Why Virtual PD is the New Norm and 6 Considerations to Make it Work: Confessions of a Skeptic Convert
In the Spring of 2020, Tom Ulmet, the Executive Director for ACAMIS.org, a 77-member international school association I coordinate Professional Development for, was willing to give me a pass on coordinating workshops for the remainder of 2020. Truth be told, he was so busy helping schools navigate the growing pandemic that PD was the last thing he wanted to be consulted on. This said, with the proverbial yoke removed, I postponed all Spring workshops to the Fall. By June it became obvious that face-to-face (F2F) would be out of the question for at least one more year, so, I began making plans to deliver the courses online. This article is a summary of that process and the research and conversations that informed my planning.
1 hour of online seat time represents 80-hours of facilitator experience
When making the shift to online I first focused on my stakeholders, the facilitator, and the participants. My facilitators had demonstrated their exceptional facilitation skills in a F2F environment but were largely untested in the virtual world. Before we could even present to our registered participants, let alone open the programs to new participants, we had to simulate every part of their course in a virtual medium. In my research, I learned that 1-hour of seat time for a F2F workshop consisted of 40-hours of experience and planning. When planning for 1-hour of virtual seat-time, it was double. All too often schools only value the time spent with their staff, and under-appreciate the cost of all the time it took a facilitator to master the topic and prepare to deliver it. When presenting virtually the facilitator’s job became doubly difficult.
Online learning shouldn’t be treated as a shopping spree
Second, I had to educate our participants on how their learning experience would change and how we planned to counter-balance any perceived loss of value, which was largely related to the social elements of learning that many teachers look forward to when traveling to workshops and conferences. There was also this other aspect of participants’ expectations that I really abhorred; participants wanted everything they needed to know within a 2-3 day period. Despite all the evidence and research pointing to the fact that most of what they learned they would not activate, let alone be able to recall. Workshops and Conferences for the most part are a phenomenal waste of money if we were to only value them based on what is actually applied back in the school or classroom. But, this was a mindset that we had to shift, that PD was not a shopping spree. Instead, it is a journey, and breaking the learning up and embedding it in their work is the most effective form of professional development.
How did the learning experience change?
First, in a virtual medium, we cannot expect teachers to spend all day teaching online and then do two full days of learning online. The content had to be broken up and much of the content that participants took for granted in F2F workshops and would normally do in class, now needed to be done asynchronously. To successfully hold participants’ attention facilitators could no longer lecture and give the abridged version of content and then pose reflective questions to be answered at the tables. Facilitation time had to focus on case studies and helping participates activate the learning through the lens of their own school. This is no small feat when considering we average 13 different schools per course. Online facilitation needed to be utilized more coaching skills.
Second, for F2F workshops we planned lectures based on our understanding of participants’ attention spans, which was approximately 25 minutes, with attention beginning to wane around 10-15 minutes. For virtual learning, we observed that the attention span for participants maxed out at 10 minutes with attention dropping as quickly as within 2 minutes. This makes sense when you review the research on social media, also when researching effective asynchronous online learning. Video content in both these mediums is limited to 2-minutes. A buzz word for this is microlearning, breaking learning objectives into their smallest possible content packages. For example, Time Management can be broken down into 100+ microlearning courses. So if you want to teach Time Management in an online course you need to really understand the needs of your audience and the exact elements of Time Management that will address those needs. Not to mention be able to scaffold the microlearning courses so that when the series is completed the participant can evidence learning.
Third, the participants learning environment had a huge impact on their learning and ability to effectively interact with other participants. I always start every class, both F2F and virtual, with this disclaimer: “How you choose to participate in this course will directly impact the experience of other participants, so when you get the itch to check an email or make a call, realize that you are affecting other participants learning experience.” At the heart of this statement is that we make assumptions about others, regardless if they are true or false. When someone is thought to be checking email or has their video off we assume they are disinterested and that their contribution will be less valuable. If we get stuck with someone like this in a break-out room we will grow anxious for the activity to end, we will contribute less and ultimately the learning experience will be diminished. A funny anecdote of how this is also true when a participant forgets to use mute and their kids are arguing in the background or a colleague pops into their classroom and starts telling an obscene joke.
F2F the facilitator can control the learning environment and set norms to manage it. Virtually, it is up to the participants to secure an appropriate learning space and publicize that during that period of time they are professionally learning. Regarding the latter point about publicizing that professional learning is taking place; this is something that peers and supervisors need to buy-in to and support. Over the course of the last year, regardless of how invested, the participants were into the learning, many had their learning undermined by supervisors and peers that didn’t respect their space.
Lastly, and by no means is this the extent to what I learned, but for the purpose of this article, I want to finish with an argument for why professional learning needs to continue virtually for the foreseeable future. I and the other facilitators I contracted got to know our participants very intimately. We had a very flexible open-door policy and because of that, we were able to customize lessons and activities specific to their context. We were able to be more creative with our grouping strategies and reinforce the learning in other mediums, such as social media. We improved professional development, and this was how:
We spread out the learning; 2-day workshops became 4 x 3-hour modules.
We coached more and lectured less; these helped participants understand how to connect with content in their context.
We created more asynchronous learning content; live sessions could then be rich with discussions to share experience and broaden perspectives.
We created job-relevant assignments between each module that participants reported on in subsequent sessions; participants were now being held accountable for their learning.
We helped participants facilitate mini-workshops for colleagues; since live sessions were recorded participants could more easily mirror our facilitation style.
We empowered participants to select live session times; being flexible with calendaring meant less time away from students and less need for cover.
We rolled out programs faster ensuring participants got the training they needed now, not 6-months from now; in a virtual world, we are constrained by facilitator travel itineraries or venue availability.
We ensured all programs included job-embedded learning opportunities; facilitators were easily able to surface participant challenges or opportunities to act and then hold them accountable.
We ensured participants didn’t miss a minute of facilitation time; they could watch the recording and schedule a ‘virtual office hours’ meeting with the facilitator.
We saved money on facilitator travel and accommodation; the money saved allowed us to buy more time from the facilitator to coach participants.
If you would like to learn more about my experience taking PD online, please join me for the 21st Century Learning Online Conference taking place between January 18 and 31. I will be presenting on this topic as well as cofacilitating a 5-step design process that helps schools address the social, emotional needs of their learners in a distance learning environment. This latter online course will use all of the tools and adult learning strategies we found to be most effective over the course of the past 6-months.
