I’m training for the Knoxville Marathon which means working out has become part of my weekly routine.  It sounds strange, but as I’ve been training for the marathon, I’ve noticed some similarities with preparing for online facilitation and it got me thinking about a regimen for online facilitator fitness.

 Be 100% prepared for the day of the event

A runner, like other athletes, repeats his/her training over and over so that s/he is 100% prepared on the day of the event.  Due to so much preparation, prior to the day of the event  s/he has experienced a range of what could go wrong (shoelace breaks, thunderstorms, etc.).  If you’ve spent the time to learn the features of your virtual classroom tool, practiced with a few different mock audience audiences, you’ve no doubt had to troubleshoot different situations in the virtual classroom:  audio didn’t work, you forgot to prepare a poll, switching between application sharing and your PowerPoint slides was clunky.  A large amount of practicing is the best way to ensure you will be a peak performer on the day of the event.

Warm Up Before You Start

The runner does not arrive at the starting line as the start gun goes off, nor should the online facilitator login to the classroom as the session is scheduled to start.  Login at least 30 minutes early and do a final check to make sure everything is working correctly in the meeting room.  Warm up your voice with some voice exercises and rehearse any last minute items as needed.

Fuel Your Body

To keep going in a race, a runner eats the right breakfast and brings along sports drinks and other food to fuel her body.  Likewise, you never want to start a virtual training on a empty stomach or when you are dehydrated.  Eat well before your session and keep water handy.

Focus and Eliminate Distractions

Athletes are known for their ability to focus their mind to accomplish remarkable feats.  Likewise, the online facilitator needs to focus completely on the task at hand and eliminate potential distractions.  Put a do not disturb note on your office door or front door at home, silence your cell phone,  close applications on your computer that you won’t use during your session,  and if at home, put pets in a place where they won’t disturb you.

I hope these tips give you some ideas on how to improve your online fitness for virtual events.  Happy training!

As the number of organizations with a global footprint continues to grow, the training function in an organization must keep pace with this trend by offering training solutions designed for global audiences.  To reach global audiences efficiently, many organizations offer training delivered in a virtual classroom using web conferencing technology.

Successfully delivering training in the global virtual classroom requires more than simply placing your slides from an in-person training into your virtual classroom tool, as many have learned the hard way. Both the course materials and facilitation techniques must be adjusted for delivery in the global virtual classroom. The importance of making adjustments applies to those who regularly facilitate in-person training with for global audiences and are asked to facilitate that same training in a virtual classroom, as well as those who regularly facilitate in a virtual classroom for national audiences and want to add international participants to that mix.

I recently wrote an Infoline on Facilitating in the Global Virtual Classroom, published by ASTD Press, to explain best practices for facilitators and instructional designers who deliver or plan to deliver training in a global virtual classroom. The Infoline describes how to adjust your delivery style, language and content for the global virtual classroom.  It also includes ideas on how to keep participants’ attention, work with a producer, techniques for rehearsing and dealing with global logistics.  The Infoline is based on years of experience of facilitating in the global virtual classroom and it includes tips on what I wish I had known when I was new to this area.  If you find the content helpful or would like to share something that I missed, I’d enjoy hearing your feedback.

This weekend marks the end of daylight saving time in the U.S. which means we will set our clocks back one hour. The times of year when daylight saving time goes on or off  can cause a confusing day or two as we adjust to the change, whether we had prepared for it or not.

Daylight saving time can also be costly in the virtual classroom if you are not prepared for it.  If you will be doing a live virtual event in the fall or spring near the daylight saving time switch, pay close attention to time zone differences since not all states or countries observe daylight saving time uniformly.

What this can mean for virtual instructors or participants is that if did not take into account daylight saving time changes when announcing the start or end time of your session and, you may accidentally indicate the wrong time.

For example, in the U.S. Arizona  and Hawaii  do not observe daylight saving time.  Elsewhere around the world, people change their clocks, but not the same date as we change in the U.S. Many countries in Europe marked the end of daylight saving time on October 30 this year as compared to November 6 in the U.S.  And in other parts of the world such as Africa, Asia and parts of Latin America do not observe daylight saving time at all.

To help make sense of which locations are changing their time and on what days, use online resources such as  Daylight Saving Time by Country and Daylight Saving Time Around the World 2011.

