Eight pro tips for virtual training awesomeness

If you plan to offer your successful face-to-face training as virtual training (in a live, online setting), you’ll need to choose the right delivery mechanism. That’s more than just picking which online meeting software to use.  According to Learning Solutions Magazine, “simply moving the content and lecture portions to an electronic means of delivery is what leads to eLearning at its worst: slide after slide of bulleted information and loss of engaging activities and the contributions of individual instructors.”

They suggest looking for ways to capture what a good instructor brings to the classroom, such as responsiveness, interesting stories and examples, a sense of humor and immediate feedback.

To accomplish this, content needs to be repackaged into smaller pieces (perhaps as a PDF or PowerPoint), delivered in short segments and interspersed with questions to promote interactivity. Leverage webinar technology like the chat feature to further promote participation and make the session more of an activity than a presentation.

When the virtual training time arrives, consider these eight pro tips for making it a success.

1. After welcoming attendees, explain how the technology works – including how (and when) to ask a question or participate in a poll – and what you intend to cover.
2. Make any digital handouts available at the beginning or shortly before the presentation, so participants can use it to take notes.
3. Stop talking and listen on occasion (explain why so it doesn’t feel awkward to participants) to catch up with chat and respond to it.
4. If you’re recording the virtual training session and the chat won’t be recorded, read chat items aloud so the recording makes sense to someone who wasn’t there. Just as you do when presenting to a big group, repeat the question aloud before you answer it.
5. Share applications or your desktop as a good way to engage attendees. Rather than show a screen shot of a website via PDF or PowerPoint, go to the website and navigate through the content you are discussing.
6. Use slides to illustrate your points but don’t simply read content from the deck.
7. Conduct a post-training meeting for all the presenters to get feedback on their experience of the technology, the content and the audience reaction. Keep track of what worked and what didn’t.
8. Within 24 hours, provide attendees with any materials you offered, such as whitepapers, the event recording or a copy of the presentation. Also send them a survey.

What additional tips do you have? If you or your programs are already being presented in a virtual training format, contact us to share your thoughts as well as any best practices or ideas that work well for you.

If you would like to know more about the value of having registration software that integrates with webinars, or about registration management software in general, contact us at your convenience.