Guildtipsbook.qxp

for Successful
Produced by Sponsored by 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 2
Table of Contents
A. Prepare thoroughly for facilitating synchronous events . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
A. Selecting online instructors for success . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1. Choose instructors based on competencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .472. Choose instructors with the right attitudes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473. Choose instructors with the right knowledge and skills . . . . . . . . . . .524. Take into account other considerations when choosing instructors . . . . . 52 1. Ensure that there is organization support for synchronous e-Learning . . . . 522. Ensure there will be IT support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523. Establish a complete delivery team . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 IV. Tips for Design and Development Teams . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
A. Apply these design tips . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
B. Provide support for learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
C. Make Forums a useful tool for learners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
D. Consider other tips (incl. advice and asynchronous items) . . . . . . . . . . . .57

834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 3
I. How to Use These Tips
In early 2005 The eLearning Guild conducted a survey of its members on the subject of Synchronous Instruction. A total of 644 members responded to the questionnaire. The last questionin the questionnaire asked members who have online instruction experience to list their favoritetips to share with other online instructors; a remarkable total of 336 members contributed usabletips.
As might be expected the tips ranged from a single word (Plan! or Practice!) to as many as fifteen separate tips running over 350 words! They also ranged from the simple and obvious to the unusualand subtle. They covered the complete gamut of behavior for an online instructor. We are providingthese tips to everybody who is interested in being more effective at doing online synchronousinstruction.
The raw list of tips was overwhelming, so we examined several schemes for categorizing them, none of which worked very well. Finally, we decided to let the tips fall into more or less natural cate- December 2005 by The eLearning Guild gories as suggested by the tips themselves. Most of the categories relate to functional roles: instruc-tor, manager, and design and development team. The remainder gives more generic advice about Bill Brandon
implementation and miscellaneous matters. Many tips clearly fall into a specific category, but we could equally well place a large number of tips into several different categories. We put them where we thought they fit best, knowing full well that people may disagree with us.
The vast majority of the tips apply to the online instructor. This seems wholly appropriate. At the Karen Hyder
same time, we believe that everyone concerned with synchronous e-Learning will benefit by reading through all the tips. There is repetition and overlap between the tips, and we left things that way sothat the reader could judge (without our editorializing) how much emphasis practitioners placed on the various aspects of synchronous e-Learning.
We have devised a way to credit the members who contributed the tips (the Tipsters). We follow most tips with a number indicating who contributed it, and an indexed list of Tipsters appears at the FREE Digital eBook
end of this book. Note that a few numbers are missing from the index, and that some members did The content of this digital not provide their names when doing the survey so there are a few tips without numbers. All tips are eBook is FREE and in the in the Tipster's own words, with editing only for spelling, grammar, and punctuation.
public domain. You are We deeply appreciate the effort that contributors made to create these tips. We hope you find at encouraged to use it, share least one valuable idea — and, hopefully, many valuable ideas — that can help you when doing it, post it on your Web siteand/or your organization's online instruction.
Intranet. No one is author-ized to charge a fee for it orto use it to collect contactdata. The PDF file cannot bealtered without written per-mission from The eLearningGuild. We request that reuse This FREE Digital Book would not have been possible were it not or re-distribution of this for a generous contribution to its development from WebEx publication is accompanied Communications. If you're not familiar with WebEx products for by appropriate attribution to online meetings and synchronous e-Learning, or if you haven't The eLearning Guild which checked them out lately, we encourage you to take a look at your can be found on the Web at earliest convenience! www.webex.com

834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 5
This is not an
II. Tips for Instructors
HAVE FUN! — 105 Expect it to be more work than a traditional course, because it probably will be. — 40 Even the most
Do not expect to be successful at this because you are a good live classroom trainer. Seek out suc- cessful e-Trainers for advice. Look for good professional training. Schools and experience in the livetraining area is not sufficient preparation for e-Training. — 14 have a very
Whenever possible, make the transition from classroom to online instruction incrementally, overtime, monitoring and adjusting as you go. — 287 Subscribe to newsletters geared toward online designers and developers (e.g., eLearning Guide, Online News and Reviews, etc.); stay connected with other professionals in the field. — 25 to online
You should have (or build) your confidence, both in the system, and in your ability to deal with an unseen group. — 160 Have good documentation regarding the hardware setup; and software knowledge and interperson- al skills needed to teach effectively. — 163 Technologies, ATF Be prepared to receive and immediately respond to vast amount of email from your students. — 191 Jolt Cola, king-size Snickers, and mighty wrists to avoid RSI from typing for hours on end each day.
— 196 Be prepared with course notes, instructor's guide, knowledge of participants, i.e. ethnic and culturalbackgrounds, formal education, entry level knowledge of the topic being taught, etc. — 223 My favorite tip would be to stay organized in order to stay ahead of the presentation curve. — 239 You need to have first-hand experience. — 313 You must know the online teaching process inside and out. — 328 A. Prepare thoroughly for facilitating synchronous events
1. Be familiar with the software, tools and technology
Get very comfortable with the technology. (Know what you're doing!) — 105 Know how to use your virtual classroom software. — 3 Learn your technology tool and practice!! — 15 Be familiar with the presentation platform tools. — 260 Know the delivery tool and don't learn how to use it during a live event. — 18 Develop proficiency in navigating the technology used within the environment. — 37 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 6
II. Tips for Instructors continued
with the fea-
Know the technology you are using! Be very comfortable with it — it will make your life easier and tures of your
students will rely on you for assistance. — 94 Use ALL the tools provided by Centra (or WebEx, Placeware, etc) to make up for the lack of a physicalpresence to keep the students' attention. — 100 product and use
them! Some are
Understand and practice with any tool (WebEx, Centra) with a willing test student until the controlsare familiar. — 111 LEARN THE TECHNOLOGY!!! — 88 what you get in
Solve any PC skill or technology issues before you start. — 190 Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. Be as familiar with your electronic tools as possible, so their use by thetrainer is as transparent to the online instruction process as is the use of a whiteboard in a class- boards, etc.). If
2. Be prepared to teach in the online medium
you don't use
(See section II.B.2 on content delivery for additional tips.) Know your medium before you set out to teach in it. — 216 will the stu-
You have to be an expert with the virtual classroom technology. — 55 The online instructor has to acquire the kind of necessary knowledge and understanding about newmedia so you can apply it to the content being both taught and learned. — 195 Bob Joyce, Coordinator of Continuing Ed., Know your tools — be familiar enough with the technology so you can focus on your content and Center for Biosecurity your learners / participants. — 215 Know your tool — many times I've attended sessions where virtual facilitators did not have a goodcommand of the tool they were using and/or did not take students through the tool to explainthings. — 133 Know and use your online toolbox. Make your virtual classroom a "tangible" thing. — 165 Learn to use the tools such as highlighters, pointers etc. — 188 Develop the ability to multi-task as you need to watch for raised hands, text chat, etc. as you aretalking. — 138 Don't be intimidated by the technologies. — 42 Know how to use the technology well. — 46 Understand the zillions of capabilities of the technology. — 49 Learn and use the tools provided by your product. — 220 Preparation is the key! Prior to your training, TEST the technology being used. Go through the stepsin logging in, connecting etc. Ensure that your PC has the proper plug-ins etc. — 266 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 7
Know your con-
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Use the tools that are available in any application you use to distribute learning. — 322 Use tools like Mallard or CAPA. Use simulations. Use a tool like CollabSS. — 323 each class ses-
Utilize all interactive tools available in the specific learning environment (polls, click on screen, typeon screen, chat, etc). — 327 sion. Test all
Never expect an online student to be able to do something in the online program which you as an instructor cannot do yourself. — 328 Use the whiteboard features in PowerPoint presentations. You can't physically point to the screen as prior to sending
you would in a face-to-face session, so I find it helpful when online presenters use the whiteboardmarkup features to highlight or point out items in their slides. — 336 them out to
everyone — and
3. Know the content
Check the accuracy of the content material. — 271 based, test on a
Make sure you are extremely knowledgeable about your content, and have prepared a set of out- comes for where you want to lead the group. — 230 than the one on
Try to look at your own classes as a student sees them; then ask yourself if you would want to take this class. — 280 which you creat-
Check out your material and teach to that format. — 243 Dan Hill, Manager, Be prepared at all times. Know what you are going to teach, how you are going to teach it, and how Training & Education, much time it will take. — 46 Know the content well. — 46 Know your material. — 131 Know your subject matter. — 218 Know your subject. — 159 Know your material inside out. — 259 4. Develop a "Plan B"
Plan for the unexpected. — 105 Prepare for the unexpected — redundant phone lines, computer consoles, etc. are key to successfulevents. If one goes down, the show must still go on, so having extras is always a good thing. — 133 Build a trainer's guide that tells you how to deal with typical things that can go wrong during apresentation. That way you have a resource to smoothly deal with issues as they arise, without giv-ing the appearance of helplessness. — 18 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 8
Always have a
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Have a backup plan in case something goes wrong with plan A, especially for synchronous training.
Barbara Fillicaro (For example, if I plan to do a live demo of a business application; what am I going to do if thatapplication goes down during the training? I need a backup plan. A PowerPoint slide set or avi/wmvfile that I created ahead of time that I can use in place of the live demo.) — 18 Have alternatives in place if the technology fails. Don't allow one site with difficulties to bring downthe whole presentation. Hand them over to a help desk; find out if they can connect at another time,etc. — 217 Practice is just as important for online delivery as for classroom, if not more so. Awkward pauses inthe classroom are easier to remedy than strange pauses online. If you are having a technical prob-lem, simply explain the situation and either remedy it quickly or go immediately to Plan B (printedslides you provided, backup conference call number, etc). — 303 Avoid surprises by preparing thoroughly for each event. — 7 Have a "Plan B" and a "Plan C." — 7 Have a backup plan should a certain tool not work. — 21 Anticipate possible issues on the access and learning obstacles and be ready to resolve, encourage,or re-direct where appropriate. — 35 Be prepared for anything. — 95 Be prepared with Plan B in case of technical difficulties. — 96 Have a Plan B in case technology goes awry. — 161 Be sure to have a Plan B because whatever can go wrong eventually will. — 215 5. Get some experience as a learner
Attend as many online courses as you can and keep a notebook of ideas. — 263 Take online classes so you know what you liked and didn't like. — 296 Take an online course to experience the role of student. — 27 Become an online learner before you teach online. — 101 You must have been an online learner yourself. — 167 Make sure you attend several online sessions yourself to see what's good and bad in others. — 231 Take some online credit classes in a brand new field. — 293 Go through the courseware from a user's perspective. — 271 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 9
Keep proper bal-
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Read all assignment descriptions as though you are a student looking for a loophole in a vague deadline or project requirement. — 272 and the content.
Be a good participant — know what it is like to participate, and identify when you are engaged, and bored, as a participant. — 9 ient time table.
6. Plan, prepare, practice
Satish Ingale, PL, HSBC Practice — practice — practice! (Know your content!) — 105 Knowledge of the environment: — 271 1. Computer literacy: the basics of how to deal with typical computer issues.
2. Networking basics: minimum understanding of the issues involved with transmitting over theinternet (e.g., lag time, presenter / learner resolution differences, etc.).
3. Know your platform: overview of common features in virtual classroom platforms.
Principles of online presentation: — 271 1. Speaking: emphasis on energy, pacing, diction, and tonal variation.
2. Listening: active listening skills, both aural and written (e.g., chat messages).
Before the Meeting — Attend an online presenter's workshop or complete an online tutorial.
Develop an outline of your meeting, with a script or notes of what you're going to say. Make yourmeeting interactive, engaging the participants and requiring them to respond to you, the content, oreach other. Keeping your virtual meeting or classroom interactive helps the participants to stayfocused and tuned in. Build interactive techniques into your presentation. Build well-designed slides.
Have someone proofread your slides. Practice, practice, practice! Hold a practice or test meeting andrun through the presentation with a colleague. Reserve a conference bridge for the audio portion ofyour web meeting. Send out invitations for the meeting to participants. Send copies of slide presen-tations to participants before the meeting in case you run into technical problems. Locate a sitewhere you can conduct your web meeting away from noise and distractions. Using an office or roomwith a door is ideal as it will eliminate background noise and minimize interruptions. Print the DoNot Disturb sign and post it on your door or cubicle. Be organized with your notes, as shuffling andrustling papers can be annoying to others and doesn't lend itself to a professional delivery. — 307 Have a plan for delivery and stick to it. This should include a script and a timeline. — 18 Plan well. — 254 Plan, plan, plan. — 27, 255 Before giving the session PRACTICE! PRACTICE! PRACTICE! — 21 Rehearse — you really don't know what the graphics will look like to your learners until you trythem. Also, if you're going to application-share make sure you try it with co-workers before you try iton learners. That way you know what the learner's experience will be. — 3 Practice first, preferably with a test audience. — 24 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 10
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Practice in front of 2 machines — one the leader and the other the participant so you can see the tion must be
cause and effect between the two. — 9 well laid out
Practice giving your course with a colleague behind a partition or over the phone. — 28 and any ques-
Be prepared. — 93 tions you want
Be prepared for a lot of writing! — 94 to use as polling
Rehearse well enough that you do not need to read the material word for word. — 56 should be inte-
Preparation. 2. Preparation. 3. Preparation. — 32 grated into the
Practice, practice, practice. — 161, 177, 215, 262, 263 course to more
Practice, practice, practice — too many times facilitators don't practice enough for the virtual envi- ronment. In a traditional classroom, many folks can "wing it," but in the virtual environment it'smuch harder to do that. — 133 your time and
Practice — revise — practice — revise — practice. — 190 Practice your presentation delivery. — 260 Rehearse with an audience. — 275 Michael Shawn Stiles, Rehearse!!! Also, if recording the session, record your rehearsal. recorded sessions are usually very Manager, Pfizer Inc.
boring, but a mocked-up session can be controlled to keep a learner's interest. — 276 Rehearsal and small group tryout are essential. — 188 Rehearse any areas where you will be giving a demonstration. — 223 PRACTICE! — 261 Test drive your course on co-workers before presenting it to students. — 263 Preparation and practice before facilitating the class or course. — 264 Preparation is the key for a successful online course. Just as it is for a classroom course. — 265 PRACTICE before you go live. — 259 Practice your lesson several times before presenting it live to your audience over the Web. Perhapspractice it with a friend or colleague from two computers. — 296 You can never be too prepared! — 335 A whole year of professional
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834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 12
First and fore-
II. Tips for Instructors continued
most — know
7. Know your learners
Know your students and what the needs of the trainees are. — 33 Understand the audience profile and the challenges they face in this course. — 39 ments in a con-
Understand who your learners are. — 46 text that will
Get to know your students. Just as you would have an initial interview in a face-to-face setting, you must be able to have that kind of interview online, and be able to know who your students are. Keepit professional, but light. The students should feel comfortable with your abilities after the interview, and you should have a good idea of the abilities of the students. — 156 Jeff Albers, Senior Know your audience so that you can design in appropriate questions and interactions — 215 Technical Writer, Know your participants' names and use them! — 217 Think outside the box — see issues from the student's point of view. — 159 Ensure that content is fresh and relevant to their needs. — 153 Be aware of what your learners might not be aware of. — 104 Plan the course carefully and make sure that it has enough flexibility — this allows you to take yourtime during the course for actually getting in touch with students, understanding them, and build-ing trust. — 252 Teach to your learner. Find out how they like to learn and adjust accordingly. Just because you areteaching online, your style doesn't have to be set in stone. — 295 Remember that on-line is not the same as page turning. You can make no assumptions about whatthe learner already knows of the topic. — 278 I would identify that the ability for the online instructor to customize and develop his or her ownmaterials is essential. This means instructors can create content that is special to the needs of thosethey are training. With e-Learning the potential to do this is immense and should not be overlooked.
— 325 Understand cultural issues (dealing with a potentially wider student-base).
B. Ensure an effective delivery
Always have an "icebreaker" question or text on the screen during session logins. — 65 Always provide paper-based resources as a student reference to back up your training. — 67 Always think of the students' needs. — 70 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 13
II. Tips for Instructors continued
for the event to
Apply the relationship between text, sound, motion and graphics. Think about what you are doing, begin, have a
how students use the on-line environment, and how to foster learning. Then apply your teaching slide with a map
techniques and learn from student learning. — 73 of the country
Develop a routine to manage your online course effectively. — 84 and let people
Include 15-minute pre- and post-studies, job aides, or other media. — 190 mark the area
Icebreakers. — 213 they are attend-
1. Get started on the right foot
Barbara Toney, AIS Allow registration and setup time before the class commences. — 2 Application Services Manager, UniGroup Open the e-Meeting Room early. — 49 If there are special pages of other documents like word, PDF, etc., have it turned to the page youwant to show in the e-Seminar before attendees sign in. — 49 Log in as the leader 1 — 2 days before and again 1 hour before the event. — 7 It is critical to test and ensure that technology issues are dealt with prior to the course commence-ment. — 67 Set up your room (on-line) hours before the class starts. — 232 Show up early and test the system to be sure all systems are functioning properly. — 283 Use a pre-live checklist. — 262 Have two computers logged on to understand and see what happens on participant's computers.
