Recently I was interviewed by Charles Gluck for a podcast by the Metro DC Chapter of ASTD. The podcast covers suggestions and ideas for improving web conferences, the roles of the facilitation team, and how to calculate carbon emissions savings when traditional training is delivered via web conference.
You can listed to the podcast by going to Metro DC ASTD Podcast.
After speaking at the ASTD conference in DC this week, I was discussing with a few conference attendees whether or not you can successfully teach soft skills on a web conference. We exchanged a few good ideas including a suggestion from a participant to incorporate video.
The discussion made me realize that it’s not a question of “can” but “how” we teach soft skills. With more than 137 workers worldwide involved in some sort of teleworking, a huge number of managers and others have to be able to give performance feedback or inspire others to follow his/her leadership virtually. Teaching these soft skills in a physical classroom is important, however when we teach these skills in a virtual classroom we simulate the real situation that many people face every day. The tools that virtual teams generally have at their disposal are the telephone and email, so they need to be taught how to deliver the appropriate messages verbally over the phone or in written communication.
Pairing up participants to role play, scripting role plays, and asking participants to type a sample sentence for an email in the chat are just a few of the ways that we can simulate the situations for participants and make the virtual classroom reflect the reality of millions of workers.
I am at the ASTD TechKnowledge Conference in Las Vegas Nevada and what an amazing week it has been. Today I made two presentations on “Facilitating Virtual Events,” one to a virtual audience and one in a traditional meeting room. In the spirit of knowledge sharing, I collected best practices and tips from both audiences and have posted them here. Any other good tips out there?
· Applaud volunteers profusely
· Rehearse in front of my dog
· Don’t read your slides verbatim
· Don’t put ALL content on slides. Slides should reinforce what you are saying
· Use your National Public Radio (NPR) voice
· Don’t limit interactivity to verbal questions. Ask for hand raises. Include electronic click questions, free text response questions, etc.
· Create competitions to add some fun
· If you plan to record, make sure people agree to be taped. Remember that every form of recording is discoverable in a court of law.
· Participants should close all other non-applicable applications to enhance performance and reduce if not eliminate band-width issues.
· Help presenters with developing their own interactive solutions by providing coaching feedback on their rehearsals/teach-backs
· Give a “door prize” ( a gift certificate or book) for participants who complete pre-work (verified by us)
It’s a new year and a great time to set goals. One of mine is to keep my finger on the pulse of what’s going on in the e-learning industry. I’ve compiled a list of useful e-learning websites, many with free newsletters that may be of use.
Association for Talent Development
https://www.td.org/
World’s largest organization dedicated to workplace learning and performance professionals. Learning Circuits is ASTD’s online e-learning source for the latest learning technology news and ideas. Go to ASTD home > Publications > Learning Circuits.
Brandon Hall Research
http://brandonhall.com
Independent research on e-learning trends, best practices, tools and vendors.
Chief Learning Officer Magazine
http://www.clomedia.com/
Articles on a variety of topics and trends in training, and is especially good for organizational issues and innovations in e-learning.
Distance Educator
http://www.distance-educator.com/
Provides publications and research from education, corporate, government/military sectors and is a good site for current news in e-learning. Free weekly newsletter.
E-Learning Centre
http://www.e-learningcentre.co.uk/
Comprehensive portal of information on e-learning, covering key issues and links to key publications and reports.
E-Learning Guild
http://www.elearningguild.com/
The Guild provides a good source of surveys and reports on trends in e-learning. Different levels of membership provide access to different information, however the free membership level includes a subscription to Learning Solutions eMagazine and eLearning Insider.
Learning for International NGOs (LINGOS)
http://ngolearning.org/
Mission is to facilitate the creation, development and support of learning environments in the humanitarian relief, development and environmental sector. Members gain access online courses and e-learning tools.
MASIE Center Learning Lab and Think Tank
http://www.masie.com/
Source of information on technology, business, learning and workplace productivity run by Elliot Masie. Free e-newsletter subscription called Learning TRENDS.
Society for Applied Learning (SALT)
http://www.salt.org/
SALT is a professional society that offers resources and conferences for those in the field of instructional technology. Sponsors three journals: Journal of Instruction Delivery Systems, Journal of Interactive Instruction Development and Journal of Education Technology Systems.
Sloan-C
http://www.sloan-c.org/
A Consortium of Institutions and Organizations Committed to Quality Online Education. Publishes the Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks and the Sloan-C View, a free weekly newsletter.
The Association for Talent and Development (ATD) holds two conferences each year. One of the conferences, ATD TechKnowledge, will take place in Las Vegas, Nevada this year and the conference program was recently posted online.
This year they are offering a track for attendees who are interested in Virtual Facilitation and Delivery. I have the honor of being one of the speakers in this track and I will be speaking about Facilitating Virtual Events: Success Factors from the World Bank Group. My presentation will be based on the best practices I’ve learned from facilitating web conferences over the past few years, with an emphasis on global delivery. If you plan to attend the conference, do let me know.