These tools can help you to avoid showing up in your virtual classroom an hour early or late.  And for those of you who are setting your clocks back an hour this weekend, enjoy the extra hour of sleep!

Photo credit: Flicker simpologist

It’s Halloween and a spookier day than normal with monsters out and about. Are there monsters lurking in your virtual classroom?  If so, here are a few ideas on how to handle them:

Wireless Goblin: This monster likes to appear right as you are about to start your virtual classroom session, especially if the instructor’s computer is on a wireless network.  The Wireless Goblin disrupts the wireless network, causing loss of access to the virtual classroom.  To handle this monster, ensure that the instructor’s computer is on a wired Internet connection.  Have a back up internet connection in place as well such as a portable wireless hotspot.

Chained Mummy: The Chained Mummy visits those who are scheduled to participate in your virtual classroom and chains them to their email or other tasks, causing them to show up late to your course.  The Chained Mummy is relentless and even if the enrollee manages to break free of the chains to email, he will quickly chain the enrollee to another task, causing him/her to arrive even later in the virtual classroom.  To combat this monster, prepare a brief email message and send to enrollees the morning of your session and one hour before your session to remind them of the start time and classroom URL.  Log on to the session early and 10-15 minutes before the session starts, begin sending instant messages with the start time and classroom URL to those who have not yet joined the virtual classroom.

Silent Ghost: The Silent Ghost terrorizes virtual facilitators and appears when you ask participants a question and expect them to respond verbally or via chat.  The dead silence that occurs while you wait for a response from participants can be agonizing.  The Silent Ghost loves impatience and will never leave your classroom if you rush to fill the silence after you ask a question.  To overcome the Silent Ghost use three techniques: (1) asked pointed questions, (2) tell participants how to respond, either through audio, chat or both, and (3) pause and count to 10 to allow time for participants to un-mute, gather their thoughts to type a response.

Noisy Ogre: The Noisy Ogre causes the opposite problem of the Silent Ghost.  The Ogre causes background noise to flare up as the facilitator speaks, making it difficult for participants to hear.  Example include not muting the phone, banging on the desk, or breathing into the phone. The Noisy Ogre can be quickly defeated by instructing participants on how to mute their phone or microphone.  Also, some virtual classroom tools and conference call lines allow the instructor or a third party to mute all lines when the Ogre comes around. 

Exercise Zombie: The Exercise Zombie feeds itself on poorly designed exercises in the virtual classroom.  He comes to life during the most important sections of virtual classroom instruction, the interactivity, and thrives on confused and frustrated participants.  To keep the Exercise Zombie away from your virtual classroom, make sure you rehearse your exercises with a mock audience.  Instructions that may be crystal clear to you, may be murky to others.  By rehearsing, you can find and fix the exercises so they will run smoothly in your live session.

 Photo credit: Flickr – Simon Owen Design

Has this ever happened to you:  you announce a training session that will be delivered in a live virtual classroom and someone who would like to attend but cannot asks if he or she can get access to the recording.  Recording virtual classroom training is usually just a matter of learning how to set up the recording and how to retrieve it so you can share it with others.

Recording a session can be beneficial, however, the real question to ask is whether or not it makes sense to record and how the recording could impact the live session.  For example, last week at my work at the World Bank, we offered a session on women’s security issues when traveling in Latin America.  Some women who wanted to attend had conflicts and it was tempting to record the session so they could listen to it on their own.  However, we wanted participants to share personal experiences during the session and we thought that recording might inhibit sharing, so we opted for no recording.

Think about bringing a video camera into a face-to-face training session, announcing to participants that you will be recording the training, then posting on the company intranet.  Would participants behave differently because of the camera in the room?

While recording training in a virtual classroom is much more subtle (participants may not even know that they are being recorded), thinking through the impact of a recording is worthwhile.  Here are few items to consider:

Tell participants they are being recorded

Announce at the beginning of the session that you are recording and explain how the recording will be used and who will have access to it.

Encourage people to attend the live session

Don’t offer the recording to people as an equal substitute for participating in the live virtual classroom.  Offer the recording to those who may need to leave early or to those who participated and want to review some sections of the course.

