Bridging Social Distance

Workshop: More effective remote teaching and remote work, through a stronger human connection

Educators! Marketers! Sharpen your skills for this new world of remote work and distance learning, by taking part in this online workshop on how to do better collaboration and better teaching via Zoom or other video conferencing tools. Teachers and marketing people will work together in the workshop to build tailored solutions to the challenges they face, whether it's making their classroom come alive over Zoom, or helping co-workers be more successful doing complex work together remotely.

The ultimate goal will be more engaged and inclusive collaboration and teaching, whether online or in person.

Teachers and business people have different goals, but in the end it comes down to making that human connection to achieve success. And when teachers and marketers compare notes, they find it refreshing to hear from professionals in a different discipline with a different perspective. No matter what field each workshop participant is in, the case examples resonate with everyone, and diversity among the workshop participants leads to more creative ideas and solutions.

Get a taste of the approach through this article about Zoom teaching in Inside Higher Ed.

This online workshop is an evolution of an in-person workshop at Northwestern University.

Details about the workshop:

Where: Online
When: Each workshop will be set up to accommodate each participant's schedule, so it will be at a time that works for you
How long: Each workshop experience consists of two sessions two hours long, scheduled exactly one week apart
Cost: $500 per participant
How: To sign up, learn more, or just get in touch, email Stephen Hersh at sh@bridgingsocialdistance.com

On the topic of distance learning, the workshop will address:

How to teach remote classes or run remote meetings in a more effective way
How to build a sense of being "present together" in a remote class session or meeting
How to get students -- or colleagues, or clients -- to participate more actively in group discussions -- in person or in a video meeting
How to present yourself better by crafting your on-stage persona -- whether in person or on video
How to keep your energy high throughout a remote or in-person session -- and how to keep your audience's energy high too
What you should be doing in the 15 minutes before class

The workshop will also address topics that past participants have asked for:

Presentation skills: How to get the idea or story across in an engaging way
Body language: Creating the impression we intend
How to create good active participation activities
Examples across disciplines: How an approach in one discipline can inspire ideas for another discipline
Gauging audience response, and adapting on the fly when it's not going well
Time management in the meeting or class session

What participants are saying about our workshops

“Awesome!”

“Inspirational”

“Engaging, practical, realistic”

“Thought provoking”

“Excellent – very relevant to what I/we need at my institution.”

“Feedback on people’s teaching styles allowed me to think about things in new ways.”

“Excellent tips and ideas”

Workshop benefits

Past participants say the workshop helped them in these ways:

“Being able to engage the audience and convey your passion for the topic”

“[Got me to think in terms of] the idea of performance”

“How to use improv to ‘set the stage’”

“To be comfortable in front of the audience”

“To be prepared in advance”

“Get in the role beforehand”

“Body language”

“Reaching everyone in the room”

Learn more

Get in touch:

Stephen Hersh

sh@bridgingsocialdistance.com

312.804.5959

Byron Stewart

ddbstewart@gmail.com

773.550.6074

Bridging Social Distance

bridgingsocialdistance.com

Who we are

Bridging Social Distance offers workshops and coaching for teachers and business professionals who need to have vibrant interactions with audiences. We specialize in:

How to use the Active Learning approach to deepen interactions and make them more inclusive and participatory
How to use the Improv and Theatre Metaphor to engage powerfully
How to connect well in person as well as remotely

Stephen Hersh and Byron Stewart are experienced remote-learning instructors who have led workshops together at Northwestern University for teachers wanting to develop their skills using the Active Learning method and the Improv and Theatre Metaphor. Read about their workshops at Northwestern.

Byron Stewart has facilitated theatre-based communication workshops and individual coaching sessions for graduate students and faculty at various research institutions including Northwestern University--and for corporations as well. He is Adjunct Lecturer at Northwestern, and designed and co-teaches two courses there on Engineering Improv for undergraduate engineering students at Northwestern, to help them get in touch with their empathic side so they can better relate to the people who will use the products they create. Byron is also an instructor for Northwestern’s RCTP Science Communication program, where he uses his theatre background as a performer/director to help post-docs and graduate students take command of the stage and have a presence. Byron is a graduate of Howard University in Washington D.C.

Stephen Hersh teaches courses in Consumer Insight at Northwestern University, in the Integrated Marketing Communications program in the Medill School. He honed his skills during 23 years at Leo Burnett Advertising, and at other creative agencies, where he worked on strategies for some of the world's great brands. Stephen has a master's degree in clinical psychology from Northwestern University. For a taste of Stephen's approach to online (and on-premise) teaching, read his Inside Higher Ed article, "Yes, Your Zoom Teaching Can Be First-Rate."