Are you planning an online training session such as a webinar or digital workshop? Or, perhaps you’ve already delivered some online sessions but you’re hoping to up your game and deliver a more polished session.
With the recent lockdowns, we’ve all had plenty of time to familiarise ourselves with remote working, video calling and distance learning. For trainers who are used to in-person or classroom-based sessions, this new way of working presents some new challenges.
This article will outline the whole process from start-to-finish to help you plan, promote, and deliver an online session you can be proud of and that learners will love.
Step 1: Plan your online training session
You can plan your online training session in the same way you would plan for any other training session; decide upon the target audience, the aim of the session and the learning outcomes.
Online training sessions are usually 1-2 hours in length, any longer than that can be challenging without a break from the screen. If your session is naturally longer, consider breaking it up into smaller sessions to deliver as a series instead.
You’ll need to plan:
- Your course materials, slideshow, videos and other resources
- Any practical or participative learning activities to include in the session
- How you will visually engage learners
- How to evaluate the session
- Additional time for questions and discussion
- Your participants – check they have access to the platform and suitable equipment e.g a lap top with a camera and microphone.
Online Webinar Platforms
There is a lot of choice for online training and webinar platforms and video conferencing tools, obviously the pandemic and lockdowns made these tools even more valuable than they were before!
Most professionals are familiar with video calling and attending online sessions by now, but you’ll still want to choose a tool that’s accessible to most people, rather than choosing an obscure, proprietary system that no one has heard of!
The platform you choose depends on what functionality you need to run your course, do you need an interactive whiteboard, breakout rooms, private chat? You’ll need to consider these things when choosing which platform to use!
Zoom – you’ll almost certainly need a paid account with Zoom, otherwise you’re limited to 3 attendees for a maximum of 40 minutes! Zoom also has an additional ‘webinar’ add on that includes extra functionality such as breakout rooms, but it’s perfectly doable to run a webinar with the standard ‘meeting’ format too.
Microsoft Teams – from an accessibility perspective, Microsoft Teams is not exactly lightweight when compared to Zoom, and users will be required to login as a ‘guest’ to attend sessions on Microsoft Teams. Still, it’s a good option for internal training where all team members are already part of your Teams Channels. Many trainers choose Microsoft Teams if they already have an Office 365 subscription which has Teams included, so there are no additional fees to pay.
Google Hangouts – this is extremely lightweight and accessible as it runs purely in the browser. Like Microsoft Teams, if you’re a Google Business customer then you can use hangouts with up to 100 attendees without paying any additional fees.
GoTo Webinar – another popular platform, as it’s extremely accessible and easy for attendees to access. You’ll need a paid subscription to access its features.
Step 2: Use a booking management system
If your course is ‘open access’ or open for anyone to drop-in, then you can skip this section.
If you’re offering a way for learners to register on your course before it starts, you’ll need to have a booking management system setup before accepting bookings. This could be as simple as taking bookings by email and entering their names into a spreadsheet, but in this day and age, something automated would be preferable (and it will save you time!)
You could use Zoom’s built-in booking form, Eventbrite, Google Forms, or a custom-built form on your website with a Zapier integration to automate your booking.
Make sure you setup an automatic email that gets sent out to everyone confirming their booking with a link to join. Ask everyone to join at least 5 minutes before the start of the session so you can check their technology is working correctly. You don’t want this eating into your delivery time.
Step 3: Promote your online training course
Now that your course is set up and prepared, it’s time to tell the world about it!
You should promote your course to your network and your existing customers, including:
- Share it across your Social Media platforms, don’t forget about Instagram stories and reels, as the reach here is huge!
- Send it to your existing email list
- Share it in relevant Facebook groups, where self-promotion is allowed
- Tag relevant accounts when sharing across Social Media
- Add it to your website, with a clear call-to-action and booking link
- Add it to your email signature
- Create promotional images and videos to market the course
- If you have a marketing budget, create audiences in Facebook Business Manager and set a daily budget for your ad spend, don’t forget to add your target keywords to Google Keyword Planner (after doing careful research, of course!)
Step 4: Test your equipment and software
You’ll want to make sure that all your equipment is working, or it could be very embarrassing!
For a professionally presented webinar, you’ll need:
- A camera – a proper one, not that little thing built into your laptop! Make sure your camera is positioned properly, depending on how your office is setup, you may need a tripod too.
- A microphone – this is even more important than the camera! Yes, people will want to see your face, but most importantly they will want to hear your voice. Sitting through poor quality, tinny audience from a laptop microphone is not a good experience and desktop gaming microphones are extremely affordable. For added quality, a pop filter will filter our harsh ‘P’ and ‘S’ sounds. Pro online presenters and YouTubers will also have some form of soundproofing in their studio, which is basically just some foam board positioned on the wall if there’s likely to be an echo
- Good lighting – natural lighting works best, but whatever you do, make sure the light is in front of you and not behind you. If you’re sitting with a window behind you, you’ll become a silhouette, so try to face the window if you can. Sadly, in the UK, the weather is changeable so that means the lighting changes, for a professional webinar and consistent lighting, a studio light or ring light does wonders!
