Facilitating Synchronous Learning Certificate

Audience

About this Program

The term synchronous means happening at precisely the same time, and refers to an online learning experience in which an instructor and a group of participants speak and interact in an online classroom. Delivering training in this environment requires a facilitator to engage their audience and create interactivity in non-traditional ways, be sensitive to how they use their voice, and be comfortable multitasking in a new technical and logistical environment.

This online program, presented by ASTD in partnership with synchronous learning experts InSync Training, provides ten hours of live, online instruction. Participants will learn to maximize the engagement of remote participants and manage the logistics of facilitating synchronous learning. The workshop also includes a two-hour practice facilitation session where each participant, along with an assigned partner, is given a piece of content to deliver live via the virtual classroom using the techniques that were modeled during the previous synchronous sessions. Participants will leave this program with the skills and confidence to successfully facilitate synchronously learning events.

By the end of this program, participants will be able to:

• Apply proven techniques for maximizing learner engagement, energy, and motivation in the online learning environment.
• Use their voice as their most powerful instructional tool and read the non-verbal body language cues of participants.
• Leverage the support of a producer or assistant facilitator to ensure seamless, stress-free sessions.
• Manage the various technical and participant difficulties that can and will occur in synchronous learning.
• Prepare themselves, prepare their learners, and prepare the technology via rehearsals, participant communication, logistical set-up, and post-session follow up.

How Does the Course Work?

Online sessions: Live online sessions will be conducted once a week for six weeks. Each session is two hours in length. You'll participate via the WebEx Training Center platform plus a teleconference for audio. Special software is not required. All you need is a standard web browser and a telephone to participate!

Discussion Board: A discussion board will be available as a support tool throughout the program. The instructor will post information and discussion topics. Participants may post questions for the instructor and topics for discussion as well.

Resource Materials: Participants will receive a downloadable participant guide to accompany the online sessions, as well as a copy of The Synchronous Trainer's Survival Guide: Facilitating Successful Live and Online Courses, Meetings, and Eventsby Jennifer Hofmann to serve as an ongoing resource.

Opportunities for Application: In addition to the weekly online sessions, participants will also have the opportunity to deliver on their own to gain practice in a virtual classroom environment during the practice facilitation session at the end of the workshop.

ASTD Certificate Programs are learning events and a certificate is awarded to participants upon successful completion of the program. No test is given and participants are not certified. Certification is a testing event that confirms that skills, knowledge, or competencies have been acquired. Please click here for more information on the ASTD Certification Institute's credential, the Certified Professional in Learning and Performance™ (CPLP™).

Learning Objectives

Week 1: Creating Audience Engagement
This two-hour session explores how the role of facilitators has changed with the introduction of learning technologies. Participants will learn proven techniques for keeping learners energized, focused, and motivated. Best practice tips and guidance for facilitating in the synchronous medium will be explained, modeled, and reinforced.

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Describe the job description of an online facilitator
• Identify the steps necessary to prepare to be an online facilitator
• Identify key techniques for engaging participants without the benefit of body language and eye contact.

Week 2: Being a Broadcaster
In the synchronous environment, voice is the most essential instructional tool. Interactivity and learner engagement are driven by the facilitator's and participants' voices. This two-hour session will uncover how synchronous facilitators can use their voice and questioning techniques to maximize engagement in the audio environment and read participants "body language in bandwidth."

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Use their voice to effectively engage participants
• Create an effective audio environment
• Craft questions to which participants can effectively respond
• Identify participant cues that take the place of body language and eye contact.

Week 3: Synchronous Team Teaching
A producer, or assistant facilitator, can help transform synchronous programs into trouble-free, fast moving, interactive events that keep learners involved and facilitators on track. Through numerous practice exercises, this two-hour session provides insight on how facilitators can stay focused on content while the producer takes care of everything else.

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Define the producer's role
• Demonstrate and practice how the producer can support the synchronous facilitator
• Identify ways to create a more interactive session when a producer is not possible (which may often be the case in the real world).

Week 4: Disaster Recovery
In the synchronous environment Murphy's Law applies! What do you do when things start going wrong? This two-hour session covers live techniques for effectively addressing and recovering from participant issues, audio problems, and hardware/software trouble shooting.

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Discuss various ways to manage audio issues
• Solve a variety of technical issues that may occur in the virtual classroom software
• Manage disruptive participant behaviors before they turn into disasters.

Week 5: Preparing and Practicing
As with physical classroom training, preparation and practice are the keys to successful learning events. In this two-hour session, participants will discover the numerous off-line activities that need to be completed before and after an online learning event, including marketing and communication, participant preparation, technology considerations, logistics, rehearsals, and post-session follow up.

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Create a checklist to manage the planning, production, and follow-up of an online learning event
• Communicate with participants, managers, and other parties about their roles in supporting the successful online event.

Week 6: Facilitation Workshop
Each participant, along with an assigned group, will be given a piece of content that they will deliver via the virtual classroom using the techniques that were modeled during the five previous synchronous sessions. During this session, participants and their teammates will work together to coach, mentor, practice, and ultimately deliver an existing piece of content. Note: the date and time for your practice facilitation workshop will be scheduled by your facilitator once you start the Facilitating Synchronous Learning program. All efforts will be made to accommodate participants' schedules.

After this session, participants will be able to:

• Prepare for and deliver a collaborative session.

If you are comfortable facilitating learning in the virtual classroom environment or want to focus on design ather than delivery, we recommend our Designing Synchronous Learning Certificate Program.