Tips to make Zoom sessions interactive (Part 2)

Here’s a recent conversation I had – a friend telling me they'd been in an online seminar all afternoon:

Me: Was it interactive?

Them:  No – it was Zoom…

What a shame. It doesn’t have to be this way!

Try these techniques to make virtual meetings and lessons more engaging:

1. Ask everyone to respond by writing on a piece of paper and holding it up for others to see. (This works best with just one word or a short phrase, using large paper and a marker pen.)

2. Use the Chat feature, for example:

   • Ask a question (open or closed) and ask everyone to respond using Chat.

   • Ask everyone to write a reaction in Chat.  Giving prompts can help, for example Something I think is interesting is… Something I am wondering is…

   • Ask everyone to write a question in Chat.

3. Use the ‘Speaker Chooses’ technique – the last person to speak nominates someone else to say what they are thinking. After your group get used to this, you should be able to let them continue the discussion for a while without intervening.