Here are the three biggest mistakes I see when people take their classrooms online. It’s here, and it’s not going away. We have to ‘translate our classroom to online format.

The mistakes:

1. Trying to teach just like you do in the classroom.

I know. You’re charming. You’re engaging. You can keep a 100-person audience’s attention when you’re ‘live’. Why? Because you have

a. the ability to move around — physically engage them watching you

b. the ability to draw them into discussion by looking at each person and encouraging a dialogue

c. the ability still use only one delivery method (way to teach) and overcome the ‘one trick pony’ syndrome that too many instructors have–only or two methods to teach (lecture and discussion)  

You read it above. The problem is that none of those conditions exist when you’re teaching online. In other words: You can’t engage the audience online as easily as you do in person.

Question: Is that you? Picture yourself in the classroom. How are you engaging with your students? Is it all ‘your show’? Do you just rely on lecture and discussion? 

The solution: Re-write your presentation or course FIRST–before you try to teach it online. When you re-write, blend in other teaching methods besides lecture and discussion (like task force, role play, case study, small group work). See examples of these ‘delivery’ (teaching) methods at Train the Trainer.com, my online train the trainer course. Then, you will have the ideas you need to provide effective audience interaction.

2. Not having frequent engagement of the audience.

When I survey instructors that I work with, I find that their biggest concern is how to engage the audience online. No wonder! The methods instructors use to engage in the classroom just aren’t available to them (in that format) when they go online. For some tips on ‘translating’ your teaching methods from classroom to online, see my webinar on going from classroom to online and grab the handouts at www.carlacross.com. 

How are you engaging your audience now? A tip:

Experts say you need to engage your audience at least every 5-6 minutes. How are you doing on that score?

3. Relying on those ineffective slides you used in the classroom.

The slides you got away with using in the classroom just aren’t going to make it today.  Why?

a. Too many words

b. not enough pictures

c. not engaging or provoking

And, worst of all, we stay on one slide way too long. Rule of thumb: In an online presentation, change your slides at least every 1.5 minutes. Here’s your best online presentation tip for slides: Take up  1/2 to 1.5 minutes per slide, no more. That means, in a 45-minute presentation, you’ll need 30-45 slides! For many more tips on your effective online presentation, seehttps://carla-cross.com/category/what-is-new/. 

Do you want to engage your audience more effectively? Do you want to become comfortable and confident when you’re teaching online?

Join our Mastermind group, where we’ll

Work on taking your classroom online

Put in effective audience engagement online–at the right places and times

Devise ingenious audience participation and engagement tools and games to surprise and delight them

Use sound and visuals to keep your audience’s attention

Avoid common mistakes made when going online

Email carla@carlacross.com to find out the next Mastermind dates and how you can take part:

4 sessions over a 4 week period. It will be fun, exciting, and will pay off in more teaching jobs and more clients.