Record sessions that focus on process, policies, and systems

Sessions that are business oriented are good candidates for recording. Examples include training on software or web applications, new hire orientation, training on a new industry regulation, etc.

Use discretion when recording sessions that encourage self-reflection, personal stories.

Sessions where you want participants to share personal stories or experiences may not always be good candidates for recording.  This includes leadership training, career management, communications training, conflict resolution, etc.  Typically at the beginning of these types of training sessions the facilitator contracts with participants to agree that what is shared in the classroom, stays in the classroom.  If you record this type of training, a participant may decide not to speak up and add to the discussion for fear of the recording getting into the hands the wrong person.

Edit the recording

There may be some session where you have encouraged personal stories that are not appropriate to share with a wider audience, however the session also includes valuable gems that are worth sharing with those who couldn’t attend the training.  For example, let’s say your leadership training includes a personal testimonial from a senior leader who is the course sponsor who has weathered thousands of issues of all types.  You may want to share his/her valuable insights with a broader audience.  If you decide to record a session like this, use your power as the producer to edit the recording, keeping the gems and removing information that may be too personal.  You will gain the trust of your participants using this technique if you tell them that you will edit the recording prior to releasing it.

If you have either attended or facilitated training in a virtual classroom you know that maintaining a high level of interactivity is key to keeping participants engaged.  Here are ten ideas for exercises to try in your next virtual classroom session:

1. Discuss a picture
Display a picture that illustrates a concept you are teaching.  Ask the audience to call out or type in chat what they observe in the picture.  You can do this as an icebreaker by showing an image of an optical illusion then ask or poll people on what they observe in the image.

2. Discuss a video
Just like in a face-to-face setting, it’s good use multi-media to add variety to the classroom.  The best practice for video is to load it and play it within your virtual classroom, rather than try to stream it live.  If you want to use a video from Youtube, try using the Youtube Downloader tool to get a version of the movie that you can upload into your classroom.  Short 1-2 minute videos work best.

3. Play a game
Young and old alike always enjoy playing games.  Plan a game for a section of your training where you think energy may wane, or for the end of session to end on a fun note. You can display a slide with empty boxes that represent the letters of a phrase and a clue at the bottom of the screen, like the Wheel of Fortune game.  Then go down the participant list and ask each person to guess a letter.  Use the annotation tools to write letters on the screen as people guess.  Try other games like Jeopardy or hangman.

4. Poll before revealing content
To get a point to stick, ask participants to reflect on a concept by creating a poll.  Post the poll first, gather input, then reveal the content.  Your poll could be fact-based (“what is the #1 cause of x?”) or opinion-based (“Based on your experience, why does x happen?”)

5. Prioritize a list
Focus the group on where their priorities lay by asking them to call out items while you make a list on the whiteboard or poll pod.  For example, ask “What are the qualities of a good mentor?”  Once you’ve gathered the typed list of qualities, copy and paste into a poll and ask participants to select the top 3 qualities that make a good mentor.   Your poll results will reveal the most important qualities, as prioritized by the group.  Use the poll results as the basis of a discussion.

6. Scavenger hunt
If your participants need to know how to access information on a website or how to use an application, place some questions about the website on the screen such as a poll question and a question to respond to via chat.  Then ask them to open a new browser and go to the site to search for the answers to the questions.

7. Whiteboard squares
Draw squares on the whiteboard and ask participants to type their name in a square to claim it.  Then ask participants to write the answer to a question in their square using the drawing tools.

8. Partner chat
In a traditional classroom, trainers often ask participants to discuss a topic with a partner or in a small group. You can replicate this exercise in the virtual classroom using chat.  With Adobe Connect, you can post multiple chat pods on the screen.  Prior to posting the pods, use the ‘rename’ function to rename the chat pod with the chat partner names.  Post a question on the screen for participants to discuss, then watch the screen explode with activity.

9. Virtual role play
Without the visual clues and body language of a face-to-face setting, it’s difficult to carry out a traditional role play exercise in a virtual classroom.  However, scripting the role play provides a starting point.  On a slide write a script for 2-3 characters where each person speaks twice.  Ask for volunteers to read the script.  You may find that participants who are reading the script will continue the role play on their own – the script helps to get them started. Facilitate a discussion around the role play afterwards.  This activity is described in full in The Book of Road Tested Activities.

