• Online Facilitation

    What Web Conference Facilitators Can Learn From the Movies

    Many years ago, someone in the movie theater business got the great idea of showing something on the screen to entertain the audience during the lead up time to the movie start time.  This meant that those who arrived to the movie early had something to watch to entertain themselves.  Advertisers also seized on this opportunity to market to a captive audience.

    Similarly, learning professionals from CLOs to learning specialists have a captive audience during the lead up time before a web conference begins.  In order to get a web conference to start on time, you need to ask participants to arrive early.  Why not make the most of those minutes leading up to the start time of your web conference by showing pre-session slide show?  The content of the slide should be entertaining, while supporting the material you will cover in your course.  Consider including the following in the pre-session slide show:

    • Interesting statistics (for example, for a computer security course include a statistic about the amount of attempted computer hacks)
    • Famous quotes that relate to your topic (for example, for a writing course include a quote from Mark Twain or Shakespeare)
    • Quiz question followed by the answer. Just like at the movie theater, show a photo of a person or place and a simple multiple choice question.
    • Logistical information. Remind participants about materials they need to have ready, start/end time or other FAQs.
    • Marketing information. Remind participants about upcoming courses follow up seminars, etc.

    How you set up your pre-conference slide show will depend on which web conference tool you are using.  For example, with Adobe Connect you can link each slide to the next to create a loop of slides (do the linking in PowerPoint), then each participant clicks through the slides at his/her own pace.

    Each minute of a web conference is precious, so make the most of the lead up time with a pre-session slide show that peaks your audience interest and gets them into a learning mindset.  Who knows, you may find a pre-conference slide show so helpful that you include it in your face-to-face trainings as well!

    Related Resources:

    Adobe Connect

    CLO Magazine

  • News

    The iPad’s “Disruption” Potential for Virtual Learning

    All eyes were on Apple this week with the release of the iPad, the new tablet PC. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the iPad will be ideal for watching video, reading newspapers, browsing photos. “It’s so much more intimate than a laptop.”

    Chadwick Matlin of Slate.com wrote an interesting article that focuses on the “disruption potential” of the iPad and how this new device will affect various industries. Since virtual learning such as self-paced e-learning and learning delivered via web conference often takes place on a laptop, I’m wondering what iPad will mean for the world of virtual learning? Right now it’s difficult to tell what the iPad will do to e-learning industry, and any seismic changes to the industry are a long way off for many reasons. First, the iPad does not currently support Flash. Many self-paced e-learning programs are built with Flash and Adobe Connect Pro, a leading web conferencing tool, runs on Flash. It also lacks a webcam and only runs on AT&T’s network, so its web reach is limited right now.

    The device is currently marketed as a consumer product, which means that workplace learning programs will not be affected by the iPad for the time being. Right now, a crowd of early adopters is busy trying out this new device and it has a long way to go before becoming mainstream. However, the iPad and similar tablet PCs are definitely devices to keep an eye on. With e-learning courses (mobile learning) and training delivered via web conference (such as WebEx) quickly moving onto iPhones and smartphones – just imagine what that experience would be like on a tablet PC like the iPad.

  • PREP model

    PREP for Web Conferencing Success

    With training budgets tightening everywhere, more organizations are turning to web conferencing to deliver training programs online to save money and time. According to the 2008 ASTD State of the Industry report, the percent of training hours devoted to live instructor-led online training is growing rapidly. Between 2006 and 2007, the amount of live instructor-led online training jumped by 50 percent, from 4.24 percent to 6.39 percent.
    Instructional designers and facilitators new to web conferencing may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of converting live instructor-led courses to courses delivered via web conferencing. While tempting, simply placing the slides used for classroom training into a web conferencing tool and launching a training event will not result in an optimal learning experience for your audience.
    For web conferences to be successful, instructors need to devote time to planning the event, including optimizing the content and exercises for a virtual classroom, getting the right facilitation team in place, rehearsing for the live delivery and finally, evaluating what happened. These steps are the key steps of the PREP (Planning, Rehearsal, Execution and Post Mortem) Model for Web Conferencing. For more information on this model, view an article in ATD Learning Circuits.
  • Global Virtual Training Resources,  Online Facilitation

    Podcast and Job Aid on Web Conferencing

    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.

  • Online Facilitation

    Masie’s Missed Opportunity

    This week the Institute for Corporate Productivity teamed up with Elliot Masie of the MASIE Center Learning Lab and Think Tank to deliver a webinar on Informal & Social Learning. While the content of the webinar was interesting (a summary of findings of research conducted by i4cp with commentary/interpretation by Masie), the delivery was a missed opportunity by Masie to model best practices for utilizing web conferencing software. A few observations:

    1. The first three minutes: My first post on this blog was based on an article by Masie about the importance of the first three minutes of learning, which set the tone for the rest of an event. In this case the first three minutes consisted of an overview of findings as the audience viewed a title slide (not even a slide with key findings). A much more compelling opening would have been to turn some of the more interesting findings into questions for the audience such as, “What was the #1 practice correlated with the occurrence of informal learning?” (answer: sharing best practices).

    2. Duration of each slide: About halfway into the webinar, one slide remained on the screen for 9 minutes as the speakers talked, and the final content slide stayed up for a whopping 12 minutes! Keeping your audience engaged and attentive is an art not a science, but in this case the delivery team could have easily included a few more interesting slides to support their commentary.

    3. Q & A: The last ten minutes of the session were dedicated to Q & A. A good delivery team can weave the questions and answers throughout the web conference. If questions are collected throughout the session, the producer needs to be on the lookout for questions that map to a particular piece of content and get the speaker to incorporate questions from the audience during the entire session.

    Every time we use learning technology, even for a presentation that is not meant to be a true learning event, we have the opportunity to practice what we preach about adult learning. Masie’s content was intriguing, as always, but the delivery needed more polishing.