Online Learning, Virtual Engagement And Outreach, And Virtual Research Collaboration

When COVID-19 forced the cancellation of in-person instructor-led training (ILT) engagements with partners around the world, the ORNL Learning Sciences team began facilitating virtual engagements in the form of training sessions, planning meetings, and outreach opportunities for laboratory personnel. Knowing that virtual training design is much different from in-person training design, the team worked with stakeholders to design high-quality course materials to engage learners in a virtual delivery setting. The team assisted these stakeholders achieve desired learning objectives and outcomes and meet the needs of adult learners in an online learning environment. This paper will discuss best practices related to planning, designing, and facilitating a successful virtual engagement including discussion of how to design curriculum for a virtual engagement, ways to create interactive activities that will engage learners remotely, ways to encourage collaboration in the virtual environment, and how the team has utilized the interpretation feature in ZoomGov to allow presenters, interpreters, and participants to engage in simultaneous interpretation. Additionally, we will discuss the impact a virtual learning studio has on production events and how we set one up.