Empowering Pandemic Narratives: Transitioning from In-Person to Virtual Blog Training

"When UTA Libraries launched its new website in January 2020, one of the goals for Marketing and Communications was to provide comprehensive and accessible blog training to Libraries staff. What began as pre-scheduled, in-person training sessions in computer labs quickly transitioned to more fluid, virtual offerings as the COVID-19 pandemic swept the United States and staff began to work from home.

This presentation will describe the original development of our blog training, including documentation, branding, and overall curricular structure, and how we translated that to the more nebulous Microsoft Teams-based sessions we continue to offer to staff today. We will also explore the ways that we were able to customize our training in a virtual setting, which allowed for greater opportunities to empower our colleagues to write about their work in a time that such empowerment is essential, and led to greater impact in our community, particularly on social media."