Brian Mulligan
Institute of Technology Sligo
mulligan.brian@itsligo.ie
Due to the ever increasing generation of knowledge in almost all domains, Continuous Professional Development (CPD) has become a necessity in almost all professions. Much CPD for professionals is in the form of very short courses or even one-off presentations on current topics of interest to the profession. However, because of the overhead of travel for both presenters and attendees, there are significant costs and time involved which both inhibits CPD activity and further increases unit costs. Webinars can be a good solution to this problem. They allow professional communities to source speakers more easily and cost-effectively and increase impact and reduce unit costs by increasing attendance at presentations. This paper will describe what webinars are, their advantages and disadvantages, the technology required, and how to organise and host them efficiently and effectively.
A webinar, or web-seminar, is an interactive live online presentation. These events could be described as “distributed” insofar as there is no restriction on the geographical location of either the speaker or the attendees. Whereas face-to-face seminars may be longer, webinars are normally less than one hour long. At a minimum, the viewer will be able to see the presenter’s slides or desktop and hear the presenter’s voice. Webinars are not symmetrical insofar as it is usually a one-to-many relationship with a presenter transmitting to many listeners. Because of this it is rarely practical to allow listeners to use microphones to submit questions and instead they are allowed to interact with the presenter by submitting typed questions and comments. Most systems have a number of other features to improve the experience such as a video feed to transmit a video of the speaker, an ability to transmit recorded videos, a polling feature to measure the views of the audience, and the ability of the presenter to spontaneously draw or write on the screen.
Webinars reduce both the cost and time required to both deliver and attend presentations. Distance restricts the ability of professional groups to source specialised speakers for their members insofar as many of the experts they would like to present either do not have the time to travel or the group cannot afford the costs involved. Likewise, members of the group may be distributed geographically and the requirement to travel to a physical location for a presentation, reduces the numbers that can attend and increases the unit cost of such presentations. Webinars allow organisers to access speakers from anywhere in the world, thus increasing access to speakers and also reducing the cost of organising an event in terms of travel expenses and room hire. Similarly the ability to enrol attendees from a wider area increases attendance and further reduces the cost per attendee.
Apart from the reasons mentioned above for using webinars as a form of CPD, such as increasing access to speakers, improved access for attendees and significantly reduced unit costs, they also have advantages over other forms of remote learning in that they can facilitate a high level of interactivity, are easy to organise and can be used to cheaply generate reusable learning resources in the form of recordings.
However, it must be said that the level of interactivity of face-to-face presentations may be difficult to replicate in a webinar, and some people may have problems with the use of the technology. It should also be said, that many professional groups use regular face-to-face presentations as an opportunity for their members to interact socially and that this is also difficult to replicate online.
Most webinars are delivered using web-based conferencing systems. These have been designed for online meetings, and as such meetings often require participants to make presentations, the conferencing systems have been found to be very useful for delivering to large groups and many have added specific features for this. These systems are often accessible from a web browser with minimum requirements for downloading software. Some may require the user to download a browser add-on program which generally does not require administrative rights on the users’ computer and so makes it very easy for people to attend. Some may require downloading of small programs that do require the user to have administrative access to their computer in which case for the first time of access some users may require assistance from technical staff at their place of work. There is normally no charge for these downloads. Web-based conferencing systems are usually hosted on a server, often external to the host’s organisation and so require very little software installation software installation for the host or speaker. It is possible to purchase single user licences at a reasonable price that allows one person to host events.
Apart from a computer with a broadband connection, the speaker will, of course require a microphone and optionally a webcam. Where speakers regularly deliver webinars, they may find it useful to use a graphics tablet which will allow them to easily draw and annotate spontaneously during their presentation.
The conferencing system normally has a range of features and most include the ability to display slides or share anything they wish from their computer screen, to write or draw on the screen during a presentation, to share videos, to place polls on the screen that the attendees can vote on, and to allow attendees to type of use a microphone to make comments or ask questions.
The organisation of a webinar (or a series) could be broken down into the following tasks:
Recruitment of a speaker would not be very different than it might otherwise be for a professional group except insofar as the webinar organiser is likely to have good access to the Internet and be in a position to invite speakers from anywhere. Members of the group would be requested to suggest speakers from anywhere in the world and it is usually possible to find contact details for such well known people on the web. Suitable speakers can also be identified by posting queries on social networks, or searching for information on speakers at conferences.