10. Chat takeaway goal
As you conclude your session, ask participants what their #1 takeaway goal is after completing the training.  Ask them to type a response in chat.  Tell participants you will email them the goal as a reminder in 3 weeks.  Thanks to Anne from Sodexo who shared this idea at the ACL Conference in 2010.

For more ideas on activities to include in your virtual classroom, get a book like The Book of Road Tested Activities or visit Thiagi’s Training Games site, and look for activities that you can convert to virtual settings.

Yesterday I had an interesting conversation with a friend whose kids are Canadian rock stars in the band, The Trews, currently on tour with Kid Rock.  He mentioned that their performances have improved remarkably while touring.  When I asked what they attribute their improvement to he mentioned that Kid Rock, a music perfectionist, suggested that The Trews watch recordings of their recent performances.  Watching and listening to themselves on stage has allowed the band see the audience’s perspective and reveals to them where they can improve their musical performance as well as things like where to stand on stage, how the set looks, etc.

Facilitators in the virtual classroom can follow this same practice to improve their online facilitation techniques.  Recording your session in the virtual classroom is generally a simple process.  If you work with sensitive content or for some reason cannot record a live classroom session, try recording yourself without participants.  It won’t be quite the same as a real class, but you’ll still learn by listening to yourself.  As you review the recording make note of:

• Voice intonation – does it vary?
• Clarity of speech – did participants understand what to do when you gave instructions for an exercise?
• Pacing of speech – was it too fast or too slow?
• Interactivity – did you engage the audience every few minutes by asking questions and using the interactive features in your classroom?
• Chat comments – did you incorporate some comments/questions posted in chat into your session when you were speaking and encourage participants to chat or did you ignore chat comments?
• Screen annotation – did you annotate the screen while speaking to keep emphasize key points?

As painful as it may be to listen to your recorded voice, it can yield tremendous benefits.  I recently listened to recordings of my webinars and found that I needed to slow the pace of my speech since I typically have non-native English speakers in my sessions.  I also discovered a typo on a slide and a segment of the session where I needed more interactivity

So if you want to be a better facilitator in the virtual classroom, try hitting the rewind button on your session recording and get your notepad ready.  It will help you become a rock star facilitator in no time.

Over the last two months I had the opportunity to work with ASTD to produce four large scale webinars that were part of the TechKnowledge 2011 Virtual Conference.  Each webinar featured a presenter who had presented a session at the actual conference, and then delivered a similar session via WebEx to a virtual audience.  Since speakers were selected based on their popularity and appeal to virtual learners, enrollment in the webinars was impressive, ranging from 500-1,000.  The webinars were interactive and used one-way audio: the audience listened through a phone line and typed questions into chat.

The presenter tasks were:

Presenter: Subject matter expert

• Addressed the audience verbally by presenting his/her topic
• Advanced slides
• Gave verbal answers to questions posted in chat (with the help of the webinar moderator)
• Not active in chat

The technique we used to produce these large scale events was a two-person production team.  The purpose of the production team was to support the presenters and the audience during the live event.  The roles were divided like this:

Technical Producer (Production Team Member #1):  Responsible for managing the webinar technology

• Opened and closed meeting room
• Muted and unmuted phone lines
• Provided guidance via chat to those experiencing technical difficulties
• Passed ‘control’ of meeting room from speaker to speaker
• Recorded session for later posting
• Typed comments in chat to answer logistical questions (ex: “slides will be mailed to you along with the recording”, or “dial xxx for audio”)

Webinar Moderator (Production Team Member #2): Responsible for moderating the event

•  Monitored questions that participants posted in chat, looking for common themes and interesting questions
• At designated times, verbalized questions to speaker, serving as the ‘voice’ of the audience
• Typed comments in chat to supplement speaker’s presentation such as names of books, authors or other resources

My role was the webinar moderator.  I’ve never moderated such a large event, and I have to admit, I didn’t realize it would be such an intense experience.  With such a large audience, the sheer volume of questions was amazing.  I kept a Word document open and pasted interesting questions from the chat box into categories that corresponded to the speaker’s presentation.  As I was doing this, I also listened to see if the speaker answered any of the chat questions in the course of his or her presentation.  Some speakers glanced at the chat area and responded to random questions or comments.  Either way, if the speaker had already addressed the question, I removed it from my list.  Then, when we paused for questions, I checked my Word document and verbalized questions for the speaker to answer.

