Before actually launching your online training, it is a good idea to field-test it, both for input into the content but also to make sure that there are no problems or issues with the technology. Similarly, if you are used to doing face-to-face training, you likely do a run-through of your workshop to get a colleague's feedback or you ask someone to review your content for accuracy.
In terms of the content you will be presenting, it is a good idea to get input from at least two reviewers if possible. Ask these people to provide feedback on the accuracy of the content, its relevance to the audience, the flow of the training and the overall tone. If you will be presenting text-based content, you should also ask someone to review it for grammar, spelling and layout.
Along with reviewing the content and grammar of your online training, you should also field-test the approach you are using. For example, if you will be working with self-study web-based modules like these, ask some people to look at the website you will be using and give you feedback about the navigation (is it easy to find what you are looking for?), the overall layout (do they experience scroll fatigue?), and the printing capabilities. Ask them to make sure links to other sites and resources work; if you have embedded video or audio, make sure that also works. Ask your reviewers, if possible, to visit the website using different sized monitors and different connection speeds. Sometimes this can have an impact on how a website looks and how features work.
If you are delivering your training using a learning management system, you will also want to check that all of the features work the way they are intended to, i.e. does the embedded video work, is the online chat functional, does the self-marking quiz function properly and so on.
You may also want to ask for some input into the overall flow and design of the content because what looked good on paper in terms of a logical flow to your content might not work as well in an online setting. Is there a natural progression, for example, to reading text-based content, then linking to additional resources and then returning back to the text-based content? If you include an interactive component such as a discussion forum in your online classroom, do you have topics that reflect the content? Does your content reflect adult learning principles and link back to the learning outcomes?
You can also ask your field-testers to try out some of the activities to find out if they take more or less time than you have planned and if they are appropriate for the content and the stated learning outcomes. If you market your online training as a four-week course that will require four hours of active time each week, but in reality it requires ten hours each week, participants will likely drop out and be unhappy with their online learning experience. Similarly, if your activities seem too easy or do not relate to the training content or learning outcomes, participants may feel that the training was not valuable or lacked meaning.
If your online training is a synchronous event, be sure to test everything before you actually deliver a session. If there is an audio component, does this work? If you are using slides or a video presentation, does that work well for different monitor sizes and connection speeds? It is critical that synchronous events are field-tested ahead of time because it can be very embarrassing to be scheduled to deliver a training session only to have to cancel it at the last moment because something isn't working. Of course, there can be unforeseen circumstances that simply cannot be avoided like a power outage at the time you are scheduled to deliver your session or a failure with the technology, but this is rare and generally if you are well-prepared everything will go smoothly.
