Effective virtual sessions require up-front analysis that will guide your design.

1. Ask yourself questions during your analysis to ensure that your design matches your presentation goals.
   • What is the ultimate outcome of the training? What will the attendees take away from the experience? Some desired outcomes might be:
     • Motivation
     • New awareness or knowledge of specific content
     • New skills
   • What kinds of information and activities can be included in the virtual session to achieve the desired outcomes?
   • Is there content that already exists that can be used in the session? If yes, where is it, what is its format, and can it be used as is or does it have to be revised?
   • Does new content have to be created? If yes, what is the best format to use, and what resources are available to help create/develop that content?
   • How many people will participate in the session? What is their previous experience with virtual classroom learning? What is their previous knowledge of the topic(s) to be covered in the session?
   • Will there be a single or multiple presenters? Who are they? How will they coordinate their participation?

2. Use an outline. Dialogue Design includes outline templates that offer suggestions for session content and sequencing. Each outline component has supporting guidelines intended to help you build and, in some cases, develop the individual content pieces that will comprise your finished session.
3. Consider appropriate content types.
   • Microsoft® Word documents
   • PowerPoint® presentations
   • Excel spreadsheets and graphs
   • Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) documents
   • Web pages
   • Dialogue Resources, a vast Skillsoft repository of Courses, SkillBriefs, Job Aids, and Referenceware (Skillsoft Press only)
   • Adobe® Flash® (swf) files

   When planning your content, remember that there is a vast library of content and resources available to you, and that Dialogue Design lets you use content from a wide array of learning assets to best complete your course's learning objectives. You can also include other content, such as vendor materials, videos, or multimedia that already exist in your own organization. Having a variety of media (audio, video, self-paced reading, etc.) can improve the quality of your program in several ways. It will:

   • Reinforce learning points by appealing to multiple learning styles.
   • Break up lectures.
   • Promote interaction and reasons for discussion.

Used in combination with the various learning tools available in live sessions, you will create an engaging and memorable experience.

Note: It is highly advisable to complete your analysis and high-level design before starting to create your session. The time it takes to put together your session can be significantly reduced by identifying and collecting all existing content sources, and developing/creating new content before you start putting your session together.

Extending your learning efforts into mobile content allows you to reach learners in time- and location-independent ways.

In addition to the general tips for creating effective virtual sessions, you can use these tips specific to mobile learning.

• Mobile learning is ideal for materials that can be used "when convenient". By nature, mobile devices are used for short periods of time, and users are often interrupted. Breaking content up into small, logical, easily accessible units will allow a mobile learner to use the learning effectively. Good opportunities for mobile content include:
  • Job aids
  • Refreshers
  • Reference information
  • Practice/assessment
  • Short instruction (try to limit it to 5 minutes)
• Keep the "when convenient´content in context with larger objectives. Aside from the purely reference or quick lookup activities, each learning activity should be a productive step towards achieving defined learning objectives.
• Design for all devices. There is a long list of capabilities and limitations for different mobile devices. If you are designing for a specific device, research and design to those limitations. For instance, the Apple iPhone does not support the Adobe Flash plug-in.
• Avoid extensive scrolling. A good rule of thumb is to provide about twice the amount of content that the device can display on the screen. For instance, if an average device supports 300 characters, limit your pages to 600 characters.
• Use only basic interactions. Avoid complex navigation and interaction since mobile devices differ in screen size and input types. Try to limit any text input tasks; some devices are easier to input text on than others.
• Keep file sizes small. Limit attachments and keep graphics small to save on bandwidth and download times.
• Make text readable. Most mobile devices are read from about 18" away, so avoid small text to ensure it can be read easily.