Constant video conferencing is leading to online fatigue and burn-out. If you are leading an online session, here are a few tips that will make your virtual experiences less painful and much more fun for everyone.
1. Short and sweet – our brains can only truly pay attention and stay engaged for short periods of time. Keep your sessions to a maximum length of 45 minutes at a time. Run much longer than this and you will lose your effectiveness. Avoid lagging interest and depleted energy by keeping your session short for maximum impact and improved knowledge retention. Keep your topics in bite sized chunks.
2. Interactive Activities – some sessions naturally need to be longer than 45 minutes. Intersperse a variety of activities every 5-8 minutes as you plan to reengage participants. This could include a short survey, have participants use response tools like emoji’s or the chat box to answer questions, use the whiteboard feature to capture ideas, use break-out rooms for smaller conversations and annotation tools for participants to interact with questions or ideas. Frequent opportunities for a variety of interactions, other than speaking, will help keep participants interested and involved.
3. Minimalist slides – use PowerPoint slides to guide the flow of your session but keep them clean with minimal information and pleasing visuals. Three or four points per slide is ideal. Use large fonts and as few words as possible. Choose an attractive image that relates to the content. This will give participants something to look at and keep them focused without too much distraction.
4. Body Breaks – frequent opportunities to move during the session will keep the energy level up. You might use a dice (real or online version) with each number representing a different movement. Roll the dice at least once during the session and allow people to get up and move. Even having participants turn off their cameras for a quick stretch break can do wonders for holding the attention of participants.
5. Background and Appearance – Make sure your background is not distracting. Use the camera feature on your computer ahead of time to assess how you look onscreen. Choose a place to sit with minimal clutter or distracting images behind you. If you are leading a session, personal grooming is important – people will be looking at you, so look your best.
6. Eye Contact – Put a sticker near the camera on your computer to remind you to look there as much as possible. This will make the participants feel more connected to you – as if you are speaking directly to them. Be as upbeat and energetic as possible to make the experience lively for everyone.
7. Lighting – Make sure that there is good lighting shining on your face. Turning on a lamp and positioning the light on your face can make a big difference. Avoid lots of light behind you as this will make it difficult for participants to see your face. Here are some useful resources if you want to get more serious about your set-up.
Make your virtual learning experience great for everyone involved. You will all leave feeling less fatigued and more energized by making it more interactive, keeping things simple and clean, providing some movement and looking good.
