In two previous blog posts, I shared tips for optimizing the online learning experience before the learning event takes place as well as during the actual learning event. If you present online to groups of participants within your organization, there are strategies within this series of three blog posts for increasing adoption rates during firm-wide policy rollouts or technology implementations or other internal training initiatives. If you are a business owner or consultant and you present online to your clients, you might find a nugget or three for maximizing audience engagement and ensuring your objectives are met.

Whether you present online within your organization or beyond, seek to understand your specific audience's preferences then apply best practices and only the very latest research on teaching and learning.  

In this post, as with the others, you'll find a few ideas for optimizing the online learning experience for your participants; here, some for extending that optimization with post-event interactions:

• Call the participants to action after the webinar by suggesting completion of a task that shows evidence of the learning objectives being met, and then create a mechanism for circling back to ensure competencies have shifted.

You can do this by setting the expectation during the session that you will be asking post-training for evidence. This could be something as simple as asking them to send you an email showing a screen capture of the task after completion – such as a before and after screen capture or photo.

Keeping it simple and fun and, perhaps on a higher operational level, offer a contest or reward for those who answer the call. Each of these strategies may increase the chance that your participants are learning and applying the knowledge you've imparted.

• Offer and monitor support in the form of an online discussion board, peer group pages, or question and answer bank.

Some social networking sites offer private instant collaboration and notifications for real-time conversations. Sometimes referred to as a back channel, these could be formalized into a type of online help desk for learners, where champions and other participants assist in the support.

Leverage a Facebook group to create a community of practice, or use platforms such as Yammer or an intranet site if you’re with a large organization.

• Offer additional learning opportunities such as open forums and subsequent synchronous sessions in the weeks and months that follow.

In addition, you could keep registrations limited to only those participants from the original group. Alternatively, you could extend open invitations for any prior participant to log in from multiple cohorts, such as an alumni session.

In any case, these additional learning opportunities may be structured with content or kept amorphous and fluid to respond to hot inquiries. Gather evaluations via survey or focus groups and tease out the suggestions for improvement to follow-up with deeper dives on the gaps. Circle back on lessons learned and acknowledge and reflect on any surprises or aspects that may not have functioned as intended.

• Create an online library or repository of resources for additional reference. This could include frequently asked questions (FAQs), your curated and recommended external resources to supplement your webinar topic, or conversation sparks to continue interest with links to YouTube videos, blog posts, or other articles of interest.

Mastering webinars and online learning, just like any form of presenting, can be done in short order by levering proven strategies and by practicing with the technology. Know your audience and engage with them before, during, and after the learning event.

After each iteration of your learning event, ask participants what worked best and what they'd improve. Immediately following the learning events, your participants will be in the best position to offer valued feedback and gems to elevate the awesomeness of your online learning. 

You know your stuff. Present it.

And, if you would like some advice or assistance implementing, designing, or facilitating online learning, whether for large systems implementations within your organization, for live webinars or on demand courses, or otherwise, contact us. 

-Tisha Parker Kemp

Original Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay, modified by Yours Truly