Online Workshop Guidelines Organiser

When?	What?	Concerns	Solution
Pre-workshop	General	So many new things to learn and challenges that are hard to anticipate.	Have plans, document them, and practice your tools. Each platform, even ones you know well, may have difficulties or have unexpected challenges.
	Installation	Without direct access to learners’ laptops, working through problems will be more difficult. Home computers may not be able to handle the additional burden of videoconferencing on top of software needed for the lesson itself.	Cloud/web-based options can help work around several of these problems. These provide backup solutions for when installation problems cannot be resolved and may reduce processing loads on computers. The Carpentries will offer some guidance on this, but each locale should review institutional membership options and make their own assessment and recommendations.
	Training on new platforms	Many of these communication and conferencing tools will likely be new to learners and instructors. Some methods or features may be new, even if the learner or instructor has used the platform before.	Instructors should create a plan for how each platform will be used, and hold a separate meeting to practice using the tools they plan to use for a workshop. Organizers should also consider scheduling an optional “installation meeting” where learners step through the installation process with live support from the instructors, or host office hours at various times before the workshop and hosted by a variety of helpers so the workload is shared. Some platforms support remote control over a person’s computer, allowing you to type commands and click things. However, the experience can be laggy and jarring and should be used as a last resort.
	Adapting to failures	Online tools and connections may go down, be severely impaired, or experience other failures (e.g., permissions problems, etc.).	Develop backup plans and identify alternative platforms identified before instruction begins. These plans mean you can adapt quickly when plans need to change. Ensure that the learners have access to the lesson material, so they can continue to work through things on their own if connections fail or they need to drop out of the call.
	Keeping track of operational information	Adding new platforms, procedures, backups, etc. means that it can be hard to keep track of what is the latest guidance.	Intentionally create a place for the most current methods to be documented, but keeping a specific section for “lessons learned” or other notes. As instructors gain experience, these documents should transition into onboarding documentation for new instructors. Store these somewhere centrally accessible for all instructors, and easily findable (especially your backup plans document).
When?	What?	Concerns	Solution
During the workshop	General	New platforms to remember and new roles and communication behaviours for all. There’s so much extra work to do now, which will take away from instruction time.	Try to keep things simple. When a separate platform may support something extremely well, but your existing tool is just fine, you may want to choose to keep things in a single platform. This may change as your learners and instructors gain more experience, but be mindful about reducing the number of new tools everyone has to use. Remember that your most important learning goals are building people’s confidence and understanding of a tool. Focus on making them feel capable rather than how much material you get through. A confident learner can always go back to the online lessons. Consider recording the instructional sessions and sharing them with learners as a backup, but these are not meant to replace live sessions.
	Presenting	Following along with a live coding screen share can be difficult when learners have a single screen.	Take longer breaks and use feedback to get a sense of the room. You’ll have to work a bit harder to ensure that everyone is still on track.
	Handling questions	Keeping a queue of questions and tech help requests is difficult and hard to manage as an instructor.	Having a helper dedicated to facilitating questions and problems is key. Even experienced online instructors will find the cognitive load of teaching and managing communications difficult. Instructors and helpers should have a back channel to internally coordinate.
	Getting feedback	Minute cards and formative assessment methods don’t translate to these new environments in obvious ways.	Remember that the mechanism of getting feedback isn’t as important as the feedback itself. Things will operate differently, but our priorities of receiving feedback and acting on it haven’t. Other than pre and post workshop surveys, there are many ways to gather this feedback, and The Carpentries will offer some guidance on this. Each locale should develop their own standard methods so that instructors can gain expertise and documentation is consistent.
	Distributing resources and operational information	Learners can always ask us if they lose a link, but what if they lose access to us and can’t ask for help? If plans need to change and we don’t have the live or chat sessions to communicate, how can we get everyone back on track?	Communication channels will look different for every group, and your instructor group should put together backup plans that include this sort of information. You may provide an email address, phone number, or WhatsApp contact for people to reach out to in the event of an emergency loss of connection. Have these backup plans documented for the learners, and ask them to save at least one point of contact that doesn’t rely on their computer (e.g. write down a phone number or ensure they have email access on their phone).
When?	What?	Concerns	Solution
Post-workshop	General	Should post-workshop communication and support look different?	The local instructor group should meet to discuss if anything should change. Many workshops are offered as part of the service portfolio for a research unit, or they are run by independent faculty members. An online workshop may reduce the amount of natural networking opportunities learners would have, so hosting informal chats or meetups may aid in building a community while isolation orders are in effect.
	Supporting learners after the workshop	How can we answer questions after a workshop?	Many tools will support this, and the local group should use one that integrates nicely into existing communication channels. This may be a Slack channel for learners, a mailing list, or a Discourse forum. The method doesn’t matter as much as the opportunity to ask questions and have continued support as they learn.