The Virtual Training Mastery Series

While applications such as WebEx, Elluminate and Live Meeting allow just about anyone  to host a live online meeting, most of us really haven’t stopped to think about how to transfer our great (and maybe not so great) facilitation skills to these environments.  Typically, online meetings happen like this:   one person talks and then on occassions stops to say, “Are there any questions.”   Then the DREADED DEAD silence.  

 

At LINGOs we recognize that there are three sets of skills that facilitators need to develop as they begin to lead virtual events:

1. How to design on-line curricula that are interactive and effective. 
2. How to facilitate on-line classes so that you can effectively engage, manage and lead your on-line learners;
3. How to use your on-line virtual classroom application.  Here, we refer to developing the technical competency needed to use your your specific brand of on-line virtual classroom applicaion (Elluminate, WebEx, Connect, or other).  This is a very important technical skill that won’t be addressed in this blog post, but we promise will be covered in future posts.

To assist on-line facilitators with the skills outlined in points one and two above, LINGOs sponsors the On-Line Virtual Mastery Series.  The two-class Mastery Series helps you first plan out or DESIGN that virtual experience for your students and the second class will help you with the actual live event, learning how to really engage the participant.   

 

What’s really cool is the course instructor, Greg Davis, absolutely practises what he preaches:  being a student in the class will really help you think about applying the techniques because you are experiencing them first hand.   (Dare we warn you that this is an ACTIVE class!) 

 

The technology LINGOs uses to run the class is the Elluminate Live! on-line classroom.   The reality is, however, that these are skills you can use in any live, remote environment (Centra, Live Meeting, WebEx, Adobe Connect, etc.)  

 

The classes are free and you can dial in from a less than ideal Internet connection.   To check your system go to:  http://www.elluminate.com/support/index.jsp.  (You must have a working microphone to participate.) 

 

Designing a Virtual Class
September 24,  8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
November 12,  8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
December 17th, 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Times are listed in:  Eastern Daylight Savings (or same time as New York)
Are you interested in designing live online classes but don’t really know where to start?  This class is excellent for people who currently teach in a classroom setting, but want to expand to a live online environment.   You will learn how to design interactivity into your class, including ice breakers, games, discussions, etc.   The instructor, Greg Davis is the former Director of eLearning for American Express.   Registration is required for this course.  http://ngolearning.org/courses/availablecourses/online/pages/Class%20One%20-%20On-Line%20Design.aspx

 

Managing and Facilitating a Virtual Classroom
September 25, 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
November 13th 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
December 18th, 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Times are listed in:  Eastern Daylight Savings (or same time as New York)
 Are you interested in improving your onlinefacilitation skills for a live class?  This class will help you with the in-class challenges of engaging the students. So stop given boring onlineclasses where you talk, talk, talk and aren’t sure if the student is even still alive!  Learn how to call on students, ask them polling questions, and get them to interact with each other during the class.   The instructor is Greg Davis, the former Director of eLearning for American Express, who volunteers for LINGOs.    To register go to:  http://ngolearning.org/courses/availablecourses/online/pages/Class%20Two%20-%20On-Line%20Facilitation.aspx

 

More information about LINGOs can be found at:  www.lingos.org.   Questions can be directed to Linda@lingos.org. 

 

Learning Resources for On-Line Synchronous Training

In the last Learning Tools Blog post, I presented statistics illustrating the rapid pace at which LINGOs member organizations have adopted Elluminate Live for on-line synchronous training.  One of the ways LINGOs supports agencies as they adopt synchronous on-line learning, is through our work with the Elluminate company to identify a variety of learning resources that enhance the capacity of staff who attend and lead on-line synchronous training. 

These learning resources fall into the following general categories:

Elluminate Live! Participants can visit the Elluminate Support Site

• to complete an  on-line orientation program
• to view the recorded Elluminate Participant training webinar
• to access quick reference guides and tools
•  to check their system configuration compatibility for the Elluminate product.

