Behind the Screens: A Look at The eLearning Guild's Online Forum Series

Instructional design

When these monthly Online Forum sessions were first conceived, it was decided that we would have four speakers each month address the same theme from different perspectives. The plan was, and still is, to have an overview followed by three sessions that dig deeper and deeper into the subject.

For the Online Forum Series, we require that sessions be engaging, involve the audience and be much more than a data dump (a.k.a. “chalk and talk”). We’re willing to experiment; we encourage and support speakers’ use of the interface tools so that they can best adapt the instructional design of the session to suit an online audience. Some people are very creative and try a variety of strategies. Many are eager to get participants engaged through formal or informal Polling or by requesting responses in Direct Messaging or even verbally where the speaker releases the Talk button and allows participants to speak up and be heard. Others include activities that call for small group discussions and send participants to breakout rooms

Why do we need to design instruction for online? Can’t we just talk through the slides? Well, no — not really. Sessions need to be engaging and compelling, but online, there’s no place to hide. 90% of what people pay attention to is the voice of the speaker. A few too many “umms,” “ahhhs,” and “ya knows” and people will tune out. If you sound distracted, or are fumbling with the interface, people tune out. Dead air? Deadly! During online sessions, you don’t just have the threat of participants being distracted by something out the classroom window; they are distracted by their jobs, meetings, phone calls, or people walking in the door. Remember, participants’ inboxes are just a window away. Online speakers have to be prepared to capture and maintain interest. It’s important!

Interaction strategies

So how do you build interaction when you can’t make eye contact with people? The Number One strategy, bar none, is to ask good questions! I know, it sounds simple, but doing it well is another thing. Saying “Any questions?” at the end of your presentation DOES NOT count as interaction. That just punctuates the end of the session and confirms the disinterest of the speaker in the needs of the audience. An easy and very effective way for a speaker to connect with participants throughout the session is by asking questions and waiting for responses. It’s as true online as in the classroom, and even more important because it’s the ONLY real-time feedback we have. There’s no eye contact, we can’t see confusion, and we don’t hear sighs of frustration or boredom.

Formal Polling amounts to a pre-created PowerPoint slide that shows a question and several prescribed answers. The answers may be labeled with a Green Check Mark for “Yes” or a Red X for “No,” or with letters A through E. (See Figure 4.) A menu option allows the speaker or moderator to show the appropriate buttons on the toolbar. Participants can then click on the button that corresponds to their choice. Their selection is displayed next to their name in the Participant Info window.

FIGURE 4 Formal polling combines a PowerPoint slide with options to select responses.

Most online tools have buttons that allow participants to respond affirmatively or negatively. Use that toolset for quick audience analysis and impromptu polling. Start using these early by asking easy questions like “If my microphone volume is at a good level and you can hear me clearly please click on the Smiley face. If not, please click the Thumbs down button so we can see if adjustments are needed.”

You can introduce new topics by, for example, asking the audience to “click the Smiley face if you’ve ever created an e-Learning module or course using Flash.” Broaden the response opportunity by adding “If you’ve created an e-Learning course using a different software tool, go ahead and type it’s name into Direct Messaging.” You’ll start to see who’s in your audience, who’s awake, and who has experience. You can further engage the audience by validating their responses. “I see MaryH has used Dreamweaver and SteveS has used HTML. And we have several experienced Flash users. Great! I’m eager to hear your perspectives and ideas during the session today. Feel free to type in your comments or raise your hand to request the use of the microphone.” Voila! NOW you have interaction and an invitation to participate at will. From their point of view you’ve given them permission to participate.

When using a canned slide set with bulleted points there’s not much room for interaction. Participants will simply read along as the presenter describes each bullet. But here’s a handy trick. If there’s a chance that some or all of your participants have a conceptual understanding of the topic (as they should, in our example) you’ll likely find that individuals can guess or anticipate what the bullets are without seeing them.

So rather than showing a slide like Figure 5, below, first, instead show a slide like Figure 6, below. Then, as the entries from the audience appear in Direct Messaging, you can discuss those entries that correspond to your content. When their entries slow down, you can THEN display Figure 4 and discuss any remaining ideas. Sidebar 2 summarizes the process. (Thanks to Bob Mosher for this idea.)