- Headphones – if someone else is speaking and that sound comes out of your speakers, with your microphone active then there will be feedback/an echo which sounds awful for those listening. If you don’t have headphones – mute your microphone when someone else is talking!
It’s best practice to test everything beforehand, ask a friend, colleague or family member to help you test that everything is running smoothly the day before.
Step 5: Prepare your materials
Preparing materials for an online training session is not quite the same as for a live classroom session. You’ll have to accept that you may not have people’s full attention, people may will be multi-tasking, distracted by their phone/children/cat, and there’s nothing you can do to stop that – it’s the nature of the modern world.
However, you can prepare your materials in such a way to keep people engaged with the course content. If you’re using a presentation or slide deck, ensure that you’ve got 1 key message per slide using imagery. Also, don’t reveal too much on the presentation before you’ve spoken about the topic – use subtle animations to ‘reveal’ points on a slide as you introduce them instead of displaying a large block of information upfront.
Consider how you’re going to make the materials available after the course, save everything as a PDF and create a downloadable link you can send to learners. If there are any templates, bookmarks or other resources that you share with learners, make sure they’re all included in a single link to make it as easy as possible to access.
If you’re planning to play videos, make sure Zoom (or whatever software you’re using) is setup to share the sound of the video as well, otherwise your learners won’t be able to hear the video!
For breakout sessions and practical activity, make sure you explain everything very clearly to learners if you want them to take action during the course. You might be using a shared online whiteboard in place of flipchart paper, or you could split participants up into smaller groups for discussion.
Whatever you choose to do – make sure you’ve got it documented in your session plan!
Step 6: Prepare yourself
Finally, it’s time to prepare yourself for the session.
Wear comfortable clothes and prepare yourself so that you feel comfortable on camera. You’ll also want to make sure your workspace is tidy and clear, wouldn’t it be embarrassing if your laundry was drying in the background!?
If you have a pre-training ritual, such as positive affirmations or last-minute preparations, now is the time to do it.
It’s a good idea to be online for your session 15 minutes early, so you have time to open all the files you need on your computer, check yourself in the camera preview window and have a moment’s peace before everyone starts to arrive.
You’ll most likely have a waiting room where you have to manually ‘admit’ people into the session.
Related article: The Importance of Self Reflection for Trainers
Step 7: Have fun and enjoy yourself!
During your session, make sure you smile and enjoy yourself!
Here are some final tips to help you run a successful online course:
1. Screen sharing woes – When sharing your screen in full-screen mode, be careful not to miss any messages or questions from the ‘chat’. Ideally, you should have a second screen with the chat window open there to ensure you don’t miss pertinent questions from participants as they get asked.
2. Prepare some question prompts – If there’s little-to-no activity in the chat, with no discussion or questions, prepare a few prompts you can use to ask participants for input
3. Be aware of death by PowerPoint! In a real-life situation, death by PowerPoint isn’t a great experience, but at least people can’t just get up and leave the room!
4. Vary your tone of voice – this might seem unnatural at first, but news readers and broadcasters use this technique to keep people’s attention. Television broadcasters speak using purposeful sentences and vary the pitch and speed of their voice a lot. You may not be on live TV talking to millions, but it’s exactly the same concept!
5. Smile and show enthusiasm – it should come across throughout your delivery that you’re extremely passionate and knowledgeable about the topic. It’s easier to give this impression in a face-to-face environment, so make eye contact with the camera and smile as you speak. For the person watching and listening, it will feel as if you’re only speaking to them rather than speaking to an entire group, which helps keeps people engaged during an online session.
6. Have natural breaks – for any sessions over an hour in length, scheduling some short breaks is sensible. From a wellbeing perspective, you’re supposed to take regular breaks from the screen to prevent eye strain, headaches and muscle aches. It also gives people a chance to reflect on any points made so far, so aim for a 5-10 minute break for every hour of course content.
7. Evaluate and follow up – when the session is over, that doesn’t mean goodbye! Besides any feedback and evaluation forms you may use to evaluate the session, you should also have all the learner’s email addresses. Consider sending a follow up email a week later with a personal message.
8. To record or not to record? Consider recording the session to make it available to learners afterwards, as some participants may miss parts of the course or have to leave early. Making the session available as a recording provides additional value and improves the learning experience. Make sure you get permission from all those attending that they are happy for you to record the session.
Want to know more about online training, training and assessment in a virtual / online environment?
We are hosting a Professional Learning Workshop called Take Your Training Online on the 12th and 19th October. This workshops is made up of 2 sessions that provider a practical, interactive approach to using digital tools
For those who are nervous about trying new techniques, or those who have dipped their toe in to using digital tools, this practical and interactive session enables participants to explore a range of digital tools and techniques in a safe and friendly environment.
After attending this session you will be able to:
- Plan live sessions to engage learners in a virtual classroom environment
- Use platform tools e.g. polls, chat, breakout rooms, whiteboard to encourage interaction in your online session
- Use active learning e.g. researching, reflecting, collaborating to keep learners motivated
- Explore a range of digital tools e.g. quizzes, games and activities
Complete this Course Enquiry Form to book a place or click here for full details.
