It can be difficult to keep your online training engaging compared to traditional, in-person approaches. 

Figure 1. Statistics on students' and instructors' preferences and motivation with online learning

It’s easy to get distracted and lose focus so it’s important to try to make online training as engaging as possible. Here are some tips to keep your online training fun and engaging for your audience. 

1. Polls 

Researcher and author, Donna Walker Tileston suggests that adult learners could discard freshly-minted memories as quickly as 20 minutes after encountering them unless learners are actively engaged [3].

One way to effectively engage learners is by using well-designed polls and surveys. People love pushing buttons. Adding polls is an easy way to spark engagement and interest in the conversation. A study of the use of polling in a Flipped Classroom model suggested that learners saw significantly improved performance and engaged more with the course materials. [4]

Polls also allow the trainers to read the room and get a variety of useful insight, such as:

• Assessing students’ understanding of the materials at different stages of the course

• Gathering perspective on key concepts and using poll results for class discussion

Encouraging students to relate the course content to their experience Soliciting feedback on the course [5]

2. Ask and Encourage Questions

Forming sentences as questions will actually grab the attention of your audience much more than just reading. You should also ensure that students are given plenty of opportunities to ask questions. To achieve this, include some blank questions slides in the training materials to allow instructors to make a planned pause to ask students for their questions. 

Struggling to get people to put up their virtual hands? Encourage students to turn on their video when asking questions, this makes them more likely to share. 

3. Think-Pair-Share (TPS)

Another strategy to encourage engagement is to use the Think-Pair-Share (TPS) model. The model is typically used in traditional classrooms, but can easily be adapted to the online classroom:

• Think: Instructors ask a specific question about the topic. Participants"think" about what they know or have learned about the topic.

• Pair: Participants are paired with another student or in a small group using break out rooms

• Share: Participants share their thinking with their partner. After a few minutes of small group discussions, participants are brought back into the main virtual classroom where the instructor can initiate a whole-class discussion where each group shares the highlights of their discussion[6]. 

Figure 2. Visual illustration of the Think-Pair-Share Framework 

This strategy helps focus students’ attention and engages them, therefore making it more likely that the material is committed to long term memory. 

4. Be An Active Listener

Monitor your audience regularly to see if participants have raised their virtual hand, or typed a question or comment in the chat. Listen attentively to participants' questions and remarks and take the time to clearly address their questions, or explain where it will be covered in the course. Remember, questions are not interruptions, but are rather a signal that something is not clear, or that participants simply want to elaborate on a certain aspect of the course.

It is important to adapt your content to your audience and be responsive to their input. To show that you are actively listening to participants, you can come back to some of the questions asked  later in the course, after more information is covered. This will help you keep your audience engaged, and will also foster a trusting relationship with the participants. 

5. Take Advantage of your Tools

Leverage the options you have with your particular platform. Most of the online meeting platforms allow you to  create breakout rooms, polls, create a Q&A and draw on screen. Some will also allow you to share handouts or exercises during the course. Ensure you are familiar with the tools at your disposal so you can enhance the experience for the students.Figure 3. Examples of platforms which offer a variety in-presentation tools

6. Handouts

Course handouts are a great visual aid for your audience. They allow the learner to follow along or dig deeper if they choose to do so. Digging deeper can also really help with the driving home of information into memory. Information that can be integrated into course handouts include:

• Introduction to the topics to be covered in the course

• Summary of important concepts and key information covered

• Additional resources to provide materials beyond the lecture

7. Exercises

Exercises are also a great way to commit information to memory. It forces the audience to reflect on the information they learned and apply it. Studies show that testing can result in 50% or more information retained than other study methods [7]. 

8. Accessibility Considerations

When developing and delivering an online course, there should be measures taken to reduce barriers so that all students can fully participate in the training session. Some accessibility considerations include:

• Adapting visual content should include multiple formats to appeal to different senses (e.g. text, audio, close caption)

• Ensuring colour of backgrounds and text are aligned with web accessibility guidelines

• Ensuring the course is adaptable to different devices (mobile devices and computers)

• Ensuring the language and reading level are commensurate with the intended audience

• Defining abbreviations and unusual or complex terms

Try some of these tips out and let us know the results!

What will I find in a Yordas Insight e-learning course or virtual classroom?

Yordas Insight e-learning courses put an emphasis on audience engagement. We take into account an individual's attention span and split up our courses into short modules which can be completed at the participant’s convenience. We also provide useful course handouts, quizzes and practical exercises to keep the learners engaged.

Our virtual classroom trainers are experts in audience engagement; taking advantage of the tools at their disposal and engaging with the audience whenever possible. 

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References

[1] Cengage, 2021

[2] Campus Technology, 2021

[3] Donna Walker, 10 Best Teaching Practices, 2011

[4] Indian J. Pharmacol, 2016 

[5] Columbia University, 2020

[6] Reading Rockets

[7] New York Times, 2011