To paraphrase Malcolm Knowles—the father of andragogy—adults learn best when the following conditions are met:

• Why they need to learn something is obvious.
• What they will learn is immediately relevant to them.
• How to apply the learning to specific tasks or problems is clear.

More recently, brain science, like what John Medina highlights in Brain Rules, has shed more light on learning—like how repetition, both in the short term and over time, is essential and the importance of vision of learning.

Fine and well—probably, none of the above is news to you. But how do you translate what we know about how we learn into good learning?

Jeff recently put together the free resource “Tips for Effective Online and Hybrid Education” that offers five concrete tips that build on the foundation of andragogy and brain science. And, despite the title, the tips really apply to offline education too.

We hope you enjoy the no-money-no-personal-information-required resource, and we welcome your comments.

Celisa

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We released our report Association Virtual Events in April, and this month we’re taking part in a free educational Webinar sponsored by iCohere that’ll add color from six meeting leaders to the aggregate survey data contained in the report. Jeff and I will present along with panelists sharing their experience from the trenches of virtual conferences, trade shows, and other events.

• Marie A. Bass of the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA)
• Regina Coll of the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC)
• Jack Coursen of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)
• Helen Li of Abt Associates (USAID SHOPS Program)
• Tom Manning of Learning Forward

Issues we’ll tackle during the Webinar include the following:

• Once you build a virtual event how do you get people there and keep them there?
• Can you make money off a virtual event? Does it even matter? Isn’t engagement what it’s really about?
• Who’s having success with online conferences and why?
• Do virtual events attract more younger or older people?
• Which will dominate in the future—the hybrid or the stand-alone virtual conference?
• Are 3D environments the future?

Although the Webinar is free, space is limited, so sign up today for “People, Profits, and So What? Virtual Events: The State of the Sector,” which will be held Thursday, May 31 from 2:00 to 3:15 pm Eastern.

Celisa

P.S. If you’re interested in virtual events, in addition to the Association Virtual Events report and the free Webinar, I also recommend our online virtual events resource center.

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Source: Associations Now

A tidbit on virtual meetings in the April/May Associations Now caught my eye (of course). In “Cautious Optimism in Recovery,” a heading asks, “Have Virtual Meetings Found Their Level?”

My guess is no. But I do think the adoption of virtual-only meetings will continue to happen gradually for the next several years. ASAE’s data shows that virtual-only attendance has grown from 6.3 percent in 2009 to 8.5 percent in 2012. Modest numbers to be sure, but they are rising.

According to an online survey we conducted at the end of 2011, a little less than three-quarters of organizations that have already offered a virtual event tied it to a place-based event (regardless of whether the events were held at the same time), leaving only a quarter to offer the digital event as a stand-alone. In marked contrast, 42.9 percent of organizations that said they were planning a digital event in the next 12 months intend to hold it totally separate from a place-based event.

As I’ve hypothesized earlier, these numbers suggest digital events now may need a connection with place-based events for legitimacy or appeal. But over time, as attendees become more familiar with the offering, organizations may find it easier to sign folks up for a completely virtual event and thereby avoid the expense of a hybrid—organizations putting on hybrid events add the technology costs of a digital event to the already substantial costs of a traditional bricks-and-mortar conference.

Which is why I think virtual meetings haven’t yet found their level—but I look forward to seeing what the data shows in the future.

Celisa

P.S. If you’re interested in virtual meetings—whether hybrid or stand-alone—you might be interested in our Association Virtual Events report, which we released last month.

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Jeff and I (really, more Jeff than I) have been tweeting, in my totally unbiased opinion, some pretty interesting things (as @tagoras). In case you missed them, I wanted to highlight five from the last couple of weeks that I’m certain (see #4 for why this’ll be a good learning opportunity for me, if nothing else) are worth your while.

1. Seth Godin on Pricing

Seth Godin, with some of his signature blog brevity, cuts to the quick with his observations on why low price probably isn’t the tack to take with your association’s learning products—a point Jeff has made many times, including in a blog post on pricing online learning.