I also listened carefully to the speaker to see if he or she mentioned any resources.  If the speaker mentioned a good book, research article or website, I typed into chat is case participants didn’t hear clearly.

If you plan to produce a large scale webinar where you plan to interact with your audience, I highly recommend a two-person production team.  Both of us worked at break-neck speed for the duration of each webinar and neither of us could have done it alone.  Finally, if you will be the technical producer or webinar moderator for a large webinar, do as much preparation as you can to prepare for the event (testing equipment, creating back up plans, and reviewing speaker materials) and get ready for an exhilarating experience.

Imagine yourself in a virtual classroom. The instructor puts an image of a game of cricket on the screen and says: “Sometimes dealing with pressures at work may feel like a game of 20/20 limited cricket where you are chasing a score of 220 and it’s the last over.  You have the best fast bowler to face and only one wicket in hand!”  If you are an American, the analogy to cricket would probably fall flat.  You wouldn’t know what the instructor was talking about.

A scenario like this would leave learners feeling excluded and thinking virtual classroom training is not going to meet their needs.  However, when virtual classroom training includes global participants, scenarios like this happen all the time!  Here are five areas to consider when preparing for a virtual global audience as a facilitator and/or designer:

1. Logistics: When you select the time and date for the training, keep in mind time zones, national holidays and the official work week.

2. Content: In a physical classroom you can easily spot cultural misunderstanding — quizzical looks staring back at you – and quickly clarify.  Since the facilitator cannot make eye contact in the virtual classroom, it’s critical to comb through your materials and adjust or remove culturally inappropriate content.

3. Learning styles: An exciting aspect of a global audience is the diversity in virtual classroom.  Match diversity with diversity by offering participants a variety of exercises and even give them the options for responding: type in chat or verbalize.  Use polls and instant feedback tools to engage participants and overcome shyness around speaking or typing in a non-native language. Remember, there is no magical solution for addressing culturally diverse learning styles.  What is important is the facilitator’s awareness of different learning styles and incorporating a range of activities to meet those diverse needs.

4. Rehearsal: One of the easiest ways to identify and correct unsuitable content in a global training program is to rehearse with a mock audience. Include participants from the target country(s) and instruct them to listen and look for items that aren’t culturally appropriate or won’t have meaning for a global audience.

5. Facilitation: Once you’ve adjusted your material, it’s time to think about the spoken word.  As you facilitate, use “international” English that is free from slang, idioms and references that only people from one country would understand.  In a face-to-face setting, learners can rely on body language, facial expressions and a bit of lip reading to fill in language gaps.  In a virtual classroom, these cues are limited or absent, so adjust your speech to compensate.

By taking the participants’ perspective and making adjustments based on them you’ll make participants feel included and maximize learning transfer — regardless of their location or cultural background — and make them eager for more.

Read the full version of this article in Training & Development Magazine (registration required) or download it from the Resources section of this web site.

Last post I wrote about fundamental concepts regarding using PowerPoint slides in a web conference.  This post covers ideas to enhance images to make your images and slides look professional.  Note that these tips are written for PowerPoint 2007.  For those who are visual, I recorded a 3-minute ScreenR demo of these tips.

1. Outline your images

Once you’ve found the right images to represent the key concepts and ideas to include in your PowerPoint, you can give them a polished look by applying a “picture style.”  Simply click on the image and you will see the Picture Tools feature activate at the top of the screen.  Select one of the picture styles that you like.

2. Remove the background from an image

If your slide background color is not white, placing an image with a white background won’t look right.  But it’s easy to remove the image background to make it blend in with your slide.  Click on the image and the Picture Tools feature will activate.  Select Picture Tools > Recolor > Set Transparent Color.  Then click on the image background you wish to remove and it will disappear.

3. Incorporate text onto images

One way to make images more appealing and professional looking is to select an image that contains space to write text.  For example, to convey the idea of something brief, select an image of a person holding a blank card.  Then click Insert > Text Box and draw a text box on the image.  Write something such as “Use limited text” in the text box. You may need to resize and recolor the text to improve the visibility of the text.