— 44 If at all possible, especially if you are a one-person group, have a second computer available so youcan see exactly what the participants see, e.g. lag time from your click to their screens. — 177 If possible, have a second computer logged on as a student, so you can see what the students areseeing. — 178 Make sure you have a Shadow Computer. — 232 Utilize two computers (one hooked up to the internet simulating the student with the slowest inter-net connection). — 164 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 14
II. Tips for Instructors continued
ing, put a pic-
ture of a person
a. Visualize the learners
Slow down and imagine the audience in front of you. — 53 tive student) on
If you are active in the class, students are more likely to take an active role. — 94 the side of your
Since there's no eye contact and oftentimes limited feedback, I always placed a large poster of a classroom setting in front of the instructor. It seemed to ease the transition a little. — 169 tor and talk to
Face-to-face contact is a must somewhere in the program, if not for each session. — 191 Put a picture of a group of people up next to the monitor so you can see the students you are speak-ing to and talk with your hands. Although the students will not see the non-verbal movements, the Tom Berry, Galileo trainer's delivery will be smoother because it will be natural. — 273 Visualize the audience in your mind. — 329 Visualize the people you are speaking to: they are not abstract. They are real people who deserveyour top effort. — 330 b. Prepare the learners for success in the synchronous environment
Establish the meeting ground rules: Expectations and guidelines. How and when you'll take ques-tions. Time frames. Etiquette reminders. — 307 Use a multiple-choice (check all that apply) tech poll to do a quality check on the video and audio atthe start of the presentation. — 154 Introduce learners to the interface with a quick synchronous session or a recorded asynchronoussession a week prior to the training session. — 306 Keep the learners active on their end through making them raise their hand, click the answer to aquestion, poll, etc. — 306 Encourage the learners to applaud, laugh, joke using the interface. — 306 Make sure that your students understand and feel comfortable with the technical media beingused; don't assume a level of comfort or understanding that may not be there. — 25 Regardless of the online media, clearly state expectations, objectives, tool functionality, etc. of allonline instruction so everyone begins on the same page, understands how to operate any tools, andknows what to expect. — 25 Provide online office hours and phone appointments. — 27 Use a printed handbook for learners to write notes, do assignments, and stay engaged. — 36 Send out ideas and tips on "How to Learn." — 39 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 15
Set a FAQ page
II. Tips for Instructors continued
and an "I have
Provide students with a download of the workshop contents. — 43 Remind students that "online" does not equal "easier learning." — 45 Let students know exactly how the online class will work. Let them know who they can contact ifthey have technical questions, etc. — 46 students can ask
Clearly define both student and instructor expectations. — 54 for help on any
Set clear expectations. Use a syllabus or outline to manage student expectations about yourresponse time for individual emails, and define student participation so that students know there is a reward for quality as well as for a minimum number of postings, and as much for their responsesto classmates as to you. — 57 "Land of the
Send out lots of preparation information to make sure attendees are comfortable in their environ- also function in
Be explicit about what your expectations are concerning participation. — 87 the same way.
If this is an ongoing course, create a participation metric and let the students know what it is and how it impacts their grade. — 87 Coordinator Academic Computing, Fresno City State your expectations up front. — 81 Develop a policy for students to follow. — 84 Classroom etiquette for participants: — 1121. Close other open applications (especially Outlook) for resource reasons.
2. Set phones to forward calls directly to voicemail (only if using voice-over IP (VOIP).
3. Keep telephone on "mute" when not speaking (only if using teleconference feature).
4. Hang a "Do Not Disturb" sign outside your cube / office.
5. Use the "yes","no", and hand-raise icons to participate and indicate there is a question or com- Provide support, particularly to new learners. — 92 Make sure the learners understand technology and can demonstrate the ability to use it before theybegin to use online learning. — 109 I've been a student in an online course. A tip from this experience would be to know the limits ofthe system they are using. Clearly state what the student will be doing, in my class it was a ton ofwriting — which is not bad, it was just a bit of a surprise. — 108 Ensure that there is a regular expectation for course meetings during a regularly defined semesteror quarter. — 143 Require learner participation within a set time period; too much time between hearing from learn-ers creates its own problems. — 143 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 16
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Give specific guidelines for message board posts, with points assigned for meeting the criteria.
the beginning
of the course.
Manage expectations. Ensure learners know timetables, performance expectations, participation expectations . etc. — 167 Provide a comprehensive syllabus to include a course description, objectives, and grading rubric.
— 147 Send out tip sheet in advance of session. — 153 Set ground rules (close down all other applications, create a protected learning space). — 262 must log in to
Set parameters for your online instruction early; e.g. computer use guidelines, instructor availability,online etiquette, addressing email properly so filters can be in place, etc. — 282 the course, how
c. Include a round of introductions
be graded, etc.
Get personalized with the students. — 271 Caryl Bender, Director Create a nurturing environment by providing opportunities for the students to get to know you and Technology, Collegis / each other. — 27 Brookdale Community Don't dispense with the introductions in this format if the number of learners is manageable. Thetechnology allows it. This is a good way to help build the class spirit. — 30 Get your participants talking to you, and to each other. — 34 Ask students to provide a short bio and optional photo to include on your site. Show pictures of stu-dents on a map to show where the students are from. — 77 Allow time at the beginning of an extended course to allow students to get to know each otheronline. — 157 If the class size permits it, have people introduce themselves. — 329 d. Help learners develop media literacy
Allow time for initial online sessions and practice with the technology in advance. — 63 If online learning is new to the people you are training, spend some time helping them learn how touse the equipment or programs or whatever. Otherwise this can be a stopper to the learning. — 109 Don't assume that the trainer and student are on the same level with the technology. — 124 Don't assume that the "e" part of e-Learning won't confuse students. Don't frighten off those olderstudents who may feel out of touch with "electrickery." — 127

12 Tips for More Effective Virtual Classrooms Before the training session… Use what you've got a. Don't recreate the wheel – use the material you have. b. Don't convert or change formats unless absolutely necessary. Your virtual classroom solution should allow you to present your content in its native format. Narrow your focus a. "Chunk up" your content – the shorter you can make it, the better. b. Try to limit online sessions to 1 hour whenever possible. c. Smaller classes are easier to manage – 10 to 20 learners max. d. Supplement the online session with job aids such as hand-outs, recorded content, reference guides, etc. Look for every opportunity to engage your audience a. Use Q&A, Chat, Polls, White-boarding and other interactive tools to keep people involved. b. Cover no more than 4 slides without an interaction. c. Get personal – Involve individual learners whenever you can. Practice, Practice, Practice a. Master the techniques & the technology. b. Use 2 computers for both practice sessions and actual sessions to see (and experience) what your audience sees. Automate registration and reporting a. Use your virtual classroom's registration function to automatically capture a record of who attended training sessions. b. Collect poll and test results for assessment and analysis. "Can" what you can a. Record static content and post for on-demand viewing. b. Offer live sessions for material that needs context and interaction. From the WebEx Training Center Team

12 Tips for More Effective Virtual Classrooms During the training session… Partner with a colleague a. Another presenter adds interactivity and helps manage the class. b. Additional Panelist can monitor Text Chat and Q&A. a. Start with a 5 minute intro to familiarize attendees with environment. b. Focus on how to participate (chat, Q&A, raise hand, audio, etc.) a. Avoid "dense" material such as intricate charts or lengthy spreadsheets b. Keep it short & sweet: Limit your talk time to < 5 minutes per slide. c. Use videos and animations sparingly. 10. Record for review and reuse a. Record the session to post for those unable to attend. b. Save whiteboards, annotated documents for distribution and review. After the training session… 11. Follow-up for follow-through a. Don't assume your audience "got" what you taught – ask them! Use e- mails, surveys, polls or phone calls to follow-up. b. Provide opportunities for questions or coaching after the session. c. Schedule a follow-up session within 30 – 60 days to see if learning was 12. Measure & market your successes a. Define success criteria & measure the results. b. Capture quotes & success stories, and then publish them (newletters, emails, even in your next class announcement.) c. Use your sessions to identify and recruit new SMEs & teachers. From the WebEx Training Center Team

3 Critical Skills for Virtual Classroom Instructors First the good news! The skills you use everyday in traditional classrooms are equally valuable in the online environment. However, there are a few areas that need special focus when teaching a "virtual" class: • Remember how bored you were the last time you sat in a class and listened to the instructor drone on and on and on? Put that instructor in a virtual class environment and you can take that feeling and multiply it by a factor of 10. • Make a conscious effort to put all of your energy, enthusiasm and excitement into your voice and let your learners know that this is a class worthy of their time and commitment. • Action Item: Record your practice presentations. Ask a colleague to listen to the first 10 minutes and rate your energy on a scale of 1 ("Nap Time") to 5 ("Showtime!") Anything less than a 4 is cause for concern. 2. Brevity is a Virtue. • One great thing about virtual classes is that they enable your audience to gain a learning experience right in the middle of their work day. Don't dilute that benefit by trying to cram 4 hours of training into an already hectic schedule. • Virtual classes are at their most effective when they are focused, brief (1 hour or less) and interactive. Ensuring that your classes meet these criteria requires work and discipline. Look for logical break points in your content and "chunk" it up into smaller, more focused segments. • Action Item: Review your slides and pare down your information down to the core concepts you need to communicate. Work to shave your talk time to <5 minutes per slide (2 minutes to cover the core material and 3 minutes for context and depth.) Target 40 minutes of presentation for each class hour and dedicate the rest of the time to class interactions. 3. Focus on Interactions • In a virtual class, there is no way to ensure that your students aren't playing solitaire, catching up on email or even napping. How do you handle this? • Use Q&A, Chat, Polls, White-boarding and other interactive tools to keep your learners engaged and involved. Look for opportunities to engage individual learners. And don't forget to use audio conferencing for interactions whenever you can. A dynamic vocal discussion can really jump-start the learning process. • Action Item: Place small, unobtrusive visual cues on your slides to remind you to engage your audience. Some instructors use a favorite icon such as a light bulb to let them know it is time to pause and ask a question or open the floor for discussion. Put these 3 skills into practice & super-charge your virtual classroom experience! From the WebEx Training Center Team 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 20
II. Tips for Instructors continued
learners log in 15
Take a few minutes up front to walk people through the key features of the tool. — 215 minutes prior to
class start and
In creating the Global SDM Training Strategy now in place at Ford Motor Company, our team foundthat there were numerous avenues of interaction that should be considered for implementation of a blended learning model. My tip would be to ensure that an instructor has verified that studentswith a tendency for participation in a single avenue are, at least, exposed to other tools during their with a tour of
course. For example: where email, chat and threaded discussions are commonly in use by most stu-dents; you may still find some have avoided learning what they need to function in one or more of these modes. A single exercise, or assignment, is not enough to ensure minimal competence. — 187 like how to use
chat, raise their
e. Present a professional image as the instructor
hand, end the
Typing skills: — 271 Patience: knowing when to keep your hands off the mouse.
Lisa Wieland Handy, AVP Problem solving: what to do when it doesn't work. — 271 / Sr. Consultant, Plan ahead: introduction, content sequence, interactions, practice sessions, summary / conclusion;technology set up and shake down; student access to instructor offline. — 251 If you're using a headset, position it so the microphone is not directly by your mouth. This will helpthe volume be normal and eliminate the sound of heavy breathing. — 307 Eliminate fillers such as "uh,""you know," and "uh-huh" to improve the quality and professionalismof your presentation. — 307 Act professional! — 62 Always be on time. — 62 Rehearse often. — 62 Be proactive in thinking of new methods to make synchronous learning effective and engaging.
— 62 Be accessible. — 80 Be adaptable to the customer. — 82 Be available to your students. — 83 Be courteous to students, no matter what. — 84 Attend to adult learning concepts. — 85 Be timely in your responses to class participants. — 91 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 21
II. Tips for Instructors continued
vital. An on-line
Be organized and keep up or ahead of the class. — 91 be able to stay
Be flexible. — 138 on schedule, and
Manage your time wisely. — 114 be aware of stu-
Obey the rules of online instruction. — 243 dents that are
Start on time from breaks (sound familiar?). — 310 falling behind or
are not engag-
f. Be proactive about the "housekeeping" details
Use audience feedback tools (such as changing seat colors in Microsoft Live Meeting) to get consen-sus for sound check and other yes/no type questions. "If you can hear me clearly, change your seat color to purple." — 242 President, Pro-Ware Computing, Inc.
Keep your separate grade sheets offline with notes on assignments so that you can respond quicklyto private emails regarding grades, assignments, or feedback. — 91 2. Manage the main event: Content delivery
a. Keep the learners engaged
Engagement: — 271 1. How (and when) to elicit interaction from students — through both technical and verbal means.
2. Understand the differences between online and in-person student engagement.
3. The increased availability of distracters.
4. The openness afforded by anonymity.
5. The safety of lurking.
Provide motivation, support, and feedback for discussions. Summarize responses; bring the discus-sion back on track. Encourage student-to-student interaction. Tap learners' knowledge. Make stu-dents responsible for summarizing the week's discussion. Teach others a concept. Assign group proj-ects. Arrange student's role-plays. Use peer-review for projects. Motivate them to display their workpublicly. — 271 Call on by name. Listen to your yoice — your tone of voice should always be warm and friendly. Havea smile in your tone. To do this, you may want to place a small mirror on your computer monitor toobserve yourself. If you are frowning, so is your voice. Vary your voice inflection to avoid soundingmonotone. Be enthusiastic in your presentation. If you are energized and enthused about the infor-mation, your participants will be also. It will also be easier for them to stay tuned in. — 307 Interactivity is vital. — 191 Just like in the physical classroom, teachers need to be able to provide some "spark" — creating yourlessons and web pages in the summer with no further work during the year is "boring" for students!Adding something new, now and then, keeps students interested and asking "What is this instructorgoing to do next?" — 197 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 22
Keep your ses-
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Check for audience engagement every 3 to 5 minutes. — 306 MARKUP TOOLS / WHITEBOARD: — 1121. Use the Markup tools on slides to: agement is not
a) Focus participants' attention.
b) Add visual stimulation.
ever an issue.
c) Replace animation.
d) Summarize what has been discussed.
2. Let participants add a drawing or a diagram when appropriate.
Instructional Designer, 3. Don't allow too many participants to work at one time.
4. Assign participants to different sections of the whiteboard to define the workspace.
5. Save important markups to the Agenda.
Use the online tools appropriately to enhance the teaching and learning environment. — 35 Use the annotation tools (in WebEx, for both the instructor and learner) — 49 Have a video camera for personalizing the e-Seminar. — 49 Use tools such as a pointer, or draw on the slide, to engage interest. — 53 Clear the participant panel before each new question. — 112 Creatively use the features and functions of the synchronous classroom tool to engage participants— polling, marker tools, small group discussion via chat, etc. — 119 Use polling. — 90 Don't be afraid to use the tool to its fullest. Use class breakouts, use the whiteboard and app shar-ing. If you don't you will lose the class within 5 minutes no matter how "exciting" you think yourslides are. — 247 Have supporting materials and utilize as many tools as possible to enhance the learning experience.
A lot of instructors only use PowerPoint and not application sharing, breakout rooms, surveys andchat capabilities. — 288 Try to engage the students every 5 minutes. — 21 Find ways to check in with your students in an on-line synchronous classroom by using the audiencefeature of the software. — 43 Periodically (every 5 — 10 minutes) engage the virtual audience, either by name or by an action suchas a polling slide. — 53 Check in with each attendee every 15 minutes. Ask a pointed question to a specific attendee. — 110 Elicit regular feedback (every 5 minutes minimum) to ensure student understanding.
Encourage participation by randomly calling on participants. — 137 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 23
Scan your inter-
II. Tips for Instructors continued
face in a clock-
Call on individuals for specific input every five minutes, or almost the entire group will be doing wise fashion —
once each slide
Do not go longer than 10 minutes without engaging the audience in some discussion or interaction.
transition — to
One way sessions are not as effective and participants get distracted easier (they may be multi-task-ing). — 153 check for ques-
Include some type of interactivity for the learners every 5 minutes. — 161 tions or com-
Have your learners interact in some way about every 7 to 10 minutes. — 165 Don't try and teach more than 5 minutes without some form of interactivity (solicit feedback often eLearning Manager, from audience). — 169 Deloitte & Touche Insert interactions at least every three minutes. — 164 Don't forget about the telephone. You can always have students call you or vice versa. Be sure tolearn how to use chat rooms and instant messaging. — 293 Pause to ask questions and encourage discussion at least every 5 minutes. — 320 Encourage very frequent student involvement. — 146 Plan an interaction every 5-10 minutes. — 262 Stay engaged. — 289 Don't overdo participation in discussion threads, but don't be invisible — there is a happy medium.
