The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has forced the authorities to issue extreme lockdown measures to prevent the spread of infection, measures which the government has already told us are considered insufficient and will be extended for a further fortnight, following approval by parliament, taking us to mid-April.
This will mean that many companies, in-person training schools, educational centres, organizations, associations, etc. will spend more than a month unable to have in-person contact with their workers, customers, students, partners or members.
It is clear that while this medical emergency, which forces us into lockdown, goes on, we cannot keep to the traditional models of communication and meeting. Enforced isolation is inevitably pushing organizations to roll out remote communication and meeting methods, which will undoubtedly not be temporary but are here to stay and will quickly be built into the relationship, information and communication protocols of the companies that have not yet adopted them.
In short, tools that will help us be more efficient, more productive and minimize multiple risks. There is a wide variety of online resources, many of which even offer basic options free of charge.
It should be borne in mind that the most important thing when rolling out remote communication and interaction models in organizations is matching the tools to the real needs (and capabilities) of the company and the team who have to use them.
At Proment we have a team highly experienced in developing and rolling out digital and interactive tools in any kind of organization and sector, as well as in creating training and usage protocols.
Do not hesitate to call us and tell us your concerns and needs; we will be glad to help you.
Here are some tools that may be useful for communicating with your team, your customers or your students in these times and always.
Moodle, the great e-learning platform
Moodle is the great online training platform, open source and 100% customizable to each company’s needs.
Today it is one of the best systems for developing e-learnings. It has a host of developers all over the world, which means it is always up to date and constantly evolving. It is the most widely used learning and communication platform in the world.
More and more academies and training centres, both online and in person, use it as the base on which to build their online platform, since it allows thorough tracking of a student’s engagement with their tasks and their progress. It can also generate periodic assessments and maintains communication, both group and individual, with students, allowing multi-person communication asynchronously.
Moodle is web-based, so it can be accessed from any device, with a default interface compatible with mobile devices.
Google Classroom: the tool you can use to teach online
Another alternative is Google Classroom, an educational tool created in 2014 whose mission is to help manage a classroom over the Internet.
All this instrument’s options are tied to a Google account, so both the teacher and the students will need their Gmail address active.
Google Classroom allows documents to be created, information to be shared in different formats, as well as meetings to be scheduled and held virtually. It is a free service.
Google Classroom makes it easier to distribute tasks and material among all the students, as well as to set tasks in the simplest way. It can serve us for one-off meetings but, since it is not an LMS learning platform like Moodle, it is a tool with many limitations when it comes to managing, communicating and controlling and tracking students’ learning process.
Zoom, video classes with up to 100 participants
A telepresence room allows real-time connection with optimal video and audio conditions, to move projects forward, manage work teams, create research groups and much more for building knowledge together. It can be designed around specific needs, with perfect microphone coverage, acoustic treatment, automation and systems for sharing content by cable or wirelessly, touch control for recording different classes and being able to access the information afterwards, and up to three screens for perfect viewing of content.
Teachers (participants) can make use of the platform’s tools such as: live chat, taking part remotely using their microphone and built-in video camera (webcam), seeing the notes or presentation of whoever is presenting, chatting in group chats in teams or with particular people within the same room, and recording the session to the local disk or to the cloud.
In this respect, Zoom stands out for making good use of time, avoiding travel and optimizing time and resources. It has a basic option with limited meeting time and a Premium option.
YouTube Live for webinars
A Webinar is a type of conference, workshop or seminar broadcast over the Internet. Its main feature is the interactivity between the participants and the speaker. As at any in-person event, the speaker is talking live to the audience and those attending can ask questions, comment and hear what the other participants have to say. (Unlike a Webcast, which is a conference in which the speaker does the talking and everyone else only listens.)
Webinars take place in real time, on a specific date and at a specific time. You can take part from any computer connected to the Internet on which specific software has been loaded, or it can be set up with YouTube Live.
Depending on the aim of the session it can be a good option, above all for paid training.
While this tool is very effective, it also has some drawbacks, such as the fact that interaction with the viewer is not face to face, and the quality of the message can be affected by factors such as poor audio or out-of-sync video.
These are the tools the internet gives us to keep up the communication, training and interaction between people that we need so much and that has been interrupted by the state of alarm as a result of Covid-19.
At Proment we can advise you on which one best fits your company’s needs and help you roll it out straight away. Get in touch with our experts.