Avoiding death by voiceover PowerPoint

11 Tips to Help Advance Your Online Live Training

1. Think about using your LMS to store delegate names and creating a training path for them. This path would include many other resources which are part of the journey rather than extras. This will allow you to accompany the live delivery with some pre-recorded videos or Audios
2. Remind learners before the training of the up-and-coming course. Not only is this good practice, but it also allows you to explain how it’s going to work and possibly be different to what they’ve experienced before. Record a brief video clip of you using your phone to explain the benefits.
3. Create your flight checklist to use before every workshop so you don’t forget anything. 737 pilots don’t forget anything; I wonder why?
4. Don’t let things CRAMP your style. Cramp is an acronym for introducing the session—contingency plans, responsibilities, agenda, motivation and how to Pin people.
5. Offer a Zoom Zone or Teams Scape MOT to anyone who is attending. 15 minutes online to make sure they’re camera-ready and pivoting towards involvement
6. Breakouts are great features. Use them wisely, ideally to help the learners discuss how they will implement a particular technique or concept. Make sure you swing by and enter each room rather than using it as a break. Allow them to share their whiteboards and use this to collect ideas which they can use to present back to the main group.
7. Switch off your self-image when you’re presenting, not to be distracted, and allow your full attention to focus on them in gallery mode. Make sure your primary monitor is behind your camera, so you maintain eye contact. After all, you would never have a large mirror in an actual training room, would you?
8. Stand up and face the camera more, don’t hide behind slides. Place your whiteboard or flipchart alongside you on the key camera or use a picture in picture software to place your slides alongside you. Remember, you are the central figure, not the slides.
9. When presenting, use your gestures since you’ll be filming from the waist upwards. Gestures allow you to be human and communicate better, but don’t be a windmill.
10. Consider the three elements of body language when on camera. Facial expressions (your delegates are all in the front seat now so that you will see every expression), movement (including gestures) and posture.
11. Consider a switcher so you can effortlessly switch the camera and view without too much fuss and I have several camera views which I can change using my Elgato:
    1. Zoom Zone with an appropriate background for chatting, discussing and telling stories
    2. Slides in full-screen mode
    3. Slides in picture in picture mode showing me alongside my slides
    4. Me with a close-up of the whiteboard to describe critical concepts
    5. Wide view of me presenting alongside whiteboard, this picks up an extensive view of it all, almost like a delegate might see if they were sitting around tables in an old-fashioned training room (remember those!)
    6. Gallery view of every delegate in “Brady Bunch” style – google Brady Bunch if you’ve never seen the opening of this show.
    7. Role-play image of two or more delegates only where I spotlight only those playing

I can switch these views within seconds, and it allows you to appear like a BBC Newsreader. In real life, that’s what delegates would have been used to, not a voice-over PowerPoint all day