FIGURE 5 This slide presents the speaker’s prepared list of “correct” responses.

FIGURE 6 This slide allows for a more open-ended response from participants.

This, again, is not only a test to see who’s awake and listening, but it is also an opportunity to validate participants’ knowledge without radically changing your lesson plan. And you may also get lucky and find that participants offer a perspective you hadn’t considered.

The extra bonus to using this strategy is the ongoing assessment of learners’ knowledge. If 100% of the participants are able to fill in the blanks you’ve left for them, you’ll have a good indicator that this audience is not as novice as you anticipated. Additional questioning and evaluation will help confirm that fact.

Participants/readiness

There are a few common, solvable problems that participants can run into when using any online interface. Such technical issues can delay a person getting into the session, leaving the help desk to sort things out with the pressure on and the clock ticking. It’s far better to connect with each participant well in advance than to wait until two minutes before start time. I’ve actually had my cell phone ring just as I clicked the Talk button to introduce the first speaker. The caller was someone with a standard technical problem, but I was in no position to help him or her because 87 people were waiting for me to kick off the event.

It’s critical to have participants (and speakers) install and test the software they need well BEFORE the session is due to start. One or two problems are manageable. Ten problems are not manageable, no matter how much support staff you have.

Begin with your software vendor to see if they have a Web page where participants may download software. Also ask whether the vendor supports user installation and testing. If they do, you can refer all participants to them as part of your confirmation notice. Give a due date for performing and testing the installation and login.

If your software vendor does not provide that service, either create a Web page that has all the instructions and a link to the installation files, or send instructions and links in an email. You may schedule “office hours,” specific times you’ll be logged on and helping whoever calls or joins.

We do both. Our software vendor provides the installation page and support. We guide registrants to their Web site AND offer live Orientation. Guild staffer Luis Malbas provides demos and practice sessions for a few hours on the Monday and Tuesday prior to our Thursday events.

According to Luis, about 50% of online registrants login during his office hours to:

• Get a brief demo of the Elluminate Live! Version 5 software interface.
• Experiment with the basic features, such as buttons that indicate smiling or confused faces, thumbs down, applause, and hand raise. They also learn about the Direct Messaging tool that allows participants to use text to communicate with speakers, moderators, or other participants.
• Confirm that software installation was successful. If registrants cannot Join the session they are asked to contact Elluminate support directly. One frequent stumbling block is that users behind a firewall connection need to have a port opened. Organizational restrictions on opening of ports vary, so be sure to check with your network sentry.
• Check their loudspeakers. Interfaces that use Voice-over-IP (VoIP) do not require a phone connection. Participants hear people talking through their own PC speakers. It’s a nice cost savings over bridge or conference calls, or long distance charges.
• Check their microphones. In this interface there is only one microphone and it’s usually pushing the sound of the speaker’s voice. Participants can also use the microphone, but only one person can be heard at a time. There’s a tiny learning curve for people who need to remember to click on the raise hand button to ask for the speaker to release the microphones, and to then to click TALK before they make their contribution to the discussion. One main advantage is more control over background noises like dogs barking and cell phones ringing.

For participants who don’t have a headset, the internal microphone (the small hole in a laptop keyboard panel) is a less-than-optimal option because it can pick up machine noise and create an intolerable online hum. External or desktop microphones are not much better. Invest $20 in a headset (don’t bother with expensive ones; they all break just the same as the inexpensive ones).

Conclusion

Building and delivering online events takes a lot of preparation and a few pairs of hands, but with practice, you can create excellent and effective learning experiences. Sidebar 3 summarizes, in checklist form, some of my key preparation steps. I’ll be sharing more of what we’ve learned over the next several months so you don’t have to be out there exploring alone. I hope you and your team will find this case study of our successes and strategies worthwhile. Please experiment with the strategies I’ve introduced here, and let me know how well they work for you. I also encourage you to write to me to ask additional questions and find out how we’re overcoming specific obstacles. You can also suggest ideas that we might try in our monthly Online Forums. I’m looking forward to hearing from you.

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