Overview
The word webinar is short for Web Seminar, the intention is that one can gather together a group of students online and share ideas, discussion and interaction much as one does in a face-to-face classroom. When the intention is to largely broadcast the learning, to run a kind of lecture online the proper terminology would suggest we should call that a webcast, although the term webinar is used widely to cover most teaching contexts.
The same technology used for team meetings is often referred to as web-conferencing. Dedicated Webinar tools include Blackboard’s Collaborate and Adobe’s Connect. Other online meeting tools have been adapted for online learning including Microsoft’s Team, Zoom meetings and WebEx.
Essentially the same tools are used. There is normally a presentation area on the screen and a facility for video and audio sharing. There are normally areas for notes and other sharing tools available within the web browser.
Requirements
You do not need to have any specific technology to engage with this unit.
However, it would be advantageous to have headphones and audio capability on the machine you are using to access this resource.
Learning Objectives
To familiarise ourselves with the concept of an online webinar and explore an outline of the basic functionality
Structure and Timing
Introductory video (10’17” mins)
Guidance Notes (<10 minutes)
Video Overview
This ten-minute video (10’17”) is a series of screen captures from live synchronous webinars taught using Adobe Connect (2015). It is annotated to give you some sense of how to manage interactivity, manage your tone, reflect on the importance of personal presence and to make use of the visual nature of the webinar interface. These examples are taken from a postgraduate teaching qualification but the ‘content’ is irrelevant. While it is not intended to be a blow-by-blow explanation of how to construct your webinars, once you have access to a webinar room, Connect, Collaborate or other solution, this might give you some ideas as to how you could adapt your teaching practice for this form of synchronous distance teaching. These examples are from specific courses and your particular configuration may differ slightly.
Guidance Notes