By Cassie Mullin
With all the changes faculty and staff are having to navigate to help students adjust to remote learning, its easy to feel overwhelmed by the constant readjusting we are having to manage. As we move to adjust our courses and interactions to online spaces, we are also having to adopt new technology, processes, and tools into our established pedagogy. One shift that can feel particularly overwhelming for folks, is having to migrate on-campus events to completely online spaces. Some events can be an easy transition, like an information presentation, whereas others that aim to get students or other participants interacting can feel more challenging to recreate remotely. Add on the screen burn out and anxiety felt as a result of the current events, and you’re left feeling exhausted before the planning even starts. If you find yourself in this situation, take a look at these strategies to help lighten the load.
Unexpected perks of moving events online
It’s sometimes easier to have an increased enthusiasm for our on-campus events because we are actively sharing space with participants and watching as they physically interact with the resources and information provided. As an unfortunate consequence to this enthusiasm for in-person events, we can often overlook how we are creating these same experiences for our online students. What we seldom consider are the ways that online events can help us in delivering better organized and more inclusive opportunities for all our students.
One benefit is the added ability for participation. Online events can allow for more people to participate without added concern for space (and particularly now with the added considerations of safety), food, and physical resources. Distance students, for example, are better able to engage with on-campus students during virtual events because everyone is participating in the same way, thereby expanding their personal networks and feeling more connected to the university. Students who have social anxiety might also be inclined to participate more actively if they feel comfortable in online spaces as opposed to being expected to interact with a large group.
Another benefit of online events it’s also easier to capture data and feedback from your participants using online polling and additional tools for engagement in real time. Many online tools for events allow users to capture data like number of participants, time participating, survey and polling results, etc. all with relatively easy setup. This type of data is often more challenging to collect during in-person events so having the ability to gather immediate input from participants is an added bonus!
Re-examine your objectives
One of the first steps you should take when moving your event online is to break down what the key objectives of the event are. In redefining the objectives that you want people to engage with, you can start to separate out the key components of the previous on-campus event and decide what is important to bring into the online space.
- What is the key information you need to share?
- Do you need students, faculty, staff to interact during this event to meet the objective?
- What do you want participants to take away from this experience after the event is over?
Acknowledge the limitations to find solutions
Once you have your key objectives, you can better analyze which ones you might be struggling to meet through an online event. The truth is that your online event will be completely different then you’re on-campus one, and that’s ok! So, you won’t be able to host a happy hour event for the guests to network at the beginning of the conference, you can host a “get to know you” game session using breakout rooms instead! Knowing what challenges your facing will help you in finding new and creative solutions.
You might even find that portions of your event need to move outside of the event itself. This could be having students submit reaction videos ahead of time to allow for more in depth conversation or creating a slack channel for guests to chat and reflect on a previous presentation. Online events can create some great opportunities that encourage guests to engage with the experience outside of the scheduled start and end time.
Embrace new technology… to a point
On the opposite spectrum of feeling overwhelmed and hesitant in moving your event online, there can also be feelings of wanting to dive into the deep end and embrace all of the fun new tools that can help create exciting online events. With so many programs and courses being remote right now, we are seeing many creative examples of the different way’s folks are using new and interactive technologies to create connection.
In recreating your event online, I highly suggest taking time to talk with others in your community and exploring all the tech available to create interactions and meaningful connections online. There are some great and easy to implement tools that can be used to help bridge the gap between in-person and virtual networking. However, there is an important balance to aim for when integrating new technologies into your virtual event spaces. Be careful that in your effort to utilize tech for your online event you are not over complicating the experience for yourself or your participants. Everyone’s comfort level with adopting new technology is different. While that exciting new program that allows your guests to create an interactive game together sounds like a super fun group bonding experience, it might also impact people’s participation if the navigation is too complicated.
Plan, and then plan again
Like with any event, things can go wrong in online events. One of the most helpful things to do in planning your online event is to try and map out what potential issues you may see pop-up and how you and your planning group might handle them. A lot of the challenges that can come up during an online event revolve around technology, like the event host losing internet connection mid presentation. Its good identify another member of your planning group as a back up host and to determine who would jump in incase something unexpected was to happen and to do test runs so that everyone is on the same page about how the event should run.
Another newer phenomenon is maintaining security during online events. Things like “Zoom Bombing” and guests sharing inappropriate comments in chats or whiteboard sessions can quickly derail a virtual event. Setting up participant passwords, RSVP’s and waiting rooms, or planning for someone to be the chat/guest monitor can help in preventing these types of disruptions. In identifying what could go wrong while you can create Plan A, you can simultaneously make Plan B and actively get buy-in from those on your planning team before the big day.
Some considerations in your planning process
- What information do we need to provide participants with before the event? (RSVP, event prep)
- Who is hosting? Who is back up in case of technology trouble? What other help is needed during the event?
- How will the planning group respond if something goes wrong? Who will monitor chats and guests participating?
- Will we be recording this event? Who is responsible for that? How will it be made available afterwards?
Embrace the change and roll with it
Whatever your virtual event ends up looking like try to embrace the changes and learning experience of it all as best you can. Your participants will be able to see and appreciate the effort that you have put into adapting the event even if it’s not a perfect adaptation of the in-person one. Everything looks a bit different this year and all we can do is to try and adapt to the best of our abilities and to give ourselves grace as we try and navigate the changes.