ASTD Maryland Chapter Blog

Tips/Best Practices Shared on Virtual Facilitation

Chris Coladonato — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:11:18 GMT

Below is a listing of the virtual facilitation tips and best practices shared by our attendees at our meeting last week. Feel free to comment and add your tips!

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse
If you have collaboration, encourage peer to peer learning/sharing.
Ensure learner audience has loaded plug ins and tested accessing the classroom BEFORE the session
Involve interactive tools OFTEN! Polling, chat, etc...
Always run the platform wizard before each online session.
Test technology before event
Have a person “run” the behind the scenes – such as a session host or producer. They can handle all technical issues, watch the chat, load slides/whiteboards, etc…
Send direction on how to log on BEFORE class starts – like at least a day before. Maybe include a few tips about navigating the
Hard wire to internet and use USB headsets (if using VOIP)
Design/develop for interactivity
Always pre-test the EXACT technology you will use
Know the technology
Don’t forget your classroom skills
Personality is everything
Mute the audience to prevent background noise
Know your platform keyboard shortcuts (such as CTRL+M is mute all). This might save time instead of navigating menus.
Know the capabilities of the technology
Have someone other than the facilitator be responsible for chat questions, surveys, etc…
Always conduct a tech check BEFORE the event
Participants should do a test login prior to the actual presentation.
Check in/pause/ask questions more frequently than in the face to face classroom
Be prepared!
Memorize the first 30 seconds
Download and practice in the software environment you will facilitating in
Investigate the sound quality of the room BEFORE the conference.
Don’t skimp on mics and use a room with as little fuzz/feedback as possible…
Be twice as prepared as live presenting – content, talking points, technology, back up plans
Always assume that the technology will fail and be prepared with a several back up plans. For instance, what happens if the whiteboard tool isn’t working? Switch the activity to a chat activity…
Engage your learners with the tools BEFORE the session starts…and make it a fun exercise that is related to the content.
Converting classroom activities to the virtual world is not always a one-to-one conversion. Go back to the objective of the interaction and think about what is the best possible way to accomplish that objective in the virtual classroom. For example, you might do a small group discussion as a quick chat or whiteboard exercise instead of a breakout room.
Let your participants know at the beginning of the session that it will be an interactive session where they will be asked to participate in a variety of ways….voice, polling, chat, etc…. This sets up the expectation that they should be paying attention and actively participating.
Always practice in the platform that you will be using with the tools that you will be using – chat/pointers/polls, etc…Just running through the slides doesn’t help you to integrate all the tools that you will use in the session.
Set up your classroom 20-30 minutes early – set up what panels/tools you want your participants to have access to, what rights they will have, prepare the materials you will be using, etc…
Have water ready and available!
Test your session on several different computers and in several different browsers. Always watch it from the presenter AND the participant view. This will help you to understand how the participants will interact with the screen/tool.
Build in to your facilitator guide how the virtual classroom should be set up, suggested introductory exercises that can be done BEFORE class starts and then how to clean up the room after the session (what logs to save, where to send the evaluations and attendance list, etc...
Have a “what to do when” list in your facilitator guide or as a stand along job aid for facilitators. This list can includes tips on how to mute all participants or what to do when the system crashes, etc…

Resources and books from May program on virtual training

Chris Coladonato — Tue, 15 May 2012 12:05:28 GMT

Virtual Training Resources from May Program

Comparison of major web conferencing vendors:

Gartner’s Magic Quadrant – Web Conferencing: http://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-188BRJH&ct=111206&st=sb

Creating word puzzles (search, scramble, crossword puzzles):

http://www.armoredpenguin.com/

Tool for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide:

www.wordle.net

Information about virtual training/courses on virtual facilitation/free webinars:

Recommended Books on virtual facilitation/exercises, etc…:

The Synchronous Trainer's Survival Guideby Jennifer
Virtual Training Basics by Cindy
The New Virtual Classroom by Ruth Colvin
Live and Online! Tips, Techniques and Activities by Jennifer
Webinars with WOW Factor by Becky Pike
Great Webinars by Cynthia Clay

May Program - Breaking Free from the Physical Classroom

Chris Coladonato — Tue, 15 May 2012 00:17:02 GMT

Thanks to everyone for a great program last week. There were lots of tips and best practices shared that we will post on this blog later this week.

If you have any questions about the resources shared here, post a comment to this blog.

Program presentation with notes (PDF format)

Slide Samples

Virtual classroom activities reviewed at program

Virtual Training Center Job Aid

Use as a template to design your own version based on your platform.
This is in PowerPoint format. I recommend saving as a PDF before sending to participants)

Virtual Classroom vendors

Sandi Maxey — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:49:37 GMT

My company wants to investigate virtual classroom technology. I would appreciate any comments from current users about vendors, advantages, disadvantages, best practices, etc.