Elluminate Moderators can

• Participate  in four different live webinars that Elluminate schedules on a regular basis to learn how to use the many features of Elluminate Live!

• View recorded videos (averaging 4-10 minutes each) that instruct moderators on how to use the most common features of Elluminate Live!
• Visit the Elluminate Support Ste to access resources, tools and technical information to support Elluminate Moderators

On-Line Curriculum Designers and On-Line Facilititors

·      Can attend LINGOs’ On-line Virtual Mastery Series which introduces best practices for designing and facilitating courses in the on-line synchronous environment.

Elluminate Troubleshooting is another area in which moderators will inevitably need to develop skills.  As a frequent moderator of Elluminate sessions, many times I have found myself In the position where a participant is unable  to fully participate in an event due to problems with bandwidth, audio, Java plug-ins, systems compatibility and/or firewalls.  To address these challenges, Elluminate moderators need to develop skills to identify and address some of the most common problems encountered when when managing on-line events. 

Over the next six months, LINGOs and Elluminate are collaborating closely to develop troubleshooting resources that help moderators analyze and resolve these challenges.  As one of the first steps in this process, LINGOs will host a webinar on June 12, 2008, entitled Are You a Skilled Elluminate TroubleShooter?  (for details on this event click here) This webinar is  highly recommended to all Elluminate Moderators, as it will include a number of practical tips that can be used immediately. 

In addition to the upcoming webinar, Elluminate has documented solutions to the most frequently occurring technical problems on their Help Desk Website  and LINGOs is documenting the most useful troubleshooting tips on its  Elluminate Workspace.

 

UPCOMING OUTSTART TRAINER WEBCAST

 

LINGOs’ partner, Outstart, is hosting a Live Webcast: Rapidly Developing e-Courses with Impact, Using OutStart Trainer.  The Trainer authoring tool provides the capacity to develop rich learning content without programming; with the potential to easily add Flash, audio, video or streaming media and more. 

June 10th, 1:30 p.m. Eastern (EDT) REGISTER TODAY

A 60 Minute Masters in Instructional Design

One of the more insightful assessments I have heard regarding technology assisted learning came from a colleague after he attended his first on-line synchronous meeting.  He said, “This is an incredible technology!  I hope we don’t use it to host more bad meetings.” 

 

This assessment has become my guiding principle as I continue learning and working in this field.  While recent innovations in technology are truly incredible (on-line classrooms, rapid e-learning development tools, RSS feeds, streaming video, YouContent, collaboration software, etc.), we must be careful not to become blinded by the “wow-factor” of the technology.  The secret to high quality learning, remains high quality content. 

Clive Shepherd, a UK-based e-learning designer who has worked with LINGOs and its member agencies, asserts that a central requirement for high quality content is high quality instructional designers.  Furthermore, he recognizes that for many organizations it is the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), with little or no training in instructional design, who design the majority of training content.

To help organizations improve the instructional design skills of their SMEs, Clive (and a group of professional instructional designers from around the world) has created a course entitled “The 60 Masters”, designed to train SMEs in the basics of instructional design ( Note- Originally Clive set off to create a 30 minute masters, but soon realized that even a high-level overview course would require 60 minutes.)
 

I highly recommend these materials for a number of reasons.  In addition to the fact that they are excellent, relevant and freely available (although you must register to access the content), Clive also outlines an articulate argument why organizations should invest in building the capacity of instructional designers.  Furthermore, the course (built in coordination with Kineo) is a great example of good instructional design employing Articulate Presenter and Articulate Engage  . 

Link 1:  Clive Shepherd’s Presentation on “Why We Need More Instructional Designers”
http://www.fastrak-consulting.co.uk/30mins/player.html

 

Link 2:  The “60 Minute Masters” Course (audio enabled; registration required)
http://www.kineolearning.com/60minutemasters/

Link3:  The “60 Minute Masters” Course (no audio; no registration required)
http://www.articulate.com/products/demos/blog/60-Minute-Masters-no-audio/player.html