How to move your course online and be successful
With the rise of cases of #coronavirus around Europe, I have observed a great effort in containing the spread of the virus by promoting home-office and e-learning. Companies are working on their processes to guarantee that employees can work from home while the Educational field strives to do the same. While I highly celebrate this measure, it is a challenge to migrate all your business to a remote set up, and when it comes to learning and development, to move your programme online requires a big thought on the logistics and how to translate the spirit of the class in a virtual environment.
I have been approached as a consultant a few times the current week on how to go fully-online with a fast-track programme. Since the time is running out, and these international institutions work throughout Europe, they are concerned that the Health institute in charge of their municipality, region or country puts them in a lock-down. The situation can escalate quickly, and they need to assure that their programmes keep on running providing the best learning experience to their stakeholders, assuring top-notch quality and a strong, reliable platform and content. Accepting that not every strategy is going to work in every scenario, these are the tips that I encourage them to take as a solid foundation for online learning.
Webinars.
How can you keep a synchronous engagement environment while delivering your content online? Using Zoom as an excellent webinar solution. You count with a digital whiteboard function and the possibility of sharing a PowerPoint with your students/employees. It goes beyond a class level, being a powerful tool to use also on a 1–2–1 and group level. Do you need to deliver a training session? A lecture? Broaden your reach with Zoom’s reliable and scalable webinar solution. Zoom is the answer you were looking for. And up to 100 attendees at the same time is for free!
Off-line webinars
You can go offline if you wish to. You can create your webinars in a video format and upload them online. Record short videos -microlearning- between 5–8 minutes each, with a clear focus on key-concepts and themes. Do you count with a server, intranet in your institution? Use it! Otherwise, Youtube is a great alternative to reach the highest amount of public with a minimum learning curve. Do you want to know how to record an off-line webinar? A few weeks ago, I published a detailed article on how to create the endgame webinar. Do not miss it.
Generate debate online
Prompt your stakeholders to discuss content in the comment section of your video. Any Learning Management System has an option to enable discussion among users. I use Feedback Fruits. Your videos can be interacting, with inline questions and discussions. It also enables peer review, activating your students’ critical thinking through peer learning. Assignment review if needed and also improve collaboration skills with group member peer assessments. If you decide to go for Youtube, all you need to do is encourage a discussion in the comment section. It will help you go deeper into the topic and also function as a buildable F.A.Q. You have here a fantastic article on the subject to gain further insights.
Make it organic, dynamic and alive
Workplace (Facebook @ work), Microsoft Teams, Skype for Business, or any other solution that enables you to have a group chat and board to discuss live with your students/employees or chat among them. They do this in the classroom, they use Whatsapp or Telegram outside the faculty; bring it all together with a common place where they can share thoughts, insights in a more informal level.
Flip the classroom. Turn around the roles of lecturers/students. Provide the content upfront, generate an assignment that challenges them and put them in the spotlight. Make them prepare, remotely, a topic and deliver it online. It will improve the engagement rate and increase their learning curve.
Work on the cloud
Google Suite is for free. Your students can work in groups sharing live the same document and being able to edit changes at the same time. GoogleDocs or GoogleSpreadsheet are powerful resources that can enable remote and contributive work for free. These tools are compatible with Microsoft Word and Excel files maximising the compatibility for all users. Do you have a Microsoft Office 365 license? You can benefit from the same cloud services using this enterprise.
Sketchdrive is another powerful solution. It is an interactive tool to easily share, view and discuss visual work online. Especially in creative disciplines such as photography, design or architecture, making and reflecting are fundamental to the overall learning experience. What if you want learners to sketch out their ideas or take pictures to illustrate their point of view?
Use Sketchdrive to support active learning with hands-on assignments and easily monitor and review student progress and results.
Digital library
Make sure that all the information is centralised. You must establish a clear “meeting point” and cascade that information clearly to every stakeholder. This meeting point should be at the centre of everything your students/employees do. Compile all the resources, instructions, assessment criteria, examples, guidelines, deadlines and use a logical and simple structure. Any LMS (Learning Management System) serves as a solid platform to make it happen -Brightspace, Blackboard, among others.
Very important: Do not forget to set expectations. It is necessary that all members involved do understand what is expected of them.
Be flexible
Probably, this will be a new experience for all the people involved in the project. Maybe, even for you. There will always be a misunderstanding, things people do not understand, software issues, users not showing up in the attendees' list, the sound that does not work, microphones that do not record any sound… The quicker you realise this, and accept it, the more you will enjoy and grow through this experience. Let it go. Go with the flow. You will be more open and eager to grow and learn through the experience and your notice will notice it too. Accept the challenges as they come and keep your smile on. Making use of that optimism and positive language will help you engage your stakeholders and create a sense of community that you can build up in a physical classroom. You are the key to making it work.
We have ahead of us a great challenge. It is not just a social phenomenon. Adapting our daily-life, culture, business and society to the current situation is going to be a fascinating journey.
In terms of Education and how the Learning & Development field works, we are experiencing a rapid-change through trial and error, given a high number of factors that we cannot control. It is a great opportunity to experiment, to try new things, to drop the fear of failure, to adapt, adjust and explore all our traditional methods and resources to the online environment. This is the “now or never” moment. The “Make it work” from Tim Gunn. The “ Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible’! of Audrey Hepburn.
Trust yourself, either offline or online, the key in Education is in you.
