Executing a Virtual Event: Class Logistics
Beyond being an expert in the content you are delivering, you must also master the logistics of the class. Mastering this will allow for smooth transitions from class start to finish and provide a better experience for the learners. Here are your top tips for mastering class logistics:
Tip #1: Arrive early and plan on staying late
Plan on arriving at least 15 minutes early and staying at least 15 minutes after the class. While it is always good to arrive early, virtual delivery has the potential for more complications. Much like in person when you have to test the technology (slide projector, the laptop or computer you connect, the audio), virtual delivery requires the same preparation. However, this preparation is more important since the technology is the foundation which the class is built upon. If anything goes wrong with technology, there are significantly larger hurdles you must overcome as compared to in-person delivery (as well as more time needed).?
What other benefits does arriving early and staying late provide? There are two main benefits with different angles to them. The first is a benefit to the facilitation team. If you are working with one or more other facilitators, it is good to touch base with the content and the tools before learners arrive. Making sure to iron out any of those technical details before they are in the session will allow for seemingly smooth transitions while delivering the content. Having this time also allows for the facilitators to work out any necessary troubleshooting. After the class, this time can be spent debriefing how the class went and providing recommendations for how to improve the next session or class. This is even more important when you have a multi-day virtual delivery so you can show your audience you are listening to their feedback and implementing changes to meet their specific needs.?
The second benefit to arriving early and staying late is from the perspective of the learners. In-person delivery allows the learners to network before/after class at a hotel, restaurant, or even at a work office. Virtual delivery does not allow for many networking opportunities as learners will sign on when the class starts and sign off when the class ends. Co-location has its benefits, but you can provide a similar opportunity for virtual delivery as well. Let your class know that they can arrive early to network and ask questions of the facilitators. This time allows for unanswered questions during class to be answered and allows for the learners to mingle and get to know each other better. Opening up this time for these activities is even more important if there is no networking built into the class.?
Tip #2: Stay on pace
Virtual delivery is especially challenging as learners often will book meetings, calls, and work up until the class starts and immediately after class ends. What this means for facilitators is that they must be able to stay within the boundaries of the agenda. This is unlike most in-person deliveries, where if you run over time a bit and there are other days left in the class, you have the leeway to do that since the audience is often “trapped” at the on-site class location for a few days.?
What this means for facilitators is that they need to be aware of the timing of the agenda and have a plan for when things go off track. There is always a potential for timing to be off, especially if you have an engaged audience who is asking questions or providing additional contributions to the discussion. I once taught a class and it ended an hour and a half early. I taught the same class a few months later and we ended up running extremely late on the second to last day. My co-facilitator and I devised a plan at the end of that day to make up the time, what content to adjust, and we ended up only running five minutes over on the final day. While that is still not ideal, understand your content and understand what adjustments can be made and where, and do all this before class (and not during).?
Tip #3: Have breaks, and plan them accordingly
Virtual fatigue is the exhaustion felt after attending multiple or extended virtual meetings (especially if participants are on video). Having breaks throughout the virtual session is a great way to combat this fatigue and a way to refocus your audience so they are paying attention to what you are saying instead of dozing off. When in person, breaks weren’t needed as often. Now, breaks need to be strategic to maintain the attention of an audience that can leave their screen at any moment and without you knowing.?
So how often and for how long should your breaks be? While there is no exact science, here are a few guidelines for structuring your breaks:
One of the questions I often get during a virtual class is “When are the breaks?” Due to the nature of many of my classes, breaks are difficult to plan since timing depends on the contributions of the class as well as how engaged they are (if they are asking more questions or contributing more than anticipated). I always mention at the start of the class that breaks are not always able to be planned, I explain why, and I provide the class options. Since I’m not giving the audience an exact time for breaks, I give them the option of selecting when and how often those breaks are. By giving them a chance to contribute, they feel more empowered to impact the class the way they want. For example, my classes are often four and a half hours long. I give the class the options of three ten-minute breaks spread throughout the class or two fifteen-minute breaks. Based on the response, I may alternate every other day if the class is evenly divided. The important part is being able to pivot on the fly and provide the class what they want as it pertains to a break schedule.??
