Introduction
Title: Setting up for success (Virtual conferencing)
Introduction: The following questions will ask you to think about the planning and
facilitation needs for activities using virtual conferencing. You can write your planning
notes in the spaces provided, with the help of suggestions. You can also listen to
comments from trainers on how they respond to some of these needs by clicking the
audio icon where it appears.
A summary is created to give you a record of the planning and facilitation points and your
notes. Print the summary to keep a permanent record.
Needs analysis
What will be the best time to hold a virtual conference to maximise student
attendance?
Suggestions

Nominate times and poll students for their preferences

Give the session time and require that students attend

Provide two session times eg day and evening

Make the conference available as a recording for those who could not attend
Trainer’s comment
I don’t accept that this will work flexibly. The reason it works, and will continue to work is
that it is a totally structured thing. They must be there at 6pm on Tuesday and
Wednesday nights to get the best. I’ve been involved with opening it up, or do it when
you feel like it – and I haven’t had any success with that at all. I can drop from 30
students down to five in no time.
How long should be the conference be?
Suggestions
Participating in a conference can be an intense experience (not only for the student). It is
best to ensure that conferencing is not too long, with planned breaks to ensure maximum
concentration of the participants.
Will everyone have access to the software and hardware needed to participate?
Suggestions
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007
You need to make sure that you and all the students have access to the software and
hardware needed to participate in the conference activity. Options for students could be
to:

Access a computer and equipment at a local library

Attend the conference on campus.
Planning the conference
What will be the key learning strategy for setting up student-centred tasks?
Suggestions

Question and answer

Brainstorming

Conversation

Group project

Research

Interview

Presentation

Case study

Role play

Peer review
Trainer’s comment
It’s really important that it’s not just a person talking – so you pose questions; you ask the
group to actually answer those questions; you will go onto a website and you will find the
answers and also there will be pre-tasks that you’ve asked people to do. So it’s to get
them doing things; it’s not about them sitting there hearing about it, it’s about them doing
and finding out.
How will group or individual tasks be managed?
Suggestions

Use breakout rooms

Share desktops

Set up task resources within a room or pod
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007

‘See’ and ‘do’

Students facilitators lead teams

Written task lists

Worksheets
Trainer’s comments
(First trainer)
How we use it is that I will demonstrate the programme through Illuminate so that I’m
sharing my Desktop with them and then I will talk them through it, them showing me their
Desktops. Obviously they can’t show me their Desktops all at the same time so Illuminate
also allows break-out rooms where you can split the class up and put them into separate
virtual rooms. You can then go into that room yourself and assist individuals by looking at
their Desktop, by guiding them through programmes and if necessary, take control.
(Second trainer)
One of the really good things is the break-out rooms where they would then have a topic
to talk about. It could be child-safety – and they would then go into these break-out rooms
and they’ve become very skilled at being there, so they would need to put up the agenda
board; one of them would have to facilitate it; they would then text their answers onto the
whiteboard and then save it to the agenda. Then the group comes back, and we share
what they’ve actually put up on the whiteboard.
Will you need a co-facilitator?
Suggestions

To monitor or manage specific conference tools

To operate the software

To facilitate some parts of the session

Consider the duration and number of students
Trainer’s comment
We have either a co-facilitator or we have a technical support facilitator. The role of the
co-facilitator is to take, well in this instance it’s nine times out of ten, to look after the text
area – to allow the head facilitator for want of a better word, to manage the voice area –
because it is very busy and when you think about you as a face-to-face teacher, well I
don’t know about you, but I never had to worry about maintaining my voice, but also
writing messages and handing them around to the students at the same time.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007
What materials will you need to prepare?
Suggestions

Session plan

Attendance register

Student profiles

Materials for students to use

Questions, instructions, quizzes etc within the conference space

Checklist of conference protocols
Trainer’s comment
With a traditional web conference where you ask a question and you wait for several
answers in the time frame, there were two areas where you could have a multiple-choice
question or multiple answers. So rather than trying to lead them to an answer, as a
means of, you could have these questions in your planning stage, have the questions
there, ask the question and give them some options. ‘What is the definition of a quality
circle?’ and I’ve given them about four or five options and they’ve all voted on it. It’s got
the juices thinking again and from that class discussion evolved.
What is your backup plan if the technology fails?
Suggestions

