It’s no surprise to anyone that in these economic times gaining that leading edge, if you will is essential for businesses to survive.  Does an accessibility plan provide this value add? Quite simply, no it doesn’t. The AODA requires all businesses to comply with the new standard. This equates to new policies, training and operational changes. If everyone is doing it then it doesn’t set you apart.

Accessibility is indeed a topic that must be addressed in Ontario (and the whole country for that matter) given the recent and upcoming demographic changes. But how do you stand out from the rest of the pack? It’s important to take these requirements a step further than bare minimum. As well, how much your company actually believes in these changes and is transparent is the absolute key to successful implementation.

What other benefits do you see in accessibility training for businesses?

Philip Rocca is a Learning & Development Professional with Design & Delivery Management expertise specializing in Wealth Management and eLearning solutions. The following post outlines his thoughts on the effectiveness of webinars.

Are Webinars truly engaging?

I recently attended a webinar on facilitating interactive, engaging online webinars.

Ironically, nearly all the good points provided in the webinar were not actually put in place during the session.  There was essentially no interaction; the Q&A was only 5 minutes at the end of the session; there was nothing fun or engaging. 

I was neither engaged, nor was I interacting with the system!

The live aspect of Webinars….

In these instances, I have to ask “Why is this offered as a live event?”  Given there was only a brief period of time at the end to ask questions, wouldn’t it be a better use of time if this was a recorded on-demand event that was linked to a moderated discussion forum?

This would allow attendees to rewind, pause, or fast forward past sections that aren’t of interest.  It would also provide an avenue of discussion (through the forum) that would provide more direct feedback and guidance than the live session.

Webinar versus classroom…

Don’t get me wrong, I believe there is great value in a live event, but we should remember that the live event should mirror its offline counterpart, i.e. classroom, seminar, meeting, etc.

Let’s focus on classrooms.  Outside of college or university, would you ever conceive of having a 1 hour classroom whereby the facilitator lectured in front of the class for 55 minutes?  Even in post-secondary institutions, I would question its merit.

During that live classroom event, the facilitator would typically open the session, have participants introduce themselves, discuss objectives and agenda items, position the session, and then ask questions to create discussion and interaction.  There may be role-plays, story-telling, energizers and other fun activities.

Why would we not do any of these similar activities during a live online event?

Final thoughts…

Participants must get involved.  Facilitators must prepare (and practice) some key provoking questions that will demand a response.

Unless there is feedback required by the participant, I would suggest the event should not be live at all, and can have the same impact by simply providing an on-demand session. 

One of the Customer Service Standard requirements is to establish a feedback process on the provision of goods and services. This sounds like a well intentioned requirement but how the feedback is addressed is left open for interpretation. If the feedback is not properly addressed then this can be cause for concern.  What is your organization doing in regards to this requirement? Is there a policy in place to handle the feedback received? I am curious to know how this will play out.

As we all know feedback is an important part of implementation and an essential part of learning. How else can you decipher whether the learning objectives were transferred. Which begs the question how will you know the training was properly received?