SLQ Wiki digital_literacy:online_workshop_pd

Delivery

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 14 Oct 2020 10:37:49 +0000

Delivery

Some Things to Think About Before You Start

Production Assistant

Participant Engagement

Experience has shown that many participants will not activate video or audio channels, making monitoring difficult during delivery. This may be due to them using protocols familiar from different online engagements, a wish for privacy or technology constraints (attendance by phone, for example). Facilitator direction may address this to some extent, but it should be expected and planned for. Monitoring participant work is difficult if their camera does not allow line of sight. Specific requests to show their work may be required.

Taking time at the outset (or including instructions in a pre-workshop mailout) about implementing the available Zoom backgrounds might help get more faces in the room. Noisy household backgrounds are a common problem (as well as interrupting pets, children and spouses), but people familiar with Zoom tend to be tolerant of this. Addressing this explicitly in the opening conversation might encourage more video presence if intermittent muting is suggested as a solution.

Technology and Software

PASSWORDS Remember that delivery from off-site using facilitator laptops may require that staff authentication has occurred on the machine while still on the SLQ network. An alternative solution is that the laptop has a generic user (‘Facilitator”) that can be used by anyone in possession of the appropriate password.

CAMERAS Camera orientation can be critical – an overhead point-of-view style is preferred, but this requires mounting a webcam directly above the workspace. Tripod mounted webcams are sufficient to focus on the facilitator (who can hold things in view for discussion), but give a working view badly affected by distortions of perspective. Having a monitor for the facilitator and using multiple screens so as to keep track of the participant view easily is important. It also helps of the facilitator (or assistant) is practised in using keyboard shortcuts to switch screen views on the fly.

WEBLINKS Providing weblinks during the workshop (in side-bar chat channels) is problematic since they will be lost at the end of the session. Zoom allows for chat to be saved locally, but participants might need to be made aware of this. It is a better idea to include links in pre-engagement mail-outs, which are also then available for future reference

The Top Ten Things We Have Learned About Online Delivery

Number One Delivery Consideration: Location! Location! Location!

You will have already thought about technical requirements for your delivery location, but beyond making sure the room is not too noisy and you have a tidy background, delivery of a practical workshop has it's own constraints. If you will be moving between working hands-on under a webcam, and speaking to a Zoom room, then you need things to be arranged so the swap is seamless. having the webcam set-up immediately adjacent to your computer is important. Having an extra monitor located at a good angle, but out of shot will also need to be resolved.

Delivering in the evening after doing all your set-up in the daytime can be a trap - check to make sure shadows are not intrusive, and if you wear glasses, then check for flare from the lenses (you might need to re-orient your chair, or the lights). Ambient noise patterns might also be different if the workshop is at a time you are not usually in the space.

Make sure all the equipment and materials you will need are within easy reach, and you do not disappear from view when reaching for anything.

Number Two Delivery Consideration : Practice makes perfect

Even though you have probably done each part of the workshop several times during development, you might not have run through the activity as a whole. Judging how long something will take is an art that can be developed, but if you have a chance to do a complete run-through and time yourself, this will help. Add another 20% to that time for someone who has never done it before (like the participants).

It is a good discipline when developing a workshop to try several ways of achieving a goal (like fixing a propeller onto a wire axle), and then spend more time thinking about how it could be done more easily. Changing the sequence of steps, introducing pre-made parts or using sticky-tape instead of glue might make the experience less frustrating for everyone. Try different approaches, and think about keeping to a logical, intuitive sequence.

Number Three Delivery Consideration : Punctuality

Have a plan for what you will do before starting - you can expect that participants will logon at different times, and some may be late. How do you fill the time? Informal introductions, general chat, referring to documentation available post-workshop and asking what folks want to get out of the experience are useful time wasters. Having a video cued up and running while people drop in is another approach, and can act as a focus for discussion.

Have a plan for dealing with late arrivals, and stick to it. Opening the virtual room 30 minutes before scheduled start is a good idea, and early comers will land somewhere welcoming, rather than worrying they got the date wrong. You will know the expected duration, so do not wait too long for latecomers and put yourself under pressure later - and there is a good chance that some will never arrive, anyway.

Number Four Delivery Consideration : Speaking to the void

You have no real control over whether participants will turn on the video, or even their microphone. There may be good reasons beyond your (or their) control that no amount of encouragement from you will alter. It is still possible to lead a participant to a successful conclusion communicating solely through the chat channel (speaking from experience)- so get familiar with it, and the keyboard commands required.

By all means encourage folks to turn on their video, but expect that at least a few will not. This makes it very hard to monitor progress, so more encouragement from you for those folks to participate however they can will be required. Calling on them by name also makes them feel included, and this is something you should try to do for each individual.

Number Five Delivery Consideration : What you see is what you get

It is preferable to set up your webcam so that any activity you demonstrate is seen as though from the users point of view - top down, and hands to the bottom of the screen. This might not be noticed, but it will make it easier for people to intuitively copy what you are doing.

Marking out the cameras field of view on your workspace can be helpful - either draw lines, or use some tape - and make sure everything you do stays in frame. Holding things up might be better done in front of a webcam set up to face you.

Number Six Delivery Consideration : Presence

Though people will always be hearing your voice, they will not see your face when you are working under a top-down webcam. Just as your presence in a face-to-face engagement allows people to pick up welcoming non-verbal cues, and to feel connected to the experience through eye-contact, changing back to a webcam focussed on your face throughout the activity is important. This is sometimes hard to remember when your are in the flow of a difficult process, but remind yourself, or have an assistant to do the cutting for you (and remind them).

Number Seven Delivery Consideration : Here is one I prepared earlier...

This can be a trap, but also a useful trick. Doing the workshop along with the participants not only models the physical steps (and reminds you of short cuts along the way), it also helps keep in time. Using prepared bits tends to make you run far ahead of the participants since saving time is why you thought of them in the first place. On the other hand, it is useful to have a few parts pre-made (especially if you need more than one of them), because after you have demonstrated once, you can spend time helping individuals without getting left behind.

When demonstrating a physical operation be mindful and explicit about what you are doing - tell people how you holding something, or where you are applying pressure, for example, because this may not be obvious on the screen, and you cannot see what others may be doing wrong.

One exception to this rule of doing everything along with the participants is sticky-tape. Nobody wants to watch you cut lots of little bits of tape, and re-cutting them when they turn into a sticky ball between your fumbling fingers. I always have a number of pre-cut bits of tape stuck on a handy edge during a workshop, so the sticking can be done in a single flowing operation.

Number Eight Delivery Consideration : Have a wingman

Having a work colleague present in the workshop will make everything easier, especially if you have trialled the show. If you choose to use production software (like OBS studio), then they can be changing view and hopping between screens for you. Practice, and develop a shared set of cues.

A co-facilitator also has the option to set up a break-out room where they can help people who fall far behind, or who need to hear that instruction one more time. It also addresses concerns about unruly behaviour and safety.

Number Nine Delivery Consideration : Become a Zoom expert

Learn short cuts for sharing screens, opening and controlling chat and posting links. Practice doing this, so you can smoothly change view on the fly, if you need to. Think about how the screen content will look to the participants, and arrange things so they do not look confusing, are appropriately scaled and do not reveal things on your desktop you would rather keep to yourself.

Home Delivery setup

Clean background, extra monitor, webcam in reach.

All stages accessible without moving from a seat.

Drum kit stand re-purposed as webcam mount for top-down view

In action during a live remote workshop (note webcam view on laptop)

Part Three - Delivery Considerations Workshop Plan

RATIONALE

Delivering an online workshop about delivering an online workshop is intrinsically a meta-experience. The participants are simultaneously consumers and observers, as well as being future providers. The plan is to acknowledge these different perspectives, and explicitly jump between them in the course of the workshop. By recognising these perspectives from the outset, the facilitation will use direct calls on participants to adopt different roles at different times.

WORKSHOP

5 min Make personal introductions and engage as a group, establish credentials

5 min If none have video blocked, assign this task to one or two, and have one communicate only through text.

Call on participants to report on their current tech experience – sound, lighting, continuity. Solicit responses to the group from those with video blocked. Introduce the chat channel, and use it to share a link – point out that this will be lost at the end of the session, and show how to save chat.

Call on participants to act as observers, and then get them to comment on the experience (as co-participants) after the discussion - this is about their experience of the discussion, not the individual problems with sound or buffering.

10 min Explain that they are going to do a practical activity that requires a piece of A4 paper (and allow them to locate one).

Lead through steps to fold an origami chatterbox

Start with facilitator speaking direct to a webcam, and holding up an example

Use the top-down webcam for some steps

Use a document with diagrams of the steps available on a shared screen

End with the facilitator back on screen, showing a previously prepared (and ostentatiously decorative) product, and describing how it can be used for other activities. Call on participants to display their work to others by sharing screens.

5 min Analyse the experience in a group discussion, going through each step as different techniques were introduced. What works best? Will this hold for all engagements?

Demonstrate hands-up polling for the facilitator to get a sense of the room.

Emphasise the effect of having documentation available (did this put people at ease?)

5 min Wrap up and take questions. Plug the wiki.

Resources

This file has a pdf showing diagrams of each step in the process on a separate page - suitable for scrolling:

chatterbox_instructions_multi_page.pdf

This file has a pdf showing the steps all on one page - suitable for sharing, or printing:

chatterbox_one_page.pdf

Design and Development

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 10:23:23 +0000

Design and Development

Development considerations

There are many differences when delivering a workshop remotely and many considerations during the development. Delivering in person, with the technology and resources in a library is easily taken for granted.

