Good evening everyone.

I have been sharing the need to make sure that our content is as engaging as possible for the participants of this academy. We have a challenging and exciting task ahead of us, especially since we have 90 minute sessions. As I have talked to the teams, I understand that teams are already chunking content into more manageable pieces. A quick and easy blog post on student engagement and online learning from Online College.com provides some basic information. Another really good blog is called Shift and a great general post on eLearning Essentials for general focus, and for you visual learners and lovers of Blooms Taxonomy this is a good general infographic from eLearning Industry blog. Finally from Shift, another post on the Engage Model for eLearning. Many of you will be co-presenting and changing speakers and pace help to keep the learners attention. One thing to avoid is presenting in a manner that can be distracting to the learner. One example of this is having too much text on your slides so keep text to a minimum and dazzle them with your words. One other item and one I experienced recently myself is limited background noise while presenting. Many of you will be delivering from an office or home so do what you can to limit co-workers from bothering you or having your dog bark, or the barista shouting outLatte for Mary. Creating an environment that requires the learners to interact with the content works the best. Reaching them in numerous learning domains also helps. This infographic does a nice job of putting things into perspective. As you are developing your timeline use these as a guide 1. An introduction will be made for each session (2 minutes) 2. At the end, a link to a Survey Monkey will be added for Self-Assessment that is part of the eJournal. (2 minutes) 3. Question and Answers (approximately 3-5 minutes) encourage learners to use the discussion thread associated with each session. 4. Reflection this will be completed after the session and wont take time away from your content. Participants will be directed to go to the discussion thread and post their personal reflection on the training and encouraged to read and respond to others. This could be an important aspect of your delivery. Your involvement in the discussions, responding to participants and allowing them to see your presence can really enhance the learning. You will be able to access this content should you need anecdotal information to add to any other evaluation data for your sessions. Here are several examples of engagement activities that I am utilizing in the first two sessions.

Poll questions there are several types of polls you can offer. Several are multiple choice, multiple answer, and short answer. You can use this to capture information, but can be used for an ice-breaker. Poll questions can be used to test knowledge, or as a prompt in preparation of a chunk of learning. Virtual Tour learners will view me sharing my screen as I take a brief tour of 4-H.org and the resources we have Web Quest learners will be given a task sheet and will be sent on a virtual scavenger hunt into the sites I show them. They will harvest information and bring them back and share them While exploring the importance of 4-H Science, learners will be directed to go to the 4-H Online Learning Center and asked to complete the learning module on The Importance of 4-H Science. The learners will be given the link to the OLC, directed to go to the course catalog, find the module and complete. I have timed it and this task will take approximately 10-12 minutes. This covers the content AND it address one of the identified outcomes of the session In session 2, learners will complete the 4-H Science Self-Assessment on the OLC. This will focus them on the essential elements that we will cover and set the table for a later session during the academy Ready, Set, Goor 3, 2, 1, blastoff is a technique that I tried for the first time today and it was quite successful. I framed the activity with a trial question, tell the participants that you will ask a question, they are to type the response into the text box but do not press enter until you say Ready, Set, Go (or other) Seek and Solve At the beginning of your session post a two column slide. One column put SEEK at the top and the other SOLVE. At the beginning ask participants to share one thing they want to LEARN during this session, then follow up at the end with SOLVE by asking if they solve their seek with the caveat being that if they didnt find an answer share one thing you did learn. Other ideas Utilize YouTube, Vimeo, TEDTalks or other video to reinforce your content. Viewing a video changes things up. Dont limit yourself to just these sources, here is a list of 100 + sites you can access. Lights, Camera, Action - Video variation you can have participant view a video and have them respond to your prompts. They can identify an element from the video, or if you want to use a virtual role play, use a video and pause it at a set point and have audience members or small groups discuss next steps. Jeopardy interject a jeopardy slide you can have learners respond en mass Meeting of the Minds ask the group to post one thing they already know about this topic. Give the group time to review the text chat

Energizers sometimes we need the learners to take a brain break. Several minutes to get them to get their mind off of one concept right before you go into another learning chunk. One example is an activity called Double Trouble. Provide a slide with fill in the missing letter with words that have multiple letters with a prompt The best part of waking up What kind of job is a real buzz Four or five items are good enough. Panel discussion or variety of speakers that are subject matter experts. There are a number of online tools that you can use to develop and create quizzes, crossword puzzles, jeopardy games. We will need to make sure that they are compatible with the platform 50 Web 2.0 Tools Session wrap-up and closer {Name of Session} - A to Z list your objectives on a slide and in small groups have groups work together to list take-aways from your session. In column one list the letters A through M and in the next column N through Z. Variations depending upon time five groups with five letters and throw out the X. Have a group spokesperson come back into room and post. Chit Chat, This and That Small groups work to identify X number of take-aways that they will take back and train others. Fill in the Blank develop an outline for your session that learners can download or you can put key phrases on slides but leave key words or phrases blank. Team Huddle in smaller breakout rooms, ask each participant to post one thing they learned and will use in a training C_F__E B_EK__P_R

A good site for additional online learning is the Illinois Online Network Educational Resources.

General resources: From my most recent, favorite blog, TeachThought 50 Sources to Become a Better Teacher 50 Sources of Free STEM Education 50 Resources To Get Started with Mobil Learning

The Official Educators Guide To YouTube 9 Characteristics of 21st Century Learning If any of you are involvement with Twitter, please feel free to access my tweets at Edward_Bender. My account is strictly professional and I use it for collecting resources. Feel free to examine my tweets as they are chalk full outstanding resources, blogs, tools, and general information on learning, eLearning, blended learning and all things professional development.