When creating a training design (or learning content design, as we prefer to call it), it’s tempting to believe that the mediums in which the learning is presented are irrelevant. That you can take the same design and use it no matter how you learn it.
Unfortunately, nothing could be further from the truth.
Your training design should be specific to the media in which it is presented. While training needs may remain the same, or at least similar, the nature of how those needs are met will change.
In this article I am going to identify x differences between a teleseminar and a visual or live seminar.
1. Reduce the number of points at a time to a maximum of 3.
You’ve probably heard that you should only have 4 elements on a visual slide. When writing a book, for example, you should try to limit the main chapters or segments to 7 (nine is the upper limit). There is a reason for that limitation. It’s called the cognitive limit, and it describes how many items humans can mentally process. With a verbal-only presentation, that processing power is greatly reduced. At most, you should present the equivalent of three items on one slide.
2. Describe instead of show.
We are a visual creature. A basic rule of training is that we retain 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see and 50% of what we hear and see. When preparing your generic training design, you will have a bias towards hearing and vision. Unfortunately, your audience can’t see what you’re doing. To help them, you will need to describe in your mind’s eye. You need to help them visualize what you need them to retain.
3. Have the audience draw.
Generally speaking, getting your audience to participate in a teleseminar can and often is done very amateurishly. However, when visualization is needed, you can help them draw the image on a notepad. This is a step beyond visualization. It can be effective for both help and participation. However, it can be very amateurish if done too often.
4. Remove any subtopic that requires an image to explain it
I have mentioned two alternatives for presenting visual information. However, they are not particularly effective and cannot really be used for complex images. In fact, if you need a complex image to explain your material, you have two options. You can remove the subtopic that requires an image, or you can use a visual instead of a teleseminar. In any case, no matter how you choose to exceed the visual requirements, you should always avoid the need for visual aids in teleseminars.
5. Give participants permission to participate.
In a live seminar, we have many ways to ask for audience participation. In a teleseminar those alternatives are narrowed down. However, the audience does not know what is or has happened on their side of the phone line. When asking if there are any questions for the first time, you are unlikely to get an answer. Big surprise! With a teleseminar you can give your audience permission to participate by reading questions that have been asked in the past or via email. A technique that tends to backfire when performed in a live seminar.
6. Develop a strategy to overcome the lack of feedback
In a live webinar, it’s reasonably easy to tell when your audience is tuning out. Slanted, droopy eyes, shuffling feet, head on hands are all signs a facilitator hopes never to see. In a teleseminar you can’t see the body language of your audience. Therefore, you must determine a strategy to verify your acceptance and openness to what is presented.
7. Develop a strategy to overcome lack of participation.
People are not willing to be embarrassed. And answering a question is often considered embarrassing. In a live seminar, it’s hard to hide from the facilitator. However, in a teleseminar it is easy. So you, as the facilitator, need to develop a strategy to encourage participation.