Re-schedule

Record a session that can be accessed at a later time

Use alternative means of communication
Trainer’s comments
(First trainer)
We do have a back-up plan. We can obviously re-schedule and we have had to do that if
necessary. We record the class and the classes are always recorded and released up
inside the TAFE Virtual Campus which is where they are familiar with going for their
course content.
(Second trainer)
If the technology fails and it does from time to time, I’m in constant contact with my
students via broadcast text so I would do that once a week, but if the technology fails and
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007
it has occasionally, we don’t do anything. There should be enough work to do from other
exercises. Not everything is delivered intensively like I’ve mentioned, there are drawing
exercises to do or Excel exercises where the students are expected to work on stuff on
their own; have the opportunity to ask questions, but basically have a due-by date and
there’s work to do. It’s not a big deal for the computer to crash. What I’ll do though is to
text them as early as I can, because they all have mobile phones, and say ‘we are not on
tonight boys, we’ve had some problems’.
Managing the conference
What protocols will you use to ensure smooth running?
Suggestions
Consider, for example:

Having students log in before the session starts to test their equipment and
settings

How students can ask questions, comment etc.

Technical issues such as turning microphones off when not in use

What the student will need to do if they leave the conference for a short while.
Trainer’s comments
(First trainer)
If a person asks a question, then it’s not up to the teacher to say what the answer is. That
question is always put back to the group and they solve it. They feel much more
confident with those skills once they are finished.
Often we’ve got people in their 40s+ and they are feeling very apprehensive about getting
onto the computer and the website and the whole thing. So, we talk them through that
very, very gently – especially the first couple of weeks where we will take them through
step-by-step and just teach them things like that. I find then that people will just fly with it
– they absolutely love it.
(Second trainer)
I quite clearly say to my students ‘I accept that you are putting all those messages in the
text area and that’s fine, but if you want me, you need to put up your hand because my
focus is not in the text area – my focus is on the voice discussion and the PowerPoint and
so forth that I’ve got up’. Your students get to know you and they are quite happy. They
realise you can’t do everything.
How will you maintain engagement throughout the conference?
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007
Suggestions

Provide clear direction and focus points

Use the visual medium to best effect (eg use photos, charts, etc)

Relate discussion to students’ experiences

Ensure tasks are learner-centred

Use conference communication tools at regular intervals
Trainer’s comment
(First trainer)
Maintaining the interest and engaging the students throughout the virtual conference is
always an issue because they’re listening, they’re not busy with their hands typing in a
response as in traditional chat rooms, so the questioning technique is vital here and I’ve
accompanied it with either specific questions calling on their experience, most recent or
industry experience as some of them have, or also their most recent training. So they feel
part of it all.
(Second trainer)
I have regular sayings to keep their interest such as ‘are you with me boys? Make sure
you are with me’. The programme has the facility to quickly give a ‘thumbs up’ or a
‘thumbs down’ and I use that regularly, just to make sure that they can hear me or they
understand that I’m really to move on because there’s no feedback like a teacher would
get in a normal classroom.
How will you maintain order in a remote class?
Suggestions

Ensure materials and tasks are thoroughly prepared before the conference

Regularly provide students with opportunities to participate

Provide extension tasks for students who are idle

Encourage students to help manage disruptive or distracting behaviour

Local teacher will attend at the remote location
Trainer’s comment
I have trouble when I’m not prepared and when there’s idle time, so we don’t have idle
time and if there is idle time, then the students can just leave. If they’ve done the work
and there are no more polls to respond to well then it’s time to go. So some students will
leave an hour an a half earlier than others.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007
Evaluation
What will you use to evaluate the success of the conference and the activities?
Suggestions

Facilitator’s questionnaire

Students’ questionnaire

Use polling or other tool within the conference space

Measure activity outcomes against objectives

Consider levels of participation and engagement

Consider technical aspects that facilitated or impaired interaction
Trainer’s comments
(First trainer)
The success of the conference would be judged by ‘did I achieve the objectives?’ I
measure that by poll pod, by questions that I ask them to get back to me, either privately
or publicly – but publicly doesn’t quite work because as soon as somebody sees
somebody else’s response, then it influences what they would say. It’s actually a lesson
rather than a conference. The success of the lesson is basically outcomes. I’ve
measured that. The ultimate measure is the assessment events with an invigilator at the
end of the semester. That’s how the overall course is measured.
(Second trainer)
We do have an evaluation process that I build into the Centra session and they are asked
to fill that out at the end of the session.
© Commonwealth of Australia 2007