What software/apps do you need for the workshop? Participants cannot be expected to purchase or subscribe to expensive software
What are the hardware requirements for the workshop? The average person will not have the latest and fastest hardware
Can the workshop (software) be run on all major operating systems? macOS and Windows, Linux? Are there any restrictions for what version the participants can be running?
Using online tools removes the need for downloading and installation. This saves time during the delivery or removes the need for participants to download/install things by themselves prior to the workshop
Hazardous materials and tools creates challenges with OHS, risk assessments need to be written for overarching online program as well as for individual workshops. Minimize the risk and provide as many tools as possible.
If you are sending out kits to the participants make sure to:
- A) Collect postal address and make it mandatory
- B) Consider delivery durations to make sure they are delivered in time
- C) Make pickup an option for the participants (if possible)

Designing Online Workshops

In person workshops are a familiar and effective mode of engagement, with a set of implicit norms that may only become obvious with your first online delivery. The social aspects of this way of working are sometimes the main motivator for participant engagement – meeting new people, sharing time with like-minded individuals and the serendipity of social interaction are all valuable outcomes which are hard to replicate in a virtual environment. At the same time, technology uptake has changed the way people expect to interact, and it may be that your participants are more digitally native (and comfortable with the constraints) than the facilitator. Even so, working in the virtual seems to make the experience much more front facing m- the talking head on the screen is the sole input, and glancing about the space, chatting to the person next to you or playing with your phone becomes impossible. The facilitator is always on, and in a very focussed way for each individual – you and each of them feel like the only people in the room, and so each expects a more focussed and personal experience.

As a facilitator, ‘reading the room’ becomes fraught – non-verbal inputs are heavily filtered, if present at all. The ability to spot a problem and move to one-on-one assistance is almost lost, when the rest of the participants cannot help each other to continue an activity (though having a production assistant can help address this – see below). The facilitator’s view of each person’s progress is severely limited by the participant’s camera field, and this rarely includes whatever they are working on. Facial cues become more important, and participants need to be encouraged to be more explicit about requesting help. And that never works for shy people.

For the facilitator, checking on progress becomes more essential, and balancing these one-to-one interactions with group needs becomes a tension. At the same time, calling on individuals can help them feel more part of the experience, and a specific intention to do this will disrupt the ‘invisible wallflower’ mode that some members of every group employ as a default. This can be good (engaging), or bad (embarrassing), but likely you will not know until after the event. Some of the best online engagement outcomes have resulted from having more than one person on the other side of the screen, both for facilitators (see below about production assistants) and participants (seen with parent and child co-working, for example). Like most dichotomies, it might be that the best choice of two apparently opposite approaches – everyone present in a room together, opposed to everyone in their own room - is to combine both and have participants physically with one other, as well as virtually with the group.

Daniel's 10 cents worth… Remember that all of this is for the benefit of the audience/participants. Every decision you make around how and why you do something should loop back to them. Ask yourself repeatedly; if I were listening to this would i continue listening to this and if the answer is no then change it up. Record your session and watch it back. Be critical on how you present and what you could do better. Run it through with a colleague you trust and respect then ask them what could have been done better. You don't need to agree with them or do as they suggest but at least you've heard an objective opinions because as sure as water's wet and the sky is blue your subjective belief of what you sound like is not going to cut it. You will hate the sound of your own voice, assume you're speaking at a pace that is suitable for streaming and that your hands are not fidgeting but they likely will be. You do it so often that you will have stopped noticing and that is a recipe for not being the best outcome for the customer, because they are customers. They're not always right and they're trusting you know what you're doing even if you don't and the secret is this; fake it until you make it and the odds are no one will know the difference.

Preparation: Materials

Materials will either need to be readily available and assembled by participants in response to a pre-event email. Pausing mid-event to supply additional parts, or to use unique technologies to recover mistakes is not possible, so redundancy needs to built-in to the experience for critical parts that have been identified as fragile or capable of misapplication.

Using common materials

POSITIVES

Increases the possibility of future exploration by participants, who experience how everyday materials can be used for prototyping their ideas
Lowers the fear factor, which can be a barrier to exploration if materials are seen to be expensive, ‘special’, rare or difficult to obtain
Makes mistakes and failures less traumatic

NEGATIVES

Reduces cost to the facilitator (and possibly the participant), but limits the range of possible activities
Runs the risk of participants not having materials on hand, either due to misunderstanding, cost or unavailability
Reduces the wow-factor that might attract participants in the first place
Leads to a diversity of inputs that makes delivery more complex

Using supplied materials

POSITIVES

Increases the perceived value of the experience by making it special. The excitement of getting a package in the mail is a good motivator, and may enhance the perceived value of the engagement.
Allows unusual, specialised or bespoke items to be part of the workshop
Provides for more unique participant experiences
Allows participants to access required files or weblinks before the workshop
Increases participant engagement, both as a reminder, and as a demonstrated commitment by the facilitator to the event.

NEGATIVES

Increases delivery costs through postage
Requires more pre-delivery input (purchasing, packing and postage)
Runs the risk of delivery services causing critical delay

Preparation: Documentation

Detailed documentation is a way to preserve the work done developing the activity and making it available for iteration and replication. Documentation usually requires that the activity be run through several times by the facilitator, and this process allows for reflection on the best sequence of steps, as well as revealing where the more difficult parts are. The facilitator can try different techniques, investigate alternative solutions and get a better idea of the time required (a good rule of thumb is to add 20% more time for an inexperienced participant).

Having complete documentation before the workshop

POSITIVES

Allows for a secondary communication channel to be available concurrently with the workshop. Having the documentation available to put on screen during the workshop can give access to better images and diagrams than what is usually possible in a live-streamed event.
Allows participants to work asynchronously (greatly assisted by having an assistant)
Increases participant confidence that they can complete the activity, even if the workshop is timed out before ending
Allows facilitators to generate detailed lists of materials and tools
Highlights OHS concerns before delivery

NEGATIVES

Documentation takes time, and this will need to be scheduled into the facilitator’s workload
Some insights only become apparent in the moments of delivery, and these will not be captured if documentation is completed beforehand. Revision should be allowed for (and further increases the time required).

Preparation: Tools

Tools will be restricted to those commonly available (scissors, writing instruments, etc) unless specific tools are included in a mailed-out package (which increases costs). Instruction in the use of unfamiliar tools also takes up more workshop time, unless prior learning packages are set up, and used. All tools used also bear greater OHS consideration, given the lack of direct supervision (and the possibility of first aid response). If unique tools (like a laser cutter) cannot be avoided, then the activity will need to be supported by a mail-out, with all the negatives listed above. This is not an absolute disqualifier, but it means the extra time and cost will need to be considered in the approval process.

digital_literacy:online_workshop_pd:rightsidebar

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 10:42:40 +0000

Background Discussion

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 13:29:42 +0000

Delivering online engagements in the Glam Sector - Session Plan

Background Discussion

Technical Considerations

Design and Development

Delivery

Case Studies

How we developed - Delivering Online Enagements in the GLAM sector - PD for producers

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 29 Oct 2020 15:25:05 +0000

How we developed - Delivering Online Enagements in the GLAM sector - PD for producers

This PD has been developed by State Library of Queensland to offer the combined experience and learnings from the Applied Creativity and Digital Inclusion teams over the last six months of online delivery. Starting with general technical requirments, design and development, and delivery considerations, then moving to case studies that model practice by State Library's teams in online delivery.

The delivery of this PD is split across teams, this has been a very collaborative effort so to contact us for more information or feedback you can log-in to the SLQ Wiki to track changes, or alternatively contact the Digital Inclusion and Applied Creativity teams' email.

Background

With Libraries ( and great chunks of the world) shutting down for the COVID 19 Pandemic many library services including the State Library have moved to doing things differently.

One of the things that the stats from the last couple of months have shown is that there has been demand amongst library communities for online versions of the workshop programming we'd normally do face-to-face.

You could posit an observation that, at first, people were keen to do something… anything cause they were cooped up in their houses, bored and lonely. As time has gone on though and people have acclimated to the new norm, discerning patrons have sort out opportunities to engage with new skills and experiences in this new mode. But just as they would appreciate quailty face-to-face experiences in the preCOVID world, postCOVID patrons simply won't bother if they wiff sub par online workshop.

When you add this to the fact that an online activity can take more resources to organise and deliver and that budgets will be tight in the resulting downturn…. its pretty important that we are nailing it when we run these online activities. So we though why not share the hard-won lessons we've learnt over the last 6 months thru some PD workshops.

Development Methodology

<MB

On reviewing our brain dump, and after some office chats, its become clear that we'd benefit from some kind of structure in moving the collaborative process forward. So I'm suggesting using the Buzzfeed listicle methodology of training development… I've used this before when developing training collaboratively and it worked well.

Ask yourself…

“What are the ten most important things you would want to tell someone who is approaching running an online workshop for the first time?”

A first observation from our brain dump, is that a lot of the information covered are opinions. Opinions born out of our individual contexts, experiences and interests. They are all relevant. Its a strength of our collaborative approach to developing this workshop that attendees will able to hear a range of opinions on common concerns of setting up online engagement activities… Participants will be able to pick one thats ideal for their own context or even use our thought processes to think one out for themselves.

Another observation (this was from Peter) was how this workshop could be seen as a meta experience ( people learning about online workshops in an online workshop) - and that the value of this could be amplified if we make the session more interactive ( i'd argue that practical/ hands on is always more engaging)…. you know like workshop More about this in a second.

