In today’s COVID-19 climate, organizations are actively learning how to engage employees in virtual learning and virtual events, often via a learning management system (LMS). Virtual learning is an effective means to distribute knowledge to employees and promote engagement. While in-person events are on hold, virtual events offer organizations the opportunity to include greater numbers of participants.
A virtual event is a valuable addition to a current e-learning curriculum. By bringing people closer together in pursuit of a goal, virtual events can refresh participants’ interest in learning and achieve a passionate workplace.
At Web Courseworks, we work with association professionals to create effective virtual learning and event environments. While this isn’t quite the same as virtual events for employees, we’ve found a few universal tips that are applicable across the board. If you’re looking for an integrated way to provide your members with successful educational programs, Web Courseworks offers an association LMS to help continue your learners’ professional development.
Let’s look at how your business can use your LMS to inspire your learners and increase engagement with your virtual events. We’ll explore how you can:
- Engage your learners with your e-event and online learning.
- Make your e-event highly relevant to your learners’ objectives.
- Ensure that event registration is convenient for your learners.
- Share event updates using your learning management system’s social features.
- Follow up with your e-event attendees.
Tips for Success
Your e-event is a great way to offer variety to your learners, but it’s most effective when they’re already engaged in the e-learning process. Before you plan your virtual event, ensure that you’re utilizing all aspects of your learning management system. That way, when you decide to implement your first virtual event for associates, you’ve already created a captive audience.
- Engage your learners with your e-event and online learning.
Your virtual event is more likely to be well-attended if your learners already love the experience they’ve had using your learning management system (LMS). Your learners will want to attend your virtual event if their experience with your LMS has been enjoyable and productive.
Your learners should expect an actively engaging experience whenever they use your LMS to complete their courses. Just because your event is now virtual doesn’t mean you have to sacrifice engagement. According to this guide to virtual conferences, there are a variety of ways to engage learners, including:
- Multimedia capabilities and video learning
- Drag-and-drop interaction with course materials
- Social elements, including discussion boards and live chat
When your learners are used to an interactive LMS experience, they’ll look forward to attending a virtual event hosted on the same platform.
- Make your virtual event highly relevant to your learners’ objectives.
To make your virtual event most successful, include content that aligns with the data found in your LMS about your learners. This way, your learners will recognize familiar content and be more motivated to attend and advance their professional development through engaging with a topic they’re already interested in.
Some best practices to follow? First, pay attention to which courses have the highest engagement within your LMS. You’ll want to replicate those courses in your virtual event to boost learner interest. Following your event, make those event materials available as an on-demand resource for learners to download and continue to utilize post-event.
Learners who are engaged in the courses on your LMS and dedicated to their professional development will want to attend your virtual event.
- Ensure that event registration is convenient for your learners.
Your learners are excited to attend your virtual event, even while working from home, but you’ll have to remind them to register. To make the registration process smooth for them and you, integrate your LMS with your event registration platform. When learners can register for your virtual event at any time and wherever they are, they won’t forget to do so.
Learners should be able to register on their smartphone. A registration form that’s mobile-responsive and works well in various browsers is sure to help you fill your event. For tips and tricks on how to change your event on the fly, check out Pathable’s guide to virtual events for helpful ideas such as doing a full test run and utilizing multiple channels of engagement. The more preparation, the better when it comes to virtual events.
Remember to leverage your familiar branding on your online registration form. The virtual event registration experience should remain consistent with your branding.
- Share event updates using your learning management system’s social features.
Your learners’ experience completing courses using your LMS is not solitary. With multiple opportunities for the discussion of course materials, e-learning has successfully incorporated this important feature of the traditional classroom. Use the social features of your LMS to spread the word about your upcoming virtual event and boost attendance.
The discussion board on your LMS is a way for learners to interact with one another, present their different perspectives on the material, and ask important questions that help them learn. It’s also a useful location to share news about your upcoming virtual event.
Additionally, learners can use the live chat feature of the LMS to discuss the virtual event and ensure they’re prepared. This interactive feature is useful within the settings of both regular progression through courses and the virtual event itself.
- Follow up with your virtual event attendees.
Even though you know your learners well, you can always obtain more information from following up with them after your virtual event. Incorporate their feedback into your planning to make your next event an even better experience. Don’t forget to ask your attendees what they liked about the virtual event and what they would prefer to change or omit the next time.
Send out a quick post-event survey to gather your attendees’ responses. Be sure to ask questions about the content of the virtual event and its overall effectiveness.
Amber Winter is the director of Sales & Marketing at Web Courseworks. She’s committed to helping association executives realize the potential of their education programs and turn them into high-performing revenue generators. Winter was named one of Madison, WI’s 40 under 40 and the #1 LMS salesperson by Talented Learning.