Lastly, publicize your break end times. Let your audience know when they should return from their break so that they can return on time. It also helps if you include a slide that includes when learners should return from their break in case they forget or if they missed when you told them. I also like to start a fun activity about five minutes before the end of the break so that I get more people to come back on time.
Tip #4: Know your time zones
When you go on break, posting your break start and end times on a slide or in the chat are great ways to get your learners back from the break on time. Know, though, that in a virtual class, everyone might not be in the same time zone. This means if you ever give times for class start or times to return from breaks or activities, you need to make sure you are publicizing the time zone. This is especially true when giving lunch breaks. You could be giving your audience an extra one to two hours if they think you are talking about their time zone. Then you will have to reach out to those individuals to get them back into the class or they may end up missing portions of the class. As a general rule, any slides I show include the core time zone the majority of the class is in. I then announce what those times would be in the time zone(s) for other people in the class.
Tip #5: Breakout room logistics
Breakout rooms are a great way to split up the class and work in teams on an activity. However, they take coordination and require setup to be executed efficiently. To this end, you need to make sure you understand the tool you use and practice setting up the breakout rooms in advance of the class. When in the class, you want to make sure they are set up before the activity begins. This includes all the breakout room settings such as ability to join rooms later, ability to join the main room at any time, who is assigned to each breakout, how long it takes to pull everyone back to the main room, etc. If you do not, you’ll force a pause in the class delivery while you get things set up. That pause will result in the loss of the audience’s attention, and you will have to fight to regain it.
The second aspect of breakout logistics deals with timing. Make sure the learners know how much time they have in the breakout rooms. If possible, include a timer in the tool(s) you use. One thing to note is that unless you force everyone into breakouts as soon as they start (unlike the option to allow people to join breakouts later), you should allocate extra time for the learners. For example, you should only start the timer as soon as the last person in the main room enters their breakout room. Otherwise, teams may feel like they are at a disadvantage and did not get the proper time allocated to complete the activity.?
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The third aspect of breakout logistics deals with consistency in members. Keep breakout rooms consistent as much as possible. Tuckman’s Model of Team Dynamics states that each new group follows multiple stages from Forming, to Storming, to Norming, to Performing (and eventually Adjourning). It takes time for teams to move from one stage to the next, and the ideal state is for teams to remain in the Performing stage. If we were to mix up the teams each time, teams would restart back at the forming and storming stages - taking up time facilitators usually do not have in class. This is why it is advised to keep groups as consistent as possible.
What are the benefits to keeping groups consistent? Besides saving time for the instructors, the dynamics of the learners’ teams become efficient over time. I’ve observed in various breakout groups one person was designated the “team technology guru” and was put in charge of explaining and using the tools. One person was designated a team leader and was able to keep the team on task. One person was designated the time keeper to make sure the team was going to accomplish its objectives with the time left. If teams were to be mixed up each time, time would have to be spent reforming these roles. This time then eats away at accomplishing the assigned task, and then teams will feel they did not get enough time to complete that task.
The downside to keeping breakout rooms consistent is that learners may not feel like they were able to meet everyone in the class and that their networking opportunities were stifled. This can be avoided through three approaches: 1) let the audience know why you are keeping them consistent so they know that it was a conscious/intentional decision as well as the reasons behind it; 2) provide the opportunity and remind learners they can network 15 minutes before and after class as well as during breaks; and 3) actually mix up the groups when appropriate. Monotony does have its downsides and should be broken whenever possible. During networking or icebreaker activities that are less technologically challenging, mix up the group so they can get to know other members of the class better. Extra time for these activities, though, needs to be built into the delivery.