So yeah a Buzzfeed Listicles remember them. I don't think Buzzfeed even do them anymore but a variation of this is what we might use to corral all our experience / opinions into a manageable structure so we can pass this on to people starting out. With a methodology like this in place we can

get everyone to re contribute their most important considerations for each of the below subject headings. Keep these shortish (post it note sized ideas), put you name on them and a reference a possible example/ case study you can connect it with. (I'll drop some examples in that might make it clearer.) If you want to give some context or expand on the ideas add this to to the brain dump.
We'll then render these down to the most important ones to cover in the time we have.
from there we can work out some practical activities for people to do people to do in the workshop to relate these considerations back to their own context.

So after the talkie talkie part of the workshop we'll some activities for participants to interrogate these considerations in their own real life contexts. When we first talked about running these workshops I thought that we could use them as a PD opportunity to engage Public Libraries in Fun Palace. like in other years, treat Fun Palace as a mentoring experience for Public Librarians while at the same time supporting some region Fun Palace goodness. Fun Palace isn't happening this year cause of COVID19 but we could use it as an example scenario onto which we could scaffold practical workshop activities. it could seed some ideas that could launch FP for next ??? Again this might be clearer if i give an example.

The over all Scenario - your boss comes to you and says they'd like you to explore running some online activities for Fun Palace. What are you going to consider and what recommendations will you make for your making it happen in community? - Remember if its good you might have to do it.

Resource (Technology) Considerations Activity - Resource Audit/ Map

Instructions - on a big piece of paper make a map of

all the resources you would need and or could access to in your local community to run a online Fun Palace activity.
Who has them, and
what you'd need to do to get access to them.
What are the pros and cons of each of these elements

Example responses-

Resource reliable end user Internet -

Source Schools have internet

How do you get at it would need to get them all involved by targeting FP activities to their needs

Pros getting the schools involve automatically drives an audience.

Cons School Firewalls suck. It has been past practice for EdQld to control website accessibility from a central point of control - if your website is not on the list, the school server might block it. Engaging with school System Admin well before hand might be required to get your web address onto the permitted list.

Resource 2x Decent Webcams -

Sourcethe IT shop has them -

How do you get at it maybe get them to sponsor the activity plus

Pros - Demonstrating the tech might mean council will buy me some of this gear in the future

Cons council's sponsorship process is brainbreaking

Resource Talent

SourceCommunity Choir -

How do you get at ittalk to the director offer them their 1st opportunity to get together since covid shut things down plus

Pros they'll organise themselves

Cons Old people in the choir are an at risk category with the plague

Get Participants to draw these on paper ( busy hands ) as a map ( activate some of the spatially minded people in the Zoom/Room)

Thats activities probs only need 3 or 4 of these and as Phil Suggested some of these could the Zoom version of things we do in face to face workshop. like using tech for a straw poll or an eWhiteboard. The simplest straw poll is to get participants to raise their hands, and this still works when they are in front of a webcam (if it is turned on!). The facilitator gets a very quick idea of what proportion of the audience is on track, understands what is happening, etc.

So as far as workshop structure goes if we have 3 Types of considerations

Tech Requirements
Design & development
Delivery

and we talk to each of these for 10- 15 mins… Run an activity for 10 and then share & discuss for 10. that 30 min for each one. Then we add 15 min brackets for an intro and conclusion you have a 2hour workshop MB> <MB

Definitions

Design and Development… Whats the diff? For the purposes of this workshop i'd say Design refers to the higher concepts… ie Experience design consider what are your objectives are with the activity and how these connect with the strategic priorities. This might mean the work of coming up with an engaging idea to get people to connect with their library service in a new way, even though they might not be able/motivated to come in person.

Development refers to the practical things you are going to assemble to achieve these objectives. Development is the work of putting together and testing a kit, coming up with activities (and the resources required for them) to inspire participants' creativity, and laying it all out in an achievable session plan. MB>

You can see what we delivered here in the Delivering online engagements in the Glam Sector - Session Plan

Reflections on First Set of Deliveries

Mick's notes

Of the three workshops planned, the first was cancelled (the workshop was only promoted a day or two before our drop dead date) without any bookings, but 2nd and 3rd sessions booked all 15 of the tickets out in a couple of days.

A total of 6 out of 15 people attended the second workshop and 7 or 8 attended the third which is disappointing but unfortunately the standard no-show rate for a free workshop.

The second (first workshop run with participants) ran rather well, the only issue is that we ran approximately 15 min over time (including a reasonable Q&A / discussion at the end)

The success of this first time out with participants can mostly be put down to the focused rehearsal time we took - with a dry run before the first scheduled workshop and then a dress rehearsal during the bracket of time assigned for the cancelled workshop. I believe this was particularly important when three of us were delivering a very integrated in 3 parts. This allowed us to fit a lot of content in a 2 hour workshop.

Phils first section ran really smoothly and i think we had good buy in on the first (internet speeds) and second (mapping ) activities.

Even before the first delivery, I was aware that my Design and Development section contained a lot of content that could be considered not necessarily specific to online activities. On reflection developing for zoom workshops, especially when compared with the tech concerns and delivery concerns, mostly uses the same thought processes and considerations you use in developing F2F activities.

When developing the development section though, we considered that some participants may never have developed any kind of workshop, so thought it important to cover these bases. Part of the problem there is that, design and development of hands on workshops could be a week-long workshop in itself. I know because i ran many week long development and facilitation professional development courses for emerging facilitators in a previous life.

The other solution is to cut anything that is not strictly in the scope of “online workshops” and to refer people wanting more generic information about development and design to another workshop, a blogpost, a resource on the wiki. After our first delivery i stripped down and simplified this section a little and we reduced removed the google form aspect of the Internet speed activity. I also clarified that we did not expect people to complete the 3rd activity. rather we asked particitant to read over the types of questions and may consider one that caught their eye. Even though all our participant seemed to be experienced activity

Online Workshop PD - Brain Dump

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 20:45:36 +0000

Online Workshop PD - Brain Dump

This is the starting point for the development of Delivering online engagements in the Glam Sector - Session Plan

Technical Requirements

Hardware

Camera

Some of the considerations when picking a camera is how it will be used in the particular workshop. Is there a need to demonstrate hands-on practical elements or is the workshop screen-based and screen-sharing is the only thing required? Facilitator needs to be seen.

Daniel's Ten Cents… The minimum resolution you'd want is 1080p and with that comes an understanding that not all web-cameras are created equal. Research is king here and understanding what you're getting is important before pressing buy. From personal research and experience outlined below are the three solutions I'd recommend/have used. These solutions cost, there's no denying that but in the long run you get what you pay for. Test what you have, look at what you're getting and make your own mind up. These are just the list of decisions I made with the information I had :).

Logitech StreamCam is going to cost you @ $250 and you can get them from Officeworks as a click n collect or delivered item. They have exceptional picture quality, plug and play with all the platforms and comes with both a top of the screen and tripod ount option. It deals with low light okay and the built in microphones are actually really good and (better than my fancy Zoom H5n as the Logitech Streamcam has intelligent noise filtering built into it. Downside, they're USBC only and I wouldn't trust an adapter for USB3 as far as I can throw it. Which is a crap analogy as I can throw one a long way but that is not the point!!!! If you have a new HP or Mac, you're in for a treat but do know what your situation is before you press buy. I've got mine in the home office paired with one of the bigger Jobi Pods and have put them on proper tripods for capturing hand work but we'll get to mounting cameras under the mounting section.
Logitech Brio is the business if money is no object, these are the superstar cameras at $380+. Short of the next option, this is the best quality imagery you're going to get into the computer. They're also USB3 and USB2 compatible (not as good a picture). Appreciate that both these options are Logitech but they really do have the market cornered at the minute with webcams. Everything that go4es for the StreamCam goes for the Brio.
A proper video camera is always going to crap all over a web-camera. The sensors are bigger, the lenses better and the odds are you might have one lying around the office as a great many LGAs do. The question is how to get them into a computer and there are solutions for that so long as they have a HDMI out port on them. This can be solved with a Magewell HDMI USB Capture card ($430+) or the recently back in stock Elgato CamLink Capture 4K ($190). Both of these will turn the humble video camera into a web camera with the bonus of being able to record your end of the conversation to the camera. Useful if you're looking at repurposing facilitator footage for self paced learning options. The real difference is the size of the sensor. You're jumping from millimetres to centimetres and there is just more surface to capture information on. If you're going to go this far, you also will need atripod but we'll get to that. With regards the Magewell and Elgato there isn't a huge difference between the two products and the price difference - as far as I can tell - is one is made for high end production environment and the other is used by every would be Twitch or new YouTube star is using with their camera rigs. They've both got a warranty so I'd suggest making your own mind up. If you're around Brisbane and want to look at both, hit me up in an email.

To be honest, the video camera is my preferred option as it is the most versatile. If you have to buy a camera though it will cost you $1000 plus. You need to look for a camera that allows for a clean feed over the HDMI; a feed without any of the LCD overlay information. JVC and Sony camera do this pretty much across their entire range. Many DSLRs and some compact cameras also. It really is a case of looking at what you've got access to, how much you're willing to spend and how it works with your situation. Web-cameras are always going to be less stuffing around and have one less piece of kit in the signal pathway but will never give the really pretty picture.

While we're talking about cameras we should mention lighting. When I used to make movies with kids for a living the professional mentors would always say the difference between the kids films and theirs was lighting. They were right. Dingy lighting equates to a dingy picture, no matter how good the camera. All the camera is capturing is reflected light from the surfaces that its sensor picks up. You need to consider helping that along and that can come down to considering where you're shooting (see below) or adding some additional lighting (see below). Regardless the option, this is a consideration you need to take into account and the best way to measure your success review the feed on a second computer dialled into your meeting/session. See what the audience is going to see and not what you're seeing in your playback window. It's not representative of reality otherwise and that is what matters.

