Most educators wouldn’t dream of standing in front of a class and never asking a question or inviting participation. Too often, however, presenters at Web seminars (“Webinars”) do just that.
- Webinars: A Beginner's Guide
- Engagement Above and Beyond “The Usual”
- Blending Webinars With Face-to-Face
If our objective as trainers is to impart knowledge and skills that create positive change, synchronous training with Webinars shouldn’t be one-way communication any more than face-to-face training sessions should. With a little forethought, trainers can get remote trainees engaged and interacting – with the trainer and each other.
Take registration beyond an “RSVP”
The origin of the word “educate” is the Latin for “to draw or lead out.” In practical terms, we’ll have a much better chance of getting trainees from Point A to Point B if we understand where their Point A is. A powerful first step in engaging online learners is to use registration to deepen this understanding and frame your content appropriately.
Most Webinar solutions offer registration tools that flexibly allow trainers to ask both open-ended and quantified questions (i.e., those with fixed responses such as multiple-choice). And in nearly every case reporting captures all data on an individual basis, making the registration process a useful pre-assessment supplement to trainers concerned with measuring individual progress.
A benefit to open-ended questions is that they elicit qualitative responses that may uncover unanticipated insights. A best practice for open-ended questions is to use them to directly assess felt needs (“describe what you would most like to learn in…”) or attempt to uncover latent needs (“tell me about your experience with…”). A caution: for larger audiences this may prove impractical if you do not have the time to adequately review the responses.
Quantified questions help trainers assess registrants within specific boundaries. For instance, you may have registrants note their industry, using this information to choose illustrations that are most relevant. A creative use of quantified questions to inform content adjustments is to proactively allow learners to participate in choosing topics. For example, if you have enough time to cover three content blocks and offer a choice of five to trainees, democratic selection would ensure the highest degree of interest.
Adapt presentations to the virtual classroom
Virtual classrooms change a significant component of a learner’s experience: their visual focal point. The old rule-of-thumb that, “you are the content and the PowerPoint slides are your support” gets turned on its head. This increase in the importance of presentation slides demands two critical shifts.
One, trainers must think visually. You need not be a graphic designer, but when the computer desktop is the primary visual focal point, learning to represent concepts graphically increases in importance. Tip: “auto shapes” in PowerPoint are easy to use to diagram relationships or processes. Better, they default to the colors in your organization’s template, ensuring brand consistency and sparing the color-challenged from needing to choose.
Parallel to thinking visually, trainers must increase visual frequency. In a world of infinite distraction, spending too long on any given slide is an invitation to wander. Use of video may provide slight relief, but remember, your audience isn’t captive to your room. A best practice is to spread your content out over multiple slides and move through them more quickly than when face-to-face.
Engage trainees with interactivity – both planned and ad hoc
Assuming your intent is to educate, influence, or motivate, your chance for success will be increased dramatically if you have active, rather than passive, participants. Designing a virtual trainee’s user experience is a purposeful activity.
Most Web conferencing tools offer one or more tools to communicate with an audience you can’t see (polls, surveys, “hand up,” chat, or Q&A, etc.). Some of these may be used ad hoc, but many need to be planned into your presentation. Like learning to drive a car, using these tools begin as intentional actions, later becoming something you do automatically.
Consider these three best practices for increasing interactivity.
One, until using your Webinar solution becomes second nature, plan even your ad hoc interactions by making a note in your presenter notes.
Second, increase how frequently you engage the audience, and remember that what seems unnatural to you will seem quite natural to your trainees.
Finally, invite your class to get hands-on in one or more ways. Handouts provided (electronically) prior to class both provide a roadmap and a place to take notes. Chat features will not only allow them to communicate with you, but each other as well. And a poll not only actively engages, but lets classmates provide real-time feedback to you and each other.
The bottom line
Synchronous remote training doesn’t, and shouldn’t, replace all face-to-face activities, but the opportunities to save time, reduce travel, or increase the reach and frequency of training messages are powerful benefits which organizations can no longer afford to ignore. When approached thoughtfully, Webinars can be highly interactive learning environments that trainees, too, will find a valuable use of their time. And since, as trainers, we are also perpetual learners, adding Webinars to our portfolio of mastery can only improve the value we deliver to both our organizations and trainees.