— 27 Always initiate discussion . never assume that because learners are not communicating via discus-sion forum or emails, that they are fine and that they are learning. — 66 Ensure all participants have some input to the lesson, wallflowers do not learn all that they could orshould. — 67 Initiate discussion, then guide from the side. — 81 If you use Discussion Boards, particularly with active discussions or larger classes, set expectationsfor students clearly and assign forum moderators (students who get extra credit for this) to serve asthe first person to call for help regarding that forum, and who write a weekly synopsis of theforum's most active discussion points for you. This makes it much more possible that you can handlethe increase in work that can come when the use of discussion boards takes off. — 182 Always set up one forum on a discussion board that you name something like "Student Lounge."Tell thestudents that they can use this forum to discuss any topic they would like — new car, movie, a greatparty, etc.This gives them a place to "meet" with classmates informally, discuss common interests, and,therefore, makes it more likely that they will stay on topic in the subject-based forums. — 182

Boston — April 18 - 21, 2006
The Annual Gathering offers you two ways to participate. The eLearning Guild's Annual Gathering
offers you context, content, concepts, connections, colleagues, conversations, clarity, confidence, credibility, and of course. community.
To learn all about this remarkable new event, go to: Isn't it time you attended a Guild event? 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 25
Be sure to
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Require discussions with peers and the instructor to synthesize and ask additional questions to pro- mote "discovery" learning. — 143 ually in some
Use a blank PowerPoint slide or a white board slide to type topics brought up in discussions. For way during the
small groups, divide the slide into a tic tac toe type board and give each person their own area to listtheir ideas, and then discuss them. — 242 Consider chat vs. threaded discussion. Asynchronous threaded discussions have tremendous instruc- Jeff Tyson, Manager of tional potential and value. Chat does not. A "café" discussion thread dedicated to off-task interaction better serves its social function. The pseudo-instructional value of chat can more efficiently and Development, Tech effectively be accomplished with a phone call. — 287 Resource Group, Inc.
If you have print-based materials and tasks that are working for you, you don't always have torewrite them. Get them distributed, and then engage your students in excellent and focused thread-ed discussions. Consider the powerful potential uses of attachments. Simple, yet effective! — 287 WebCT Discussion Board Ideas & Information: Asynchronous discussion boards allow learners tocomplete reading assignments, reflect on their contributions, and construct a well-prepared contri-bution before posting to the discussion forum. Asynchronous discussion is one of the key compo-nents in interactivity for courses taught online or totally at a distance. The idea is to build a learningcommunity. Set up course discussion protocol: Explain what a threaded discussion is and how topost. Post, reply, quote, etc. Even distribution of postings (timeliness). Length of postings. Respond tomain question(s). Cite readings frequently. Respond to others. Bring in related prior knowledge andexperience. Use proper etiquette. Begin with an ice breaker. Main forum area of WebCT: Ask stu-dents to post bios (do yours first). Ask students to comment on syllabus or other issues of concern.
Respond to various bios, acknowledging student's contributions and emphasizing the richness anddiversity their backgrounds and experiences will bring to this course (get them to buy into it). Play agame: Have students mention 3 things about themselves, 2 true things and an untruth. Then havepeople guess which one is the untruth. Model one "real" discussion that is based on first or secondweek's reading assignment. Emphasize that this will NOT be graded. Emphasize that everyoneshould contribute. Develop protocol. Follow the protocols. Acknowledge and encourage. Provide asynthesis of the discussion in class. What did we learn? Emerging issues? Grading: Discussion mustbe part of the grade (follow required student outcomes in your Syllabus). Determine how manyonline discussions you'll have during semester. Assign a facilitator(s). Facilitators are required to leadonline discussion. Provide begin and end times. Determine group size. Provide a separate forum areafor each discussion. Integrate readings and projects into discussion. Set guidelines (protocol) andexplain or demonstrate how they work. Model at least one discussion. Monitor your students: pro-vide assistance. Provide frequent feedback. Acknowledge and encourage: refer to forum discussionsin future lessons. Evaluate student discussion: Make changes as necessary. Criteria for evaluatingthe quality of a discussion message, a good message is: Substantial (relates to the course material).
Concise (one screen may be the ideal message length). Provocative (encourages others to respond).
Interpretive (expands concepts or connects ideas in new ways). Timely (occurs in a reasonable timeframe — when the topic is under discussion). Logical (supports point of view with reasons and evi-dence). Grammatically correct (is well written). Only those comments that meet these criteria of agood message receive full credit. — 332 You can't just do your F2F methods in the online. Get students "speaking" in the discussion boardand your email inbox will not be so full. — 335 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 26
Use polls to get
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Trust your instincts. Try to get a read for the group about how much facilitator intervention they need, as in an ideal group dynamic they should only need guidance not regular intervention. — 11 Most people will
Use other voices to teach and lead — both planned and on the fly — the art of letting students go respond to a
— true learner-centric learning . by breaking up topic. — 12 Write clearly and concisely. — 13 Dr. Diane Kramer, CEO, Don't forget that discussion is a form of interaction . it doesn't have to just be interactions created PeakSkills Learning within your synchronous technology tool. Be creative! — 15 Focus on the student's / participant's needs and not on the content or the tool. — 17 Be clear about the session's objectives. — 17 Encourage or require group interaction — this will help alleviate feelings of anxiety caused by theisolation of learning online. But be very aware of possible group interaction problems . and inter-cede when absolutely necessary. — 27 Encourage participation in course daily by stimulating further discussions. — 37 Include interaction — between everyone plus the community or environment of the subject. — 38 Communicate with students clearly and regularly. — 40 Vary delivery methods to spark interest. — 42 Provide timely and meaningful feedback to learners. — 42 Promote online debate. — 45 Make every student feel as though they are a valuable contributor to the learning experience. — 54 Instructor should be accessible at various times. Some students may be from a foreign country andin a different time zone. — 60 It is difficult sometimes, but I feel it is important for the instructor to be available for chat as well asemail for the students. — 60 Acknowledge every contribution as far as possible, even if just "Thanks, name." — 61 When asking for responses, make sure you pause long enough for participants to respond. — 15 Periodically, ask questions and invite thoughts from the students. — 17 Keep the adult learning model in mind: encourage your participants to add case studies, experi-ences, and electronic resources on the training topic. — 22 Address learners by name so that they feel a personal connection to the instructor. — 23 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 27
II. Tips for Instructors continued
carefully to the
Provide success within the program. — 33 "One" source of
a question, but
Stay close to the computer. — 38 Be available by phone, fax, email, IM, etc. — 38 to all — by
Call those students who are not showing up in print. — 38 Be Proactive. — 39 bringing a ques-
Ensure you are always active and positive in the discussion forums. — 39 tion to a general
Keep contact alive. The worst thing is to let student's motivation go down by disappearing. Email students as often as possible, post interesting articles, spread news on the subject (via email, discus-sion forum). — 45 most of the
time. A dialogue
Be interested in each of your students. Read all their emails. Ask them how they are doing. Go fur-ther than just the perceived academic performance. — 45 Give constant feedback. — 45 Be prompt with your email responses, be prompt to synchronous discussions, and review your and a partici-
emails and discussion board postings every day. — 46 pant leaves the
Make sure you ask your audience to give you feedback — and then respond to it. — 47 others free to
Utilize your questioning skills in a variety of ways, rather than over-utilizing polling and subsequent- ly diminishing the polling excellence. — 49 Set "office hours" and ensure you are able to promptly respond to inquiries. — 54 Consultant, Perfoption Recognize that few students may have sufficient (communication) bandwidth. — 54 Visualize the participants both as individuals and a group — keep this picture in mind as you work.
— 55 Be visible in your online classroom. Make frequent appearances in the classroom, every day or everyother day, rather than concentrating all your activity into a few weekly work sessions. — 57 Divert separate email correspondence into the shared classroom venue. — 57 Communicate, Communicate, Communicate. — 57 Include the participants, sharing the microphone as much as possible, keeping clear objectives inmind. — 58 Ask lots of questions — use the polling feature, or whichever other options are available to keeppeople involved and interested. It's not that different from classroom training! — 77 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 28
Be available at
II. Tips for Instructors continued
all times. Give
Arrive early and greet your attendees when they arrive in the room. — 74 cell phone num-
Don't be afraid of silence. Pause to allow others to respond. — 126 Silence is deadly . like dead air on a radio station. It's easy to lose your audience so keep the sessioninteractive. — 284 Be able to connect with the learners and be able to facilitate the discussions of the group. — 81 when you can.
Be creative and keep your e-Learning sessions lively. — 86 The more you
Let them participate, involve the learner so that they will learn and remember. Make it easy for themto come back to learn something new or something over again. — 109 Keep class interactive. — 90 learner, the bet-
ter they will
Engage the learners by raising their curiosity and encouraging full participation. Be inclusive andseek out diverse views and different ways of looking at things or solutions. — 140 Engage the learners in the learning experience. Don't just let them sit there. — 141 Colleen ONeil, CLO, Alva Engage your learners by asking questions! — 142 Make the session fun, challenging, and have valuable prizes (Dollar store.). — 164 For online learning events that are Web-based self-study, remember to have tests for understandingevery four to five screens. This will keep the participants involved in the learning process. — 179 Involve the audience to keep them from multi-tasking! — 192 Keep people involved. Ask for participation. Initiate participation. Create ways to encourage peopleto stay involved. — 210 Keep the group engaged through online activity. — 213 Build games and competition into the session where participants can call in and answer questionslive — a competitive format with prizes seems to get some enthusiasm. — 214 First and foremost — make it interactive. Keep the participants interest and engage them at everyopportunity. This should be part of the instructional design. — 153 Keep ALL students engaged. — 146 Look for opportunities to add interactions to promote engagement. — 226 Make it interactive! Use break-out rooms, research exercises, and collaborative tools. — 229 Strive to add excitement to each screen. Use multimedia (voice, video, and data) to keep the stu-dent's attention. Engage the student by deploying lots of interaction. Employ simulations whereverfeasible. — 290 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 29
To keep students
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Engage learners by asking questions or selecting certain people to answer a question, or setting up ing during your
a competition between groups or people. — 288 Encourage collaboration. I have been in online sessions where the instructor did not encourage audi- ence participation and lectured the entire time. It was easy to drift off and surf the web and not payattention because the instructor would never know. You have to keep the online sessions active, oth- erwise people get bored. — 288 Use a variety of interactivity techniques. Throughout the session, use as many interactive or engag-ing activities as possible. — 259 Plenty of participant involvement. — 257 Coordinator, Mediaplex Ensure that everyone participates and is comfortable doing so. But don't be too pushy — there's noway to know how the learner is feeling or what is happening in their life during the online courseunless they tell you. — 274 Try to involve everyone and use first names when possible. — 308 Use the learner's first name. — 310 Use creative interactivity. — 326 Let the community know if you are going to be away for any length of time. — 81 Commit to the community and follow through. — 81 Commit yourself to establishing a personal, personable, trusting, and mutual confidence andencouragement-building relationship with every participant in your online course. — 113 Encourage participant interaction with other participants. — 131 Assign group projects online to make the experience richer. — 157 Build a team of learners (community building process), including developing a set of joint values.
— 167 Building authentic relationships online is as important as it is in the physical classroom. The goal isto build a community of learners who can support as well as learn from each other. Understanding aconstructivist approach to teaching and learning would certainly help. — 195 ENGAGE the learner through interaction with other users. — 222 Establish an environment that encourages participation. — 148 Call on participants regularly, by name, to promote engagement and attention. — 262 Encourage learners to learn from each other. — 313 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 30
II. Tips for Instructors continued
b. Remember there are two different views on using scripts
Take the time to develop a very detailed script of what you want to say and what actions you willdo, with what application, how, and when. — 88 Don't script — natural conversation is vital for this environment to make it successful. Like animals sibility for deliv-
sense fear, learners sense memorized lines and it makes events less engaging. If a presenter speaks"from the heart," it adds to their credibility. — 133 ering some of
c. Be careful when giving directions
Ensure that the
Be very specific in your communications to students, especially with respect to testing connectivity before the session and for first-time online students. — 21 stand their com-
Give very, very clear directions. — 27 mitment to the
Be deliberate about guidance for the student. First we are going to do this. Next we do this . and after that we will . Here are the opportunities where we will stop for questions or feedback orpractice . or whatever. — 87 Be explicit when describing what you are doing. Where on the screen are you going (left, center, right, top, middle, bottom; specific labeled section) and what exact link, button, value, you are click- ing, choosing, or selecting? — 88 Be deliberate about explaining to the student what you are doing and why. (I am opening XYZ soft-ware to show you examples of . ) — 87 Detail and clarity are important to eliminate confusion. — 94 Give clear directives to participants when asking for responses. — 112 Overwrite instructions. They can't see your face or hear your voice for many things. — 249 Be clear in instructions and say it again, again, and again. — 305 Enunciate! Be clear in direction. — 301 Use the tools available in your synchronous session environment to help guide participants eyes torelevant topics. Don't overuse tools available — i.e. happy mouse syndrome can drive participantscrazy. — 321 d. Use care when speaking to your "audience"
Transitions are key — if facilitators can keep things flowing smoothly without utilizing "cheesy"transitions such as "Isn't that right Joe?""Back to you," etc. While OK from time to time, we've foundlearners say facilitators lose credibility with these types of transitions. — 133 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 31
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Know your audience and call on them as you would in a live classroom. This ensures people are pay- ing attention and not multi-tasking during the session. — 214 tions and clearly
Establish a friendly and meaningful atmosphere. — 146 Think talk show, not lecture. — 304 lines is essential
The internet can be impersonal — how can you make this session more personal? Use voice inflec- for learner
tion, interaction, and participatory activities even more than you might in the traditional classroom.
Patience is a must. Students don't listen to instructions well, and tend to wait to the last minute to Instructional Designer, get work done, which makes the instructors' work all that more difficult. — 280 The Savannah College of Art and Design Go for interactivity, comprehension checks, simulations, online quizzes etc. Don't pile on lecture andlinks and have students inundated with just reading material. — 282 Be there virtually! A teacher's presence is still needed, and this contributes to the dynamics of theclass. Don't put your material on "Kiosk" mode and disappear from the learning environment." —282 Think about and experience the course as much as you can from the learner's perspective — theyare surely having a different experience than you as the teacher. — 303 You are still the instructor, not the technology. — 334 Use both synchronous & asynchronous modes of interaction. — 313 Must be able to think on the fly and get the audience involved. — 322 Mix up delivery of content. — 81 Stay ahead of your participants (this means post often, compliment and re-direct off-topic discus-sion, and be the most prepared in your course). — 22 Re-emphasize important points. — 44 My most favorite is use of a favorite formula: S=5W+H where: S=story; W=Who, What, When, Where,Why; H=How. — 48 Take time with each slide. — 53 (Be an) online presence serving as the guide on the side. — 37 Be succinct.
Communicate early — be clear and concise (give examples). — 81 Don't read the slides. — 132 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 32
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Pace yourself to your audience. Monitor the speed of delivery, and adapt if needed. Involve your audience. Ask interactive questions periodically. — 132 Teach to multiple learning styles. — 92 can't see your
Set up real-world scenarios for participants to interact with. — 131 hand, only the
Engage the audience. — 138 the mouse size
Engage the audience as if they were in your living room. — 139 Use a wide variety of devices to keep the pace, rhythm and energy in the session. (Devices meanspeaking, asking questions and seeing a raise of hands, directing learners to reflect, presenting a wide variety of visual and multimedia inputs.). Prepare. Prepare. Prepare. Make sure all the stuff youwant to have come up on screen is working — and working in the way you want. — 160 you're doing as
you do it. Try
Stand up on occasion to deliver the presentation with more energy. — 178 not to skip
Remember to mix it up! Talking the whole time will not keep the audiences' interest. You shouldhave some interactivity if you are presenting live. — 179 Interact with your audience. If you just do a slide show without any communication between you much — this
and the audience, the audience may sleep through the presentation. — 189 helps people fol-
Use interaction if at all possible. — 190 low along. If the
Fun, and interaction keeps them involved. Use specific types of content. — 155 It is absolutely necessary to take frequent breaks from a long presentation. — 169 Teach people how to help themselves and each other, rather than being the sole provider of infor-mation. — 167 track of the
Guide the learners through the process, rather than traditional "expert to novice" approach. — 167 If you're using uploaded slides, interact with them a lot! An instructor's voice droning on while Susan Clark, Learning showing a static bulleted list of items is fodder for naps, not learning. Mix it up. Change things, Coordinator, Stantec whether you show a video or switch to an application or web page, or put up an interactive quiz Consulting Ltd.
that they respond to and you share the results. — 184 It's pretty important to maintain a dynamic instructional flow in an online setting. This includes theappropriate integration of text, graphics, images, audio, video, etc. for the specific course. — 195 Keep content brief and to the point. Break content up into short sentences and short paragraphs.