Microphone and Sound Considerations

Although many devices come with built-in microphones they will generally pick up everything in the room (and perhaps some traffic and dogs too).

Daniel's Ten Cents… People will forgive some crap video - they've been trained to accept it with Facebook and YouTube - but crap audio will turn them off pretty quickly and there is absolutely no reason for crap audio, other than being lazy or not being able to spend the money to fix it. The first thing is not an excuse and with the latter instance I'd argue you've got to spend some money on increasing the production value and if you have to choose one option from the myriad, this is where you start.

So mentioned in the video camera section, the two web-cams recommended have really good audio built into them with noise reduction. Odd are the video camera has probably got decent audio. Testing to see how it goes with your setup - as mentioned above, checking from the client perspective rather than your monitor - to see how it sounds and make a call. If you're in a quiet room with not a lot of reflective surfaces you're probably going to be okay.

DO NOT USE THE CHEAP AND NASTY MICROPHONE THAT CAME WITH YOUR MOBILE PHONE!!!!! If you've spent a crap load on something like the Airpods, Google equivalent, Bose or Sennheisers you might be in luck or maybe not. I've got good ones and they're just not good enough from where I am sitting and listening. The microphone on my Macbook is okay but not great; it's designed for meetings, not performance or production. I am yet to find a PC that has a great built in microphone but that might be I am a snob. So all the negatives said, what are the options?

External sound card like a Zoom H1 or better. They range from $120 to $600 and will get you excellent sound. So will a Tascam and other brands; I use the term Zoom the same way BandAId is a brandname and the standing nomenclature. For most people this is an overkill solution but it is something that a lot of organisations might already own. The built preamps, gain control etc will improve sound quality and the give some fine tuning to the input. They also provide balanced and powered inputs for other microphones, which has the larger benefit of maybe providing opportunity for future podcasting aspirations. This is one of those nerd toys I replace on a five year cycle and never regret having access too/never stop finding reasons to use it. I have mine at home mounted over my desk on a Manfrotto Magic Arm. I have a number of things mounted on Magic Arms and I might have a problem. More on Manfrotto Magic Arms later.
An external micro will do wonders eliminating the general background crud if you choose the right option. We've moved to using lavelier microphones (mostly known as lapel microphones) as they get the sound closest to the microphone, they're discrete and it's what they're designed for. There are a couple of options though to consider when going down this route, which mostly are will you be moving around a lot and thus yanking the cable out of the computer over and over again? If you are, let us recommend upfront that you should consider getting a wireless solution. We've presently deployed the Rode Wireless GO. One end plugs into the laptop and the other end clips to the presenter, which is a small black or white square. It will also take a more traditional microphone as well. This device is professional grade but designed to be user friendly. So long as it is charged and plugged into the right places it will work a treat. As a side note, you'll see Rode mentioned as a brand a couple of times in my notes. That's because they're a good quality brand, Australian made, available from most every local supplier and they have a rock solid warranty program that is based in Australia. You do you and do your own research; this is the way we went.
NB. One thing to bear in mind when you're buying this equipment it really does matter where it comes from. You will find with cameras and audio equipment - not all but a lot of it - that the warranty is local to the country you buy is from. If it imports from USA or UK or China there's a solid probability that the warranty won't be honoured. Which is not great when spending several hundreds of dollars from budget lines that don't have a lot of replacement fat in them. A phrase you want to avoid at all costs when buying this kind of kit is grey imports; when items are purchased from a cheaper market, imported and sold locally. This tends to be more prevalent with smaller online retailers and Ebay purchases. Have had it happen with Amazon but that's been rare. It might look a lot cheaper in the upfront but you will not get it covered under warranty, even if the item is DOA and having spent the better part of 20 years in this space I have lost track of how many DOA devices and items I have had delivered from reputable brands. It's the reality of high volume consumer electronics; problems slip through the crack. Always check and be sure. If in doubt, deal with brick and mortar retailers in Australia (or the country you're reading this in) either in person or online. because at least then you'll have a phone number to call or shopfront to walk into and declare 'I… would like to make… a complaint' Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch style.
You don't have to go a lavelier microphone. You could go a boom microphone, Podcaster or similar. If you've got a good quality camera and the room is quiet then you can go with that. When making the decision you really have to consider the background noise you're competing with. The best option if you can if record/stream in a quiet room that doesn't have an echo. The next option if the room is noisy if fine a space that is quiet and doesn't have an echo (Andrei would have a better way to articulate this but he's an audio professional and I am a workshop delivering hack). There is no third option. You need to control the space you're recording in and take responsibility for it. Crap in and crap out is the sad reality. If the punters can't hear you or it is difficult to make out what you're saying then that is that; they will tune out.
You're going to need headphones or earbuds. It's that simple and it's not really an option. Alternatively you need fold-back speakers to hear what they're saying and then you need to make sure you're not getting any feedback on the microphone/speakers. Which means you need to test these things and you need to test them well in advance of people coming into the Zoom room for the session. If you're going to go with headphones then go with wireless ones for the same reason that we went with a wireless microphone setup; less cable means less tangling and less ripping stuff off of the table when you forget that you're plugged in. You do not want to break your expensive streaming setup because you're a klutz. Take it from someone that has been there, broken that and had to outlay replacement dollars because no insurance I've found insures against my own idiocy. When we say speakers, they don't have to be expensive but it never hurts that they don't sound like rubbish. When I say headphones, if you're doing this for a living then investing in a decent set of earbuds or headphones is a necessity. Mine are all bluetooth, they make lovely sound in my ear, I can wear them for hours on end without irritation and they have at least six hours battery life which is fully charged anytime I am delivering a public program to ensure I'm not going to run out half way through. As always though; you do you. This is what works for me and for us but you might be an entirely different kettle of fish.

Streaming Device

Desktop
Laptop
Smart device

Internet Connection

Bandwidth requirements:

Standard HD (720p)

Group video calls: 1.5 Mbps (up/down)

Full HD (1080p) Group video calls:

Receiving 1080p HD video requires a minimum of 2.5 Mbps
Sending 1080p video requires a minimum of 3.0 Mbps

Monitors

It is a big bonus to have access to a second monitor if screen-sharing is part of the workshop. This allows the facilitator to have an overview of participants and reading body language and mood and whether participants are raising their hands to ask a question. In some instances participants will show you their work (if physical) using their cameras. Seeing the participants during the workshop will help connect with them and makes the experience feel less one sided.

Other

Lighting

Room Acoustics, Background Noise and Mic Placement

No matter how good your recording gear is, the acoustic environment is still the main factor in audio recording quality.

Understanding your spaces acoustics

The easiest way to think about acoustics is in terms of acoustic 'comfort'. Ask yourself the question - how easy it is to hold a conversation with a few people in this space? Do I need to raise my voice to be heard with a few poeple in the room? Am I missing details in conversations? Does the space feel echo-y or 'cold'? Is there sound leaking in from outside, or being made by equipment in the room? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then the easy fix is change your acoustic environment - by finding another space to use.

What to look (and listen for) in a space

In technical terms, a good acoustic space for recording speech has a flat frequency response, a RT60 of less than one second, with a diffuse near field response. In non-technical terms, we are looking (listening) for a room that is:

warm sounding,
small enough to feel personal
not boomy or echoing (not a shower or bathroom )

<MB

Other things in your space

Have you got enough light?

If you are struggling to see you'll give yourself a headache- thats one thing. but your participants might be having trouble too and the webcam could be struggling (to focus) as well in the dim light.

Ergonomics?

If you are doing a practical workshop make sure you are going to be comfortable. I like to be on wheels so i can reach my gear. It suck having to reach over everything to get to a keyboard for chat when you are in the middle of your workshop.

MB>

Software

OBS for advanced mixing of feeds into Zoom.
CamTwist Free simplified version of OBS for Mac
OBS Mac Virtualcam will output OBS as a virtual camera for Zoom/Teams.
Krisp AI Noise Cancellation Uses AI to remove background noise in realtime. James has been using this for sometime and it works pretty well when not in a clean environment
Webcam Settings Control (Mac) gives you more advanced webcam options, allowing you to change the frequency of the video between 60Hz to 50Hz. This removes the flicker when under some LED/Fluorescent lights
Loopback (Mac) Simple virtual audio mixer for multiple inputs (microphones/application audio)
OBS Camera (various app stores) - Allows you to use phones/tablet cameras as webcams in OBS over a network. You do require a fast network (no wifi). Best to use ethernet dongles for iOS devices

Cloud Platforms

Design and Development

Development considerations

What software/apps do you need for the workshop? Participants cannot be expected to purchase or subscribe to expensive software
What are the hardware requirements for the workshop? The average person will not have the latest and fastest hardware
Can the workshop (software) be run on all major operating systems? macOS and Windows, Linux? Are there any restrictions for what version the participants can be running?
Using online tools removes the need for downloading and installation. This saves time during the delivery or removes the need for participants to download/install things by themselves prior to the workshop
Hazardous materials and tools creates challenges with OHS, risk assessments need to be written for overarching online program as well as for individual workshops. Minimize the risk and provide as many tools as possible.
If you are sending out kits to the participants make sure to:
- 0) Make sure you have all you parts in stock ready to go
- A) Collect postal address and make it mandatory
- B) Consider delivery durations to make sure they are delivered in time
- C) Make pickup an option for the participants (if possible)

<MB

I always try and run a trial of the workshop with a couple of colleagues, well and truly before your workshop date. If you do it early enough, you have time to fix the problems and be prepare to walk into the workshop confidently. It doesn't mater how prepare you think you are you'll always find something you can improve. No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy. - Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke

I also like to document any learnings I have in these in these trials as its great to be able to go back after and see where you've come from. Reflections On Soundscape Box Feedback Session

MB>

Designing Online Workshops

<MB

If you identify an issue being able to deliver something in the online mode, think about what you'd do in a face to face situation. EG if you can't understand what the problem a participant is having ask them to share their screen or hold their project up to the camera. You'd be amazed the solutions (for transitioning to the online mode) when you take this simple step back. just ask yourself how would i normally deal with this?