Slides from March program - Managing Learning Using Open Source Solutions

Chris Coladonato — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 11:25:51 GMT

Great session last week and great conversations after! Here is a pdf of the slides presented with all the links: ASTDMD2012Mar_Managing_Learning_Using_Open_Source.pdf

February program notes

Chris Coladonato — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:55:51 GMT

Interesting session tonight with lots of talk about what's next. Check out their website at: www.adlnet.gov.

Here are the files our presenter, Peter Berking shared with us in the program.

ASTD MD chapter 20120209.pptx

Choosing Authoring Tools.pdf

Choosing an LMS.pdf

SCORM Users Guide for ISDs.pdf

SCORM Users Guide for Programmers.pdf

November Program - Twitter Transcript - Top 10 Career Mistakes Training Professionals Make....

Chris Coladonato — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 15:07:46 GMT

Here is the tweets from our program last night...great conversation throughout! Many thanks to Greg Williams for presenting this topic last night.

Feel free to reply with your tips on career management!.

Getting ready to start our program...follow us as we chat about Top 10 Career Mistakes Training Pros Make & How To Avoid Them
Number 10 - Being Unrealistic in your expectations, knowledge of skill sets, etc... One way to correct is to get feedback
- Mock interviews/practice interviews are a great way to get feedback.
Number 9 - Clinging to the past. Just because it worked in the past doesn't mean it will work now or in the future.
- Another old way of thinking is relying on your years of experience only.
- A co has problems and they care more about if you have the knowledge and skills to fix them...not your years of experience
- You can't expect your career to be a straight line these days
Number 8 - People don't take advantage of opportunities.
- Just remember, you can always say no....but if you say no to the opportunity without hearing about it, you may never be asked again.
- You have to let people know you are open to opportunities, network and ask around!
- Wouldn't it be nice if people came to you and send...hey, I have an opportunity! It doesn't always happen like that.
- What are you missing out on by saying you don't have enough time? If you want to change, you have to put in the time ....
- A lot of times we have opportunities to network, meet others, volunteer, etc...and don't take advantage of them.
- Tip: Headhunters want you! But iview them - ask how many yrs they've worked in industry, how many applicants they've placed.
Number 7 – Not marketing yourself
- Be a regular contributor in blogs, discussion groups, etc... It gets your name and presence out there.
- Don't just tell people about yourself, show them. Volunteer at organizations/associations and let people get to know your work.
- Don't avoid the spotlight. Don't just let your work speak for itself. Don't be shy. Make it known you are looking 4 opps.
- What does your portfolio of networking activities look like?
Number 6 – It’s not about you!
- Employers really want to know what you can do for them! So, remember, it's not just about you!
Number 5 - No Career Tools or Tool Expertise. Big tools r resumes, cover letter, social networking tools & professional portfolio.
- Only about 10% have organized portfolios.
- Use C-CAR Format to introduce work sample.
- C-CAR Format for resumes: Competency, Context, Action, Results
- Quantify things on your resume if you ca
Number 4 - Stay current. Assess your own skills and make sure they are current.
- Do u need a degree in our field? No, but formal education forces you to do gain knowledge that you might not find out about.
Number 3 – Not putting in the time
- There is no overnight success. You don't get from point A to point B with a snap!
Number 2 - Not having a written plan!!!!! What do you want to do, when do you want to do it, what are ur milestones!
Number 1 - Not actively managing your career. You have to take control of your career.
- Ask yourself - What do I want? And keep asking....it's hard to do planning without that goal!
- You have to put in the time in planning your career
- Success is not a destination - it's a journey

Leadership SIG Meeting - 360 Feedback

Chris Coladonato — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 13:55:33 GMT

Here are the slides from the 11/3 Leadership SIG meeting:November 3 Slides.

The presenter also provided a few additional resources. These resources provide a more detailed description of the process, including a sample report of a feedback receipient. Click here to download the folder of additional resources.

One of the attendees, Ron Berk, provided an extra resource. It is an article he wrote 2 years ago comparing the traditional business 360 MSF to two other applications in medicine and teaching might be of interest. It has a lot of research citations for those interested. Click here for that article.

A few thoughts from our Chapter Leaders Conference

Chris Coladonato — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 20:53:32 GMT

Four of your chapter leaders attended ALC (ASTD Chapter Leaders Conference) this weekend in Arlington, VA. I'd like to personally thank Bob (2012 President Elect), Erik (Communications Director) and Kate (2012 Professional Development Director) for spending 2 days with their chapter president and 300 other chapter leaders! Susan (Membership Director) was with us in spirit since she was unable to attend due to illness.

We were able to network with other chapters and share best practices...and I have to say that each one of us learned a TON and brought back lots of ideas for adding value to your membership, increasing awareness of the chapter and more! We will be reviewing all of the ideas in our annual strategy meeting coming up later this year as we plan for 2012 and beyond. You will be hearing more about our 2012 strategic initiatives later this year/early next year.