2. “Why Landing Pages Are an Indispensable Part of Marketing”

This post is part primer, part evangelism, part nitty-gritty how-to. If your organization isn’t using landing pages for its education products, now is the time to be converted. Jeff and I spoke at the Association Executives of North Carolina (AENC) technology conference on April 20 and offered 7 marketing power tips. At the top of our list? Investing in copy. Which jibes nicely with the indispensability of landing pages. (And if you’re interested in the other tips, see slide 40.)

3. “‘Free-Range Learners’”

Yes, everything is organic or free-range these days, even learners. This post on The Chronicle of Higher Education blog looks at a study of how college students augment their studies with material beyond the syllabus—habits described as free-range learning. The results of the study “should be welcome news for government agencies, universities, and others in the business of publishing online libraries of educational content” (ahem, associations) but also suggest a declining role for “‘conventional authority figures’” (ahem, associations again).

4. “Certainty Principle: People Who Hold False Convictions Are Better at Retaining Corrected Information”

I’ll confess I find brain science fascinating, and so I was a sucker for this Scientific American piece that looks at how we learn from our mistakes. Cognitive psychologist Robert Bjork says, “‘These findings and related findings suggest that in order to increase the effectiveness of long-term learning and understanding, we should structure instruction and training so that likely errors and misconceptions will come up during the learning process, and use them as opportunities for learning.’”

5. “Single Best Way to Transform Classrooms of Any Size!”

Cathy Davidson, on the HASTAC (Humanities, Arts, Sciences, and Technology Advanced Collaborative) blog, proves that collaboration and engagement don’t take a lot—just some index cards (and even those aren’t strictly necessary). In six steps, she shares her best classroom trick—one you can use yourself or share with your organization’s presenters and facilitators.

***

If you like reading things like these, follow @tagoras on Twitter for more good stuff.

Celisa

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Assessment is critical for learning. We know that formative evaluation helps learners consolidate knowledge as they’re taking it in, and summative evaluation gives instructors, learners, and other interested parties (associations, accrediting bodies, employers, etc.) a stick by which to measure mastery of concepts.

But how do you write assessments effectively–or make sure those tasked with writing assessments for your association do so effectively–to ensure your organization and your learners reap the full benefits?

I’ve just put together the free resource “Writing Effective Multiple-Choice Questions” that can help. The no-money-no-personal-information-required, six-page PDF includes:

• A look at the critical tie between learning objectives and assessment
• 3 tips for writing assessments in general
• 6 tips for writing multiple-choice questions specifically
• A simple worksheet for authoring multiple-choice questions (part of the PDF and available as a separate, editable .doc Word file)

“Writing Effective Multiple-Choice Questions” can work as either a primer or as a refresher–we can all benefit from a little repetition and some reminders. Doing things well mostly isn’t a matter of rocket science but of remembering to do what we know we should.

And if you have assessment writing tips to share, I welcome your comments below.

Celisa

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I mentioned in my previous post on the Social Media Marketing Industry Report that I would do a separate post on Social Media Examiner’s online Social Media Success Summit. Mainly, I want to highlight 7 key aspects of the event landing page that I think organizations planning virtual events should note. Here’s a very quick rundown:

1. Strong headlines that grab attention and convey value to the prospective attendee. (I discuss headlines in a recent post on promotions.)

2. Social proof all over the place. For example:

3. A free sample class

4. Good use of simple video to put a face on the event and provide key information

5. Repeated articulation of value throughout the landing page

6. Clear calls to action

7. A guarantee

I could go on – there is a lot to learn from here – but hopefully these key highlights will give you some ideas for promoting your events. You can quibble with the aesthetics or the tone if you like, but the techniques Michael Stezlner and his team are using are tried and true. And, of course, the Social Media Success Summit passes the baseline test of having a very strong line-up of content and presenters.

What do you think? What do you see on the page that you already do or might try in promoting your events (these, of course, don’t apply only to virtual events)?