MB>

Preparation: Materials

Using common materials

POSITIVES

Increases the possibility of future exploration by participants, who experience how everyday materials can be used for prototyping their ideas
Lowers the fear factor, which can be a barrier to exploration if materials are seen to be expensive, ‘special’, rare or difficult to obtain
Makes mistakes and failures less traumatic

NEGATIVES

Reduces cost to the facilitator (and possibly the participant), but limits the range of possible activities
Runs the risk of participants not having materials on hand, either due to misunderstanding, cost or unavailability
Reduces the wow-factor that might attract participants in the first place
Leads to a diversity of inputs that makes delivery more complex

Using supplied materials

POSITIVES

Increases the perceived value of the experience by making it special. The excitement of getting a package in the mail is a good motivator, and may enhance the perceived value of the engagement.
Allows unusual, specialised or bespoke items to be part of the workshop
Provides for more unique participant experiences
Allows participants to access required files or weblinks before the workshop
Increases participant engagement, both as a reminder, and as a demonstrated commitment by the facilitator to the event.

NEGATIVES

Increases delivery costs through postage
Requires more pre-delivery input (purchasing, packing and postage)
Runs the risk of delivery services causing critical delay

Preparation: Documentation

<MB

Having complete documentation before the workshop means that you can try letting the participants read/ look at diagrams (under their own steam ) when telling them/ Showing them over the stream, Especially when the online mode is not working. Detailed diagrams of the box construction stage of the Soundscape Box workshop reduced the duration of this stage from 1 hour (with 2 participants) to 5 or 10 mins (with 7 participants).

Having this info online means studious or particularly engaged participants can go back and dwell on the workshop after.

MB>

POSITIVES

Allows for a secondary communication channel to be available concurrently with the workshop. Having the documentation available to put on screen during the workshop can give access to better images and diagrams than what is usually possible in a live-streamed event.
Allows participants to work asynchronously (greatly assisted by having an assistant)
Increases participant confidence that they can complete the activity, even if the workshop is timed out before ending
Allows facilitators to generate detailed lists of materials and tools
Highlights OHS concerns before delivery
<MB allows facilitator to have some quality control - confidence that the materials will perform the way you need them to - Not all Rubber bands are made the same.
needing to provide basic tools and materials can be a pain but also drives innovation need to send tools drove the development of the Thumb Socket (cute) and sending non-toxic, inexpensive glue meant i discovered using instant grab liquid nails( decanted into cute plastic bottles) as a new way of providing quick contact adhesive. MB>

NEGATIVES

Documentation takes time, and this will need to be scheduled into the facilitator’s workload
Some insights only become apparent in the moments of delivery, and these will not be captured if documentation is completed beforehand. Revision should be allowed for (and further increases the time required)<MB time should be taken to reflect and add Live Findings to your documentation.

Preparation: Tools

Delivery

Delivery: Production Assistant

A production assistant is almost essential if multiple inputs are used – monitoring participant experience in real time will save time and frustration. The assistant needs to be skilled in manipulating software and hardware used, especially if a real-time production suite like OBS Studio is used. The production assistant can also act as a subsidiary tutor, working in a break-out room to engage those who fall behind, or have difficulty interpreting instructions. Assistance with connectivity issues is also better dealt with beside an ongoing engagement, and immediate support will help participants feel less frustrated or abandoned. An additional person in the virtual room also helps negate concerns about child safety or inappropriate conduct by any party. <MB its great to get the assistant to monitor/ drive the chat conversation. Especially when someone has turned up to your workshop without a microphone …it happens all the time no matter how much to tell people minimum requirement to participate is a webcam and mic. Also unless you have a switched on assistant you can count on turn off the waiting… nothing worse than a participant waiting to get in. It can't be understated how great it is just to have an assistant there as you wingman to help you stay cool and not freak out if its all going to hell and you feel like jumping up and running away… or maybe thats just me. MB>

Delivery: Participant Engagement

Taking time at the outset (or including instructions in a pre-workshop mailout) about implementing the available Zoom backgrounds might help get more faces in the room <MB i hate the backgrounds as it can make seeing what they are doing harder MB>. Noisy household backgrounds are a common problem (as well as interrupting pets, children and spouses), but people familiar with Zoom tend to be tolerant of this. Addressing this explicitly in the opening conversation might encourage more video presence if intermittent muting is suggested as a solution.

Delivery: Technology and Software

Technical Considerations

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 06 Oct 2020 10:27:31 +0000

Technical Considerations

Hardware

Camera

Logitech StreamCam is going to cost you @ $250 and you can get them from Officeworks as a click n collect or delivered item. They have exceptional picture quality, plug and play with all the platforms and comes with both a top of the screen and tripod mount option. It deals with low light okay and the built in microphones are actually really good and (better than my fancy Zoom H5n as the Logitech Streamcam has intelligent noise filtering built into it. Downside, they're USBC only and I wouldn't trust an adapter for USB3 as far as I can throw it. Which is a crap analogy as I can throw one a long way but that is not the point!!!! If you have a new HP or Mac, you're in for a treat but do know what your situation is before you press buy. I've got mine in the home office paired with one of the bigger Jobi Pods and have put them on proper tripods for capturing hand work but we'll get to mounting cameras under the mounting section.
Logitech Brio is the business if money is no object, these are the superstar cameras at $380+. Short of the next option, this is the best quality imagery you're going to get into the computer. They're also USB3 and USB2 compatible (not as good a picture). Appreciate that both these options are Logitech but they really do have the market cornered at the minute with webcams. Everything that goes for the StreamCam goes for the Brio.
A proper video camera is always going to crap all over a web-camera. The sensors are bigger, the lenses better and the odds are you might have one lying around the office as a great many LGAs do. The question is how to get them into a computer and there are solutions for that so long as they have a HDMI out port on them. This can be solved with a Magewell HDMI USB Capture card ($430+) or the recently back in stock Elgato CamLink Capture 4K ($190). Both of these will turn the humble video camera into a web camera with the bonus of being able to record your end of the conversation to the camera. Useful if you're looking at repurposing facilitator footage for self paced learning options. The real difference is the size of the sensor. You're jumping from millimetres to centimetres and there is just more surface to capture information on. If you're going to go this far, you also will need a tripod but we'll get to that. With regards the Magewell and Elgato there isn't a huge difference between the two products and the price difference - as far as I can tell - is one is made for high end production environment and the other is used by every would be Twitch or new YouTube star with their camera rigs. They've both got a warranty so I'd suggest making your own mind up. If you're around Brisbane and want to look at both, hit me up in an email.

Microphone and Sound Considerations

Although many devices come with built-in microphones they will generally pick up everything in the room (and perhaps some traffic and dogs too).

So mentioned in the video camera section, the two web-cams recommended have really good audio built into them with noise reduction. Odds are the video camera has probably got decent audio. Testing to see how it goes with your setup - as mentioned above, checking from the client perspective rather than your monitor - to see how it sounds and make a call. If you're in a quiet room with not a lot of reflective surfaces you're probably going to be okay.

