Table 1 Strategies to enhance social presence in virtual debriefings

Pre-debriefing

Conduct a briefing

Explain goals and process of debriefing, establish expectations, discuss ground rules (e.g., confidentiality, privacy)

Establishes expectations and familiarizes learners to online learning environment

During debriefing

Use of verbal appreciation, validation, and normalization

Acknowledge learner contributions, recognize behaviors as appropriate, relate feelings, or attitudes to a societal norm

Helps learners feel invited, acknowledged, and safe during the debriefing; promotes open communication and emotional expression.

Role model fallibility and share past experiences

Openly sharing past failures and lessons learned

Flattens hierarchy and promotes psychological safety

Co-facilitate

Involving a second educator to support the virtual debriefing

Facilitates cross-monitoring and divides up educator workload

Apply implicit strategies

Be warm, kind, attentive, and welcoming

Builds psychological safety and promotes open communication and emotional expression

Promote inclusivity

Express appreciation and use inclusive language to refer to the group

Builds group cohesion and promotes open communication

Use explicit communication

Address participants by name, paraphrase and recap key comments

Builds group cohesion and promotes open communication