Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 - (Page 49)

• There was a particularly dreary session that avoided the interactive features provided by most webinar systems. The presenters read slides to the audience. The leader failed to solicit questions, opinions or reactions. There were no polls or exercises. There was no divergence of opinions. The participants were not asked to engage with the content, take a position or apply the ideas to their own situations. • Both addicts were put off by presentations that consumed the hour, leaving only a few moments for Q&A at the end. • Cunningham complained about feeling all alone during several webinars. She was blocked from seeing the names of others. She was barred from e-mailing participants or the group leaders. She didn’t know if two, 20 or 200 people were present. She described the experience this way: “I looked at the list and saw only my name. I felt so bad for the presenter because nobody was attending. When a message appeared saying, ‘The webinar will begin shortly,’ I felt compelled to say something in the chat thinking I was the only one. Then I instant messaged Antonia [Chan], only to learn that she, too, was on the webinar. Even though I could only see my name, obviously, there were others. The list of attendees was suppressed. If attendees’ names must be suppressed (why?), then do as one webinarian did. She told how many had gathered for the session and named some organizations represented in the group. That helped.” • Chan grumbled about sessions that get ready to get ready to get going. She wants the meat of the webinar, and she wants it soon. Too many sessions introduce the software, introduce the presenters, introduce their companies, introduce their mission and vision and values and do it at their leisure. While it makes sense to orient people to what will come, it turns them off when their attendance is linked to a particular topic and the organizers babble on about other matters. • Cunningham dislikes slow, formal events. She favored a webinar with “a relaxed ﬂow. There was often laughing — camaraderie. For example, I attended a Lynne Lancaster webinar sponsored by Sonoma Learning Systems. During the webinar, they acknowledged the incoming questions and expanded upon them.” • Chan and Cunningham were upset about a webinar in which the presenter chastised the audience because attendees might not be paying sufﬁcient attention. Colleen suggested this presenter prepare materials and activities that would compel attention, rather than demand it. • Webinars are offered by people for people. They fail when webinarians mask their humanity by withholding anecdotes, doubts and opinions. Allen Interactions’ Mike Allen won Chan and Cunningham over when he shared examples and displayed a real and human self. They also were eager to applaud Cynthia Clay, president of Netspeed Learning Solutions. Cunningham reported, “Clay had a great Web presence; even with audio difﬁculties, she never lost a step. She had an energy that vibrated throughout the webinar. She was as excited at the beginning as she was at the end. Clay assured participation by providing a prize at the end for a lucky individual pulled from a list of those who were ﬁrst to volunteer answers and questions.” • An elegant, focused PowerPoint deck is good, but hardly sufﬁcient. Chan noted that webinars would Imagine if the sessions were just the beginning of conversations and debates. Imagine if they were jumping-off points for projects, with feedback delivered by peers and experts. beneﬁt from some instructional design principles. She said, “I believe that webinar disasters can be prevented by applying basic instructional design: selecting content by taking into account the purpose of the presentation, attending to time/space constraints and audience, matching content with delivery strategies, applying document design (right colors, fonts, use of white space), storytelling, characterization, worked examples and so on and so forth.” She added that it boils down to “telling a story and not lecturing or reading.” After the Webinar Both webinar addicts were foiled in attempts to ﬁnd archived webinars they favored. Colleen shared her frustrating search to revisit a session about career contentment. She found it many layers down on a Web site, in what seemed a surprising location. If the webinar is worth offering, it is worth making readily available after the fact. Another complaint is that archived webinars often lack the full-blown examples included in the synchronous webinar. It makes sense to use this as a legitimate WEBINARS continued on page 56 Chief Learning Ofﬁcer • August 2008 • www.clomedia.com 49 http://www.clomedia.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Chief Learning Officer - August 2008

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Connections Business Impact Trends Best Practices Effectiveness High-Octane Leadership Development Leadership and Personality CLO Profile Discussion Groups: Harvesting Value from Real-World Experiences Kimpton 2.0: Discussion on the Web Learning Olympics: Development Through Competition Bypassing the Obstacles to Change Listen Up: A How-To-Guide for Podcasting University of Toyota: A Success Story in Podcast Implementation What Stinks About Webinars? Webinars for Learning Professionals Case Study Business Intelligence Advertisers' Index Editorial Resources In Conclusion

Chief Learning Officer - August 2008

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