Remember to facilitate learning, i.e. "The guide on the side versus the sage on the stage." — 223 It's not about you; it's about the learner and the learning. Create hooks to hang learning memorieson. — 241 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 33
Be an online
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Speak slowly because not everyone has broadband bandwidth. — 288 instead of an
Use the tools — teach people to waggle the icons to get attention, use the "go faster" or "go slower"capabilities, and send chat messages to the presenters and to each other. — 320 tor. I prefer to
Push to make it relevant to all learners in the mix. — 190 use the term
Death by PowerPoint is even more deadly in a virtual classroom! — 215 instead of
Don't just have text on your screen. Use graphic examples to help your audience visualize your topic.
Remember, they usually can't see you, and if you do have a web cam on, they can't see your face clearly enough to stay interested. You have to give them something to look at or the audience willstray. — 219 because I
I found that using cartoon (Flash) technology interspersed with instruction also was very useful.
a training or
Pause to make sure that everyone is seeing what you are seeing. — 148 Make it clear in your mind what you want your students to learn and do, and communicate that to your students. — 227 Focus on establishing the context for the content. — 226 Don't get carried away with the "wow" factor. Focus on accomplishing your instructional objectives.
instead of PRE-
SENTER- or CON-
Make it engaging — it's not PowerPoint. — 228 Limit the use of PowerPoint slides. — 229 That is a big
Keep your communications short and as sensory-based as possible. — 230 Make your instruction engaging for the learner. Do not just lecture! Include a wide variety of presen- tation methods and activities. Use graphics, sounds, and transitions appropriately, and selectively.
— 233 and skills
Make your training personal; let the learners see/know who you are. — 235 Online instructors must give clear information without deviating from the topic. The material theyprovide on screen must be direct, precise, accurate, and interesting. Use pictures and images rele- Jeroen Spierings, vantly, not like it should look jazzy to attract the user's attention. — 245 Business Development Take slight digression from the linear nature of the subject wherever possible to offer alternativeperspectives on the subjects, just as you would do so in class for students who do not understandthe subject matter from the initial outlay. — 292 Structure your sessions so you are facilitating, not lecturing. Just because the tools give you god-likecontrol, don't let it go to your head. — 291 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 34
Keep it engag-
II. Tips for Instructors continued
ing! Do not
Provide CONTENT on screen! Don't leave it up to the learner to have to listen to your lecture. — 269 Control participant communication or feedback activities if possible. — 260 Pacing and surveys. — 250 lent of the old
Slides are not the presentation. This is true of both classroom and web-based training, but is moreimportant on the internet. Any slide you use should support your message, and offer the learners another way of getting the information. A graphical representation of what you are saying is rein- forcing. Heavy text is often just a distracter. — 303 Remember that most of the folks in the session are probably there for one reason: to get informa-tion from an expert, not to have Websites recited to them. Make it fun and interesting. Folks learn more when they feel comfortable than when they feel like they are in class — just my opinion.
Consultant, Chadde Remember this is a classroom . not a library. — 279 The number one important thing is communications. Develop as many channels as possible, and putimportant messages out over all of them. — 280 Understand the baseline knowledge of the students & adapt delivery accordingly. Before anythingelse, ensure that the students can access the training material — in some cases this may involvesome basic IT skill training across the workforce. — 309 Voice inflection, types of interactivity, frequent questions, sharing applications with members of theclass, and how to build the class for the delivery method. — 331 Use a scenario. Get the student involved before the session even starts. Appeal to learning styles andguide their learning, don't lecture them. — 311 Strive to make the class as interactive as possible. — 313 Use as many relevant examples as possible.
Highly interactive — from both the content itself as well as the surroundings of the content. — 174 Use teletechniques. — 319 (Have the) gift of gab, but talk slow and deliberate. — 44 Gesture and smile while you speak — no one will see you, but it will add to the conversational toneof your voice. — 564 Keep your voice expressive. No one wants an instructor like Ferris Bueller had — especially online! Always smile, and always be positive! — 68 Be personable! — 81 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 35
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Be the voice for "radio" when working in the online environment. — 100 never let a
Change your voice pitch and speed. Sound like you are interested and excited. A dull voice is moredeadly online than in person. — 109 s/he is part of a
Connect and be personable with users. Don't act condescending — tone of voice, etc. Avoid jargon crowd of folks
— users hate that (and so would an instructor if, for example, a surgeon was explaining heart sur-gery using medical terms). Slow down and be sure that information is clear enough. — 115 all getting the
Don't talk — facilitate! — 114 Be motivating. — 90 DELIVERY: — 112 1. Check all participants' audio before the event begins.
2. Speak slowly and clearly.
3. Wait for the slides to load (or screen to refresh during AppShare) before speaking.
4. Ask participants to indicate the screen has loaded during AppShare / Web Safari by giving a "yes"or "no" response.
5. Include some participant activity every 5 — 7 slides.
Don't read from a script. — 131 Keep the presentation flowing. — 139 Imitate your favorite DJ. — 185 In a synchronous environment, pretend you are a radio announcer — do not allow dead space! — 186 Being boring in person is even more deadly online. Use varied vocal inflections and vary the pace.
— 217 Treat everyone equally. — 159 Keep it short and keep it visual — avoid too much teacher talk. — 200 Ensure you are matching your teaching style with your student's learning style. — 144 Establish an effective communication structure immediately. — 147 Summarize frequently. — 146 My favorite tip is to always remember that the learner is by himself or herself, and does not have thesupport of a live instructor. — 238 You are not driving a tour bus. Do not fall into PowerPoint presentation mode. Actively engage yourlearners continuously throughout. — 291 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 36
II. Tips for Instructors continued
ly and distinctly.
Smile when you talk . the audience can tell the difference. Stay on topic. we usually have to stay on a pretty focused time frame — try to stay on the topic. Don't get nervous when you think that fast or too far
you are talking in front of hundreds of people. — 286 from the micro-
There are many tools that can support the development of an online course; your focus should belearner-centered. As an online instructor your role is to facilitate student learning — not be the phone will make
"sage on the stage." Communication. — 300 it difficult for
Your voice says it all — think about your favorite DJ and emulate that type of upbeat, active voice.
the audience to
Use constructive language with everyone. — 314 Use humor only when you are sure your participants will understand it. Avoid the use of humor in a Jeff Tyson, Manager of cross-cultural audience. — 17 Development, Tech Use humor wisely — context is more difficult to create in an on-line world. — 22 Resource Group, Inc.
Have a sense of humor during class and online, but be careful not to sound condescending, sarcastic,or angry in tone. — 46 Inject light-hearted humor where possible. — 50 Add fun technologies like "Crazy Talk" and "Talking Slide" to liven things up. Let a hamster tell themwhen it is time to take their exam or emphasize key points. No matter how serious the topic, inter-ject levity. — 50 Use humor to lighten the atmosphere and encourage participation. — 315 Use humor, students are mostly stressed in a classroom, and a little humor will go a long way. — 316 Use humor when appropriate — it puts the participants at ease, especially if they have never usedthe technology. — 161 A good sense of humor helps as well! — 195 Use appropriate humor.
Interject humor. — 310 e. Ask questions
Make the learning interactive. — 306 Ask your participants questions that will indicate whether or not they understand — 34 Never assume anybody is on the same page you are during a webcast, so you had better ask them!— 47 What are the HOTTEST topics facing e-Learning professionals these days? Here are two hints. February 8 - 10, 2006 February 22 - 24, 2006 It's e-Learning for e-Learning Professionals!
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834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 38
Know your tech-
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Don't suggest answers to questions (let people use their own words). Don't finish ideas for folks (let adjust for the
them struggle to find their own valuable ones). Don't accept the first answer (let the group exhaust all possibilities). Don't judge, compare or contrast people with others (real or imagined). Don't pro-vide false feedback, insincere praise, or unwarranted criticism. Don't assume what is best for a group (help them to decide for themselves). Don't always focus on negatives, mistakes, setbacks, failures,and weaknesses. Gathered from the Online Facilitation eGroup managed by Nancy White of Full Circle and Associates USA (http://www.fullcirc.com) and adapted by Josephine Murray PelionConsulting Pty Ltd. TAS. Australia 2001 (http://www.pelino.com.au). — 26 is more impor-
tant than your
Ask questions throughout to ensure that learning is taking place. — 67 eye contact. Just
Make the learning experience as interactive as you possibly can. — 67 like radio, the
Ask frequent questions. — 76 Be sure you use questioning to get at the student's meta-cognitive processes — it is critical that fies your passion
both you and the student understand how they are thinking about the subject. — 92 (or lack of pas-
Be sure to ask lots of questions as a way to gain interactivity. The questions can be a test of knowl-edge, point of view, or just for fun. — 98 Don't assume — ask questions and clarify. — 80 Multimedia Designer, Feedback via questions. — 174 New World Restaurant Involve the participant by personally asking questions to each (or some individuals) to engage themin the process. The event should not be a data / information dump — there should be activities toensure the knowledge is transferred. Otherwise you can just send them a document to read, whybother with the live event? — 193 Since you can't read faces or body language for cues, solicit feedback or ask questions at regularintervals. — 217 For easy interactions, ask questions that can be answered by hand signals or icon buttons. — 154 If participants are participating as a group, with a single connection per group, make sure you haveextra "dead air" for the participants to discuss answers to polls or questions. — 154 Ask lots of questions (even if it's just click the green check for "yes" or the red X for "no")! It's mucheasier to disengage when you're participating online, so participation is the key. — 336 INVITE learners to give you their questions by explaining the multiple methods they have for askingthem (voice, chat, etc), and planting your own "seed" questions. Remind people several times duringthe presentation to use the chat room for questions. Start each session with an explanation of howto participate. We will have to do this until webinars are ubiquitous. People know how to walk into aconference room and participate in a meeting or class (sit down in a chair, raise your hand to ask aquestion, nod when you agree), but they are often nervous about this new type of classroom, andneed more guidance. Once they get comfortable with the format, then they can focus on content.
— 303 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 39
II. Tips for Instructors continued
drive a conclu-
Ask questions throughout to ensure that you are not losing the learner. — 148 sion or training
exercise. Do not
Pose questions that you are sure at least some people can answer. — 230 Posing synthesis and evaluation questions. — 258 just for the sake
Know how to ask questions and probe for understanding of content. — 322 Polling the class and sharing results can be effective. Use the polling device to have people respondwith "yes,""no,""maybe." — 329 Chris Bond, President, Bluewater Interactive f. Listen to learners and to their answers
Listen to what the students are saying — learn to listen to the written word! — 224 Listening and hearing is an order of magnitude more important than talking! — 225 Offer creative insight, be receptive and understanding (Bob Zimmer and Gary Alexander, 2000) — 244 Respond to inquiries as soon as possible — within 12 hours if possible. — 38 Answer all questions. Even if you have answered them 5 times before, answer them again. — 46 Always take lots of time when explaining answers to student's questions. Make your answers con-cise and step-by-step logical. — 69 Respond to every audio sound you hear — it's a heads-up that an important participant's feedbackor question is just about to come in. — 55 Answer the student's inquiry expediently and as precisely as possible, breaking down the course lan-guage into layman's terms, and giving examples. — 72 Ask students to identify themselves when they speak. — 87 Let the class take the lead in answering their own questions, before you do (be facilitative in thelearning process). — 91 When responding to a question that doesn't require you to be looking at the monitor, close youreyes to remove all other visual distractions. — 103 Always be ready to answer a question. — 122 Don't waffle! — 134 Repeat questions before answering. — 138 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 40
If students post
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Listen intently. Intonations and inflections impact the quality of the session. Be positive and uplift- ing at all times. Never show your frustration with a participant's inability to understand a specific are particular to
piece of material. — 223 them (the dis-
Create a list of possible questions participants may ask and develop your responses. — 223 LISTEN closely to what people say. HEAR how they are saying it. — 222 n't really benefit
Be brief, concise, and clear. Craft model answers or model responses and simply customize them for the rest of the
different learners — you can save hours of repetitive thinking and typing, and still provide individu-alized service. — 291 class), post a
State when you will answer questions. — 288 telling the stu-
g. Include exercises in your sessions
dent you will
Always have Pop quizzes and surveys in the middle of lessons to get an idea of whether learners are contact him or
actually responding to your instruction. — 30 her via email to
Organize your discussions to accommodate high levels of interactivity. — 57 handle his or
Create an assignment where each participant has a chance to moderate an online discussion.
Provide the participant with tips for moderating, and ask him or her to summarize the discussion.
Employ an exercise or game that requires participants to send individual messages to one another cuts the thread
— this triangulates the learning; give them a five-minute work-by-yourself assignment and then goaround the horn displaying results. — 136 at that point.
I do a lot of software training over WebEx, and I use a model of passing the mouse over to the stu- Mark Veljkov, VP, dents so they can show what they have learned after major sections. Because only one person at a Education OnLine, Inc.
time can drive the mouse, I create various roles for the other students. I always have the Driver, butthen I also select a Picker, and a Talker. The Picker selects the example to demonstrate, and the Talkermust instruct the Driver what to do with the mouse. The Driver may not move the mouse unless theTalker instructs to do so. The remainder of the audience serves as Coaches, who have three roles. Thefirst role is to "harrumph" if the Driver moves the mouse without instruction. The second role is to"ahem" if it appears that the Talker is sending the Driver in an incorrect direction. The coaches fur-ther serve as a resource if the Talker asks for help. This keeps everyone focused on the screen andthey are thinking thru the steps as the process occurs. It creates collaboration and reinforces thesteps of the activity. The students have a lot of fun with this, especially when there are mixed levelsin the audience and someone gets to tell their boss what to do. — 170 I like to have students take control of the screen and have them practice what we just discussed. If Iam teaching how to use PowerPoint I will give students control and have them work on a slide sowe are building a presentation as we go. — 173 Include exercises in the handouts with the answers revealed online. — 154 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 41
If you use a CMS
II. Tips for Instructors continued
with a drop box
If your handouts are the same PowerPoint file as your presentation, don't forget to remove any feature, in the
answer pages from the handouts. Seems like a no-brainer but it is an easy detail to forget. — 154 Provide exercises using "live" applications and websites where possible. — 229 Provide multiple opportunities and multiple modalities for students to demonstrate skill and/or knowledge mastery. — 253 ments that are fun
Use review exercises appropriately (true or false, multi-choice, short answer, review games, and but which relate
puzzles). — 318 to the course.
Creatively adapt classroom exercises for synchronous online delivery. — 327 Usually relates to
h. Make student assignments clearly and precisely
searching the Web
Balance individual and group assignments. — 57 along with a set of
Set clear guidelines for posting and labeling assignments. — 57 Stagger your assignment due dates to give your students ample time to read and comment on theirclassmates' postings before the next section of the course begins. For example, make discussion they must answer
questions due on the third day of the week instead of the last day. This also helps the instructormanage his or her own time since there will be more time available to give feedback on student about it. First per-
work before turning attention to the next subject. Think about adding at least one peer-evaluated son to submit all
assignment or activity to the mix. — 57 the right answers
Give ample time for assignments, reiterations, and revisions, etc. — 72 for the item via
If your learning strategies include assignments, make sure instructions are clear and complete.