External sound card like a Zoom H1 or better. They range from $120 to $600 and will get you excellent sound. So will a Tascam and other brands; I use the term Zoom the same way BandAId is a brandname and the standing nomenclature. For most people this is an overkill solution but it is something that a lot of organisations might already own. The inbuilt preamps, gain control etc will improve sound quality and the give some fine tuning to the input. They also provide balanced and powered inputs for other microphones, which has the larger benefit of maybe providing opportunity for future podcasting aspirations. This is one of those nerd toys I replace on a five year cycle and never regret having access too/never stop finding reasons to use it. I have mine at home mounted over my desk on a Manfrotto Magic Arm. I have a number of things mounted on Magic Arms and I might have a problem. More on Manfrotto Magic Arms later.
An external micro will do wonders eliminating the general background crud if you choose the right option. We've moved to using lavelier microphones (mostly known as lapel microphones) as they get the sound closest to the microphone, they're discrete and it's what they're designed for. There are a couple of options though to consider when going down this route, which mostly are will you be moving around a lot and thus yanking the cable out of the computer over and over again? If you are, let us recommend upfront that you should consider getting a wireless solution. We've presently deployed the Rode Wireless GO. One end plugs into the laptop and the other end clips to the presenter, which is a small black or white square. It will also take a more traditional microphone as well. This device is professional grade but designed to be user friendly. So long as it is charged and plugged into the right places it will work a treat. As a side note, you'll see Rode mentioned as a brand a couple of times in my notes. That's because they're a good quality brand, Australian made, available from most every local supplier and they have a rock solid warranty program that is based in Australia. You do you and do your own research; this is the way we went.
NB. One thing to bear in mind when you're buying this equipment it really does matter where it comes from. You will find with cameras and audio equipment - not all but a lot of it - that the warranty is local to the country you buy it from. If it imports from USA or UK or China there's a solid probability that the warranty won't be honoured. Which is not great when spending several hundreds of dollars from budget lines that don't have a lot of replacement fat in them. A phrase you want to avoid at all costs when buying this kind of kit is grey imports; when items are purchased from a cheaper market, imported and sold locally. This tends to be more prevalent with smaller online retailers and Ebay purchases. Have had it happen with Amazon but that's been rare. It might look a lot cheaper in the upfront but you will not get it covered under warranty, even if the item is DOA and having spent the better part of 20 years in this space I have lost track of how many DOA devices and items I have had delivered from reputable brands. It's the reality of high volume consumer electronics; problems slip through the crack. Always check and be sure. If in doubt, deal with brick and mortar retailers in Australia (or the country you're reading this in) either in person or online. because at least then you'll have a phone number to call or shopfront to walk into and declare 'I… would like to make… a complaint' Monty Python's Dead Parrot sketch style.
You don't have to go a lavelier microphone. You could go a boom microphone, Podcaster or similar. If you've got a good quality camera and the room is quiet then you can go with that. When making the decision you really have to consider the background noise you're competing with. The best option if you can if record/stream in a quiet room that doesn't have an echo. The next option if the room is noisy if fine a space that is quiet and doesn't have an echo (Andrei would have a better way to articulate this but he's an audio professional and I am a workshop delivering hack). There is no third option. You need to control the space you're recording in and take responsibility for it. Crap in and crap out is the sad reality. If the punters can't hear you or it is difficult to make out what you're saying then that is that; they will tune out.
You're going to need headphones or earbuds. It's that simple and it's not really an option. Alternatively you need fold-back speakers to hear what they're saying and then you need to make sure you're not getting any feedback on the microphone/speakers. Which means you need to test these things and you need to test them well in advance of people coming into the Zoom room for the session. If you're going to go with headphones then go with wireless ones for the same reason that we went with a wireless microphone setup; less cable means less tangling and less ripping stuff off of the table when you forget that you're plugged in. You do not want to break your expensive streaming setup because you're a klutz. Take it from someone that has been there, broken that and had to outlay replacement dollars because no insurance I've found insures against my own idiocy. When we say speakers, they don't have to be expensive but it never hurts that they don't sound like rubbish. When I say headphones, if you're doing this for a living then investing in a decent set of earbuds or headphones is a necessity. Mine are all bluetooth, they make lovely sound in my ear, I can wear them for hours on end without irritation and they have at least six hours battery life which is fully charged anytime I am delivering a public program to ensure I'm not going to run out half way through. As always though; you do you. This is what works for me and for us but you might be an entirely different kettle of fish.

Streaming Device

Desktop
Laptop
Smart device

Internet Connection

Bandwidth requirements:

Standard HD (720p)

Group video calls: 1.5 Mbps (up/down)

Full HD (1080p) Group video calls:

Receiving 1080p HD video requires a minimum of 2.5 Mbps
Sending 1080p video requires a minimum of 3.0 Mbps

Monitors

Other

Lighting

Room Acoustics, Background Noise and Mic Technique

No matter how good your recording gear is, the acoustic environment is still the main factor in audio recording quality.

Understanding your space's acoustics

The easiest way to think about acoustics is in terms of acoustic 'comfort'. Ask yourself the question - how easy it is to hold a conversation with a few people in this space? Do I need to raise my voice to be heard with a few people in the room? Am I missing details in conversations? Does the space feel echo-y or 'cold'? Is there sound leaking in from outside, or being made by equipment in the room? If you answer yes to any of these questions, then the easy fix is change your acoustic environment - by finding another space to use.

What to look (and listen for) in a space

warm sounding,
small enough to feel personal
not boomy or echoing (not an empty garage or bathroom )

You will find that rooms in your workspace or house that meet this criteria will have carpet or a rug, soft furnishings, a book shelf or two and a well sealed door.

Background Noise, Buzz and Hum

Background noise can be acoustic, meaning its present in the physical space your are recording in, or it can be produced electronically by microphones, faulty cables or even the USB ports on a computer¹⁾. A noise can be sustained, like an air-conditioner, or an intermittent interuption like a dog barking. As mentioned above, the best way to deal with noise is to remove it - either by changing your location, workshop time, or removing the source of the noise. but if this isn't possible you can make your audio source louder (speak up!) and experiment with microphone technique, gain and digital audio processing.

Mic Technique

Your mic will have an optimal position and orientation - you want to place it as close as is feasible to your audio source (you!) and make sure you are addressing the mic capsule²⁾ directly. If you are using a built in microphone on a laptop or webcam you are of course a bit restricted by the best place for video, so a separate microphone give a few more options.

IMPORTANT Mics are either end addressed - like the Shure SM58 pictured below - which means you speak into the end of the mic.

or side addressed - like the Numann TLM107 - where you speak into the front of the mic, usually facing the badge or logo.

All mic will have a polar pattern that describes its sensitivity - most vocal mics have a cardiod pattern and they are most sensitive when addressed from the front of the capsule.

Take a look at the mic technique of an experienced podcaster like Joe Rogan - you will notice that his mouth (the audio source) stays in pretty much the same position, on the same microphone (a Shure SM7b) right in the sweet spot of the mic polar pattern. This is key to a consistent, quality vocal recording and the main factor in creating a “signature sound”.

Microphone Gain

Gain is an electronic process use to amplify (make louder) or attenuate (make softer) a microphones output signal level with a mic pre-amplifier (pre-amp). With built-in microphones your gain options are controlled by the sound control panel or drivers that displays the microphone signal level in real-time - called metering. As a general rule in this case your device will probably have an “auto-gain” feature that adjusts the gain automagically. By default you should be using auto-gain, the less we have to think about the better, but if you find your level is flucuating wildly due to some other sounds intruding test what a fixed gain level sounds like. Adjust your gain slider until your voice signal is in the top three quarters of the meters, without the meters turning red.

Distortion

Distortion is that ugly crackling sound that results from the mic pre-amp signal being over amplified. There are many different kinds of distortion, but for our purposes, any distortion is bad and usually results from too mich pre-amp gain. You should always test your mic levels before your workshop - you want to avoid any red on your metering.

Feedback

Feedback is the horrible ringing/whistling sound that we've all probably heard at some point. This occurs when the output of a microphone is amplified, and played back in the same acoustic space as the microphone by speakers.

The microphone amplifies its own signal again and again creating a feedback loop, until one or more frequencies overwhelms all the overs and stabs you in the ear.

Feedback can be painful and even damaging to your hearing, so its important to avoid and know how to stop it dead, fortunately this is simple to do.

The two options for controlling feedback are:

mute the acoustic output of speakers - turn them completely down or off.
mute the mic signal output - turn down the gain or turn the mic off.

Once the feeback is under controll, you will need work out where the loop is occuring and eliminate it. If you have more than one participant in a room - its quite possible for your microphone to create a feedback loop with their speakers. So the general rule is:

One microphone and one speaker per acoustic environment (room)

Digital Noise Reduction

Software

OBS for advanced mixing of feeds into Zoom.
CamTwist Free simplified version of OBS for Mac
OBS Mac Virtualcam will output OBS as a virtual camera for Zoom/Teams.
Krisp AI Noise Cancellation Uses AI to remove background noise in realtime. James has been using this for sometime and it works pretty well when not in a clean environment
Webcam Settings Control (Mac) gives you more advanced webcam options, allowing you to change the frequency of the video between 60Hz to 50Hz. This removes the flicker when under some LED/Fluorescent lights
Loopback (Mac) Simple virtual audio mixer for multiple inputs (microphones/application audio)
OBS Camera (various app stores) - Allows you to use phones/tablet cameras as webcams in OBS over a network. You do require a fast network (no wifi). Best to use ethernet dongles for iOS devices
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/guides/nvidia-rtx-voice-setup-guide/ - Enables real-time noise reduction with Nividia video cards.

Cloud Platforms

¹⁾

this is likely linked to low quality or faulty power supplies

²⁾

the electronic component that transforms acoustic energy into electrical energy

Delivering online engagements in the Glam Sector - Session Plan

anonymous@undisclosed.example.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 16 Nov 2020 17:06:15 +0000

Delivering online engagements in the Glam Sector - Session Plan

Welcome to country

Slide 2

We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their continuing connection to land and as custodians of stories for millennia. We respectfully acknowledge the land on which we all meet today, and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging.

Intro to facilitators

Slide 3

Mick
Phil
Peter

Participants invited to introduce themselves and briefly explain how they've ended up here. who you are? Where you come from? and how did you come to be here in this workshop?

Introduction

With great chunks of the world shutting down for the COVID 19 Pandemic many library services including the State Library moved to doing things differently.

In the beginning people were keen to do something… anything cause they were cooped up in their houses, bored and lonely.

In some cases its been great to be able to take up opportunities to engage with new skills and experiences in this remote mode. Its not as though we couldn't do it before, COVID just broke down our reluctance change our behaviours.

But just as audiences appreciate quailty in their face-to-face experiences, post COVID patrons simply won't bother if they wiff sub par online workshop.

So we though why not share the hard-won lessons we've learnt over the last 6 months thru some PD workshops. So initially we thought we’d come up a list of everything you need to know to run a workshop or other engagement in your library, gallery or museum.

But then we realised a couple of things….

ONE… how could we possibly know what you need in your community better than you do? We can’t…

What we can do is talk to you about our experience, and what you might like to consider when you are thinking about putting on a workshop like this.

Slide 4

TWO… there is so many things you could consider. So we’ve tried to pair it down to a manageable list of Key considerations in three areas:

1. the technical aspects,

2. design and development of your activity and

3. the actual delivery.

So each of us will discuss one of these areas with you, we’ll do some quick little activities to explore these, from your own local perspective, and at the end, we’ll hopefully have some discussion of what its like for you guys.

