This week I was reminded about how challenging it can be to facilitate an online session for adult learners. My school learning & development department has created an incredible training to support those of us teaching educators. They are working on some updates and revamps, a few of us were asked to participate in some discussion questions so there will be something for newbies to see and respond to when taking the course. The questions go along with some great articles, but of course I didn't even read those until after I answered the discussion questions :D Leave it to me to make things harder than they have to be!
The questions for those taking the training ask them to dig deep and plan ahead - like What brings you here? Participants in the training are volunteers for the most part, so this is such a great question that ensures they know what they are getting into! Then there are some discussions asking participants to provide tips for designing engaging visuals, discuss how their planning changes when it's virtual or in-person, and provide tips on facilitating blended learning sessions.
Just engaging in these discussions made me really think about the skills I have acquired over the past few years and how I can continue to hone them. I'll be honest, I'm prone to using PowerPoint for conveying information, and you may thinking, really?!?! In this day and age? But yes, I think there are some great benefits to using PPT when facilitating a sessions in Teams - they talk to each other. Teams has this great feature called "PowerPoint Live" that allows you to share your PPT on the screen but it also makes it interactive for participants. They can click on links in the PPT and watch videos directly on it during the presentation. I can allow them to move around in the slideshow, or restrict them to seeing just what's currently on the screen.
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| 'Graphic Organizers' becomes a live link when presenting PowerPoint Live in Teams. |
PowerPoint also provides some really great visuals including templates that can fit a theme or just look professional. The Designer button will also give suggestions! I love this feature because sometimes I have an image I don't know how to place well, or have some wonky word spacing. The Designer usually comes up with great suggestions and makes the presentation more engaging and professional looking.
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| Screenshot of Designer with the given suggestions. |
I didn't think I would go on-and-on about this topic so I will stop here for now and continue later. Check out the features of PowerPoint in your Microsoft suite or create a free Microsoft Outlook account to see the online features (not as great but still really useful)!
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| One of my favorite templates. |
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