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#1 2017-01-04 11:34:55

ChristyInToronto

Length of Synchronous Session Best Practice

Hi

Any views on optimal session length? If you have designed multi-hour/multi-day synchronous sessions, what have you designed-in to mitigate against fatigue, boredom, on-site distraction, etc?

Thanks,

cc

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#2 2017-01-04 12:00:24

Jorma_at_CoSo

Re: Length of Synchronous Session Best Practice

Scream loudly at random intervals. Just kidding.

For a synchronous event, you kind of have to base it on your audience and the information being delivered. I find that I can get good interaction and engagement for about 4 hours with a break in the middle. Longer can be done, but you really start to lose people after about 4 hours. If you can break it up in to smaller segements, that may help if you don't have much engagement with your audience.

Having polls or other interactions with the audience will help keep them engaged, so try to include them throughout your sessions.

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#3 2017-07-26 10:28:05

kevin.yeoman@flightsafety.com

Re: Length of Synchronous Session Best Practice

I was tasked with creating a 5 day 6 hr a day course several years ago (Connect v7).  I found that the more interaction and activities that I put in the better the engagement was for the users.  I typically broke my session up into 10-15 minutes of lecture and then an activity or simulation (15 minute) that reinforced the lecture material, then a 5 minute Q&A session, followed by an assessment of the topic (15 minutes) then a review of the assessment.  This seemed to work well and kept a decent pace for the learners.  Depending on the topic or topics you are covering, I would suggest using breakout rooms and other techniques to keep the learners from sitting and listening for more than about 15-20 minutes.  Be sure and include breaks for restroom and set a time for the users to be back in session by, don't wait for stragglers.  If you press on, the stragglers will show up on time at the end of the next break, so that they don't get behind.  I am sure that there are other techniques that can be used that I have not mentioned but this seemed to work well for me when I was tasked with creating a course.

Good luck

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