It is important, if sending an invitation to a speaker by email, to include information on what such a commitment would entail. This would include a statement that they can give the presentation from their office or home, that they will require a microphone (or preferably a webcam) attached to their computer, and that they will be provided with the necessary preparation before the event and support during the event.
Advertising or marketing of the event may well be done in the usual fashion, but as most of the potential audience for a webinar will be Internet users, good use should be made of electronic means of dissemination of information on the event. This would include posting as part of electronic newsletters, blog posting, posting as news items on relevant websites, tweeting and posting to relevant groups on social networking. If you have access to a mailing list of people who you have good reason to believe would be interested it may be acceptable to email invitations.
As most potential attendees will tend to find out about the event through electronic means it would seem to make sense to have online registration. It should also be noted that events such as these are often hosted by unpaid volunteers and it is desirable to minimise the workload of registering and sending out access instructions. For that reason it may be advisable not to advertise a telephone number, email or postal address for registration, but instead to use an automated registration service (eg. Eventbrite). Such a service, will allow you to design an online registration form to collect whatever information you need, to collect a fee if required, and will automatically send back confirmation to the attendee which you can customise so that access instructions are included. If you wish to have tighter control on access some of the conferencing systems used to host webinars have registration systems that issue access links that require the attendee to identify themselves (eg. by their email address) and which can only be used once. Another advantage of using such registration systems is that attendees can be sent messages easily before and after the event, which can be very powerful in the event of a cancellation or if there is a request for follow up information.
Once a speaker has agreed to present, they should be send a set of guidelines indicating the forms of materials that the conferencing system can handle and when these materials need to be submitted, when they will need to submit, the equipment they will need, as well as some simple guidelines on good webinar presentation techniques such as:
It is certainly advisable that the speaker receive a little training before the day of the webinar. This can double as testing of the presenter’s equipment and so should take place about two days before the event to give some time to make alternative arrangements, should there be any technical problems.
The presenter should submit their materials to the host around three days before the event so that they can be checked for suitability for transmission (eg. The conferencing system may have trouble with video in some formats). Having agreed a date and time for testing the connection, the presenter will be sent access instructions. Telephone numbers should be exchanged between the host and the presenter. When the presenter enters the webinar virtual room, they should be instructed on how to turn on their microphone (and webcam if available) and test their audio. They can be shown how to move their slides and how to display their desktop if possible. At this point it is worth pointing out to the presenter again the value of generating interactivity in an online presentation and to show them how they can monitor questions and responses coming in from the attendees.
When using a speaker who has little or no experience presenting online, or using the conferencing system you have chosen, it is necessary that a host be present during the event that is both familiar with the conferencing system and the topic. If you do not have someone who can fulfil both these roles you may need two people, but if you intend to run a full series of webinars, it may be worth training someone who is familiar with the topics in how to technically host a webinar in order to cut down on the manpower required.
The host and speaker should enter the room about 10 to 15 minutes before the start time and test access, particularly the speaker’s microphone. The speaker may find it settling to say hello to attendees as they arrive and to get confirmation from them that they can hear the audio. It can be useful to ask attendees where they are based and what their interest in the webinar is. At the start of the event the host should introduce the speaker and turn on the recording function if desired.
Webinars, if given as long monologues, can not only cause the attendees to feel disconnected, but also cause the presenters to feel that there really is no-one out there listening to them and because of this can lead to very dull presentation styles. If a presenter asks questions of the attendees, the attendees are not only made to feel more involved but the presenter will feel that he/she is genuinely communicating, and because of this give a much more lively talk. In this regard it may be advisable for the presenter to have pre-prepared questions at certain intervals in the presentation. Most systems also have the facility to poll the attendees on questions. If the presenter would like to use this facility, such questions can be submitted to the host in advance and the host will bring them up at the appropriate point in the presentation so that attendees can vote.
Other than that, a webinar presentation may be very similar to expert talks that are given to professional groups on a face-to-face basis.
If recording, the host should stop the recording at the end of the presentation and publish the recording link online after the event.
It has been my experience that once you learn the rudiments of hosting a webinar, the process becomes so simple that it becomes very straightforward both to organise and host such events. While it may be some time before the social aspect of professional gatherings can be replicated on the Internet, this observation along with the ability to recruit speakers and attendees easily, and the huge potential decrease in unit costs, has led me to the conclusion that webinars will play an important role in the future in continuous professional development particularly for smaller more specialised groups.