During our conference, we got a chance to hear from Tony Bingham, ASTD President and CEO. He talked about the trends in our profession. I thought I would share a brief summary of them with you:

Trend 1: Informal learning. 70% of learning is informal and we need to adapt. Informal learning includes social and mobile. He reviewed many facts about expected growth of mobile technology and we viewed an interesting video about it. You can access the YouTube video here.

One other note is that he mentioned that by 2014, 50% of the workforce will be millennials and that the millennials think it is important for companies to have social learning and be technology focused and that influences their decision to join a company.

Trend 2: Rationalized, strategic training investments. The implications for learning professionals is that we MUST know the business and align learning and development with the organizational goals.

Trend 3: Leadership skills in volatile times. The implications for learning professionals is that we have to develop leadership skills in judgement in the following areas - People, Strategy and Crisis. Tony mentioned that coaching, which had not been a big focus in many corporations over the past few years, seems to be making a comeback. Now, more than ever, there are lots of different approaches and this skill continues to be top of mind for CEOs.

A few books he mentioned in this trend were:

Wellbeing by Tom Rath
Standout by Marcus Buckingham

Trend 4: Demonstrate value of learning. As learning professionals, we need to apply performance related metrics in a variety of areas such as:
engagement, turnover, customer satisfaction, T&D effect, revenue, profits, time to ready and cycle time.

Trend 5: Integrated talent management. Tony talked about the ASTD definition of Talent Management and you can access a white paper about Talent Management here.

Trend 6: Global citizenship. In this trend, he talked about sustainability, corporate responsiblity and developing cultural sensitivity.

Overall, the key to all of this is agility.

I have one other video that I wanted to share...this was from another session about social media. It gives some interesting statistics regarding social media for chapters but many of the information was applicable to social media in training overall. You can access the YouTube video here.

Throughout the next few weeks, we will be sharing more and more tidbits that we picked up at the conference. So, keep checking back...we'll let you know on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In when updates are posted to the blog!

Regards,

Chris Coladonato
President
ASTD Maryland

Slides from September 8 program on Social Learning

Chris Coladonato — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 14:28:02 GMT

Thank you to our presenter, Montressa Washington, for making her presentation slides available.

ASTD_Presentation_09082011_final.pdf

Social Learning Program Thoughts

Chris Coladonato — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:37:19 GMT

Great program tonight! Lots of discussion between the participants and many ideas shared. TO check out some of the tweets from tonight's program, view our Twitter feed: ASTDMaryland.

The slides will be posted in the next few days. For now, here are some resources that were shared in the session and from some Twitter followers:

Online Mind Mapping tools: www.wallwisher.com and www.spiderscribe.com
www.copyscape.com

Follow up to July 14 Program

Chris Coladonato — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 19:51:23 GMT

The following was passed along to me from one of our attendees at our July 14 program. Jim uses this when he gets the opportunity to talk to managers about a potential training situation. It acts as a guide to ask some of the right questions. Feel free to download and use!

Needs_Assessment_Questions_Managers.pdf

July Program Presentation Deck - Avoid Solving Non-Training Problems with Training Solutions

Chris Coladonato — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:57:19 GMT

Definitely a topic that a lot of us deal with in our jobs....and some good conversation about this topic at our program last night. What are your thoughts in this topic? How do you handle this in your organization?

Here are the slides from last night's program:July Program Slides

June Program - Your Brain on Graphics: Research Inspired Visual Design

Chris Coladonato — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:06:56 GMT

Unfortunately, I was unable to get to our June program due to a business trip....and I heard from Bob, our Programs Director AND our attendees that it was a really great program. I wanted to share some of the key takeaways our participants had...

I knew a lot about the cognitive piece but it was very reinforcing and presented in an engaging manner with great visuals to keep our attention!
The impact of graphics and ideas for creating more effective graphics
How much text can be replaced with visuals
It was nice to have reassurance of present practice. The lesson learned was how to make the visuals cognitively efficient.
I'm always interested in the latest brain research on how we learn. I thought the graphics she used in her examples were very good. I enjoyed it!
Use a variety of visual techniques to communicate a message.
Awareness of what works well in graphics presentations.

Many thanks to our presenter, Connie Malamed for presenting in June! Hope to see you next month as Mick Magill talks about Performance Consulting Basics: How to Avoid Solving Non-Training Problems with Training Solutions. See our events page for more details.

May Program: I’m not a leader….thank goodness!

Robert Osmond — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 19:52:10 GMT

Brian did a great job explaining how leadership has struggled to move past a litany of competencies over the last few years. In his presentation, three key takeaways resonated: 1) Leadership/leading is not a role or job...it is an action taken at a discrete moment...or series of actions taken at several moments; 2) Leadership attributes and requirements depend on the needs of the followers (and their willingness to follow); and 3) There are many leadership roles that don't require actual leading...everybody needs a cheerleader!

I invite others to post their thoughts too! Thank you