How can you get the most out of virtual and online education?

Hosting educational events, e-learning and online learning opportunities has become a well-established and go to format for many years (even more so since the Covid-19 pandemic), but how can you get the most out of online education? We all know that this format works well but how do you set up a learning event that ensures an organisation can engage students and enhance learning outputs? Now that’s a question!

With over a decade of experience helping our clients to do just this, here are some tips on how to approach online learning and virtual education, maximise the interactivity and impact of your agenda and format.

Include the right elements in your online education

There are so many ways to use virtual platforms (such as Cloudpresenter) to help, not only engagement and enjoyment of the education on offer, but to test knowledge, promote feedback and ensure that students are retaining as much information as possible. I mean, that is the objective of all education after all?! Here are a few examples...

Four elements the best online learning programmes include...

1. Interactive polls

Excellent for both “Who wants to be a Millionaire” style "Ask the Audience" spot tests and also in a more informal and fun way to change the pace of a session or create a break in a chunky piece of material. Having these tools built into our platform makes this easy peasy to set up (and don’t forget the data is also available immediately and post event for organisers.)

2. Pre-recorded video, live video and role play

Video content, either pre-recorded or recorded during the session itself, can be used in that same session to test student’s knowledge, recap previous topics or used in role plays which are proven to be a hugely valuable way to learn (read more in this article by Harvard). In addition using pre-records is an excellent way to ensure a consistent message across training programmes (although we would always champion live interaction wherever possible!)

3. Competitions & leaderboards

Adding a bit of competition into learning environments is often very beneficial as demonstrated by the harsh but powerful quote by Pallavi Kishore…

Failure is the best teacher.

There are many ways to do this, using gamification amongst other methods… Here are a few of our favourites: Scavenger hunts, time challenges, mini tests and polls, feedback and live Q&A’s. This list is absolutely not exhaustive, and there are many other ways to integrate competition into educational programmes but these are certainly in our top 10. Read some more ideas here in an interesting article by Edarabia, the Middle East’s top educational guide.

4. Feedback, discussion & peer interaction

It goes without saying that feedback, discussion and group working is a huge part of how humans learn. Virtual Platforms can carve out specific ways for groups of students, not limited by geography or language, to interact and learn together using breakout rooms, chat boxes, live video streaming and much more.

Get students to apply their knowledge to a given problem, to reflect on issues and the views of others, to illustrate the relevance of theoretical ideas by placing them in a real-world context, and to illustrate the complexity of decision-making.

The power of online education and e-learning

Virtual Education is a powerful tool for organisations to roll out specific content to both global and national groups of students or employees, in a consistent, methodical, yet creative way. For large organisations, specific content can be rolled out in the same way, across many locations either simultaneously or as part of a larger, regular programme. Language and location are not barriers; different locations and languages actually enhance the potential for students to learn more and develop deeper understanding of the content. Knowledge sharing between peer groups is unrivalled in a Virtual Environment.

In summary

Keep it simple but don’t be shy to be creative. Online learning can take place on a massive or a small scale virtually with ease, and is focussed, fun and incredibly engaging.

To find out more about Cloudpresenter or have an informal chat with one of our team, get in touch today. We'd love to hear from you.