Archive for best online training methods
Great in the Classroom; Great on Camera?
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You’re great in the classroom. So, are you great on camera? Maybe, maybe not.
What Makes Us Effective in the Classroom
Most of the time, real estate presenters use lecture and discussion to deliver their messages. It works ‘live’ because we have energy, we have physical presence, and we can add movement to keep the audience’s attention. We even use a high range of vocal inflections. Even though lecture and discussion delivery methods don’t get much participation from audiences, they still can work in short presentations because of the energy, presence, movement, and dynamics we use in the classroom.
On Camera, It’s a Different Game
Unfortunately, when we present online, we lose
- our physical presence
- much of our physical energy
- our ability to move around
- our ability to approach the audience and create dialogue with them
- our ability to use a wide range of vocal dynamics
Using Alternative Teaching Methods Online
When we’re teaching online, we have to stretch our skills and employ some different teaching methods to get participation and keep the audience’s attention. These include:
- Using break-out rooms
- Using handouts for work before, during, and after the presentation
- Using chat feature
- Using engaging PowerPoint presentations
- Using whiteboard
- Using music
- Using more than one presenter
- Using polls
Audience Presentation Tip
Use at least one method of audience participation every 5-6 minutes during your presentation so you keep your audience’s attention and interest.
What About You?
How many of these features do you use right now when you teach online? What can you incorporate to get that high audience participation you need?
Challenged with getting your classroom to work online? I’d love to help you. Having done webinars for over 15 years, and taught Instructor Development Workshops for three decades, I know how to make your classroom work online easily so you’ll have more fun teaching. Contact me and we’ll talk! 425-392-6914 or carla@carlacross.com.
Spruce Up your Online Presentation: Borrow from your Live Classroom Teaching Style
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Spruce up your presentation. Borrow from your live classroom teaching style to involve your audience, keep their attention, and provide much better take home value.
When you’re teaching online: How ‘passive’ is your presentation? Are you doing all the work? Are your attendees merely listening? When you’re teaching ‘live’: Do you have your attendees doing some work, either during or after your course? If so, it will be easy for you to ‘translate’ that to your online platform. Here’s one way to do that.
A Best Online Training Method: Use a Handout with Work to be Done
You probably use a handout or an outline when you’re teaching ‘live’. You may have special exhibits that you distribute during your live program. Why not do the same as you teach online?
Here’s one way to distribute information, get your audience’s attention and focus them on what you’re teaching in that moment when online. In the webinar I mention below, I created a handout for each participant with questions for them to answer as they proceeded in the webinar. I made the handout available at the beginning of the webinar.
As I proceeded in the webinar, I addressed a topic, and then provided some ‘time out’ for participants to decide how they could use that idea in their own course. By the time they finished the webinar, they had filled out a page of ideas on how to ‘translate’ that ‘live’ course to an online platform. See that handout with the masterclass video mentioned below.
Question: What work or handout could you provide to use as you introduce topics in your webinar? How could you involve students in completing the questions? How could you follow up with that handout? What about that handout would make you memorable?
To get dozens of tips on how to go online with confidence, see the video of my webinar Masterclass: How to Take your Classroom Online.
If you’ve sat through those boring online presentations, you know there’s lots of work we instructors need to do to improve our game online. I’ve created Mastermind groups to tackle this question. We’ll work in small groups to translate your ‘live’ classroom course to a dynamic, vibrant, effective online format. Email me at carla@carlacross.com or call me for more information: 425-392-6914. I’ll help you slay the dragon and become a master at online presentations!