Jeff

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Before April 19 comes and goes, I wanted to be sure to point out that the Social Media Examiner’s 2012 Social Media Marketing Industry Report is available for free and immediate download (as in no e-mail sign-up) until that date. This is well worth grabbing.

I suspect most readers of the Tagoras blog don’t think of themselves as social media marketers, but you really can’t run any successful business or line of business these days without a reasonable understanding of how to leverage social media for marketing purposes. The continuing education and professional development business is certainly not an exception.

For this report, written by Social Media Examiner founder Michael Stelzner, more than 3800 marketers contributed their input. Some of the highlights from it that I found of particular interest were:

• It looks like video marketing (YouTube, etc.) will be the big focus in 2012. This is really no surprise, given that YouTube is now the second largest search engine and creating and publishing video is now easier than ever. Still, it was telling that 76 percent of the marketers who responded to the Examiner’s survey put video as their number one focus.
• “Market insight” was one of the top three benefits identified by survey respondents (65 percent of respondents indicated it as a benefit). I cover this one routinely when I speak about social media and marketing. We still have a long ways to go, but more and more organizations seem to realize that most of the data produced through social media interactions is trackable, and it can tell you a huge amount about your prospects, customers, and competitors.
• The report also hits on some non-social media marketing approaches, and one of the more interesting finds in this area is that 48 percent of business have no plans to use Webinars for marketing – and apparently this is up from 42 percent in 2011. This is a lost opportunity for these businesses, but it seems like potentially good news for associations who have increasingly found themselves trying to compete with with free lead generation/exposure webinars.

These three points only scratch the surface of what’s in the report. Again, it’s a free download for the next few days, so I definitely encourage you to check it out at http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report-2012/.

Jeff

P.S. – I plan to post about it separately, but I thought I’d also note here that Social Media Examiner will also be running its 4th Social Media Success Summit – a highly successful virtual event – throughout the month of May. If you are interested in learning more about social media marketing and/or want to see a highly successful virtual event in action, this is well worth it.

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**Note: The free and deep-discount offers have now expired, but the report is still available for only $49. But you should still join the free Tagoras Research Community list for free and discounted deals in the future.**

Monday we officially released our new report Association Virtual Events 2012: State of the Sector, which looks at one of the most important emerging trends in association meetings and education. Here on our blog, we announced the release, along with a special 100-percent-off deal for the first three days. However, given a bad link (alas, 100-percent my user error) in Monday’s blog post that we didn’t correct until midday, we’re going to extend the deal through the end of this workweek.

You can get the report—designed for association decision-makers who want leading-edge knowledge to support their strategic planning for virtual events—for free through the end of day Friday (midnight Eastern) if you sign up for the Tagoras research community. Signing up just takes your name, your e-mail, and few seconds, and you’ll get an e-mail with a coupon code you can use to get a free copy of Association Virtual Events.

If you can’t make the time this week, you can still enjoy a deep discount on the $49 downloadable, PDF report—you can get it for just $10 until midnight Eastern on Friday, April 20). Again, all you have to do is sign up for the Tagoras research community.

• Substantial facts and figures from individuals on the front lines of association education and meetings
• Five case studies from associations that have held virtual events—not all of which will be continuing them
• Insights from authors Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele, who together have nearly two decades of experience in helping associations plan and implement learning and technology initiatives

Whether your association is actively offering virtual events or considering the option, this report is a great look at sector trends.

If you miss Friday’s deadline, you should, by all means, still pick up the report. But since you can get the report free for the next couple of days, why not?

Celisa

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**Note: The free and deep-discount offers have now expired, but the report is still available for only $49. But you should still join the free Tagoras Research Community list for free and discounted deals in the future.**

Today marks the official release our new report Association Virtual Events 2012: State of the Sector, which looks at one of the most important emerging trends in association meetings and education. (Be sure to read on for some special report savings.)

