Session 1: How to improve Online Training

How can you tackle the no-show problem?

  • Two reminders are better than one
  • Adding calendar invites to “final information” are also quite helpful
  • Small fee (e.g. 50-100€)

How do you split up during a course?

  • Don’t teach alone
  • One for Teaching
  • One for chat
  • Optional: One for Breakouts

How do I deal with waiting lists?

  • For more theoretical online courses (due to a higher no-show rate) you can approve all registered participants, even those on the waiting list
  • For F2F this looks different

How many participants should I admit to online training courses?

  • Depends on the course format, e.g.
  • For more theoretical online courses (due to a higher no-show rate) you can approve all registered participants
  • For coding courses, especially on beginner, you can have a suitable trainer-trainee ratio, e.g. 4-5 participants per trainer

What do I do if there are significantly fewer participants and my tasks are designed for this?

  • In general, this is an advantage. Less participants = more time per participant
  • In group work, you can reduce the persons per group

What do I do if the participants misbehave?

  • Use a code of conduct for your course
  • Present it directly in the beginning of the course
  • Use allies that try to solve this problems

How can I facilitate communication in this group?

  • Slack = Lifesciencetrainers.org
  • FAQ based on the Questions and answers

How to improve the engagement of online participants?

  • Interactivity is the key
  • Include interactive sessions, e.g. Mentimeter, Group work, Quiz, Gamification

How should I structure my online training course?

  • Start with an introduction and icebreaker
  • Mixture between theoretical and interactive sessions
  • Don’t forget breaks if your course is longer than 2h

In F2F meetings coffee breaks allow attendees to socialize. How can the socializing part be integrated into online courses?

  • Gamification could be here quite usable
  • “Online Social Event” during longer online course, e.g. Escape Room Game

How supportive can technical equipment be (e.g. using a Blue Screen)?

  • Depends on the course format and our teaching style

How to use breakout rooms effectively?

  • For group work (e.g. Group more than 10)
  • When similar or different topics should be discussed

What are the best tools to get feedback from participants?

  • SurveyMonkey
  • LimeSurvey
  • RSForm Pro

How to address technical issues during the course - losing audio/video?

  • Stay cool! - This can happen
  • Never teach alone - the second trainer should then act as host restart everything

How to keep the motivation among the participants throughout the course?

  • Show them the benefit of the course
  • Entertain participants ;)
  • Good mixture between theoretical and hands ons parts - interaction
  • Gamification

How to improve the bioinformatics training involving handson on tools and pipelines run through cloud and hpc cluster?

  • Check the de.NBI cloud
  • Images are available for different courses
  • Check usegalaxy.eu
  • JupiterNotebook and R Studio are directly available for training purpose
  • TAAS