Notes for Learning and Development Professionals in the Virtual Environment
• Survive the experience by ensuring you are well prepared.
• Virtual training requires a different strategy and set of best practices to be effective, so be open minded in your planning, and be prepared to adapt to new ways of doing things.
• You are still competing for attention and other uses for your audience’s time. So for all types of virtual training be sure to outline the benefits of your training program and any deadlines for attendance.
• When promoting your training, a dedicated email invitation will generally be the best way to reach your prospective audience and get them to register for your event.
• Remember to highlight when the event will take place, which Subject Matter Experts will be presenting and the key benefits to the audience of attending.
• Make it easy for them to register with a link to a dedicated registration site or virtual meeting login.
• Remember to set and respect time limits, include short breaks and build in blocks of time for impromptu interactions during the training.
• Each session should feature multiple “on-air” presenters, including a training host and subject matter expert (SME), as well as a producer for backend support.
• As you create content, carefully consider the learning format that will best engage learners and enable them to retain and put into use as much information from the training as possible. One way to ensure this is to build shorter modules that can be delivered regularly over longer periods of time.
• Use post-event tests or surveys to ensure training compliance, offer credit for classes, or to measure the amount learned in the session(s).
Creating Engaging Clinical Webinars
In the virtual environment, attention is fragile.
Ensure that you cultivate engagement and attention, by:
• Asking questions to stimulate discussion
• Using analogies and metaphors
• Showing clinical photographs and other visuals such as histology slides or videos of procedures
• Posing clinical scenarios that evoke understanding, such as case studies and “Grand Rounds” patient presentations
• Letting your audience participate in discussion and solutions using polling techniques to build interaction.
• Develop exercises, activities and additional participation, such as preparatory work or follow up further reading to support and engage your audience prior, during and subsequent to the webinar or other training event.
Social Media in Online Training
Respond to the audience’s needs - even needs expressed during the event via the social media “back channel” such as Twitter.
Many old school presenters view the back channel as a rude distraction. They are used to being accorded respect and attention by virtue of being at the podium—but among younger audiences the use of electronic devices during an event is now a foregone conclusion.
Assume your audience is always connected.
Some live presenters even have a separate screen which is not devoted to PowerPoint slides or other content, but rather just to showing commentary and questions that are coming in.
Tune in to this and use it to tailor your live event, raise questions, and remain responsive to your audience.