Scenario

But before we move on I’d like to set up a little scenario, to help us ground the discussion in a real practical context.

Some of you will know Fun Palace We were originally we wanted to run this workshop as part of a PD opportunity attached to Fun Palace,

Fun Palace is an event, originally developed in England, that we’ve been running at the State Library, and with regional libraries, for a number of years now in late Oct.

Its an opportunity for community to come along to libraries and participate in activities under the banner of the philosophy that

“anyone can be an artist, anyone can do science”.

Like previous mentoring opportunities we’ve run with Fun Palace, we were looking forward to maybe working with and supporting regional people to develop on-line activities to run in their own communities.

Unfortunately COVID killed the Fun (Palace) this year.

But while we talk about this stuff today I’d encourage you to consider this scenario.

Slide 5

No matter whether you like the idea of Fun Palace or not ;) imagine your boss has come to you and asked to develop a plan for a Fun Palace activity, but this year it will be online in your community.

What would you want to know?
What complexities would you want to consider as you put together a plan.
If you like the idea what would you put in place to make it a success.
Do you really even need to spend a lot of Money… Have you already go what you need?

Say you don’t like the idea…

what would you identify as your argument or suggest instead.
Is it even possible?

So without anymore delay lets jump into the Technical Considerations with Phil…Phil ~

Top Tech Considerations

Slide 7

0. No stable internet, no workshop!

Harsh but true, if you have a slow or unreliable connection resulting in disconnects, stuttering audio and video running and hosting a workshop, no matter the platform will not be possible.

If this is the case for you see if you can find a stable connection elsewhere.

I live in the Brisbane CBD, we just got NBN a few months back. At the start of the lockdown I wouldn't have been able to run workshops from home even if though we had a very reliable ADSL2+. The upload speed was limited to 0.5Mbit, even if it was stable it was too slow to stream video.

If you're unsure of your internet speed try Speedtest by Ookla.

Your upload speed is most important as it is used to share audio/video. It is usually much slower than the download speeds.

Make sure you check the website of the applications you are using (such as Zoom, Jitsi, Skype, etc.) to ensure your connections meets the minimum requirements.

It is also important to consider the connections of your participants and whether they will be able to receive audio/video clear enough.

1. Audio - Can you hear me? (How about now?)

Sound should always be your top priority - Patchy, echoey or laggy sound is a deal breaker.

Choice of mic should be based on your specific needs, will you be moving around or sitting in the same place?

Test your audio

Setup a Zoom call (or whatever platform you're using) with someone in a different location to gauge the sound quality
Be aware of distance to mic and where to find the settings in the different programs and hardware you might be using.
You may need headphones/earbuds or your participants will experience echoes or feedback
If you're having trouble with background noise and you can't tweak your mic or settings, there's https://krisp.ai/ that will reduce it for you.

Echoey room

Find the right room
- Larger and/or empty rooms are usually more echoey
Soundproofing existing room
- Carpets, furniture, curtains
- Soundproofing foam

Distractions (Quiet space)

Barking dogs, crying children, construction work - Not only a distraction for you but for the participants

We have a great high quality wireless microphone but Mick has a big beard which caught the audio.

2. Video

Camera

Your first question should be what are we showing the participants? Is it slides, is it the facilitators face or hands-on close-ups? This will help you determine what type of camera you need and what the minimum quality needs to be. You should also consider whether you need more than one camera and the ability to switch between them. Account for positioning and whether you need to buy additional mounts or camera stands (tripods) to get the best angles.

Lighting

Fluorescent and tungsten light are not always optimal
Light up what is in focus
Photographers are usually using at least two light sources from both sides to remove shadows
Unless you know what you are doing, don't use backlighting (especially natural backlighting)

Multiple monitors

Having additional monitors is a huge help when managing both what you need to see (monitoring activity, chat, notes, etc.) as well as what needs to be shown to the participants.

3. Control

With all this software and hardware; how do we make things easier for ourselves and how can we make the most of this technology?

Audio Mix

Have control over all your audio devices (input and output) in one place.

When your microphone is too loud or the youtube video you're showing is too low.

View control

Allows quick control when you have multiple programs or scenes, microphones and cameras

OBS (Open Broadcast Software)

Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming.
Very powerful (a workshop on it's own)
Can be used together with other programs (Zoom, Skype, Teams)

4. Setting up and knowing your setup

Experiment and learn the ins and -outs of your software and hardware. This will:

minimise the chances of something going wrong during the workshop and
will help you troubleshoot if something does happen.

How do you adjust the speakers volume?
How do you adjust the participants volume?
Are you cables long enough?
Does your computer have the right/enough ports?
Is there power for everything (lights, laptop, screens)
Do you have the right/enough ports on your computer to connect everything?
How do I switch between camera?
How do I mute myself?
How do I share my screen?
Do you need a second monitor to see participants as well as what they are seeing?

Test everything!

The facilitator needs to know the setup and a helping hand is necessary

5. Use what you have (at least to start with)!

Trial your setup before purchasing expensive equipment
Gauge participant reactions and feedback of your setup.
Adding audio mixers, view control and more advanced software is great but is it the right thing you?
Is it a one off or are you running multiple workshops over the next months/year?
Budget after your needs

6. Software

Pick software that suits your needs and is manageable
What are the limitation of the software (is there a free and paid version)?
If you’re teaching software and the participants are required to use it during the workshop, account for cost and system requirements
Jit.si is a free alternative to Zoom

7. What skills and skill sets are available to you

What skill sets do you have in your team and which ones do you lack?
Does anyone else in your team or organisation have any helpful skills that you can utilise?
Consider that not everyone has the same digital literacy and experience.

Top Ten Tech Considerations when exploring running an online engagement in your public library

there can be more than 10 w'll whittle them down. Also once we've condensed these down to manageable list of key considerations we could ditch the listicle format if you think its too naff Don't forget to bracket your contributions with your Initials eg <MB contribution MB>

Number Zero Tech Consideration - Interwebz

Bandwidth - Before you even consider running something online make sure you, and your participants, have access to a reliable connection. You'd be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) how patchy the internet can be. I only live 10 min from the State Library and have paid top dollar to my ISP and i've still had problems maintaining the bandwidth required to run an online engagement without interruptions.

Platform - because of this you might also consider what platforms you'll use in your engagement. You might need to balance out the immediacy of live video (ZOOM or Jitsi) with the more mediated option of a virtual platform like Mozilla Hubs or the reliable robustness of a chat-based collaboration and sharing tools like FB groups or Slack.

Number One Tech Consideration - Sound capture

Having people hear you is an absolute top priority. Some say hearing is the first sense - we do it in utero, its the first way we learn to communicate and even in this visual world we are said to live in, its still a really important go-to we use for communicating detail and context. So maybe this is why sound quality is so important in online workshop. to paraphrase Daniel, audiences will excuse patchy video but patchy, echoey, or laggy is a deal breaker. Its really hard to ignore.

And so, just like with all questions of production quality, you capture sound at the maximum resolution.

And if you are having bandwidth issues with your stream, turn down the video resolution.

Here's some gear we've found useful for our specific context.

Number Two Tech Consideration - Video capture

Having said all that about sound it is nice to have good video. There are also types of activities that demand it especially hands on workshops where you are assembling anything small like electronics. (A way around this is good documentation and or diagrams see documentation in development section)

Here's some gear we've found useful for our specific context.

Number Three Tech Consideration - Room Setup

give yourself some time (even practice) setting up your space.

Echoey make it hard for you and you participants to hear

Light give yourself enough light to see what your doing you also be surprised how much better your camera works when it has enough even light.

Here's some lights we've found useful for our specific context.

Distractions we often remind participants to find a quiet space to join the stream but sometimes forget how important this can be for us facilitators.

Mess its not just good present, a messy room is an eye distraction and makes it harder for you camera to focus

Ergonomics get set up in a way that is comfortable and efficient. It sucks when you have to reach over stuff to get to your keyboard for chat when you are in full flight. Consider laying down tape on you bench to establish the field of view if you are using a top down camera. i like to be on wheels so i can mover around. This also extends to how you hold your gear like camera's Here's some gear we've found useful for our specific context. Mic Stand Gorilla grip Drum Kit hardware

Number Four Tech Consideration - Control

There's an app for that… OBS is free application that you can put between your camera/ mics, and the streaming service your using. OBS gives you more control over these inputs and allows you to to have things like preset scenes overlays and seamlessly add other media like prepare video intros and outro.

Audio mix The drive towards plug and play (auto levelling mics and auto focus webcams) make it easy to get started…Which great but if you want to do something more specialised or home baked you may need to have some special tools. An audio mixer is a must for workshops using sound

Camera Control Elgato Stream deck. if you are doing alot of this kind of work there a couple of software base vision mixers for video streamers on the market the that make one handed streaming easy. we got this one, and you can program it to switch from different camera feeds to video content etc

ACTIVITY 1 - Resource audit/map

Slide 20

On a big piece of paper make a map of all the resources you would need and/or could access in organisation or local community to run an online Fun Palace activity.

Resource

Source: Who has them?

How to get access?

Pros and cons of each of these elements

What did you find? What surprised you?

Design and Development

Slide 21

Top Ten Design and Development Considerations when exploring running an online engagement in your public library

Number One Design consideration: Audience and content

Slide 22

Working in the virtual realm means that your potential audience has consequently grown to be the 4.13 billion people in the world with access to the internet. Of course, not all will have the bandwidth required,

but we love the idea cause it means people from across the state can participate.

For you guys you might work in vast regional councils or you might want to share / swap resources with the council down the road. But you need to have a manageable number and some idea of who its going to be.

