'Quick but Quality' Shift to Digital - Part 1: Virtual Workshops

In response to COVID-19, I've been working with a number of world-leading universities, government departments and charities to make a 'quick but quality' shift to digital. Over the next few days, I'll share what I've learned so far to help you to do the same.

In this first post, let's look at how to design and deliver great, high-impact workshops / small group sessions using Zoom*.

*Other video conferencing (VC) tools are available! However, Zoom is a distinctively powerful VC tool. Extended Zoom licenses are currently available for free for education-related organisations.

Best Practice #1. Make it active

Give participants something to do at all times! Ideally they should not be passive / dormant / not doing anything for more than three minutes. 

• Collaborative Learning: Use breakout groups of 2-5 people to foster participation. Each break out should be a max. of 10 minutes before the group reconvenes. During the breakouts you should ‘float’ between the groups and post comments / extending questions in chat to maximise your presence. Be aware that you can be seen at all times: be active, engaged and involved. 
• Engagement Prompts: At the start of the session, tell participants that during and/or at the end of the workshop they will complete an activity, e.g. 'cold call' questions and ‘the minute paper’ technique. Rolling and summative engagement prompts like these will help to ensure that participants actively engage throughout the session.
• Q&A: Use Zoom’s Q&A tool to gather ‘big questions' throughout the workshop for review and discussion during or at the end of the session. To increase participation and active learning, encourage your participants to help you to answer the 'big questions' which emerge during the session.
• Polling: Use Zoom’s polling function to raise engagement and maximise active learning. Plan and upload your questions in advance and - where necessary - use them to break up chunks of content (i.e. as a tool to apply the ‘passive for no more than 3 minutes’ rule). Avoid closed, yes/no questions and instead ask open questions, such as: 'What have you learned?', 'Which idea is most convincing, and why?', 'How will this session impact your practice/behaviour/focus tomorrow?'.

Best Practice #2. Be energetic, enthusiastic & present

• The camera eats your energy! When you deliver online, you need to deliver with “double energy’. Be lively and enthusiastic and avoid monotone delivery. 
• Show yourself on screen and insist others do too. We engage more when we see one another's faces. If you're using slides, show yourself on screen alongside your slides. 
• According to Mayer’s 12 Principles, participants are most engaged by informal and friendly rather than formal and authoritative voices / tones. Be you and bring your personality.
• To engage your audience, try not to use Zoom's Waiting Room feature. Instead, be there early and greet your participants by name when they arrive. This helps with affective engagement which is critical to cognitive engagement (i.e. learning/development). Use the Zoom Whiteboard function to display a hello message and any opening actions / instructions as people ‘arrive’ (e.g. tell us something interesting about yourself in the Chat area). 

Best Practice #3. Tell a story

Online experiences are most compelling and engaging when they tell a story and have a clear and meaningful narrative arc. Think about the overall structure and narrative of your workshop. Common high-impact structures include: 

• Basic Situation – Complication – Resolution: This is the go-to story structure that can help you create a narrative about anything from a product demo to an academic seminar.
• What? – So What? – Now What? In this structure, you’ll present your topic, explain why people should care and conclude with a call to action.
• Problem – Solution – Benefits: A classic persuasive framework that can work for almost any presentation.
• Opportunity – Benefits – Numbers: This framework can reduce the complexity of a business-oriented message, particularly to an executive audience.
• Comparison – Contrast: Use this to present an argument that shows the advantages of a particular position.
• Cause – Effect: This framework can help you tell a story that highlights the underlying logic behind an idea or theory.

Best Practice #4. Be intentional about engagement

Engagement matters. To minimise the risk of disengagement and maximise success, be clear from the outset about your collective rules of engagement.

• Ask participants to keep their video on at all times (we engage more when we can see one another)
• Tell participants to mute themselves unless they’re talking 
• If the group are unfamiliar with one another, ask participants to introduce themselves before they speak  
• Encourage questions and be clear on when and how to do this. You have three options/functions here:  Zoom Chat - often dedicated to practical / technical issues. Zoom Q&A - usually used to gather questions related to the content for review during a the end of the session. Zoom Raise Hand - usually used to raise content-related questions during the session 
• Remove all distractions (ban mobiles, food, etc)
• Consider sharing this video in advance to support participants to have an engaging, distraction-free experience. You can also consider allocating one of your participants the role of 'monitor' to deal with any behavioural or technical issues and keep an eye on time.

Best Practice #5. Make the experience visual

• Use slides to present your content, selecting visually stimulating images to engage participants and add meaning to what you’re saying. 
• Avoid text! As much as possible, relegate text to your notes section and dedicate your slides to conveying meaning through images. 
• Be focused: use one slide for each point you wish to make.
• When creating and narrating your slides, use Mayer’s 12 Principles of Multimedia Learning as your rulebook.

Best Practice #6. Start and end meaningfully

Beginnings and endings matter! Evidence shows that we are most likely to remember what happens during the first and last moments of a workshop.

Make good use of these book-end ‘learning moments’ by encouraging 'recall and reflection for retention' of key learning points, e.g. by completing and discussing a reflective summative activity like 'the minute paper'.

Endnote: You can find my second post on how to get started as an effective online teacher / instructor, here.

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Dr Philippa Hardman is an independent Digital Learning consultant and an affiliated scholar at the University of Cambridge.