When you first met Avis and me, you heard us say that there is one place to focus in workplace education: whether the learner leaves the room with a new or improved ability. When there's not a room (using methods we aggregate to call eLearning), certain factors related to delivery become very important.

Both of us will assure you that successful remote delivery depends heavily upon the caliber of facilitation.

Avis offers this three-part best practices series drawn from her research and her experience designing and delivering remote education. The series outlines three focus areas for successfully delivering collaborative sessions online:
•    preparation
•    delivery
•    logistics

In this segment, she considers preparation.

Best Practice: Be Prepared
By Avis Beiden

Successful remote delivery requires mastery of the content as well as the online environment. As education professionals, we recognize the necessity for practice when learning new skills. Here is the opportunity to model that behavior!

What?
Practice and personal experience are the tools to develop the skills of even the most experienced presenters making the transition to remote delivery.

Why bother?
With the tenuous nature of the remote connection, participants often have lowered expectations for the course. From this perspective, they may unwittingly look for inconsistencies and issues with the environment. For some, this distraction can hijack their attention completely. So, providing the experience of a solid online environment is critical to support the emotional aspects of safety and learning.

Despite recent advances, online environments used for remote delivery are still mostly just collections of software, network services and Web-based components. Mastery of remote delivery comes with experience. Facilitators with content expertise but who lack confidence in the mechanics often complete their online sessions with poor results. Practice as a learner and in simulated mock sessions can provide much of the needed mastery.

How?
Attend remotely delivered classes offered by others to experience what it is like to be a participant. Pick up techniques used by other professional online facilitators.

Participate in a course specifically about effective online facilitation or remote delivery. These classes will provide a structured approach for mastering the mechanics of the remote environment. You'll also benefit from interactions with participants in the target environment. Many remote delivery vendors (Adobe, WebEx or Centra) provide training to their customers — check to see if you can get access through your company’s account.

Practice independently. Set up online sessions and, if possible, use a second machine to login as a participant. Practice speaking, engaging others to speak, exchanging notes and leveraging the other capabilities available in your remote environment. If possible, record your sessions so you can review them and look for areas to improve.

Deliver a pilot, or beta, session with friends, family and workmates. This will allow you to experiment with different techniques and practice managing the many aspects of remote delivery with (hopefully) candid feedback. Be sure to go through the full range of motions as you would in a live session.

We'll consider delivery and logistics in the two remaining parts of this discussion. We welcome your feedback or your longer communications at Adept Minds where you can e-mail Avis with your thoughts about remote delivery of education.