If you are hosting live events in your online learning program, you are probably managing your program's calendar by using a variety of tools to schedule events, send reminders, and track attendance. With our newest feature, Virtually Calendar, we are helping online educators simplify the back-office management of their online education businesses and save a lot of time on administrative tasks by assisting them with streamlining attendance tracking and calendar management. But just in case if you're still managing your cohort-based course, membership, or boot camp without a student relationship manager, here's a checklist for hosting live events that will keep you organized.
[ ] Generate the Zoom link.
If you’re using Zoom for video conferencing, schedule the meeting.
[ ] Determine security requirements.
If you want to prevent unwanted people from joining your live event, there are a variety of security measures you can enable with Zoom. Some security features include using a passcode to protect a meeting, creating waiting rooms (only users admitted by the host can join the call), or requiring authentication.
[ ] Put it on the calendar.
Once you create the Zoom meeting, automatically add the meeting to your preferred calendar, either via Google Calendar, Outlook, or Yahoo. Don't forget to pre-select reminder notifications 1 hour, 30 minutes, or 10 minutes before the event.
[ ] Determine which students will get the invite.
If your program is segmented into subgroups, you’ll have to determine which students will get the invitation. Keeping a spreadsheet with student names, emails, and subgroup titles can help you save time on this task.
[ ] Send a one-week reminder email.
Remind your learners of upcoming events by sending them a reminder one week out from your live event.
[ ] Send a day-of reminder.
On the day of the event, send a message to your student community via email, Slack, or Circle.
[ ] Send a 10 minutes reminder.
While Google Calendar will automatically send a reminder notification 10 minutes before the event, you can also send a final message if you choose.
[ ] Track attendance.
During the call, jot down the names of attendees to keep track of student participation.
[ ] Send recap.
After the event, send your learners a recap of the call—highlight key takeaways as well as action items. Don't forget to give them a heads up about when they can expect the recording.
[ ] Send recording.
Edit the video recording and email students a link where they can watch the replay.
[ ] Analyzing the metrics.
Use your list of attendees to determine how many students attended the live event vs. registrants. Calculate the show-up and drop-off rate.
[ ] Take follow-up action based on a review of metrics.
What action items should you take as a result of reviewing your student attendance data?
Do you need to send a re-engagement email?
If attendance was lower than you expected, what measures can you take to prevent a decline in student engagement?
As you can see, there are quite a few steps involved with hosting live events, so we designed a tool to streamline the process. Learn how to manage your calendar better, track student attendance, automatically send timely reminders, and more with Virtually Calendar, the first student relationship manager. Fully integrated with Zoom and Google Calendar, two of the most common tools course creators use to host live classes, invite students to your events with ease from a single dashboard.
Request early access to Virtually Calendar here.
Read Next: How Virtually Saves You Time
Danielle Desir is an author, freelance writer and the host of The Thought Card, an affordable-travel and personal finance podcast. (danielledesir.com) Follow on Twitter: @thethoughtcard