— 223 the Drop Box (it
Don't make everything due at once or on Friday. Provide a window of time for response . theirs andyours. — 287 missions), wins a
i. Set up class activities
prize. This has
Be flexible — it's not always easy to predict what activities (will work). — 11 always been
Do not try to TEACH the user — let him LEARN on his own (that is why he chose this medium). — 19 Kate MacDonald, Director Send out announcements prior to important activities or milestones. — 39 of Instructional Design Services, Massachusetts Always prepare chats beforehand, prepare interesting questions, topics, and, if possible, distribute College of Pharmacy and the questions or the information beforehand so that chats can be useful. Don't think a useful chat will last more than 40 minutes. Think of 40 minutes devoted to academic issues and use theremaining time to promote interaction. — 45 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 42
II. Tips for Instructors continued
You'll never learn the directions if you're the passenger in a car. Best way of learning is doing it your- not only dia-
self. Deliver the material online and give a breakout session with a hands-on example for them to do at the end. Pose a question or simulation they need to perform. This is very useful for complex simu-lations, or CAD programming etc. Give them an hour and then share results. — 2 Don't lecture on content or material as the ultimate and only method expecting learning to occur.
but with those
Create ways to use content causing a student to analyze and apply content. — 41 who are in the
Before creating group activities, have students assess their personalities and group them according- ly. Try to create a balanced group before assigning a project. This will lead to greater success for thegroup, and a greater appreciation of each personality type. — 102 for project work,
Allow lots of activities. — 127 Include individual and small-group activities if manageable. — 190 Principal ISD, UDLP, ASD, Keep the students active by having them perform on-line tasks, if it's having them do mediocre tasks. Announce in the very beginning of the session that you will be calling on students to performtasks at any time. Rather than being embarrassed, the students will pay closer attention to you areteaching, in the event they are called on to perform something. — 211 Provide enough time for participants to interact during the activities. Don't rush. Provide enoughinformation to enable participants to do the activities. Try to appeal to people with different learn-ing styles, e.g. some talk, some listening, some doing, something creative, etc. Follow up on-linelearning with time to reflect, and then come back together to discuss. — 270 Instill lots of interactivity such as games, simulations, and directed discussions. — 274 Use breakout rooms with facilitator present guiding. Someone other than the facilitator should runthe technology. — 317 j. Use demonstrations effectively
My favorite online tools simulation is where I show how its done and get them to use the tool, andat the same time build their own statistical model on their PC, configure the USB chip etc. — 2 Know your setup. If you are going to demo it, use a screen capture to show the point / clicks. Playback the demo and concentrate on talking about the screen action. — 132 k. Include appropriate simulations and games
With simulation, allow plenty of pauses for questions, and to allow clarification and even to ensureusers are all on the same page! — 2 Add games and simulations to your lessons. — 114 Don't be afraid of games. Just make sure that they are tightly bound to the content. — 125 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 43
II. Tips for Instructors continued
Don't use e-Learning for the learning domain of psychomotor skills unless you have a huge budget to create simulators. — 190 students to click
Utilize games where practical. — 146 Make your online sessions more interesting with little games or activities the learner can do.
Display (or app
Developing sheets together is building up a team which is very important for success. — 234 Push a Web address for a simulation exercise for "hands on" software interaction during the event.
Jeff Tyson, Manager of l. Don't be afraid of sharing applications
Development, Tech Resource Group, Inc.
SHARING APPLICATIONS / WEB SAFARI: — 1121. Open the application you are sharing prior to the session.
2. Keep the AppShare session short.
3. Set up an application entry point to focus participants' attention.
4. Involve experts in the class as presenters.
5. If sharing a participant's application, prepare that application to launch in advance of the session.
6. Click on another Agenda item or choose another CentraOne tool to stop the AppShare session.
App Sharing — consider recording the demo and playing it back while the presenter speaks. Wehave done this using Camtasia and saving as a Flash file. The audience can't tell the difference, andit can minimize some of the live app-sharing pitfalls — high bandwidth issues, waiting for menus /windows / dialog boxes to appear, app running more slowly in app sharing mode, app failing and/orcrashing. Advantages would be that it requires the presenter to plan / rehearse, and the demos canbe repurposed. — 154 If a meeting tool does not adequately support your materials, such as animated and active slides,use application sharing. Do not just make do!!! More interactivity — still more — I mean a lotmore!!! — 176 Always have a place for sharing resources. — 274 Sharing applications in real time is more effective than (by now predictable and boring) survey ques-tions. — 324 m. Include offline activities in your plan
Use regular posted assessments to get polls from audience.- 2 Make use of offline media. — 313 Utilize standard media which most students have access to, such as PDF files, html files, etc. — 328 When using a link to Internet resources, include an alternate link with similar information in casethe first (and probably best) site is unavailable. — 333 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 44
Assess early and
II. Tips for Instructors continued
n. Assess progress
Lisa Wieland Handy, AVP / Sr. Consultant, Evaluating student participation can be difficult when online communication tools create more text than one instructor can evaluate. — 272 I get them to give me a precise answer following what I've just shown them. Gives me buy-in fromthem, and they get to understand it better. — 2 Evaluate learning success. — 8 In a synchronous classroom, use the poll feature as mini-quizzes to ensure understanding. — 43 At 30% or 40% of the course categorize the learners into Red, Amber, and Green areas based on reg-ularity and activity completion, and think of addressing and treating these groups differently interms of message tone, content support, motivational support, etc. — 39 Create concept guides that are brief and direct. These will work as quick references the learners canbrush through while they prepare for the final assessment. — 39 Blend synchronous classroom with subsequent one-on-one coaching by using the email system tocheck student performance and provide feedback. — 43 Having a quiz at the start or end of the live session makes people prepare before hand. It is neces-sary to use techniques to force this habit since students have years of doing it the other way, attend-ing class and then studying afterwards.
Track each student's progress on a regular basis. — 114 Clear and distinct outline of level of training achieved. — 174 If you are using online quizzes or tests, create a "sample" test for students to try out. This allowsthem to familiarize themselves with the format of the test (i.e. how to navigate between pages,how to "save" answers, that type of thing) without being under the pressure of learning these newthings as well as answering the test questions, within a set time limit. — 180 Follow up lesson with knowledge assessments. — 243 If your online training system (For example WebEx) has a survey tool, you can use this to pretest /posttest students during a lesson. You can also have an informal quiz at the end of a module. Thishelps both attention and retention. — 183 o. Remember the course evaluations
EVALUATIONS: 1. Tell participants explicitly to answer the questions and click Submit when com-plete. 2. Tell participants to give you a green check mark when they have submitted the evaluation.
(This helps with gauging time.) 3. Give participants a time limit and tell them how many items arein the evaluation prior to showing it to them. 4. Use evaluations to review material as necessary.
— 112 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 45
In giving feed-
II. Tips for Instructors continued
back on assign-
C. Pay attention to four special skills
1. Give and receive feedback
Take the feedback or an acknowledgement from the learners. — 271 should be to the
Provide a survey to get user feedback and then follow up. — 13 Feedback is a must. — 29 Provide timely feedback to students. — 37 the last or major
Remember to follow up. — 39 project. (The for-
Provide swift and continuous feedback — whereever possible let the computer provide it. — 92 mer, to establish
Students want timely feedback so respond to posts and assignments as quickly as possible with constructive and substantive comments. — 94 Provide feedback on a regular and timely basis. — 114 Provide feedback in a timely manner. — 147 Feedback, Feedback, Feedback! It encourages students and increases their productivity. — 151 what is expect-
Read before you post a comment. Tone, especially a disparaging tone, really does come through inonline communication. I've seen learners totally turned off by an instructor who was a put-down Mark Veljkov, VP, artist. And I know the instructor would never have said the same words if they had been face-to- Education OnLine, Inc.
face with the learner. — 274 Provide timely and meaningful feedback. — 313 Give everyone thorough feedback so there is not just an evaluation of work but a real, personalizedlearning experience that, in a way, can be a lot stronger than in the traditional classroom. — 314 Invite feedback.
Make sure you ask for feedback when you do sessions yourself. — 231 Ask for feedback from your students about what is working and what is not, and don't wait until theend of the course to do this. — 243 2. Be effective when correcting learners
Learn how to interject a correction without sounding harsh or critical online — which is a much dif-ferent environment than being face-to-face because there is no body language to indicate "how"something is being said. — 91 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 46
Don't be afraid
II. Tips for Instructors continued
dead space" —
3. Handle silence without fear
Manage silences and dead air. — 12 space is neces-
Silence does not equate with understanding or consent. — 34 sary in order for
It is very hard to hold someone's attention online. You only have one visual object for them to focus on. Even a 15 second pause can lose a student. — 31 to complete a
Allow silence to happen — distant sites may be un-muting or experiencing a slight lag and mayneed more time than F2F in order to respond. — 217 task. (By dead
space, I mean
4. Deal with problems effectively and professionally
time when no
Dealing with conflict or difficult students. (271) one is talking.)
Have sufficient technical knowledge to perform first-line troubleshooting. — 10 Learning Specialist, Know how to troubleshoot the technology from a learner's point of view. — 46 Healthcare Services Know what to do if something goes wrong — lost connection, screen freezes, etc. — 111 Have a phone number or contact to route support questions. — 4 Be flexible — we are all adults and life happens. — 38 When moving into application share, if students cannot see the application, have them close out ofthe LiveMeeting session and re-enter it. — 56 Have a backup presenter and hard copy of slides just in case technology goes down. — 74 Have alternate activities handy in case something is not working well. — 259 D. Do your follow-up
Acquire feedback regularly. Continuously improve on the design and delivery. — 105 Incorporate student's suggestions or feedback in the WBTS. — 271 Keep in constant email and/or discussion thread contact. If someone appears to be missing contactthat person, individually, and find out what is wrong. — 198 Plan to interact with your online students and your course daily. Do not make excuses for your lackof presence or your lapse in participation in the online learning experience. Answer email and gradeassignments within your stated response time frames (i.e. 48 hours). — 253 Communicate often with your students. — 114 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 47
II. Tips for Instructors continued
the online
Connect with learners — make it crisp, interactive and follow up on material. — 116 Let your personality shine through in your emails and discussions. Use appropriate humor to let yourstudents see your lighter side. — 221 effort on your
Set expectations early and often, and do not disappoint — if you tell learners you will always part to develop
respond within three days, do so, if only to acknowledge receipt; if you set the expectation at within24 hours then live up to the promise. — 291 a learning com-
munity. Check in
Answer email and phone calls, it is a way students connect. Be prompt with your responses. — 305 with your online
Use synchronous learning wisely, not just because you want to. (306) The instructor is encouraged to adopt best practices such as the American Association for HigherEducation's Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education (available at some way at
least every
Enough transparency of the technology to achieve the goal: learners learn. (240) 48 hours —
III. Tips for Managers
a group email,
A. Selecting online instructors for success
1. Choose instructors based on competencies
The instructor has taught the course in a face-to-face setting, or is highly experienced with the con- The instructor must communicate effectively in writing, and is able to express ideas, concerns, sug-gestions, and answers to students succinctly and clearly. — 240 Donna Welschmeyer, The ability to troubleshoot basic technical issues without sounding frustrated. — 240 Program Development, Colorado Community 2. Choose instructors with the right attitudes
The instructor is willing to modify and adapt teaching methods and strategies based on student orparticipant feedback. — 240 The instructor has an understanding of the increased value of asking good questions and promptingresponses — 240 The instructor has an appreciation for the complexities of what used to be easy: small group activi-ties, file sharing, testing, etc., homework assignments. — 240 A positive customer service attitude — no whining, no blaming! — 240 WebEx Customer Success Story
GMAC accelerates business processes and saves over $12 mil ion a year using WebEx.
Virtual y al GMACCM employees rely on WebEx to help them train rapidly, communicate with team members quickly, and get their jobs done more efficiently. The results have been substantial. The company is slashing travel costs throughout the organization. Training takes place online instead of onsite. Sales reps get in front of more customers in less time. And the company is able to provide fast help desk support to remote users. WebEx is a vital part of the culture in this organization.
A WebEx customer since 2000, this premier financial
services company uses a full suite of WebEx applications.
INDUSTRY
Commercial real estate We developed a cost-to-benefit analysis when we first deployed WebEx WEBEX APPLICATIONS
that showed we were saving $3,500 in cost per trained employee per WebEx Enterprise Edition year – that's comes to over 12 million dollars a year we saved.
— Sandra Morris, Vice President, Learning and Employee Development WebEx meetings transform the entire GMAC Commercial Mortgage business culture into a high performance GMAC Commercial Mortgage Corporation intention was to slowly introduce WebEx workplace that communicates and (GMACCM) is a premier financial services to the organization, gain adoption in indi- collaborates faster and better than firm with extensive funding sources that, vidual departments and workgroups, and ever before.
coupled with a broad menu of innovative let it migrate at a comfortable pace across financing programs, serves the needs the enterprise. "It took about six months of borrowers of commercial real estate before our employees knew about it and debt as wel as the providers of capital. what it could do," Morris says. "We gave ABOUT GMAC COMMERCIAL MORTGAGE
GMACCM is an industry leader in loan them the option of taking trainings via Line of business:
origination, servicing, asset management, in-person classes, or online with WebEx. Mortgage services investment management, and technology The first WebEx users immediately asked services. This diverse lending and for al their training content to be delivered servicing specialist and its affiliates online—they didn't want in-person employ 3,500 staff in more than 100 trainings anymore." offices worldwide.
Number of employees:
GMACCM's training group now facilitates The Challenge
one training a month on its twelve com- In 1999, GMACCM was planning their first mon business applications, plus a number Has been a WebEx customer:
company-wide rol out of a new PeopleSoft of new hire presentations, via WebEx Time Card system. The company's training Training Center. "The only time we offer team, led by Vice President of Learning in-person classroom trainings now is when and Employee Development Sandra we have an upgrade that the entire com- Morris, prepared to support the rol out by pany needs to get," says Morris. "Then supplementing their six-person training we use a blended in-person/online staff with six consultants. This extended training model that lets us rol out as team would rotate between GMACCM's efficiently as possible." 100 global locations in North America, Europe, and Asia, doing live, onsite train- GMACCM expanded its use of WebEx ing with local employees. Difficulty in online meeting applications by adopting it scheduling times at the remote offices, for use by business managers for routine however, interrupted the preset training meetings. This use dramatical y increased schedule and trainers frequently had to after 9/l , when GM put a moratorium on leave for the next leg of their trip before al business travel. "We were slammed ever getting in front of a classroom. "We with people requesting training on how spent a lot of time and money on this to use WebEx," says Morris. "We started training plan, and then ended up having training our business teams on how to to do it al over again via phone and host their own WebEx meetings. Now our email," says Morris. "Quite frankly, it was executives are using it to facilitate col abo- ration among their departments and to communicate and col aborate with al their The Solution
internal and external constituents." According to Morris, "I was introduced to WebEx by one of our sister companies. Morris feels WebEx has become an inte- After I talked with the company and saw gral part of GMACCM's culture, noting that what it could do, I was ready to move everyone at every level of the organiza- forward." Morris began using WebEx in tion uses WebEx business applications. 2000 to deliver a series of common busi- One of the more interesting changes ness application training sessions. The WebEx has driven was the adoption of a GM did an analysis of WebEx based on our positive experience and the savings we were realizing, and effective in 2005, made it mandatory that everyone in their organization use WebEx.
— Sandra Morris, Vice President, Learning and Employee Development new Management Curriculum for senior tion information, tracking attendance, The efficiencies that the GMACCM/WebEx executives. According to Morris, "Prior to updating employee records, and keeping synergy has made possible are also being WebEx, a senior executive would not step department managers notified of their noticed by other GM divisions. Morris's foot into an in-person classroom training staff training activities. The integration also use of WebEx to host a meeting of the because there was a perception that high- enabled a very successful deployment of GM Training Counsel, of which she is a level execs shouldn't need that kind of the company's Performance Management member, generated high praise. "I had information. WebEx created a new training Training. Required for al managers, the sixty attendees signed onto WebEx for a environment that engaged their interest. trainings were delivered over a three-week 4-hour session. After the meeting, I was After we saw their attendance increase period via WebEx Training Center, along overwhelmed with feedback saying that and knew that our adoption was going with fol ow-on performance appraisals. the WebEx session was the best they to be high, we evolved our Management Those with low appraisals were sup- had ever attended. GM was using Curriculum, delivered via WebEx Training ported with additional instruction until Placeware (now Microsoft Live Meeting) Center. It's now required." they achieved the required performance at the time and the service was always a levels. "In the past, we actual y had entire chal enge. After my presentation, GM did WebEx is also ful y integrated into groups that never completed the appraisal an analysis of WebEx based on our posi- the company's backend Learning process," says Morris. "WebEx al owed us tive experience and the savings we were Management System (LMS), the to ensure performance levels company- realizing, and effective in 2005, made it PeopleSoft Learning Enterprise, and wide and track those appraisals within our mandatory that everyone in their organiza- Morris' team schedules al WebEx training LMS. We never could have accomplished sessions directly through the LMS. This this without WebEx." facilitates automated emails with registra- Deploying WebEx Across the Enterprise
We gave [our employees] the option of taking trainings via in-person classes, or online with WebEx. The first WebEx users immediately asked for all their training content to be delivered online—they didn't want in-person trainings anymore.
