Webinars and Virtual Classrooms
Online delivery of classes is becoming the new normal. We don’t need to tell you why. What we can share with you are the lessons and tips that we have gone through from our own experiences delivering online classes.
First up I’ve included a PDF from Adobe with some tips and ideas for getting into the right frame of mind and being prepared with your online class delivery.
I’ve also included a webinar recording below about how Microsoft teams can be used for remote learning and online classes. Some of you may be using Teams already or exploring how Teams can be used more in your workplace.
Below is an article I wrote after the experience of delivering the AITD eLearning classes during a road trip round Australia with my family.
This is an extreme example of having to deliver webinars outside of normal conditions, and there were still lessons learnt from this experience. I had become complacent with the normal setup after delivering from home or work and being thrust into different locations with different requirements, the issues popped up..
“I had never done a webinar from a car before, let alone a caravan. I had done some skype calls from the caravan when away previously. There isn’t much pressure when you’re just catching up with the team.”
Summary of lessons (from bottom of article)
- Always test and double test, well in advance. Even if you have been doing these things for a long time, technical issues can always pop up.
- Have a backup. Think of the worst-case scenario and prepare for that. In the past, I’ve emailed the presentation before hand, and had to rely on a teleconference and guiding everyone through the presentation over the phone. This will of course limit the amount of interactive discussions especially if you were using discussion threads, screen sharing or whiteboard functionality of the webinar software. Luckily, I didn’t have to resort to this.
- Welcome everyone with a greeting in the discussion thread when you are testing. At least people can see that you have been in there, especially if you get cut off all of a sudden close to start time, which happened to me.
- Know your computer setup. The Mac has an extra security and privacy setting when allowing new applications to utilise the microphone and camera. This was the main issue with me, and it is now etched in to my brain.
This is a good article which got me out of trouble when I was preparing for the next webinar and wanting to use the Mac-
http://blogs.adobe.com/connectsupport/microphone-not-working-when-joining-the-adobe-connect-meeting-through-mac-os-mojave/ - Hardware clashes can occur with applications that use webcams and the microphone. Usually, the webcam and microphone will only work with one application open at a time, so make sure everything else is shut down (like Skype).
- Get your lighting right, especially if you are conducting your webinar from a remote location, at night, from the front seat of your car!