Library Skills: synchronous (live and face to face) training guide

1. Flipped / blended approach: Where traditionally we may have delivered workshops of a few hours, it can be preferable to keep live online sessions shorter, and delivered on a flipped / blended learning approach. With a flipped model, students are required to undertake self-directed asynchronous learning or have relevant experience prior to attending a live online session. The session should therefore be an opportunity for attendees to consolidate what they have learned, clarify points, seek feedback on their learning, ask questions and get an understanding about next steps in their learning. These areas should therefore all be addressed in the lesson design. We may also offer live online sessions that assume no prior knowledge and do not have preparatory work as a pre-requisite. In these cases a blended approach should still be taken, whereby attendees are referred to supplementary asynchronous materials which may complement the session or provide scope for next steps in their learning.
2. Interactivity and activities: It is important to ensure interactivity in a session so that attendees are engaged, so that you can gauge levels of understanding, and so that attendees receive feedback on their learning. How you approach interactivity may depend on the number of attendees, but you should not assume that people will be prepared to simply ask questions. Consider activities to encourage interactivity, feedback and assessment for learning.
3. Q&A: This is an important part of the session. People may be attending simply because they have one particular question. Decide how you will facilitate the questions. You could ask people to post them to the chat. If you have a colleague acting as moderator (recommended) they can answer simple questions in the chat, can tell people with very specific questions about something that only they might be interested in that we’ll follow up with them individually, and alert the trainer to questions that might be of interest to all so the trainer can then address them. If you are running the session alone, factor in slots within the session when you will look at questions. This could be whilst people are doing an activity, or could be defined times in your lesson plan / outline. Ensure you let the attendees know how you will be managing questions. In a small group, you might be able to ask for questions verbally. Where a session is promoted specifically as a Q&A session, you may like to ask attendees to submit questions prior to the event, but make it clear they can also ask questions during the event.
4. Timing: Live online sessions ideally should be no longer than 1 hour. So that attendees do not have to go straight from one online session into another, it is best to follow the ‘UCL hour’, formally starting the session at 5 minutes past the hour and ending at 5 minutes to the hour, so you should aim for a maximum session length of 50 minutes. You may decide that a shorter or longer session is more appropriate. Where sessions are more than 1h 15mins, you should factor in a break. This is a requirement for any sessions offered as part of the Doctoral Skills Development Programme.
5. Numbers of attendees: The approach to the live online session design will vary depending on the number of attendees expected. Small groups can be more informal and could involve verbal discussion, whereas larger groups will require more control over attendee interaction and may require use of tools for interaction, such as whiteboard or polling.
6. Live online sessions as part of scheduled programmes of sessions: Sessions should be advertised using LibCal (see Administration and bookings). As online sessions are not associated with a physical location, and there are no barriers of distance for attendees, our programme of live sessions is therefore effectively a single programme and you should expect attendees from across the organisation. It is therefore vital that we ensure consistency in the delivery of our sessions, particularly where similar sessions are delivered by colleagues from across the Service. E.g. reference management software, sessions offered by colleagues at biomedical sites. Standard session outlines should be developed and agreed with the Online Library Skills Working Group for sessions offered by more than one library site.
7. Platforms: Live online sessions should be delivered using one of the three platforms recommended at UCL: Zoom or Microsoft Teams. (See Platforms).
8. Co-trainer: For live online sessions it is recommended that two members of staff are involved in the delivery if possible. The second member of staff can act as an observer or moderator, keeping track of any questions asked in the chat channel, or watching our for student feedback. This might be a status, emoji, or a 'hand raise' as well as direct questions or an indication that they have left the session. Having a co-trainer also helps to provide cover for emergencies, e.g. should the lead trainer's technology fail.

During live online teaching it is important to ensure captions are enabled.