— Sandra Morris, Vice President, Learning and Employee Development The Results
to place." GMACCM has even adopted The Future
WebEx to deliver help desk support, Morris definitely sees WebEx continu- The quantitative results realized from enabling real-time viewing of remote desk- ing to be an integral part of GMACCM's GMACCM's WebEx instal ation have been tops and the ability to share applications culture and ability to do business. Future unprecedented. Morris's team has repeat- and teach end users on new products.
applications include adding more con- edly delivered company-wide trainings tent to its training library for on demand for major system upgrades in as little as "We use WebEx to tel us how our prod- access. "We're a smal staff," Morris says, three weeks—processes that previously ucts are doing," says Morris. "I use the "and we're frankly running out of time to required several months to execute. "We pol ing feature to not only check reten- prepare al the content for the number of developed a cost-to-benefit analysis in tion, but to get the user's opinion on the business applications we're now training 2001 that showed we were saving $3,500 product. I want to know if it's valuable to on. We want to establish an on demand in costs per trained employee per year them, if they see themselves using it, and library of WebEx sessions that wil help – resulting in over 12 mil ion dol ars a year how it can help them work better. This us meet this need without adding head- in savings," says Morris. If the analysis had feedback filters throughout the organiza- included al the other groups that were tion and business units can make better using WebEx at this time, this figure would decisions about the tools and applications Morris adds, "There is no way we could probably have been doubled." we choose to deploy." have done al we've done without WebEx. Our peers in sister organizations ask us WebEx's qualitative benefits have also WebEx has migrated to virtual y al parts of how we handle training rol outs at the been substantial, with virtual y every the GMACCM organization, with individual speeds WebEx enables. They're blown GMACCM employee relying on WebEx to groups focusing on the features that best away by it. It has made our lives very sim- help them train rapidly, communicate with facilitate their needs. "Our sales teams are ple and made our team look very good." team members quickly, and get their jobs using the recording function to establish done more efficiently. According to Morris, their own library of sales training materials "We are slashing travel costs throughout for on demand access," says Morris. "Our our organization. Business units are train- Risk Management group is doing some- ing across business lines, our technology thing similar. We had a team of lawyers trainings can happen online instead of that met every week, literal y flying in from offsite, and our sales teams are getting every part of the globe. Now they use in front of more customers without wast- WebEx, saving time and costs, while still ing time and money flying from place getting the job done." HIGHLIGHTS
• GMAC Commercial Mortgage was hampered in deploying training by the size and geography of its
global workforce.
• WebEx Training Center reduced training deployments from several months to a few weeks and generated savings of $3,500 in costs per trained employee per year, with a total of over 12 million dollars saved.
• WebEx migrated to enterprise-wide use after 9/ll—now the entire organization is speeding communications, collaboration and business processes via online meetings and training.
CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS: WebEx Communications, Inc., 3979 Freedom Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 USA Tel: +1.408.435.7000 Fax: 1.408.496.4353 2005 WebEx Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. WebEx and the WebEx logo are registered trademarks of WebEx Communications, Inc.
834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 52
III. Tips for Managers continued
that the prepa-
The instructor comes prepared to teach Plan A with Plan B and Plan C in place. — 240 ration and man-
agement of
Willingness to support learners via email and/or phone before and after sessions. — 240 3. Choose instructors with the right knowledge and skills
take less time
The instructor has a basic understanding of the Internet, word processing, and email. — 240 The instructor has some background or experience in teaching or training. — 240 forms of educa-
The instructor has an understanding of instructional design for synchronous online.- 240 Instructional Designer, 4. Take into account other considerations when choosing instructors
The Savannah College of Art and Design The instructor has good Internet access at work or home (depending on where they intend on doingthe most work on the course). — 240 The instructor has significant time available to devote to course development and to complete initial drafts of the course content at least 10 weeks prior to the course open date. — 240 The instructor is able to devote 10-15 hours per week to teaching the course for a 3-credit hourequivalent course (depending on the level of interaction and volume and length of assignments).
— 240 B. Set the instructor up for success
1. Ensure that there is organization support for synchronous e-Learning
Make sure you have top-down buy-in into any online learning initiatives; this will help you secureresources, including the necessary technical tools. — 25 Use champions to help increase the likelihood of successful adoption. — 25 Make online learning part of your overall learning programs. Have people in your company who canhelp and give advice to other learners. Integrate in-person training with online. Have as many formsof learning going on for as many subjects as possible. -109 Get your stakeholders involved, and keep them involved throughout the project, to ensure owner-ship and uptake of the product (important in academic settings). -255 2. Ensure there will be IT support
Have technical support available for participants. — 260 Provide off-line support, especially a technical support person so that the instructor is not spendingthe entire time diagnosing connection issues. — 288 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 53
III. Tips for Managers continued
with two facili-
3. Establish a complete delivery team
tators; one to
Have a co-presenter monitor participant activities. — 260 Use a producer. — 310 Use a producer when possible. The role of the producer is to take attendance, type on the white and one to han-
board, check on AWOL participants, etc. — 161 If you are presenting through a Webcast, have a producer available to manage the software, instantmessaging, and assessments and surveys. — 179 chat. Use the
Instructional Partnerships work better than solos as it give interaction and a lively social presence.
tor to engage in
Have a host or facilitator to assist with the live presentation to handle technical issues or respond to chat, etc. — 99 la the two-host
Multiple facilitators are a must! — two sets of eyes and ears are helpful on content and questions,but also the vocal variety helps the students from disengaging. Much like throwing in different talk radio for-
interactive slides from time to time, different voices keep the students engaged. — 133 If you have a large audience, enlist the aid of another instructor if you need help managing text chat Ceil Tilney, Vice that may be a part of the presentation. — 18 President, Linkage, Inc.
Have a second person to take care of chat questions or other things that might pop up. — 232 If the class is large have an assistant instructor to keep track of chat and technical difficulties of stu-dents. — 247 TEAM TEACH — having more than one facilitator in an online class allows the presenters to trade off ondifferent parts of the presentation, which helps to maintain student interest. It also offers students theopportunity to get one-on-one support for questions, and in the case of one instructor dropping off linedue to technical problems the other can step in and keep the program running. — 256 Use an assistant early on until you are comfortable with the technology. — 312 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 54
Allow for inter-
IV. Tips for Design and Development Teams
activity of the
Learning can be enjoyable. Don't be afraid to have some fun. — 34 Keep it simple. — 202, 203, 204 tips, movies, and
Keep it simple. Don't overestimate your student's e-skills. Take small steps. — 205 Keep it simple. Write in a conversational tone. Keep in touch with learners to prevent any feeling ofisolation. — 206 Stephanie Sanford, Keep it simple, keep it fun. — 207 Specialist, America's Keep it simple. Use interactivity (not page turning) on every frame / page. Avoid lecture pages.
— 208 Keep it simple. Make it fun, and interesting. Online is different from other forms of teaching. Don'tput a "book" online and expect it to teach. — 209 A. Apply these design tips
Build a solid instructional design. Pay attention to detail during the development phase. — 105 Alpha & Beta test BEFORE release! — 105 Relying too heavily on assigned readings and book-based tutorials can leave students wishing theyhad saved their money by simply reading the required texts on their own. Give your e-Learningadded value with resources that go beyond the book, such as: interactive media and educationalgames, relevant and hard-to-find essays or articles, abridged study guides, printable quick-referenceguides, and organized lists with vital tips. Leverage the technology available to you to create uniqueassignments and promote collaboration. — 272 List procedures numerically, breaking up lengthy ones into different segments. — 13 Consider your audience! — 16 Blended is the magic word. — 29 Repurposing a classroom-based course for online delivery doesn't work unless it's redesigned for e-Learning. — 54 Be mindful of the diverse groups of learners and their learning needs. — 35 Be organized. — 38 Make sure your content is accurate. — 42 If your content is PowerPoint slides, include the notes — better yet — enriched notes. Otherwisethey are useless. — 43 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 55
IV. Tips for Design and Development Teams continued
Include asynchronous, self-paced opportunities to practice (review) in downloaded workshop con- approach is not
Don't think that more animations and heavy images necessarily make courses of better quality.
the same for
students in a
Prepare your PowerPoint slides very thoughtfully. — 49 short course run
Use relevant documents in addition to PowerPoint, to augment the subject matter. — 49 by a college
Assess student skills and tailor the course to accommodate the broad range of skills. — 54 compared to a
Don't forget to personalize the last slide. — 56 group of execu-
Design, design, design! Redesign your course from the beginning with the target number of stu- tives doing an
dents in mind. It's much more difficult trying to add on or change approaches once the course has Gabriela Sacco, V.O. & Always inter-space learning with testing and summaries. — 19 Associates. Education Review materials for spelling, grammar, and flow. — 24 Tailor the training to the trainee and the company's profile. — 33 Keep all subject matter precise. — 33 Know the desired outcome of your training — 33 Outline your work before you begin. — 50 Open your mind to creative ideas that may enter in the process of material development. — 50 Read your own copy as though you know nothing about the subject. — 50 Get a lot of external input, proofreading and editing. — 50 Remember always that your audience is giving up time from their busy lives to participate in thiscourse, so put thought into every word, keep it direct and empowering, and at the same time makeit fun. — 50 Always view your programs through the eyes of the end customer. — 71 Gauge the class size to the subject matter involved. — 72 In your design, build in ways to actively engage the learners. Otherwise, you might just as well makea video and send it out for people to watch. — 96 Chunk your material. — 111 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 56
Be sure to
IV. Tips for Design and Development Teams continued
Don't assume stand-up PowerPoint slides equal online training. — 111 Do not let the aesthetics of screen design compete with the message of the learning event. — 123 Don't create replacement books. — 127 Don't get carried away by fancy plug-in routines, the main focus is the delivery of information nothow fancy the site appears. — 128 Coordinator Academic Don't overlook email as an effective teaching aide. — 130 Computing, Fresno City Easy navigation is the most critical. — 135 Do not get too caught up with static PowerPoint slides. There needs to be motion and action tomaintain attention. — 139 Establish good design practices so that the course is broken up into learning modules or contentchunks that are easy to absorb, but challenging. — 143 Prepare materials very differently — leverage what this mode can offer. Discard the stuff that mightwork very well in a classroom but which has no way of working in this mode. — 160 Make online sessions one tool in your blended delivery approach — not the only tool. — 164 From the management point of view it's critical to establish common guidelines and approaches forall the online classes. You don't want each instructor delivering in a totally different way when eachclass is part of a curriculum. Consistency can appear boring to the designers but is critical for thestudent. — 164 Pilot every new course before delivering to students. — 164 Have a good design on paper before you start actually committing your materials to the learningplatform / virtual learning environment. This design, if done properly, will certainly allow you seewhich tools you will need to use from the learning platform / VLE to get the best possible solutionfor your students and your company's requirements. — 181 Increase your instructional integrity over classroom material through tight ISD concepts aimed atthe medium. — 188 The design of the learning is most crucial. — 297 Distance education instructional design is not a re-format of traditional classroom delivery: recog-nize the differences and embrace them. — 335 B. Provide support for learning
Plan useful web site(s) to explore that are relevant to the e-Seminar content. — 49 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 57
IV. Tips for Design and Development Teams continued
that is not just a
If you have dull information to present, find ways to be creative. Use pictures or charts if possible.
series of linked
Use Flash presentations since they are more Web friendly. Find a vendor who can help you with this slides. Some of
if you do not have the abilities yourself. — 109 your users will
C. Make Forums a useful tool for learners
drift away if the
Encourage students to find new sources of information and share them with the class via discussion boards, online chat sessions, or web logs (blogs). Discussion threads and other online communica- tion forums can quickly get off topic and grow faster than teachers had anticipated. If use of discus-sion forums or other similar tools are a part of the grading criteria for a course, be sure to set clear expectations for the quantity and quality of the information being exchanged. — 272 Al Moser, Support, Design your question and discussion strategies. Do the math! 30 people posting something, and ReadyGo, Inc.
then posting one response to someone else's posting plus additional free responses = how manyposts to read . how often? How will you monitor or check for understanding? — 287 D. Consider other tips (incl. advice and asynchronous items)
Record the e-Seminar for many reasons including faculty playback for self improvement. — 49 Don't consider a linear lecture / PowerPoint format an effective design for the synchronous class-room, or instructor-led classroom for that matter. — 15 For asynchronous events, make it easy for the learner to leave, and then return to the point of depar-ture later. Don't force them to start at the beginning each time. — 18 If all you plan to do is narrate a PPT slide show without any adaptation, just record your voice, andpost that with your course. You've probably seen that this repels students, so don't waste your timeor your student's time. Have content that you can adapt. — 28 Use well-chosen media effectively. Don't just use PowerPoint. — 30 Unless you have considerable instructional design experience in an e-Learning environment, don'ttry to design the course yourself. — 54 Keep the number of words on a page to the minimum. — 19 Be careful about what info is in each page — reduce instances of having to go back to previouspages for reference. — 19 Read any e-Course scripts aloud to ensure that they sound conversational. Minimize the amount oftext on e-Course pages and where possible, use graphics to summarize and emphasize key points.
— 25 Include interactivity through games, simulations, and demonstrations followed by mini quizzes(Knowledge Checks), etc. — 25 WebEx Customer Success Story
During the initial rollout [of our $13 million Capital Connect project], we spent six months traveling to train users on the system. Now with WebEx, we can do the same in 30 days.
— Michelle J. Brennan, Professional Development Consultant, Securian Advisor Securian Financial Group accelerates business processes, speeds information delivery and improves quality of learning with WebEx.
Securian Financial Group is one of America's ence attention and determine areas requir- leading providers of financial security for ing additional training. Students completed INDUSTRY
individuals and businesses, providing more the activities before coming to an in-person Financial Services than $430 bil ion of insurance protection and training. "This al owed me to spend face- safeguarding approximately $24 bil ion of to-face time addressing students' particular WEBEX APPLICATIONS
assets. Securian's wide range of product and questions. If necessary, I could even assign Presentation Studio, Training service offerings includes insurance policies, them fol ow-up work through the Presentation Center, Meeting Center retirement plans, financial planning and invest- Studio," recal s Brennan.
ment services. This 125-year old company works with an extended network of financial Brennan was happy with the improvements Securian Financial Group needed managers, agencies, and firms throughout the resulting from using Presentation Studio, a more effective way to deliver US to consistently bring quality products to its but she stil wanted live e-learning capabil- customers and maintain its top ratings.
ity to make training even more effective and trainings to a growing number of interactive. Suspecting that other Securian customers. By implementing WebEx The Challenge
divisions were probably facing similar training throughout the enterprise, Securian In 2003, Individual Business Technology, chal enges, she shared her results across the was able to accelerate its customer a Securian business unit performing sales enterprise. Other divisions were impressed communications and overall software training, faced a critical chal enge. with what WebEx had enabled Brennan to business processes using blended The number of trainees flying in from around accomplish. Consequently, they partnered the country had increased by 60% while the with her division to purchase a joint license training methods. As a result, the facilities and equipment required for hands-on for WebEx Meeting Center, Event Center, organization speeded information training remained fixed. Instead of the typical and Training Center. Use of the Presentation delivery and significantly improved 20, groups of 50 or more people – includ- Studio was then discontinued in favor of live the overall quality of learning.
ing new asset managers, insurance agents online training. and brokers – would come into the St. Paul ABOUT SECURIAN
headquarters for 3-4 business days. "I had an "WebEx was wonderful in our enterprise rol - Line of Business
hour and a half to deliver hands-on training out. They hosted specialized online training Financial security for individuals to the people who sel our products, but that events for their applications," says Brennan. no longer gave us enough time to provide a WebEx solutions were adopted by more than real y useful, face-to-face interaction," says seven divisions at Securian, including cor- Michel e J. Brennan, who trained the group at porate law, professional development, policy services, and marketing. Some of the divi- St. Paul, Minnesota sions even created branded WebEx internal The Solution
meeting portals, from which they could col- Number of Employees
Brennan quickly realized that prerecording laborate and train on their own schedules and training sessions to view online could bet- in their own ways. Today, approximately 350 ter prepare her students before they arrived, users at Securian host WebEx presentations WebEx Customer Since 2003
and would improve the quality of in-person for their customers.
class time at Securian. While researching several web presentation solutions, she came The Securian Advisor Services Division, where across the WebEx Presentation Studio and Brennan now works, uses WebEx Training was impressed by the overal presentation Center to deliver 15-20 interactive sales and and ease of use. Using Presentation Studio, marketing trainings to insurance firms and Brennan began providing students with pre- financial advisor groups on a monthly basis. recorded online training presentations that They use a variety of Training Center tools included built-in tests to help retain audi- such as quizzing and pol ing, animation, and whiteboards to ensure the sessions hold the WebEx helps our customers view many trainings and presentations audience's attention. "Every three minutes, we when they're available. No more three-day trainings away from their make sure students are engaged by raising offices. Delivering information in smaller doses and at the customer's their hands, drawing on a white board, or typ- convenience improves retention of the material. ing in answers," explains Brennan. Other fea-tures, such as breakout sessions and hands — Michelle J. Brennan, Professional Development Consultant, Securian Advisor Services on labs, further enhance the e-learning expe-rience. And Brennan makes recorded ses-sions available for people who can't attend.
