Webinar

Having never hosted a webinar before I have to admit I was somewhat daunted by the task. Whilst Elluminate Live! itself is a very straightforward tool to use I was conscious of the fact that I would be attempting to teach a group of teachers and therefore did not want to bore them or make a fool out of myself.



As a member of the IATEFL Learning Technologies Special Interest Group I decided to ask for advice on the webgroup there from seasoned webinar experts. Some of the best advice I got which I also tried to follow was:


 * Plan ahead - upload the presentation in advance and prepare quizzes, polls etc. (Unfortunately it was not until after the webinar that I discovered that Elluminate have their own planning tool for exactly this purpose).
 * Practice - my trial run only lasted about half the required length of time so this left me a little nervous. Luckily with audience introductions, polls, quizzes and discussion everything ended up just right.
 * Interactivity - keep audience involved (awake) and check on understanding through polls and quizzes. This also helps get away from the "sage on the stage" lecture experience.
 * Use images to illustrate a point - a picture is worth a thousand words and helps create a visual link for memorisation too.
 * Be positive and energetic - this will help retain the interest and the enthusiasm of the audience.

In addition I also took a look at some theories from instructional design to better help me plan the webinar (see blog post from 12th March).

In order to guage the success of the event I posted a short questionnaire on google docs and asked the participants to complete it after the webinar. A summary of the complete results is available here:

Apart from the numerical data regarding pace and content the anonymous participant comments inluded:

"If this was the first time you have given a webinar it was great you added an immense about of interaction into the webinar and it was not too much and kept the webinar going."

"An excellent presentation which provided a very interesting introduction to the theories of mobile learning."

"Great to meet other students on the programme. The time just flew by."

To my mind this final comment also reveals a hidden benefit of webinars for online and blended education: they serve a social function helping to create an invaluable sense of community amongst the learners. For further reflection and comments on the webinar see my blog posts from April 4th and 23rd.

Having successfully survived my first ever webinar I now feel confident to host other such events in the future. On reflection it would be nice to include more interaction and to respond to audience questions/chat in more detail but I was indeed pleasantly surprised that a webinar didn't have to be a one-sided event with the lecturer preaching to their audience. It could indeed rahter be an interactive, sociable experience for everyone involved.

"Mobile learning: An introduction to theory and practice" Webinar - click HERE to watch the Elluminate Live! recording.