Preparing a Dynamic Online Teaching Experience

• Melissa Blum & Paul Corbiere
• Posted 8/2/22
• 0 comments

As long-time clinicians, our experience has provided us with two powerful tools, the ability to “sense the climate of the room” during a presentation. Second is the ability to quickly adapt to different presentation scenarios and still create a meaningful, hands-on experience.  

Adaptation is Key 

Quickly sensing the mood or response of the audience allows a teacher or clinician to instantly make small adjustments in their delivery without interrupting instruction flow. It is often the only difference between a successful or unsuccessful presentation on the same material.  

Quickly adapting to the presenting space includes determining where to stand, place materials, how to access recordings and slideshow, the path for participants to get to instruments, and more while continuing to deliver the presentation. Accommodating these crucial components of presenting is one of the many challenges of moving to online instruction.   

Preparing for these adaptations is part of the extensive overall planning that one must do.  In addition to creating meaningful content for your audience. Determining how to assess your audience and having a thorough understanding of how you will use your technology tools are – for us – the keys to successfully teaching professional development through an online platform.  

Technology 

A colleague shared this useful analogy before we taught our first online workshop. 

When you are simultaneously presenting and running your technology tool, it’s like you are the Wizard of Oz.   The person behind the curtain who is continually making adjustments and making sure that your participants are seeing and hearing what you want them to.  

They also gave this additional crucial piece of advice! 

Use one of your other devices to “attend the meeting“ as a participant and have that device in view throughout, so you always see your audience’s perspective.  

As we present, we use that second screen view regularly and have discovered several things about how our actions as the meeting owner impact the screen’s view. 

Screen Sharing Video 

Do you plan to share any videos during your presentation? If you do, you need to have a clear understanding of your technology’s advanced settings (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet) to be sure things work as intended.  

These platforms have a setting that you must set to share your computer’s sound with your participants.  There are also typically settings to enhance the video quality and provide better synch between the video and the audio.  

PowerPoint and Other Visuals 

Are you using a PowerPoint or other visuals from your computer desktop? First, familiarize yourself with the settings allowing you to see your visuals as well as your participants.  Equally important is understanding the settings your participants need to use so they can continue to see you and your presentation without either image becoming too small. 

To accomplish this, you may need to adjust settings in your presentation tool (such as PowerPoint) and your technology tool (Zoom, Teams, Google Meet). Plan to spend a few minutes explaining how participants can change their setting at the beginning of the event.  Remember to check for understanding.  Even better – if you can send this information ahead of time.  

In one of our workshops this summer, we had a participant who had trouble adjusting their settings at several previous events. Before the workshop began, we took time with the participant to troubleshoot their issues. We found they needed an updated version of the technology to make everything work correctly. It was time well-spent for all of us. 

Verbal Interactions 

Do you understand how your participants communicate with you and the rest of the group during your presentation/teaching?  Ensure you know the communication functions, like onscreen chat, reactions, raising a hand, mute/unmute shortcuts, and online whiteboards.  

Playing Instruments 

Are you playing acoustic instruments and/or asking your participants to do the same? Most technology tools have default settings that inherently alter the sound of the instruments.  By design, these settings minimize simultaneously sounds.  

Most likely, you want to disable all these default settings.  Disabling these settings will ensure that your instruments sound “truer” and to allow others to speak and/or play in close succession with each other. If you want to record your presentation for later view, again, be sure you understand ahead of time how it functions, where the recording files are stored, and how the overall program works.  

Visual Appeal 

Other aspects to consider as you plan for the technology include your physical set-up.  

• Do I need multiple monitors as well as a desk or large table?  

• Do I need additional lighting and background set-up? 
  HINT: An actual green screen will likely yield MUCH better results than a standard background setting.  Built-in backgrounds pixelate if you are moving your hands around.  For example, when strumming a guitar or playing a drum.  

• Do I want to keep the comments written in the chat and on a virtual whiteboard?  
  HINT: be sure you understand how to save both chats and ideas shared on the virtual whiteboards.  Sometimes these items must be saved at different times (for example – saving a whiteboard screen before the presenter returns to teacher view) so they aren’t inadvertently deleted. 

• Have you used the technology both as a presenter and as a participant?  
  HINT: Don’t attempt to present for the first time when you have a “real” audience in front of you.  

Practice Makes Perfect 

Practicing your presentation online with friends or family is a crucial step when teaching online.  Ask them for feedback about their experience while you try the various functions of your technology tool. Don’t forget to practice all of the different aspects of your presentation. 

As you master your technology tool, don’t forget to verify that your participants remain engaged and feel actively involved in the presentation. First, set the stage – preferably before the workshop. Prepare a “pre-workshop” checklist, and send it to the participants in advance. For instance, we let participants know ahead of time to have cameras on to participate in group activities, which was exceedingly important to know ahead of time!  We were surprised to find that some participants had planned to “tune in” while driving. Meanwhile, others discovered they needed a space to participate, and a few others found they needed faster internet speed.  

We encouraged all participants to use headsets to enhance their ability to hear. We explained the types of materials they needed to ensure they felt well-prepared and ready to learn. Many of our post presenting evaluations have included comments that this preplanning was extremely helpful for participants in this new learning environment. 

Audience Participation 

While presenting, frequently ask for reactions such as thumbs up or down (literally or virtually). Ask participants to keep their video on (provided there’s enough bandwidth). If you have a large group, regularly change your participants’ view to ensure you see each person while you are teaching.  

Make the online chat visible to you to immediately see if someone posts about a sound or video issue. Comment on the posts, when applicable during your presentation, to keep participants invested in the learning.  

Speak more slowly than you would in an in-person setting. Check frequently for understanding. Take breaks, remind people to stand, stretch, or just change position – to help alleviate screen fatigue for both you and your group. Finally, plan more content than you expect you can cover.  Overplanning allows for flexibility when activates you have previously taught in-person are different in an online format. 

First Time Feelings 

Does moving to online presenting make you feel like you have gone back in time to your first presentation? Definitely. Is the learning curve steep? Without question. But new ways to connect also bring us new opportunities. 

Our summer workshops included multiple people in different countries – an improbable scenario for our regular in-person events. A young mom in a workshop expressed that this was the first time she’d been able to participate in any PD outside of school for many years as she just couldn’t attend out of town workshops given her current family set up.  

As with all aspects of teaching and presenting, planning will make all the difference. Just be sure you understand the extent of that planning, and you will create a meaningful experience – something we all need at this time in our world. 

Happy presenting!

This article was originally published by Music ConstructED on September 21, 2020.