The Benefits
Enterprise-wide, Securian has now adopted a With WebEx, Securian improved its enterprise blend of training that combines online presen- Instant sessions and desktop sharing in business processes by implementing a whole tations with in-person classrooms—making Training Center enable financial agents and new approach to col aboration and train- face-to-face meetings as valuable as pos- advisors to cal in and receive hands-on ing. As a result, the organization significantly sible. "We use the online presentations to get answers to urgent questions. "If an agent has improved the quality of information distributed everyone on the same page before they enter a scheduled meeting with a client and comes to its customers while providing more effec- the classroom," says Brennan. across a glitch in his or her sales materi- tive delivery methods. According to Brennan, als, we can respond by launching an instant "WebEx helps us to get information to people The Future
Training Center session. Not only do we solve a lot quicker than in the past. And it enables The impact of WebEx has caused Brennan the problem immediately, but we turn the us to deliver information consistently. We no to begin exploring new revenue models and whole situation into a learning experience," longer have multiple teams delivering different applications. "We want to begin resel ing our messages to our customers." WebEx license to our close partners. One key partner, a financial planning firm with offices all Brennan's division also uses WebEx Meeting The impact of WebEx can clearly be seen in over the US, has already expressed interest," Center for podium-style presentations and the rol out of Securian's 13-mil ion dol ar Client says Brennan. Her division is also looking into broadcast meetings in which new products Connect project, their client data manage- the WebEx e-commerce module to facilitate are announced or strategic information ment system. "During the initial rol out, we payment for customer training. delivered to Securian business partners, spent six months traveling to train users on vendors and agencies. Brennan points out, the system. Now with WebEx, we can do Another goal is to make more sophisticated "WebEx Meeting Center helps us keep the the same in 30 days," explains Brennan. Her use of the system's robust capabilities across participants focused on our message when- division is responsible for training 65 general the enterprise. Plans include using WebEx ever we present an investment strategy for a agencies, including some that handle indi- Sales Center for new product teams and vidual needs such as retirement and insur- leveraging Training Center's hands-on lab and breakout room features to provide more focus Securian once again supplements live ance. "In rol ing out the new system, we've during trainings. Brennan would also like to meetings throughout the enterprise using been able to decrease our travel budget see growing proficiency with on-demand Presentation Studio or the on-demand mod- significantly because of WebEx. Our time and sessions, using more advanced editing and ule of Training Center. On-demand sessions budget are better al ocated these days. Travel video, for instance. "WebEx has al owed us to are particularly useful in delivering compliance to client sites is stil important, but we can come such a long way with the efficiency and trainings – such as NAIC (National Association deliver a lot more information without having quality of our training. We know our users are of Insurance Commissioners) and long-term to travel al the time." happy with the results. So we want to keep care – as wel as mandatory corporate meet- Securian now uses WebEx to provide cus- incorporating more WebEx applications to ings. According to Brennan, "WebEx has the tomers with a more convenient and useful help us continue to improve." editing and recording tools we need to deliver way of learning. "WebEx helps our customers ful y polished presentations without the stops view many trainings and presentations when and starts common in live presentations. they're available. No more three-day trainings WebEx supports compliance by tel ing us away from their offices. Delivering information who has registered and attended a specific in smal er doses and at the customer's con- training. We also use viewing times and venience improves retention of the material," testing to determine whether an attendee says Brennan.
stayed through the presentation and is truly compliant." HIGHLIGHTS
• Use of on-demand presentations outside of the classroom (in-person and virtual)
pre-trained students and improved the quality of face-to-face meetings. • Stellar outcome from the self-paced module use in one division resulted in enterprise-wide adoption of WebEx Training Center and Meeting Center.
• WebEx accelerated Securian business processes – speeding distribution and improving quality of information, increasing convenience for customers and making face-to-face time more valuable.
CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS: WebEx Communications, Inc., 3979 Freedom Circle, Santa Clara, CA 95054 USA Tel: +1.408.435.7000 Fax: 1.408.496.4353 2005 WebEx Communications, Inc. All rights reserved. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. WebEx and the WebEx logo are registered trademarks of WebEx Communications, Inc.
834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 60
Use lots of sim-
IV. Tips for Design and Development Teams continued
ple, yet effec-
Provide thorough guidance and share Best Practices with SMEs who have not previously worked in an online environment. — 25 instead of
Build content that has multiple navigation paths (e.g. articles with more detail) and tables of contents to skip to the material of interest. — 28 "Talk" with students through your materials. While developing material's contents, think as if youwere actually talking to students. — 45 example of a
Sit back and review your work every three scenes or slides to gain perspective and to check if you'reon the right path. — 52 tion would be
Choose images that follow a theme, e.g. a color theme, an object theme (all office stationery), etc.
to use a mag-
Avoid line after line of text. Students soon grow bored and the instructional message gets lost. Use effect to high-
graphics, non-offensive humor, and interaction (questions, drag-and-drop, etc.) to keep the onlinetraining interesting. — 78 Build it small — because Learning Content Management Systems (LCMSs) are what the future holds words, or to
for online designers. — 106 Divide in small pieces, as much as you can, all the instructional objectives you are pursuing in your tions of values
course, and make LOs with them. Try to think like some one that does not know anything about thematter you are trying to teach him. — 122 in a table or
Have more than one way for learners to learn your content. Some people may never let go of the paper so have it available, but connect it to online. At least make them go to a Web site to print outthe assignment or to check their answers. — 109 Salma Jafri, Lead Instructional Designer, Put everything in one place — an LMS or Web site at least — so people do not have to hunt for the online learning. They will quickly quit looking. — 109 Create templates and reuse them, like learning objects. — 118 Keep it short and deliver very small snippets of information because no one in the business worldhas hours to spend taking online courses. Build on prior learning. Make it easy to access and avail-able 24/7. — 201 Create an environment that facilitates the student locating information easily. — 147 Explore the Savie handbooks. — 150 Use Michael Allen's approach to stamp out boring e-Learning. — 236 Decide on your design early in the project. — 255 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 61
IV. Tips for Design and Development Teams continued
Construct a Venn diagram of the face-to-face and online versions of your course. What do you see? If you were to design a hybrid version, how would you decide what would be addressed in which venue? Map it. — 287 Simple navigation (3 clicks), include automated feedback and reusable learning objects. — 285 V. Tips for Implementation
Bruce Karr, Training A. Manage the class size
Keep classes small. — 90 Limit the audience size depending on what you are trying to do. If your presentation is nothing morethan a knowledge dump or demo, you may be able to get by with larger audiences. However, if youare seeking interaction with the learners, and learner interaction with the content, you need to keepclass size smaller. If you need to reach more people, give more classes. (For example, when teachingsoftware or business applications, talking about it is OK, demonstrating it is better, but giving thema chance to drive is best. You can't give them the chance to drive if your class size is too large.) — 18 Keep the class load to a size that is manageable. More than twelve students at a time per instructoris a lot to handle, even with an LMS. — 156 B. Manage the class length
A synchronous, interactive e-Seminar should not be less than or more than two hours. — 49 Limit the length of the synchronous session. I try not to go over two hours. — 18 Ensure that your time keeping is vigilant — the longer the lesson, the greater the chance that par-ticipants will lose concentration. — 67 Chunk sessions into delivery time frames of no more than one hour. — 32 Limit content to what is needed; do not add extra information that will extend the session. Forextended sessions (lasting longer than 90 minutes): Give breaks. Think about breaking session apartinto smaller learning modules or chunks. — 153 If you have a long topic, chunk it up. No single online session should be hours and hours in length.
— 184 Keep it short — 2 hours is too long. — 190 You need more frequent breaks for online sessions . try not to go more than an hour before takinga break. — 336 Develop a timeline for each session — however remember it is more important that you ensurelearning occurs than it is to complete delivery of all the intended material. In my experience, if a 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 62
Use a graphics
V. Tips for Implementation continued
pad instead of a
course has multiple sessions, although some sessions may go slow, others go fast and in the end it mouse. It speeds
all seems to even out. — 223 C. Provide an effective physical setup for the instructor
text writing and
Have the right tools, equipment and space for the instructor. It's impossible to be an online instruc-tor from your cubicle!! — 164 Deliver synchronous training in an environment free from distractions, i.e. your cubicle may not bethe best place; we have a small room dedicated for this purpose. — 18 Eliminate interruptions from office colleagues and telephone calls during participation in an online Bob Schaefer, Director, instruction session. — 223 Product Management, Carefully arrange your screen with all the shortcuts and needed materials readily at hand. — 176 Use sound to your advantage — invest in a soundboard, music tracks, and other audio aids. — 188 Only teach from a private room. Have a raised desk so you can walk around while you teach. — 247 Don't rely on fancy technologies such as a screen sharing (WebEx) system. Corporate firewalls willfrequently kill these. — 28 Be creative. Don't let technology drive your development. Bells and Whistles don't make the learningbetter. — 85 Be in touch with emerging technologies. — 89 Careful of VOIP — could distort audio. — 153 Technology is still evolving. — 296 Any communication problem is unrelated to differences in goal orientation. — 6 Plans are nothing — preparation is everything. — 55 Student comprehension is the key to learning and application of knowledge. — 41 Don't be overwhelmed. — 42 Continue doing what you do best, teaching. — 42 Forget thinking in terms of regular "classes." Most instructors tend to think that an online videotapedclass equals a face-to-face class. Instead, think in terms of the content you want to teach! — 45 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 63
Enthusiasm is a
VI. Miscellania continued
When you hear . you forget. When you see . you remember. When you do . you understand. -1 ponent of learn-
ing how to do
A danger in uninformed use of technology associated with web-based course delivery is shapingteaching and learning activities to fit the technology rather than using an appropriate technology that fits the activity. "The medium too often assumes a life of its own, supplanting the teacher andresulting in technology-bound activities that are debilitating to both teaching and learning (Parker, Vic Divecha, eLearning 1997 p. 9)." — 5 Specialist, School of Online learning needs to be easy to use, engaging and interactive — if you achieve this, the rest willprobably follow without too much difficulty. It is much more effective as an integral part of a blend-ed approach — it shouldn't stand alone. In my current role, we use e-Learning to train level 1 basicskills and manage to engage people with no previous qualifications, language or learning difficultiesetc. These guidelines do work!! — 268 Remember that there is a life outside the computer. — 51 A good computer user is not someone who knows everything there is to know about computers. Agood computer user is someone who can work out how to make the computer assist in the task athand, and then identify the most efficient way of accomplishing it. — 59 Arrogance is ignorance. — 75 Always be on your toes to learn more about e-Learning and be able to deploy it. — 64 It has to be easy, fun, worth their time. What is in it for them? The online learning has to make thelearner think. Not all movies make people think. Whatever technology you have, use it to make peo-ple think about the subject. What should they do with this information? How can their skill beimproved? Answer those questions in the online training. — 109 It is very important to understand the challenges of a totally online instructional model. These chal-lenges can be in terms of technology, diverse audience profile (experience and motivation levels),cultural diversity, training domain complexity, and so on. The trick is to relate the online model witha classroom situation, and think of parallel methods in the online context for meeting the abovestated challenges. — 194 Any instructor who is a good face-to-face instructor will migrate easily to the online forum. Theyalready have the attributes that are required to facilitate learning. — 156 Good communication skills (verbal and written) are vital. — 159 Patience is a virtue. — 159 Go to the point. Make the point a vehicle for deeper digging. Put the point in context and position itin today's worldly context. Don't preach, but lead the way forward. — 158 One person can make a difference! Online learning does NOT have to be boring!!! — 246 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 64
If there is some-
VI. Miscellania continued
thing you could
Design and develop the full course (all learning activities) in advance of the term startup — then do to improve
concentrate on facilitating it. — 253 Sometimes the tips are imperatives, other times they are reflective questions — 287 now, do it now.
Realize that people prefer synchronous events so that they can multi-task (participate and: eat, read, Don't wait until
check email, check voice mail, play games, daydream, etc.). Many do it just to be able to tell othersthey did it without gaining any real benefit. — 338 the next time
you offer it.
Developing competencies is good, but not necessarily for certification. They would just be good inand of themselves. — 338 The right amount of information, for the time allotted, delivered in the right way, for the right rea- enable you to
son, aligned with the right deliverables. — 298 Teach for your students, not the medium. — 294 These are largely from a participant's point of view: Never assume anything. A program's designer Mark Joyce, Professor may mean it to be intuitive, but it may only be intuitive to the person who designed it. Be aware of Education, Mesa always of the additional barrier the computer interface places between instructor and student or the student and learning material. — 302 If it doesn't do it for you, get offline — not every content works online! 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 65
VII. Thanks to Our Tipsters
1 Ayyanathan S.Natarajan, Lecturer & 22 Bill Thimmesch, Training Specialist, Michael Drummond, Ph.D., Director Systems Analyst, Madurai Kamaraj US Dept. of Labor-ETA of Instructional Technology, Mercer 23 Michelle Walker, Instructional 2 Mark Jermyn, Senior Courseware Designer, Westfield Insurance 43 Karen Gordon-Brown, Instructional Developer, Cypress 24 Gaylene Galliford, Solutions Designer, San Francisco 3 Sue Sarcheck, Lead Business Analyst, SupervisorTraining, Design & Bay Area Rapid Transit District Federal Reserve Bank of Development, Apria Healthcare 44 Lee Karns, Chief Bottle Washer, 25 Nicole McGuire, Training Programs Vertical View Software Associates 4 Robert Salazar, e-Learning Web Manager, LexisNexis 45 Gabriela Sacco, V.O. & Associates.
Developer, Dynamic-iBuilder, Inc.
26 Josephine Murray, Director, Pelion Education and Training Consultants 5 Steve Swinson, Northrop Grumman Consulting Pty Ltd 46 Colleen ONeil, CLO, Alva Learning 6 Alan Guinn, Managing Director, The 27 Marcia Ward, Sr. Editor, Dearborn Guinn Consultancy Group, Inc (Kaplan Professional) 47 Michael Ciambella, Director, Genesis 7 Joseph Tansey, Manager of 28 Al Moser, Support, ReadyGo, Inc.
Corporate Synchronous / 29 Dr. Jasir Alherbish, BCT 48 Christopher Harding, Asynchronous Delivery Systems, Documentation & Training Wells Fargo Corporate Learning and 30 Rajit Anand, Executive Vice Specialist, Vasogen, Inc.
President Delivery, Hurix SystemsPvt. Ltd.
49 Beth Warren, President & CEO, WorkWorlds' Human Resource 31 Fran Dunne, Inovis 9 Mark Bucceri, Principal Education Specialist, Centra 32 Robert Hails, Director, Center for 50 Maggie Marsh-Nation, R. EEG/EPT, Distance Learning, College of 10 Vieva Steele, Manager, Training CNIM, American Soc. of END Engineering, University of Arkansas 33 Cheryl Reesy, Education Coordinator, 11 Melissa Leaist, Community Health & 51 Kathryn Williams, Westhoughton First National Bank and Trust Education Specialist, CAMH 34 Faun deHenry, President, Business 12 MaryAlice Colen, VP eLearning, 52 Salma Jafri, Lead Instructional Intelligence / Data Warehouse SIG Designer, 360Training 35 Sheryl Wong, Sr. Asst Director 13 Stephanie Sanford ,Online Learning 53 Robin Roumeliotis, Director of Client (Faculty Dev), Nanyang Specialist, America's Second Harvest Support and Training, Spectra Technological University, Singapore 14 Herb McCartney ,LMS 54 Gayle Rooke, President, 36 Leslie Stompor, Sr. Instructional Administrator, Tyco Healthcare KeyMedia Inc.
Designer, Siebel Systems 15 Nancy Miller, On-Line Learning 55 Harold Cypress, National Learning 37 Melinda Medina, Program Chair, Manager, UnumProvident University of Phoenix Online 16 Becky Harris, Director of 56 Jeff Tyson, Manager of Multimedia Instructional Design, Purple Monkey Development, Tech Resource Group, 38 Sandi Sturm, e-Learning Designer / Instructor / Owner, Creative 17 Rajesh Lele, Deputy Head, E-learn- 57 Mark Veljkov, VP, Education OnLine, ing, Bank of Baroda 39 Bhanu Kiran Potta, NIIT Limited 18 Roy Batzel, Technical Trainer, Time 58 Francois Ronai, Consultant, 40 Jahna Kahrhoff, Dir. Academic Dist.
Perfoption Inc.
Learning Center, Webster University 19 Ayutila Aier, Instructional Designer, 59 Timothy Lambert, Coordinator of 41 Rhamy Morrison, Training Specialist, Instructional Support, Bunker Hill American Standard / Trane RS Community College 21 Ivy Satre, Software Trainer, Farm Bureau Financial Services, Inc.
834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 66
VII. Thanks to Our Tipsters continued
60 John Lachman, PBSO 80 Tuula Piispanen-Krabbe, Training 101 Andrea Barrett, Director Information and Development Specialist, State and Learning Services, Learnpros of NM Dept. of Health 62 Wendy Brunner, Director of 102 Rhonda Goetz, Instructional Courseware Production, MEBN 81 Lisa Wieland Handy, AVP / Sr.