Designed for association decision-makers who want leading-edge knowledge to support their strategic planning for virtual events of all kinds and based on survey data collected from 107 organizations, the 43-page Association Virtual Events report provides:

• Substantial facts and figures from individuals on the front lines of association education and meetings
• Five case studies from associations that have held virtual events—not all of which will be continuing them
• Insights from authors Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele, who together have nearly two decades of experience in helping associations plan and implement learning and technology initiatives

The Origins of the Report

Association Virtual Events 2012 represents an ongoing effort to assess the growing role of virtual conferences, trade shows, and other events in the association market and to provide insight into how these events may evolve in the coming years.

This report represents a wholesale update of Association Virtual Conferences 2011: State of the Sector, which we published back in January 2011. (We renamed the report to better reflect the scope of our research, which covers virtual conferences, trade shows, and business meetings, as well as other multifaceted online events.)

Virtual events are something we’ve blogged about a fair amount here. What got us started was a realization that they may be the most important emerging trend in the world of association education. At first, I should admit, both Jeff and I were both a bit skeptical, but we’ve been converted by our research and experience over the past couple of years, as we’ve rolled up our sleeves and found out more about the current state of the technology and some of the successes early adopters have seen.

Even if a virtual event is not in your near-term plans, you should learn more about them as soon as possible—and the new report is a great resource for that.

Special Savings for the Tagoras Research Community

The price for the downloadable, PDF report is a $49—a fraction of what it would cost in time and money to gather, compile, and analyze this information on your own. But we’re offering something even more attractive for a limited time.

Subscribers to the Tagoras research community can get the report for free until midnight Eastern time Wednesday. Signing up just takes your name, your e-mail, and few seconds, and you’ll get an e-mail with a coupon code you can use to get a free copy of Association Virtual Events. So sign up for the Tagoras research community now, before the deal expires.

Celisa

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Next week we’ll release our new Association Virtual Events report. This week we’re reissuing a free (as in no money, no name, no nothing required—just download it) companion to that report: “20 Tips for a Successful Virtual Event.”

If you’re interested in virtual events, whether your association is already offering them or just considering offering its first, we encourage you to sign up for the Tagoras Research Community. We’ll announce the release of the Association Virtual Events report first to that community next week—and offer discounts, including a limited-time 100-percent-off option.

For now, enjoy a couple of the tips we offer up in the free resource “20 Tips for a Successful Virtual Event.” The tips, by the way, are based on input from our surveys and from discussions with virtual event technology providers and with a wide range of associations that have offered virtual events.

Be Clear on Your Business Issues

You have to make sure a virtual event can help with your business issues—which means you need to state them explicitly.

• Are you looking to cut costs?
• Make money?
• Reach new audiences?
• Reduce wear and tear on the environment?
• Respond to member demand for more education?

Whatever it is, clearly state the business issue, so you can determine whether a virtual event is an appropriate solution—even if virtual events are usually cheaper than place-based events, they aren’t cheap, and you don’t want to undertake one lightly.

If, for example, you’re looking to reach the international members who’ve only made it to your past U.S.-based conferences in small numbers, but much of that demographic has if-y Internet access, then a virtual conference might not be the best solution.

Educate—Almost Ad Nauseam

Because so many stakeholders may be new to virtual events, plan to spend significant time explaining what one is and holding hands. Give staff, potential sponsors and vendors, presenters, even attendees access to the environment or a demo, so they can see the platform and get comfortable with it.

Folks will be more likely to pay—whether for a big-ticket sponsorship or a simple registration—if they can see for themselves what the virtual event will be like. Provide training and create videos and demos to show attendees, speakers, and sponsors how to navigate and get the most out of the event. There are plenty of relatively low-cost screen-casting tools like Jing that can be used for creating a simple video tour of your event.

Spell out the benefits of going virtual to sponsors—for example, they can get information about even casual booth visitors who would likely remain anonymous at a “real” event.

More Tips for Successful Virtual Events

Those are just two of the twenty tips in the free resource, so be sure to download your free copy of “20 Tips for Successful Virtual Events.”

And if you have tips and suggestions for successful virtual events, we’d love for you to share them with us and others—you can leave them in a comment below.

Celisa

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