DEVCO 04 organised its first virtual training in April 2020. The topic of this online event was “Logical Framework Approach and Indicators”, and it was a real success. Evaluations demonstrated that participants felt engaged throughout and that their expectations were met. Learn from this experience, and discover the successful making of an online training.
Most of us have been forced by the recent pandemic to work online and this has been a particular challenge for moving from classroom training to a virtual training environment. Many had never used an online platform for trainings before, either as a participant, let alone a trainer. So here are some useful top tips.
A rich and intense experience
DEVCO 04 has a long experience in organising face-to-face training for people coming from EU Delegations. With the support of the Methodological and Knowledge Sharing facility (MKS) some of the existing learning events have been adapted to a new online learning environment.
In April 2020, the first online course was positively assessed by many of the participants. “I would recommend online learning courses such as this one”, said Panoreja Desovska from the EU Delegation in Skopje and one of the trainees of DEVCO pilot virtual classroom. “Small groups force you to be more engaged. This type of learning experience is also more inclusive and demanding. You have to be fully participating in the discussions and exercises throughout, which is not always the case in a face-to-face classroom.”
For Nicola White, Learning Experience Designer on the MKS Programme led by Unit 04 of DEVCO, and organiser of this pilot online course, the logistics of online events is as important as the content of the course. “Many of our registered attendees were in separate time zones. We, therefore, decided to hold two groups of the same training, giving the participants an option to join one of the scheduled groups.”
The trainers included icebreakers, just as in a face-to-face classroom. They asked participants to stand up at times stretch the legs and come back, to “get out of the screen modality”, explained the trainer Nicolas Dupic.
In the following video, Nicolas Dupic shares his top tips and tools to keep an online learning experience interactive and engaging.
Like a radio show
It’s hard to communicate with learners who have never been in a virtual classroom environment. When the trainer first arrives, he or she can add a message in the chat, “Hi, it’s Nicolas, we’ll be starting in a few moments. In the meantime, are there any questions?” This will help to start the course and make people feel comfortable.
At times when participants log in, they aren’t even sure if anyone is there. By turning the video camera on, the trainer is making his or her presence known right away and can welcome people in the virtual classroom. “I like to think of an online, virtual event as a radio show”, said Nicola White, “it has a conversation, there is ambient noise, and a story or topic to tell, in which a discussion unfolds around.”
The way the event is framed will often shape how the trainer interprets it and conducts it. The trainer is the moderator of a show, he/she is directing the dialogue and managing the process. But make no mistake, how the trainer first appears, speaks and presents him/herself, will set the tone for the whole course. A positive attitude will help the host to lead the way and let everyone know what is being proposed.
In this video, Nicola White explains how she organised DEVCO first virtual event in April 2020.
Top tips for those new to online teaching:
Here are six best practice tips for making online training and presentations more engaging and memorable.
- Clear expectations. Make participants aware from the start that their interaction in the training is integral: they will not just be passive viewers.
- Chunk it! If content is worth remembering, break it up into short topic-based segments. Our typical attention span is on average only 10 to 15 minutes, so keeping online activities topic-based and under 15 minutes will help participants stay focused.
- Frame the instruction. A virtual event has a conversation, ambient noise, and a story or topic in which a discussion unfolds around. Try to bring in some of the elements that hold your interest when watching television commentators or while listening to radio shows. How you speak and present yourself will set the tone.
- Avoid a wall of text. A wall of text on a screen is not much of a visual aid and can lead you down the path of simply reading slides word by word. So, what’s the alternative? Keep it compelling and engaging by using illustrations instead.
- Add the human touch. At the beginning of the session, briefly introduce yourself to bring a personal feel to the online event. Keep the camera on throughout all your presentations.
- Be aware. When you lead an online course, you should take many elements into consideration: the content of the training, the environment you are setting up, and the experience you offer to the trainees. Questions and comments do not necessarily need to be addressed immediately, but you should set respectful ground rules to outline how questions are to be handled. Having a facilitator to watch the chat box for questions and comments allows the presenter to focus on one challenge at a time.
Please share your tips and experiences from online teaching with Capacity4dev below.
Credit: Videos © Capacity4dev| Photo © J. Kelly Brito on Unsplash
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