On May 16, 2014 in our Virtual Mediation Lab we ran a 2-hour Free online mediation simulation of a family case (a $5,000 personal loan between 2 cousins) with:

>> Mediator: Fiona (Australia)
>> Party 1: Joanne (Australia)
>> Party 2: Deborah (Florida, USA)
>> Coach: Giuseppe (Hawaii, USA)

During our debriefing session, the four of us discussed at length Fiona's experience, given that:

>> She had never participated in an online mediation simulation before.
>> During her 1-hour mediation, not only she had been able to establish an excellent rapport with the parties, both in joint and private sessions. She had also used (for the first time) an online whiteboard very effectively - twice. At the beginning, for listing the 3 issues that both parties wanted to talk about. And at the end, for writing up their agreement.

Fiona's feedback about her experience can be summarized in one word.

I asked her: "Is what you did online any different than what you would have done face-to-face with the parties?". She thought about it for a while, and then said "NO".

http://goo.gl/cbgxTu

PS: Virtual Mediation Lab is an online mediation project sponsored by ACR Hawaii. We help mediators practice and sharpen their mediation skills by participating in FREE online mediation simulations with other mediators from around the world.