Chat assessments are fantastic for virtual trainingbecause you can interact with students in real-time as they supply theiranswers. Their names are associated with their responses so you can buildinteractive discussions based on the feedback. This provides collaboration andhelps to engage the student into discussion groups to dig deeper into theresponses. Commenting in chat features can also re-educate the students who mayhave missed something and it can leverage other students to collaborate onpoints associated with the learning. These practices are highly recommended invirtual learning. If your platform does not support video you can put up slideswith discussion topics and provide a case study for the students to review. Youshould save feedback so facilitators can grade the responses—these are notjudged and have to be compiled manually during or after the event.

Integrated assessments (Figure 1) provide for instant scoresand can be set up with tools such as Adobe Connect in Virtual Classrooms and standardmeeting rooms (third-party tools only). Such a tool provides direct feedback soyou can see whether knowledge transfer is taking place. Facilitators can makeadjustments on the fly based on student scores. Lower scores by larger groupsmay require more extensive review of content, higher scores demonstrate thatthe students are on track and allow the facilitator to pick up the pace toeliminate boredom.

Figure 1: This is a sample assessmentlaunched from inside the virtual classroom that contains tracking and scoringso the facilitator can maintain control of the event during short assessments

If you are interested in proctoring assessments inside thevirtual training event, make sure your platform of choice offers this optionvia the tool itself or with a third-party plug in. Tracking and scoring ofassessments is a feature that is not widely available in web-conferencingplatforms.

PowerPointtemplates

As part of the standards process (see the previous articlereferenced at the beginning of this discussion), you should create PowerPointtemplates to provide consistent wording across all classes for room etiquette,interacting with instructors, instructions for participation, and housekeepingitems regarding breaks and hands-on labs. (See Figure 2.)

Figure2: This is an example of a PowerPoint slide based on a standard template;only the instructor’s name and photo need to be changed for each class

I like to include an agenda (which I can change as needed)and explain to the students up-front what I will be teaching and when breakswill take place. If any documents need to be downloaded, to ensure everyone isusing the most recent versions, it is a good idea to include this information inyour lobby. Ensure everyone has access to the files before the main eventbegins.

To ensure you design to the specific standardsapproved in your organization, you should have the placeholder slides for userengagement—status option or polls—as part of your presentation. Your producercan open the poll on top of the slide, or you can instruct the students tochange their status based on a question or statement you have. Remember, statusoption responses (with emoticons) are not tracked, but polls have the abilityto track how people interacted with your question. Putting these placeholderslides within the template will ensure that other designers and content writerswill be aware that they must include interactivity with the students every threeto five slides.

Webcams

Webcams allow you to build a bond with your audienceand provide your students with a very dynamic learning event. (See Figure 3.)

Figure 3: Webcams enhance your “presence” in the classroom and helpyou “bond” with students

I recommend using webcams during introductions, atthe beginning of your event, and at the end during Q&A. Because the webcamis live, it is best to turn it off when you are presenting content. One of thebasics of instructional design is that “content is king”—which means we wantthe students completely focused on the learning content. If your webcam isturned on, the movement of the video stream will distract their eyes and theywill not be sure where to look. You do not want your live-video stream to competewith your content. Turn it off and put up a head shot so there is nothing tocompete with them focusing on your slides or videos.

Use your webcam for:

1. Introductions
2. Q&Asessions
3. Paneldiscussions
4. Executivespeeches
5. TownHall meetings
6. Breakoutsessions
7. Groupactivities
8. Proctoringexams
9. One-on-onecoaching sessions
10. Conclusions

Toconcisely summarize the ten situations listed above, I recommend includingthese six specific statements in your own internal standards for facilitators inyour organization:

• Use webcams forintros at the beginning of the event to build a bond with your audience.
• Turn off webcamswhen delivering your training content and put up a headshot.
• Turn your webcamback on for Q&A and discussions with learners so you can give the illusionof eye contact with the people who ask questions.
• Turn on webcamsfor closing remarks and when you thank the audience for taking part in yourtraining event.
• Use webcams forpanel discussions so key opinion leaders can speak to the learners and make theevent more interesting. Remind panelists they can pause their camera when theyare not speaking.
• Use webcams forsmall focus-group sessions and team meetings so the interaction among peers isvisual.

In Figure 4, the virtual training room has only fourpods/windows, including the head shot, visible to students. Keep it simple anddo not clutter your virtual classroom with unnecessary content that you are notusing. When you develop your standards with webcams, be sure to document whenthey are to be used and when to turn them off. Make screen shots of the idealvirtual classroom for your standards guide with clear samples of what the roomshould look like.

Figure 4: Keep your virtual training room simple

Teleconference/voiceover IP (VoIP) standards

If you are usingintegrated audio with your virtual classroom, you can have students dial infrom their telephone directly, or you can have them enter their telephonenumber into the telephony software and the virtual classroom will call them. Ifyou insert Figure 5 (or a screen-shot from your virtual classroom software)into the invitation you send learners, it will be much clearer to them whatthey are to do in order to join the conference.

Figure5: Insert this image (or a similar screen shot from your own virtualclassroom software) into the invitation you send to students

If youare using Voice over IP, you will need to hook up a headset to your computerand test the microphone levels prior to the event. It is always best to use aheadset with a microphone rather than an internal microphone built-in to yourcomputer. This will minimize the echo effects. You also want to turn off yourcomputer speakers so your broadcast of the audio doesn’t playback in yourcomputer. Whatever the preference is for your organization, it is best to havea document to teach virtual trainers how to set up and use the audio properlyand it should be consistent for every event.

Standards andbest practices for virtual classroom delivery: Summary

User PowerPoint templates with placeholder slides to openpolls, leverage status options, or have the students type in comments.PowerPoint slide decks should follow a consistent model with training topic,room etiquette, learning objectives, presenter information, and rules ofengagement.

Assess the learners so you get instant and quantifiablefeedback to ensure the learning is taking place. You can do assessments via interactions,third-party assessment tools, or features of the platform that engage and trackuser progress with interactions. Run surveys or polls at the end of every eventto get subjective feedback. This will help you constantly develop the trainingand make adjustments to assure your model and standards are improving yourevents.

Use webcams to help you connect with your learners, butdon’t allow them to become distractions: turn them off when they are notneeded!

Give students clear instructions ahead of time to help themjoin the virtual classroom event. Facilitators also need training so that theyknow how to set up and use audio properly.

Contact me if you’d like additional guidance, or if you’dlike a copy of my facilitator guide to use as a model when you develop your own. My contact information is in my bio.

Resources

More articles by Jacquie Beck: https://www.learningsolutionsmag.com/authors/99/jacqueline-beck