Online training can be a convenient and cost-effective way to share your knowledge and skills with others. But how can you make sure your online training sessions are engaging, interactive, and effective? Here are some tips to help you deliver online training more effectively.
Before you start planning your online training, you need to choose a platform that suits your needs and goals. There are many options available, such as webinars, video conferencing, e-learning courses, or learning management systems. Each platform has its own features, advantages, and limitations, so you need to consider factors such as your audience size, level of interactivity, learning objectives, budget, and technical requirements.
Once you have chosen your platform, you need to design your content to fit the online format, as online training requires a different approach than face-to-face training. To effectively engage your audience and keep them interested, you should break down your content into bite-sized chunks, and use a variety of media, such as text, images, audio, video, and animations. Additionally, you can include quizzes, polls, surveys, games, or simulations to test understanding and reinforce key points. Lastly, it is important to provide clear learning outcomes, instructions, and expectations for each session.
One of the biggest challenges of online training is to keep your audience engaged and motivated. To achieve this, you need to use interactive features, such as chat, Q&A, polls, or breakout rooms, to encourage participation and collaboration. Storytelling, examples, and case studies can make your content relevant and relatable. Humor, enthusiasm, and emotion can create rapport and connection with your audience. Additionally, feedback, praise, recognition or rewards can acknowledge your audience's achievements and progress. These strategies will help ensure that online learners remain actively involved in the learning process and don't become bored or isolated.
Some ways for engagement: Ask the learners to share their experiences, show examples of things and tasks they performed, encourage to ask questions. Be supportive, show them that there is a value to their effort. You can mix funny things or tender jokes. Make the examples unconventional. If your tactics doesn't work - change. If it didn't work - ask for individual feedback or send an anonymous form.
When you are ready to deliver your online training, it’s important to prepare yourself and your environment to ensure a smooth and professional session. Testing your equipment, software, and internet connection before the session is essential to avoid any technical glitches or interruptions. Additionally, choose a quiet, well-lit, and comfortable place to conduct the session, and minimize any background noise or distractions. Furthermore, dress appropriately and professionally, as well as use a good-quality camera and microphone to enhance your appearance and voice. When speaking, use a clear and confident voice and vary your tone, pace, and volume to convey your message and emotion. Eye contact, gestures, and facial expressions can also help communicate non-verbally and show your interest and engagement.
Some things to consider: Prepare in advance a training flow document, to highlight the structure of the session and anything needed - including mention times and examples. Prepare some examples ahead, that you can come back to during the session. If you can, have a live demonstration instead of just speaking theoretically. Ask questions that leads the way, waken curiosity of the learners, be memorable and try not to be monotonic. Set some rules, such as having a camera turned on to be a mandatory thing.
Once you have delivered your online training, evaluating your results is key to measure the effectiveness of your session and identify areas for improvement. You can ask your audience to complete a feedback form or survey to rate your session and provide comments or suggestions. Additionally, you can analyze the data and metrics from your platform, such as attendance, completion, engagement, satisfaction, or learning outcomes. Furthermore, review your own performance and identify your strengths and weaknesses as an online trainer. Ultimately, use the feedback and data to refine your content, design, and delivery for future online training sessions.