Designer, Chrome Zebra Academy Consultant, Mellon 63 Vic Divecha, eLearning Specialist, 103 Tom Berry, Galileo Systems, LLC School of Public Health 82 Paul Weber, Vice President, OMIC 104 Man Van, Lecturer, Amsat 64 Renu Vadhvani, Elearning 83 Bernice Glenn, Principal, Glenn & 105 Marie Ortiz, Staff Development Consultant, Infosys Specialist, Kansas Department of 65 Penny Gelb, Manager of Systems 84 Enrique Garcia, Director, Employees Social and Rehabilitation Services Training, BJ's Wholesales Club Technology Advancement Center, 106 Bob Pederson, Manager, Learning Laredo Community College 66 Matthew Masci, Co-ordinator E- and Development, State Farm 85 Dennis DiMambro, AVP, Insurance Companies Putnam Investments 67 Helen Thompson, Wholesaling Ops 107 David McClelland, eLearning Training Co-ordinator, Heatcraft 86 Martijn Bakker, NA Specialist, Eastman Kodak Australia Pty Ltd 87 Susan McMurray, Performance 108 Matt Lewis, Instructional Designer, 68 Dennis DeLaurier, Web Based train- Consultant, Titan Corporation ESHconnect, Inc.
ing developer, Input / Output Inc 88 A. Lynn Raiser, Principle Instructional 109 Jeffrey Riley, IS Training Coordinator, 69 Carol Davies, Research Officer, Designer, Siebel Systems, Inc.
89 Seethalakshmi Natarajan, Tata 110 Michele Largman, Trainer elearning 70 Jun Yang, Instructional Technology Interactie Systems development, J&JPRD Specialist, Harrisburg Community 90 Cindi Freedman, Assistant Vice 111 Charisse Bellamy, Senior e-Learning College, IT Center President, New York Life Insurance Consultant, TIAA-CREF 71 Tom Steele, Director, Soft Learn 91 Sharon Valencia, Adjunct Professor, 112 Susan Gawley, eLearning Manager, Bellevue University Deloitte & Touche 72 Angela Johnson-Terry, Technical 92 Jim Formosa, Assoc Professor, 113 Peter S. Cookson, Director, Centre for Trainer, The Analysis Corporation Nashville Community College Education and Information 73 Michael Havice, Associate Professor, 93 Jennifer Jewett-Kelly, Sr. Analyst, Technology, University for Peace, of Broadcast & Electronic the United Nations Communication, Marquette 94 Marie Rustemeyer, Manager, 114 Mary Nicholson, Professor, Educational Service District 101 Bloomsburg University 74 Oliver Thompson, Education 95 Mark Siegrist, Senior Instructional 115 Sue Pysher, Training Coordinator, Designer, Vertex Inc.
PSU Electronic & Computer Services Education Services 96 Elaine Keller, E-learning Manager, 116 Siva Kiran, Trina 75 Peter Palme, Trainer & Elearning 117 Leah Folkestad Specialist, Nestec S.A.
97 Jeroen Spierings, Business 118 Meredith Esposito, President, E- 76 Mary Duggan, Director of Learning Development Manager, BT learning at Work LLC Technology, Learning andCommunications 98 Kathleen Kanzer-Johnson, National 119 Meg Louthan, Business Consultant, Training Director, BP 77 Julie Biddle, Technology Training Coordinator, Ontario Ministry of 99 David Sweeney, Manager, ISD / 120 Kathleen Hueser, Principal ISD, UDLP Municipal Affairs & Housing Training, TRG, Inc.
ASD Army Training 78 William Mihalovits, Instructor, 100 Paul Shiroma, Solution Architect, 121 Beverly Wood, Professor, USC Progress Energy Carolinas, Inc.
122 J. A. Fung, Professor, UCI 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 67
VII. Thanks to Our Tipsters continued
123 Nitin Nimkar, Consultant, N. V.
146 Ken Huffman, Learning 165 Ashley Rice, Manager, Internal Technologist, Saudi Aramco Training Solutions, WebEx 124 Linda Wathen, Implementation 147 Jennafer Kuhns, Associate, Booz 167 Roger D (Dave) Braun, Learning & Coordinator, Mediaplex Performance Support Standards 125 Vanessa Ratliff, Consultant, Vadara 148 Bernadette Floyd, Learning Supervisor, SaskPower Manager, Hudson Global Resources 168 James (Jim) Wainwright, Inspector, 126 Tim Martin, Training Manager, Intel 149 Caryl Bender, Director of Hartford Steam Boiler 127 James Oates, TAFE Tasmania Instructional Technology, Collegis / 169 Madeline Usera, Project Manager.
Brookdale Community College Learning Technologies, ATF (govern- 128 Richard Cowles, Senior Consultant, Prescient Digital Media 150 Mathy Vanbuel Managing Director, 170 Jean Marrapodi, Senior Education 130 Glenna Shaw, Internal Consultant, Specialist, Private Healthcare 151 Cheryl McNeil, Online Instructor, Mercer County Community College 131 Joe Jones, President, Business 173 Jim Swan, Training Consultant, The 152 Jeff Albers, Senior Technical Writer, 132 Francis Rabuck, President, Rabuck 174 Lee Soon Leong, Operations 153 Dan Lickteig, Training and Communications Manager, Procter 133 Rob Stogsdill, Analyst, State Farm 176 Kit Horton, VP, William Horton 134 Jane Mullooly, Manager, Technical 154 Helga Ernst, Instructional Designer, Training, Eisai Medical Research 177 Paula Cancro, IS Training Specialist, 135 Dr.Gary Coldevin, Coldevin 155 Megan Bennett, OD/ID Specialist, Independent Financial Marketing ATX Communications 136 Jake Edmondson, eLearning 156 Murray Gerein, Distance Learning 178 Suzanne Carlstedt, HR Specialist, IRS Coordinator, Royal Canadian 179 Sondra Hack, IT Training Specialist, 137 Elizabeth Brock, e.Learning Product Manager, Siemens Health Services 157 Robin McCord, LearnMWR Manager 180 Jacqui Kelly, Educational Designer, 138 Anna Peters, Learning Performance (Civilian), U.S. Navy Morale, Welfare Curtin University of Western and Recreation Division 139 Chris Bond, President, Bluewater 158 Erik Wallin, Associate Professor, Lund 181 Steve Wileman, Instructional Interactive Consulting Group 140 Wassim Subie, Instructional 159 Jim Robson, Principal, Scottish Fire 182 Kate MacDonald, Director of Technologist, Cornerstone Industry, Instructional Design Services, 160 Manasvini Prasad, Practice Head Massachusetts College of Pharmacy 141 C. Schmidt, Learning Consultant, Instruction Design, Trina and Health Sciences Caterpillar University 161 Mary Gutwein, Learning Specialist, 183 Rishi Surtani, Instructional Designer 142 Sherry Larson, IS Developer, NWA Humana Military Healthcare 184 Tricia Luke, Staff Technical Training 143 Raymond Truitt, Curriculum Design Specialist, QUALCOMM, Inc.
and Development Manager, Sears 162 Chris Green, Systems Administrator, 185 Ron Miazga, Dir. Learning Services, 144 Guy Levert, President, elearn- S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc.
163 Nori Morita, Training Specialist, 186 Aina Irbe, Training Team Lead, 145 Bruce Karr, Training Consultant, MDSI Mobile Data Solutions, Inc.
Zerone, Inc.
Amex Canada, Inc.
164 Bob Schaefer, Director, Product 187 Brian Duck, Instructional Designer, Management, TEDS, Inc.
Ford Motor Company 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 68
VII. Thanks to Our Tipsters continued
188 Max Butler, Lead Instructor, 209 Daniel Van Blarcom, Captain, 228 Susan Sheehan, Content Developer, Whitsunday Community Services The Yacobian Group 189 Dawn Ray, Sales Consultant, ADP 210 Dianne Calhoun, Instructional 229 Deborah Chadwick, Instructional Screening and Selection Services Design Senior Analyst, Accenture Designer, Cisco Systems 190 Bill Leber, Support Engineer, Agilent 211 Elwood (Woody) Say, eLearning 230 Dr. Diane Kramer, CEO, PeakSkills Technologies, Inc.
Development Manager, Xerox 191 Ralph Hausman, Ph.D., Private con- 231 Ken Steinman, Manager, O.D., The tracting (Retired University 212 Benjamin Kolt, Instructional Designer, National City Corporation 232 Adam McDaniel, Training Manager, 192 Brian Popken, President, 213 Sam Taylor, Project Manager, Dentrix Dental Systems, Inc.
Tresham Institute 233 Nicole Dalton, Instructional 193 Paul Bejgrowicz, Assistant Director, 214 Heather Karimi, Program Manager, Designer, First Citizens Bank eLearning, Johnson & Johnson 234 Alexa Simon, MEAG Munich ERGO Pharmaceutical Research & 215 Karin Albert, Educational R&D Leader, Granite Construction, Inc.
235 Don Wren, eLearning Designer, 194 Joseph Chinnaya, Instructional 216 Thomas Macaulay, Instructional Designer, Gecis Content Solutions 236 Lucendia Halliday, Project Manager, 195 Robert Cross, President, sohobiz.ca 217 Bob Joyce, Coordinator of Ford Motor Co.
196 Greg Younger, Mgr. of Product Continuing Ed., Center for 237 Susan Clark, Learning Coordinator, Biosecurity & Public Health Stantec Consulting Ltd.
197 Jeff Duncan, Assistant Principal, 238 Rakesh Poddar, Instructor Designer, Douglas S. Freeman High School 218 Stuart Flatow, VP, Safety & Training, 198 Renee Drake, MS Ed., Online Propane Education & Research 239 Curtis Bond, Night Director, High- Teaching and Learning; Distance Learning Technician, College of the 219 Randy Cowling, Multimedia Designer, New World Restaurant 240 Tamara (Tammy) Christensen, Director, Online Learning, ASAE and 199 Russ Weddle, Consultant, Chadde The Center for Association 220 JoAnn Escobedo, eLearning 200 Fiona Quigley, Director of Developer, Waste Management 241 Phil Wakefield, Stockport College Operations, Aurion Limited 221 Donna Welschmeyer, Director, 242 Barbara Toney, AIS Application 201 Gail Gannon, Team Leader, Pioneer Online Program Development, Services Manager, UniGroup Colorado Community CollegesOnline 243 Linda Grubbs, Instructional 202 Pam Hebert, Project manager, EES 222 Michael Laudone, Sr. ID Designer, Kaiser Permanente 203 Mike Ricard, Consultant, Freelance 244 Dr. Fatima Mahieddine, Bradford 204 Cheri Toledo, Asst. Professor, Illinois 224 P Deepika, Manager, MBT 245 Shaik ilyas, Globarena Web 205 Gerard Corcoran, Manager e 225 Sheldon Fisher, Performance Technologies, Hyderabad, India Management Consultant, AppliedPerformance 246 Angel Bryan, Corporate Trainer, 206 John Rhodes, Senior Lecturer, Sharonview Federal Credit Union Durban Institute of Technology 226 David Brand, Learning Specialist, 3M 247 Jennifer Hall, Instructional Designer, 207 Hermann Green, ODOC 227 Norma Grassini-Komara, Instructional Designer, Moraine 208 Nancy Gillies, RN, Education Valley Community College 249 Lee Davidson, Associate Professor of Specialist, BayCare Health Services Teacher Ed., Andrews University 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 69
VII. Thanks to Our Tipsters continued
250 John Shultz, Project Manager, CACI 272 Daniel Stanford, Instructional 290 Paul Dattoli, Technology Engineer, 251 Mike Tillmans, Asst. Professor, Designer, The Savannah College of Illinois Institute of Technology 291 Godfrey Parkin, MindRise 252 Luca Botturi, Ph.D., NewMine Lab, 273 David Dubin, Senior Curriculum 292 Ning Zhang, Training and University of Lugano Developer, Best Software, Inc.
Development Manager, United 253 Judith Fisher, Director, Instructional 274 Sylvia Dribnak, Learning Specialist, Support, University of Florida, 293 Bruna Ori, Tech Integration Warrington College of Business 275 Maureen Hart, Senior Manager, 254 Stacy Moore, Performance 294 Lionel Thomas, Freelance Educator, Consultant, TIAA-CREF 276 Angie Vazquez, E-Learning Project 255 Tanya Wolfe, Southbank Institute Manager, Hallmark Cards 295 Amy Reichert, Instructional 256 Michael Shawn Stiles, Training 277 Craig Jackson, E-learning Specialist, Developer, Quad/Graphics Project Manager, Pfizer Inc.
Research and Curriculum Unit 296 Victoria Walker, Curriculum 278 Patricia Keithan, Instructional Technology Support Coordinator, Designer, Training Designs Regent University 258 Kevin Balog, Ed.D., SPHR, Professor / Faculty Mentor, Central Michigan 279 Heather Petit, Manager, Technology 297 Arthur Wakefield, Lead Technical Assisted Learning, Bristol-Myers Analyst, Carlson Hotels Worldwide 259 Patricia Fischer, Technical Training & 298 Jan Donley, Corporate Director, Curriculum Development Manager, 280 James Genovese, President, Pro- Learning, Catholic Healthcare Ware Computing, Inc.
260 Barbara Fillicaro 281 Nancy Berger, Training and 300 Meg Yanalunas, Instructional Designer, Walsh College 261 Betty Johnson, Sr. Instructional Manager, Genworth Financial Design Specialist, Securities 301 Kara DeFrias, Instructional Designer, America, Inc.
282 Stevie Daniels, Coordinator New Jersey Manufacturers Academic Computing, Fresno City 302 Lake, Performance Improvement 263 Paula Bradshaw, Manager of 283 Gene Holden, Instructional Manager, Louisiana Pacific Corp.
Instructional Design, Inter-Tel, Inc.
Designer, Stanford Linear 303 Jennifer Mahlmann, Customer 264 Kay Dixon, Sr. Courseware Accelerator Center Education Manager, Freddie Mac Developer, Siebel Systems 284 Pam Henchar, Manager of 304 Heinrich Koenen, Training Specialist, 265 Steve Sieberts, Instructional Curriculum Development, Alteer Developer, Kentucky Department for 305 Cindy Caltagirone, US Courts 285 C. Fisher, Technology Project 266 Frank Yamson, eLearning Specialist / Manager, St. Petersburg College 306 Nicholas Bird, Senior Analyst, RWD Consultant, Scotiabank Technologies Inc.
286 Marc Shecter, Project Manager, 267 Dan Hill, Manager, Training & Agilent Technologies 307 Michael Thomas, Sr. Instructional Education, Group Health Designer, ALLTEL Communications, 287 Mark Joyce, Professor of Education, Mesa State College 268 Alison Goldup, IT Training Matters 308 Roger Steinhorst, Lead elearning 288 Jill Hughes, Instructional Designer specialist, Fireman's Fund 269 Teresa Nash, Database 288 Ernie Tor, Sr. Instructional Designer, Administrator, Exelon Nuclear 309 James Still, Specialist Consultant, Cingular Wireless 270 Trudy Kennell, Curriculum Developer 289 Veronica Diaz, Learning And Editor, AlphaPlus Centre 310 Dawn Adams Miller, Development Technologies Manager, University of Manager, Microsoft 271 Satish Ingale, PL, HSBC 834 Tips for Successful Online Instruction 70
VII. Thanks to Our Tipsters continued
311 Debi Kostyun, Director, Corporate 326 Helen Head, Mgr of Virtual Learning Services Learning, Intellinex 312 Gerry Wasiluk, Learning Solutions 327 Chris Willis, CEO, Media 1 Interactive, 313 James Often, Webmaster, MTR 328 Jennifer Evans, Quality Support & Training Specialist IV, Weber State 314 Dr. Roberta Grossi, Horizons7 315 Richard Ackerman, EDS 329 Susie Wells, Technical Training, BCC 316 Chantal Dupuis, Senior Learning Technology Analyst, CBSA 330 Pam Powell, Trainer, Creative 317 Evelyn Watson, A/Learning Design Program Manager, Canada Revenue 331 Richie Jarvis, Online Instructor, 318 Stephen Champion, Training 332 Steven McDonald, Coordinator of Specialist, The Seattle Times Instructional Technology &Technology Training, Pennsylvania 319 Gerald McClain, VP, eLearning College of Technology 333 Keren Meister-Emerich, Developer & 320 Ceil Tilney, Vice President, Linkage, Trainer, Educational Technology 321 Tim McClutchy, eLearning Lead, 334 Don Wilson, Professor, GEHC Technologies IT Southwestern Oklahoma State 322 Sandra Johnsen, Instructional Designer, Univar USA Inc.
335 Michelle Greear, Corporate Training 323 Clyde Bassett Manager, Technology Credit Union 324 Larry Bograd, Director of Training, 336 Stephenie Bowen, Training Consultant, Roche Diagnostics 325 Andrew Field, ICT coordinator, Neale-Wade Community College A Worldwide Community
of Practice for e-Learning
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