As trainers we subscribe to the adage that we never stop learning – but we can still find ourselves challenged by a new learning experience.  Having been a full-time professional trainer for over 10 years I have developed a degree of confidence that whatever challenge I may come across during a workshop then I’ve probably seen it before!

However, last week was a step into something new – and something I think we will all become more familiar with over time – live delivery via online training tools.

I have conducted Train the Trainer sessions and client meetings via collaboration tools, such as WebEx, for some time and with good success. But Train the Trainer with a group of colleagues with whom you have a shared knowledge of the subject and mutual trust is not the same as training unknown and expectant paying delegates!

So, what did I learn from the experience? Here are 5 tips if you are planning online live delivery:

1. Design for the medium: You can’t just take a classroom based course and deliver it online. Whilst online environments, such as WebEx Training Center, provide sophisticated tools such as shared whiteboards, polls and break-out groups to simulate the classroom, you have to adapt delivery to suit an environment where people can’t see each other – and you can’t see them. For instance make break-out sessions or other participative activities short but frequent and make instructions very clear, simple and unambiguous.

2. Visuals are critical. In an online environment there always needs to be something engaging (not necessarily PowerPoint!) in the shared screen to keep peoples’ attention. Things that are good practice in a classroom – such as avoiding very wordy or overly complex slides – suddenly become critical in an online environment. It takes some creative thinking to get the right balance between slides, multi-media content such as videos and interactive whiteboard sessions.

3. Get to the point. When your delegates can only see you via your webcam image and you can’t see them at all (unless you all have a lot of bandwidth to allow multi-party video) what you say and how you say it have to be engaging. Personality, humour and charisma alone are not enough and there’s no room for waffle or repeating yourself! I actually scripted in detail some of the key or more complex points and this was very helpful in being clear and concise. WebEx Training Center displays the PowerPoint notes in a separate window (only visible to the trainer) allowing you to read as if reading an autocue. I am not advocating scripting everything – you need room for spontaneity and open discussion – but scripting key points helps cut the waffle!

4. Prepare, prepare, prepare – and get there early! Part of the attraction of online delivery is not having to travel long distances. However, it doesn’t mean you can roll out of bed and to your laptop! Whilst you don’t have physical classroom logistics to worry about, there is a lot to prepare in advance so I found I needed more than an hour to get set up. For instance, uploading in advance all the files you want to share means that delegates do not suffer delays due to your network upload bandwidth. It’s also important to test out all the documents and set the delegate privileges – do you want them to be able to look at any shared document or page within a document or just the one you are displaying, for instance.

5. Keep your delegates engaged! This might sound obvious but in a classroom you can see them – you can make eye contact, move around the room and so on to see how engaged they are. Online you can’t. Sometimes it can feel like you are just talking into the ether. A few things that helped me were:

• a. Keeping delegates unmuted to encourage them to ask questions or comment at any time. This is contrary to other sessions I have attended and probably becomes unwieldy with a lot of delegates but was helpful in keeping discussion flowing
• b. Directing questions to individuals by name. Good practice in the classroom, critical online. Asking an open question to the group sometimes resulted in longer pauses than you would see in a classroom so directing questions by name politely forces a response!
• c. Using the emoticons and ticks to signal progress – for instance I asked delegates to read a case study and then asked them to put a tick by their name when they had finished and were ready to discuss with the group. This was a very simple but effective tool to keep things flowing
• d. Watch for who’s not paying attention! Tools such as WebEx show the presenter when attendees screens are not displaying the shared screen. It’s not foolproof but it does allow you to more actively engage those delegates who seem to be distracted by other things.
• e. Use the tools – different types of documents, showing videos, conducting polls and capturing discussion on whiteboards – all help to keep peoples’ attention

The learning journey continues and this is just the foundation for the future. There are those who say that if you can train in a classroom you can train online and this is true to an extent but online delivery does require something different from both trainer and learner in order to create a mutually engaging environment.

Have you experienced online live training as a trainer, course coordinator or as a delegate? As a training industry we are still only just starting to understand best practice for this medium. Please add to the discussion with your tips, experiences or questions.