I had a lot of fun during my presentation yesterday for the Teachers Teaching Online (TTO) MOOC, with my session 'Engaging Online Learners', splitting the participants into teams and using a quiz format for the presentation.

I wondered beforehand whether it would work and how best to split the participants up into teams. The quiz was designed to get away from a linear presentation format. The idea was to ask the audience to select a category and a question (each had a different number of points) and then jump to that question. In the end, this didn't work in the webinar and I had to do the quiz in a different way (linear), but it seemed to work out well. I asked the participants to choose a colour (blue or red) and to change their text chat and then I asked the questions and the first member of team red or team blue to answer correctly won 10 points.

If the comments on the session page are anything to go by, participants enjoyed it:

Miroslava TakevaAmazing lesson showing how interactive and amusing one should be in order to engage online students. Million thanks to Graham!

Mary Ronemous
Yes, engaging and interactive. He modeled what he was teaching. Great presentation! Thank you, Graham.Zareen KamranIt was interesting,although RED lost but even than we enjoyed the class.....Tom HodgersA really engaging presentation from Graham.sue annanWhat a fun, yet really useful presentation. The time passed quickly as we were all so engagedTauseef FarooqReally enjoyed the class! Very engaging and interactive!!!!!!Judy WongThat was wonderful!! So glad I was able to be here live!! Thanks so much Graham and Jase!

Judy's comments in particular were very encouraging. So many webinars I have attended (and some I have given!) have had so little interaction in them, you wonder if it's worth attending them live or if it might not be done better by recording a video. It seemed to me to be ironic to talk about engaging online learners without doing something a little more engaging than your usual talking head webinar, so I'm glad it turned out well.

The recording of the webinar is available here

Here are the slides (direct link to the MOOC page with comments):

Engaging online learners from Graham Stanley
And here's the text chat. The most interesting comments from this, for me were:

• Valentina: freedom is important when learning under teacher's control
• Chris Holsman:visual non verbal behaviour helps communication
• Kerstin Hendriks: When you're teaching f2f, you are also "on stage"!
• Elisabeth Horn: the audience normally focuses on the powerpoint presentation as well - so (webcam) not THAT important
• Judy Wong:Be careful the kind of room you are in so you don't have echo
• Frances Walker:Planning is good, but be prepared to be flexible
• Judy Wong:You should be careful who you pair up together
• Judy Wong:Or give them a type of pairwork that doesn't mean they are there at the exact same time
• Irina Ostapchuk: it`s great when you have two students like a husband and a wife who want to learn together. or two friends
• Jason R Levine:Audio files are often more popular than video
• Frances Walker:Listening practice - not always same voice (teacher's) all the time!
• Chris Stanzer:they should hear different accents
• Vance Stevens:...and audio can be made from YouTube video
• Judy Wong:It is important to have the learners invested in the learning process
• Nora Choperena:Objectives and deadlines go together.
• Chris Stanzer:without deadlines I'd never do anything
• Vance Stevens:there are soft deadlines and firm ones
• Kerstin Hendriks:deadlines can help the teacher plan.
• Vance Stevens:but if they are not meeting deadlines, make them feel welcome to complete the work
• Nora Choperena:A matter of culture, also. Don't leave things for the very last minute.
• Vance Stevens:nothing focuses like a good deadline
• Irma Ramos:yes, most of us are not very proactive so we need deadlines
• Anna Lee Vinson:classes much like this one.Where the student is vested in the class.
• Judy Wong:It doesn't matter if in a school or private. It is always important to make the student feel safe in your venue
• Vera:when learners have the opportunity to participate using voice, they keep more confident
• Irma Ramos:Graham I learn a lot and had a lot o fun at the same time. Thank you!!
• Penny Mosavian:This was so helpful! I really enjoyed the class!!!

The Teachers Teaching Online MOOC runs until 12th July and there are lots of very interesting speakers. Consult the syllabus here. There are also 3577 people enrolled in the course, so it's a great opportunity to meet like-minded people.