The e-Line #5
The Wonderful World of Webinars

Just what is a Webinar and why should you be interested? A Webinar is a short seminar, usually an hour in length, delivered over the web. They are abundant and generally free. And they are one of my favourite ways to learn. I find these sessions are a welcome learning break in my day, and a great way to stay current.

In the past year, I have participated in Webinars on:

• Implementing various e-learning technologies
• Measuring e-learning effectiveness
• FlashMX and its use in e-learning
• Creating fair and accurate tests
• State of the industry sessions
• Working with book publishers

Many Webinars are offered free by providers of Web-conferencing software. The benefit they receive is the exposure from the large numbers of participants signing on for sessions. The best providers make a real effort to find and feature outstanding speakers.

As a general rule, most Webinars are delivered through a combination of Web-conferencing software that delivers slides and interactive polling to your desktop, while the audio component is delivered via teleconferencing. More often than not, the toll free telephone numbers are US based and don’t work from Canada, but the hour of long distance is generally a small price to pay for the content.

While Webinars can be facilitated in a highly interactive manner, with lots of opportunities for questions (like a mini-workshop), many are primarily one-way sessions with large audiences (like a keynote). Regardless, even the large sessions where you can’t ask questions verbally, you can generally submit questions via a text chat function online, and the moderator will filter questions for the speaker throughout the session or at the end. As a rule of thumb, if it’s free, it’s often big; if it has a limit on participants, or has a fee involved, chances are there will be more interaction.

Placeware is one of my favourite providers, due to the consistent quality of their sessions and the sheer number they offer. Placeware’s sessions have a real business focus, something I appreciate. And their speakers are generally thought leaders in the field.

Another favourite is the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). Most ASTD Webinars have a fee ($69 US), but when you consider the quality of speakers and interactivity, the investment is generally well worth it.

A few tips for headache-free Webinaring:

• You do have register, even for the free sessions, so plan ahead
• While you don’t need more than your browser for most Webinars, some providers do require you to download a plug-in before the session, or at least do a system test, so be sure to review and hold onto your confirmation e-mail
• Check as to whether there are slides you can download and print before the session starts (handy for taking notes); if not, you can generally get them afterwards
• If you see a Webinar that interests you, but you can’t participate, there is a good chance that it will be recorded and you can view it later
• Finally, always reboot your computer before a Webinar and close other programs, especially e-mail

Intrigued by the Webinar concept? It’s just a taste of what you can do in your own organization with Web-conferencing software. If you have a geographically diverse workforce, learning more about these tools is definitely worthwhile. There are even Webinars on conducting effective Webinars!

Here are some good places to turn for webinars:
ASTD - http://www.astd.org/webinar/
Placeware - http://main.placeware.com/demos/demos.cfm
Mentergy - http://www.allencomm.com/events/webinar.cfm
Interwise - http://www.interwise.com/live/index.asp