The last aspect of breakout room logistics is all about the facilitator. Make sure to be present during the breakout sessions and make yourself available in case anyone asks for help. Additionally, facilitators should be joining the breakout rooms to observe the progress of teams (to make sure they understand the objective of the activity and are working towards it in the allocated time). Facilitators should briefly announce themselves and let the team know that you are there if they have any questions or need help. I have found in more than a majority of cases, learners did have questions and they did not want to ask in the larger group before the breakouts began. Jump between breakout sessions and spend your time in each one as equally as possible. Your learners will appreciate that you made yourself available for them.
Tip #6: Setting class expectations and posting them
At the beginning of class, it is important to set the expectations of the learners as well as the facilitators. In the Agile world, they call this the Social Contract or the Ways of Working. It is a means for everyone to set their expectations of each other and to hold each other accountable. For this reason, it is important that your expectations are posted in a readily available location that can be referenced at any point during class.
What expectations should be considered? Beyond the normal ones that are defined for in-person delivery, virtual delivery has a few that should be added. For example, what should happen if someone needs to leave the session unexpectedly? The learners should reach out to the facilitators before class begins if known ahead of time, or they reach out to them as it happens if during the class. The important note here is that learners should not leave class and not let the facilitators know - especially since there may be contingencies with breakout room setup.
A second expectation is how to participate in the class discussion. A great way for people to participate is to raise their hand, come off mute, or type in the chat. There needs to be ground rules, however, so that not everyone comes off mute at the same time. Stating that you need to raise your hand first or type in the chat and wait to be called upon by a facilitator is a great way to manage the flow of discussion. Similarly, there should be expectations on camera usage, especially when learners are participating in discussion. The discussion is enhanced if those speaking and listening are on camera.?
Another expectation that could be considered is how to handle questions that are not relevant to the class’s objectives. Much like an in-person class, the facilitators can direct these questions and comments to the class parking lot. These questions can be addressed outside of class time so that the class remains on schedule. The great aspect of virtual delivery is that you can add comments and resources to your virtual parking lot so that you can address those comments - and have them readily available to the class at any point during and after the class. With in-person delivery, this can only be done if facilitators respond on the physical paper and a learner remembers to take a picture or manually writes down the information provided.
Tip #7: Speaker diversification and the Houdini Act
When a virtual event has multiple facilitators, make sure the speaking roles are varied and one person is not speaking for an extended period of time. By switching speakers up, the audience gets a fresh perspective in both thought and approach. It also has a better chance of keeping the audience’s attention as content is bounced between facilitators.?
The other aspect of speaker diversification is what the other facilitator does when not speaking. If you are not speaking, avoid the Houdini effect. That is, do not disappear during the session. I have seen facilitators leave the web conferencing tool all together when they aren’t speaking, likely due to having a conflicting meeting at that time. The challenge is that speakers usually appear at the top of the participant list, and your audience will notice your departure from the session. This can lead to the audience thinking you have “better’ things to do than be part of the session, and therefore diminish the perceived importance/value of the class itself.?
So what can you do as a facilitator if you are not currently speaking? Monitor and contribute to the chat. Let the speaker know if there is anything that should be highlighted from in the chat or if there are questions that need further elaboration. You can also help troubleshoot technology issues the learners are experiencing. You can also work to get the next activity or breakout rooms set up. In any of these cases, it is still recommended you remain on camera.
Bottom line - switch up speaking roles, and be present and engaged even if you are not actively speaking as facilitator.
Tip #8: Be on the lookout for Bandwidth Bandits
As technology advances, our tools require more processing power to keep up. This means those on older technology or those who have slower internet connection speeds may be at a disadvantage as compared to their more technologically advanced peers. There are some mitigating actions learners and facilitators can do to improve computer performance during a virtual session.
While facilitators should adhere to these tips above themselves, they should also be letting the learners know of these steps to improve performance as well. Sometimes troubleshooting issues learners encounter may be performance related, so having these tips in your back pocket may be helpful.