1. limit the number of seats just like in a F2F activity theres only so many people you can productive fit in a workshop. Just cause you can stack bodies in a room doesn’t mean you’ll be able to run a good workshop. If you access to an online ticketing platform, that allows you to control your numbers and communicate with you audience before hand which as phil said you’ll probably want to.

Slide 23

2. target an age group and or a community of interest This does not guarantee that people will respect your advice, but reduces misunderstanding.

Slide 24

3. what are we going to get out of it Also consider how your workshop will be different to other content they can get online. Why would prospective participants engage with your workshop when they can watch thousands of YouTube tutorials access Lynda.com thru the library or visit a website like https://wikihow.com

You might want design & promote your activity in ways that encourage participants:

• create a community by connecting with other people who share an interest in your area

• to come and use a resource you have in your library.

• develop practical skills – maybe even skills you can leverage in the future

• contribute what they’ve made to a display or exhibition

• leave the workshop with a finished object so they have tangible outcome and a prop for spreading the word about your programs.

• take advantage of the fact that someone is there to answer questions and or assist.

What are some other reasons for running an activity?

Number Two Design consideration: What kind of Activity

Slide 25

Once you’ve worked out who your audience will be and why they’re interested in attending an online activity you need to consider what kind of activity.

It's easy to focus on the limitations online delivery can place on us but there is also many things that well, maybe better suited to online delivery. An example is the Google form you fill out before.

While you were listening to phil I turned it into an interactive map.

Example 2 while ago in a workshop where I needed to get people to describe sounds they we making. Normally I would have gotten the group to write a list of words on butchers paper to warm up their descriptive juices. For the online workshop I made a Word Cloud they could play with.

If you are struggling with something when you planning your online engagement… stop and think about how you’d normally do it (F2F) and then think what novel online ways you can achieve the same end.

Slide 26

Normally you’d want to break people into groups??? Use the Rooms feature in zoom to send them to a breakout room

Number Three Design consideration: Keep an eye on the time

Slide 27

Even at the best of times, people struggle to concentrate on instruction for more than 15-20 minutes at a time. It is better to work with this than fight it –

keep things brief, or plan for breaks between chunks of activity.

Breaking the flow can be useful (giving time for glue to set, for example), or allow people to catch up or troubleshoot a problem you had earlier in the session.

Multi-day workshops may be the only way to address some complex goals. Having a week to get the 3D printing done can be great And the more times you bring people together, the more likely they are to start connecting, sharing and collaborating. Of course you may also need plan for a gradual decline in attendance by allowing new people to join as the process goes head.

Number Four Design consideration: Materials and tools

Slide 28

When we hands on we mean it. but how do you do this remotely. Limiting your design to using stuff that is around most peoples homes (or which they can buy in any supermarket) will constrain the sort of things you can do, but not as much as you think.

There is a world of dedicated people out there on the web who make amazing things from paper, cardboard and sticky tape, So there’s always a way transfer to your idea to something simple if the need requires it.

There’s will still be a limit, though, and

• cheap materials may not be the image you want to present under-valuing the experience. If you choose this approach, make it explicitly part of the offer, and claim it as a positive feature.

• If the participant is providing the materials you have no control over what rubber band they’ll use

If your activity requires special things, or you don’t think they’ll get their hands on them - sending materials to them is a solution.

Everyone feels special when they get something in the mail and it make the whole more of an event.

It does have implications for timing, and budget, however. I recently had some participants get their kits after the workshop.

Similar to Materials with tools you can either restrict things to what people can be expected to have already, or obtain easily, or else send essential tools in preparation.

Slide 29

Tools are more expensive than materials, as a rule, so this has even more budget considerations, but a cheap pliers in a kit might be enough psychologically to set participants up in a new hobby – which is significant change in some peoples lives.

If the workshop requires specific tools (maybe this is about promoting the library's new 3D printer, for example), then you could move to a delayed delivery or multi-part engagement model.

Sending digital designs to the library for pick up later has been a strategy that works for us, The online version of our 3D printed Pop vinyl characters worked really well but the probability of problems with bad files, lost data and over-exuberant imaginations is something you’ll also want to plan around too.

It kinda goes without saying but is worth mentioning its poor form to offer a workshop on expensive tools unless you are going to offer access to the gear.

You’d hardly want to get young people hooked on 3d printing unless you’ve identified how they are going to have easy access to a printer in the future.

Number Five Design consideration: Cost

Slide 30

Which kinda brings us to cost. -

1…In our experience, people will line up pay over a $100 if they are getting a heap of special goodies, maybe with a few tools thrown in or but especially if it gives them something to show off if they end up with something that reflects a special interest,

a lot more people would probably love to do your workshop if it were less expensive.

2…does your organisation want this activity be a cost, cost neutral or an opportunity for profit?

all these things will impact on potential audience numbers, as well what you can afford to offer.

Public Libraries also usually have a thing about charging their users, but covering material costs is more easily justified.

You'll probably also have an idea of the how much people can afford or maybe you can get someone to pay it forward/ sponsor the activity so other people can participate?

Free workshops also have problems too- people tend to easily disregard any obligation to use their ticket, and this is a problem if seats are limited. Every community is different but we generally expect up to 20% non-attendance if tickets are $15, and more so if the price is less… so you can plan for this by allowing your activity to be slightly over subscribe (I personally don’t like doing this because you’ll be surprised when you have 120% of your attendees show up) I'd prefer to just be prepared and accept it when it happens.

Number Six Design consideration: Short Cuts

Slide 31

These fall into the 'here is one I prepared earlier' school of workshop delivery, but this can be a useful part of the design process, especially for long and complicated workshops. For example, if you are introducing folks to digital design software (whether 2D Inkscape, or 3D Tinkercad) having some prepared models that participants can tweak to personalise will improve their chances of success.

These software tools are complex, and take a long time to learn in detail, so using a process that guarantees a first-time outcome is a way to encourage further exploration by participants.

Physical kit can also be prepared and provided (pre-cut propellers for a rubber band plane, for example) if your development identifies these parts as needing more skill or time than you can reasonably expect.

Of course, if these skills are a key outcome of the activity, then -

• you will need to develop a plan that allows time for failure, and ways to cope with frustration.

• You also want tto at least demonstrate or make clear how people could go back and do it from scratch. The last workshop we sent out laser cut boxes – now people probably wont have a laser cutter at home but I made it pretty clear how you could make your own box out of a knife and cardboard. Consider especially if the complicated task is critical for overall success - because this is what most participants will remember, and what should be to the forefront of designing a well-received workshop.

It might be worth sacrificing some learning for a better overall outcome.

Again its about balance don’t make it too easy - challenge and struggle is also necessary for folks to truly feel accomplishment at the end of the experience.

I like to think about how I’m going cater to both ends of the spectrum. to keep the crazy skilled semi-pro (the person who should probably be running the workshop) occupied and how you are going to provide the newbie from struggletown get the satisfaction of finishing the activity.

Activity 2

Slide 32

So now lets do another activity. in the chat I have added another Google form template - Fun Palace Activity Plan.

That has a session plan for a fun palace activity.

I’m only going to give you five minutes

Thats not enough even to do first draft!

but its enough time to have a quick read…. and to start working on the part that interests you. Word version of Fun Palace Activity Plan

Number One Delivery Consideration: Location! Location! Location!

Make sure all the equipment and materials you will need are within easy reach, and you do not disappear from view when reaching for anything.

Number Two Delivery Consideration : Practice makes perfect

Number Three Delivery Consideration : Punctuality

Number Four Delivery Consideration : Speaking to the void

Number Five Delivery Consideration : What you see is what you get

Number Six Delivery Consideration : Presence

Number Seven Delivery Consideration : Here is one I prepared earlier...

Number Eight Delivery Consideration : Have a wingman

Number Nine Delivery Consideration : Become a Zoom expert

Home Delivery setup

Clean background, extra monitor, webcam in reach.

All stages accessible without moving from a seat.

Drum kit stand re-purposed as webcam mount for top-down view

In action during a live remote workshop (note webcam view on laptop)

Slide 33

NUMBER ONE- Consideration when exploring running an online engagement in your public library

Advice… ask for help and hey! we're here to help.

Don't forget to ask you colleagues and test the idea on prospective participants- see what they think. Online delivery, and preparing for it, is a lot to juggle. You are almost sure to not think of everything. Thats why its great to run a trial, video yourself, and ask for feedback before you subject yourself onto an unprepared audience.

Questions Comments

Slide 34

Do you have any questions?

Did we miss anything?

Do you think there is anything else we could do to make this kind of workshop better?

Whats the main thing you'll take away from today?

Is this the kind of workshop you'd like to see more of?

Are there any topics you think would be good?

Slide 35

Workshop Plan

Prep & Materials

Part Zero

Intro

Part One - Tech Considerations

Part Two - Design & Development

Part Three - Delivery Considerations

Workshop Plan

RATIONALE

WORKSHOP

5 min Make personal introductions and engage as a group, establish credentials

5 min If none have video blocked, assign this task to one or two, and have one communicate only through text.

10 min Explain that they are going to do a practical activity that requires a piece of A4 paper (and allow them to locate one).

Lead through steps to fold an origami chatterbox

Start with facilitator speaking direct to a webcam, and holding up an example

Use the top-down webcam for some steps

Use a document with diagrams of the steps available on a shared screen

5 min Analyse the experience in a group discussion, going through each step as different techniques were introduced. What works best? Will this hold for all engagements?

Demonstrate hands-up polling for the facilitator to get a sense of the room.

Emphasise the effect of having documentation available (did this put people at ease?)

5 min Wrap up and take questions. Plug the wiki.