As I go through the audio set up in preparation for a training webinar series that my colleague is starting today, it makes me wonder about just how widely used webinars are going to be used in the future. They’ve certainly become very popular during the last few years as a vehicle for training and presenting information to large groups of people all around the world.
(2 hours later)……
I began writing this post just before I started doing a test webinar and now I’m finishing this post after what I can tell you that it was fun and frustrating in equal measure. The fun was the content and the people, the frustration came from the technology and wireless bandwidth and loss of connection and sound and delay in responses.
I have so many questions:
- Now that Google Hangouts (and with extras) is on the scene, do we still need to use webinars? Lots of independent practitioners do, and some with great effect.
- How much will the frustration with technology impact on the message and the learning?
- What are going to be the biggest challenges of working with live interaction online via webinars?
I still feel that this – alongside good old Skype – offers managers, coaches, trainers and facilitators so many possibilities but perhaps, like the drive to introduce e-learning as a viable training tool, the technology still seems to overshadow the learning and the message.
Then there is the way that people present themselves online. The clarity of the voice, mannerisms, positioning and lighting, backgrounds on show (office, home etc..) – all of these things affect the communication. Someone mentioned treating the platform and visuals in the same way as you would behave face-to-face in a training setting and while this helps I find that when I coach people in how to ‘perform’ or sound online, this, along with many other more effective things can be used to create a powerful learning experience.
What today has done is to give me the push that I needed to finish writing the scripts for my brand new series of online learning courses, one of which is all about how to run webinars and make them wonderful. When finished it will be available here.
Until next time ~ happy learning!
Józefa Fawcett
Professional Trainer, Learning Specialist Designer & Voice-Over