PREP for Web Conferencing Success

By Darlene Christopher

How to ensure a smooth delivery of your web conference by using the PREP model for web conferencing.

With training budgets tightening everywhere, more organizations are turning to web conferencing to deliver training programs online to save money and time. According to the 2008 ASTD State of the Industry report, the percent of training hours devoted to live instructor-led online training is growing rapidly. Between 2006 and 2007, the amount of live instructor-led online training jumped by 50 percent, from 4.24 percent to 6.39 percent.

Instructional designers and facilitators new to web conferencing may feel overwhelmed by the prospect of converting live instructor-led courses to courses delivered via web conferencing. While tempting, simply placing the slides used for classroom training into a web conferencing tool and launching a training event will not result in an optimal learning experience for your audience.

For web conferences to be successful, instructors need to devote time to planning the event, including optimizing the content and exercises for a virtual classroom, getting the right facilitation team in place, rehearsing for the live delivery and finally, evaluating what happened.

The PREP Model

We’ve all heard the expression that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and this old adage holds true for web conferences. Participants in learning events delivered via web conference may be harsh judges, especially if they are new to the virtual training environment, so it’s important to prepare sufficiently to ensure success.

A technique instructional designers and facilitators can use to ensure a smooth web conference is to follow the PREP model (Planning, Rehearsal, Execution, and Post Mortem) for designing and delivering web conferences In this model, the majority of your time will be spent planning; less time will be spent rehearsing, and so on. Let’s examine each step in detail.

Step 1: Planning

Each of the five tasks that comprise the planning step requires time, which is why the majority of your time is spent in the planning step when following this model. The planning stage tasks are described below.

Learn the platform. First, you’ll need to get comfortable with your web conferencing platform so you can focus on your subject matter when you deliver your training—rather than the technology. There are a variety of popular web conferencing tools with similar feature sets, but each is slightly different. You’ll want to spend time understanding how the features work. As you learn the features, it will help you with the next two tasks of planning logistics and preparing content and interactivity.

Plan Logistics.  After you have learned the features of your web conferencing platform, spend some time focusing on the logistics for your event. One key question to resolve is how audio will be transmitted.  Most tools offer a choice of VoIP (voice-over internet protocol), built in teleconference, or both.  If participants will be in an open office area and you plan to use VoIP, you’ll want to make sure they have computer headsets to listen to the audio and not disturb those around them. Test VoIP prior to using it, especially if you will have participants from low-bandwidth locations. 

Other areas to consider regarding logistics are the time and date you select for the web conference.  You’ll want to select a time and date that are convenient for participants, keeping in mind time zone differences, if applicable. Pay close attention to the date(s) of your course, especially when working with participants from other countries to make sure you don’t schedule on a national holiday or non-work day in another country.

Prepare content and interactivity. Instructors often will adapt existing classroom content for delivery via web conference. If you find yourself in this position, identify what is absolutely necessary to cover during your live session. Separate content that may be covered pre- and post-conference, thereby reducing the content covered during your web conference and leaving more time for exercises and interactivity.

If you are using PowerPoint slides, review the newly reduced content and try to cover one concept per slide. This may result in additional slides, but no additional content. Spreading out your content over multiple slides helps keep the web conference moving along, thus maintaining the audience’s attention. Adding appropriate graphics and images also helps encapsulate and convey key concepts.

Keeping the audience engaged is vital to a successful web conference, so well-planned exercises offering sufficient interactivity are essential. Fortunately, most web conference platforms provide tools to ease the transition from face-to-face to online training—all it takes is a little creativity.

For example, if you conduct oral quizzes in the traditional classroom, convert your quiz questions to poll questions, such as multiple-choice or true-or-false questions. Small group work can be adjusted to breakout rooms if your tool has this feature. You can ask participants to raise their hands in a web conference by changing their ‘status.’ Virtual whiteboarding is no different from traditional classrooms. Finally, use the chat area to solicit responses to open-ended questions.

Create a facilitator script and participant handbooks. Once you have modified your content and exercises, it’s time to develop support materials. The facilitator script is a written set of instructions describing the content covered on each slide accompanied by a description (or image) of the participants’ view when the facilitator is speaking. It also describes how the features of the web conference will be used to execute exercises and interactivity. A timeline is built into the script to ensure that the material will be covered in the time allotted for the web conference.

Participants also need support materials for the web conference, in the form of a handbook. The handbook contains logistical information for your event, including instructions for pre- and post-conference activities. Other materials that will support your content such as slides and job aids should also be included.

Determine facilitation team and roles. Finally, determine the facilitation team and their roles. Typically the facilitation team consists of a facilitator, the subject matter expert, and a producer (the web conferencing expert). This team works together to deliver the training and engage the audience: the facilitator speaks, advances the slides and engages the audience verbally, while the producer monitors the chat, sets up exercises and polls. Depending on the complexity of your learning event, you may include additional facilitators and producers.

Step 2: Rehearsal

After the planning tasks are completed, the next step in the PREP model is the rehearsal. Rehearsing gives the facilitator and producer a chance to get used to the moving parts of a web conference and make sure that the session flows smoothly. Even if you’ve mastered the course material through numerous face-to-face deliveries, it’s important to rehearse. Skipping the rehearsal step means that you rehearse the first time you deliver your course with your live audience. A skilled online facilitator may be able to pull this off, but others may stumble and trip, resulting in a rocky event.

Start by practicing with the facilitation team and get used to the team roles and responsibilities in the web conference. Agree on who will say what and who will do what to ensure an effective learning event. Next, rehearse with a mock audience, engaging them fully to get used to the interactive features and make sure your exercises work as planned. Rehearse in the environment where you will deliver the actual training; if the facilitation team will be in a conference room for the live event, rehearse in the conference room. After each rehearsal note adjustments needed and incorporate them into your session.

Step 3: Execution

The execution step is your actual training event. By the time you reach this step you have planned and rehearsed, you are ready for a live delivery. A few tips to keep in mind to make sure that your live delivery goes smoothly:

·         Log in about 30 minutes prior to the start of your session. You want to be ready to greet participants as they join.

·         Respect your participants by starting and ending on time.

·         Display the conference call number or audio information on the screen.

·         Engage the audience early, exposing them to the variety of methods they can use to interact.

·         Give your audience time to respond to questions, polls and chat: some silence is okay.

·         Have an extra computer next to you logged in as a participant so you can see the participant “view” at all times.

Step 4: Post Mortem

Commonly used in project management, the project post-mortem is a review of what you did. For a web conference, the post mortem step contains two key components: analyzing feedback from participants and feedback from the facilitation team.

Gathering feedback from participants is easily done through an online evaluation conducted at the conclusion of your training. The importance of soliciting feedback and making adjustments cannot be understated: since we cannot see our participants, their evaluation of the training is critical.

The other component of the post mortem step is debriefing the facilitation team immediately after the training concludes. The team should discuss what worked/didn’t work well, the level of audience engagement, and areas that need to be changed to improve the training. Make the changes to your facilitator script and slides right away, while the ideas are fresh.

Final Thoughts

The PREP model covers the same steps followed for live face-to-face training. In other words, when designing and delivering a web conference there are other factors at play that have been described in this article, however, it’s not radically different than traditional classroom training. After adjusting your materials and developing a few new facilitation techniques through practice, you’ll be ready for web conferencing. Tune in next month when the PREP model will be applied to a course on performance management that was converted to a web conference.