Feb 17, 2019
What do you do when you have 50 minutes to teach a topic and your only access to the learners is a chat box? Before you press send on your slide deck, check out this quick checklist that might spark a little extra engagement for the participants of your next webinar. If you want a more thorough look at a learning-centered approach for developing a webinar, check out this post from Dwayne Hodgson Certified Dialogue Education Teacher.
1. There are engagement activities scheduled before, during and after the webinar.
A participant packet sent out ahead of time can include a pre-webinar reflection on the topic, space for writing during the webinar, and a post-webinar suggested activity such as planning to talk to a colleague about what was learned.
Tip: Remind participants at the beginning of the webinar to print the packet and write on it if they haven’t already.
2. Your webinar agenda slide lists what the participants will doduring the webinar.
It is sometimes easier (or a habit) to start with a list of the items you want to cover. Writing down what you want people to do after the webinar can help you decide what they will need to do during it. It can also help you eliminate unnecessary content when you have a short time with busy people.
Example webinar goal: Participants will use a new resource guide during the month following the webinar.
Agenda: During this hour, you will
- Examine how the guide can help you in your daily work
- Discover how each resource in the guide can aid your daily process
- Take a first step in improving your daily process
3. Engagement activities help learners connect with what they already know about the topic, introduce new content, and apply it to their situation.
The Global Learning Partners 4-A model (Anchor, Add, Apply, Away) is a foolproof tool for learning that lasts.
Examples:
- Share in the chat box. What good practices do you already do that have the most impact on improving your daily process? (prior knowledge)
- Answer the webinar poll on your screen: Which of the tools in the guide are you most interested in learning about. (new content)
- Share in the Q&A Box. What is a next step that would have the most impact for your work in improving your daily process? (action or next step)
4. Your slide deck includes graphs and limited text in plain language.
The adage “Less is more” was never truer than for webinar slides. A quick search of “death by PowerPoint” can yield some good ideas on getting your message across with the least amount of text or with graphics. Just keep going through your slides and striking out unnecessary words. Speak conversationally to your audience using “you” (see examples in #3 above).
Tip: More in-depth content can be shared in a separate document; your webinar platform may be able to have it right there ready to download.
5. Your reflection questions or engagement questions use powerful or appreciative open questions for critical thinking and deeper connection.
Appreciative inquiry deliberately asks positive questions to ignite constructive dialogue and inspired action. Small tweaks can add an appreciative approach to your engagement questions. You may need to leave a few extra seconds of quiet time for participants to think before moving forward.
Example:
Open question: Share in the chat box: What do you already do to improve your daily process?
Appreciative open question: Share in the chat box. What good practices do you already have that make the most impact on improving your daily process?
You can learn more about a learning-centered approach in your online learning activities in Global Learning Partners courses and our extensive collection of blog posts from our international network of practitioners, teachers and other experts in similar fields.
Rachel Nicolosi is a member of the GLP core consulting team and recently completed several client projects which required webinars to spread good ideas within a state and across several states looking to adopt best practices and learn from each other. She says that having a practitioner on the webinar who has had experience using the content being shared is one of the best options for getting participants what they need to know to help them take the next step in applying the content.