Produce Some “WOW”: 5 Tips for Wondrous Online Webinars

Remember back, oh, 11 months ago when taking part in a webinar was kind of a treat? Well no longer. Now during Quaran-Time, every day feels like one long webinar or an endless online meeting. We are glued to our screens, tethered to our headsets, and tempted by the allure of Instagram and memes. 

Our colleagues who attend our online learning events probably feel the same, so we need to up our game and produce some “WOW”. Wondrous Online Webinars. Okay, that acronym is a bit forced, but I bet you’ll remember it. 

Here are a few tips to experiment with, as well as some links to some resources to help you produce WOW.  

1. Go Beyond “Delivering a Webinar” to Producing Engaging Learning Experiences

   
   Amazon, Gabriel’s Pizza and Bicycle Brewery deliver. And that’s a good thing these days. But you can’t “deliver learning” as if your audience is passively waiting on their porch for their Uber Eats to show up.
   
   Instead, you need to create a learning experience that engages their mind and emotions. Our brains process data according to its emotional impact and relevance. So, by all means present relevant facts, models and statistics. But also use stories, jokes and use effective visuals that will engage their emotions.
   

2. Create a Dialogue with Your Participants

We need to do less “showing and telling”.  Instead create opportunities for dialogue with your  participants by asking them questions about:

• their experience with the topic: What is the situation in your community?

• their opinions on substantial questions: What do you think about…?

• their reflections on the content they just observed:? What new insights did you have during Ahmed’s presentation….?

• how they will use this new knowledge or skill in their work (What part of Etobicoke’s action plan could you see adapting to your municipality?)

•  What additional support might they need to to apply what they have learned?

Post these questions on a slide and invite them to reply via the chat comments, by posting on the whiteboard, by answering polls or by inviting them to turn on their microphones and cameras to share their answer.  

3. Design with the 4A’s Learning Cycle

Too often webinars are just a long series of data-packed slides that are flashed onscreen while the presenter drones on. For your learners, it becomes essentially” Power Point on the Phone”, and they will quickly get distracted with emails, their Twitter feed or the cat walking across their keyboard.

Instead, try designing learning experiences that involve “4A” learning cycle (as developed by Dr. Jane Vella) to incorporate four different types of learning:

• Anchor: Draw upon their previous experience with the topic. Activate their prior learning by asking them to reflect and share briefly. This prepares them to process new ideas.

• Add: Present new ideas, facts, frameworks, arguments, statistics, or watch a debate, a video etc. but focus only on what is most relevant to your participants.

• Apply: Invite the participants to engage with this new content by discussing it, analyzing a case study, or debating an interesting question. 

• Away: Before you wrap up, invite them to name what they learned and why that was significant for them. Ask them to think ahead to what they will apply in their work. 

Using this framework may mean that you “cover” less content, but your participants will retain much more if they do more than watch and listen. 

4. Up Your Production Values.

Today’s Gen Z and Millennials are used to high-quality YouTube and Tik Tok videos with good lighting and special effects. So think about your production space:

• Use a wired headset or a studio-quality condenser microphone (not the built-in laptop microphone) to avoid feedback and ambient noise;

• Connect an external web camera and place it at your eye level — put it on a tripod or even a stack of books behind your laptop, so that you are looking at the camera when you. talk;

• Choose a non-cluttered but non-boring background, or use a tasteful virtual background on Zoom or MS Teams. 

• Shine a light from behind your computer to illuminate your face. It doesn’t have to be a fancy ring-light; even a lamp or window will do. 

• Create slides that follow a clean design template: big fonts, fewer words, compelling photos and images to reinforce the content. 

5. Optimize Your Time Together

Everyone is suffering from Zoom fatigue these days. When everyone is online all day every day, less can be more. So:

• Keep your webinar short (i.e., under an hour) and focused.

• Keep it moving: Include less content on each slide and use animations and slide changes to switch up the visuals regularly.

• Mix up the voices on the line: work with a co-presenter, invite the participants to come on camera or to use their microphone to share their insights and reflections. 

• Finish before the allotted time. Even 5 minutes early. Your participants will be glad for the chance to take a break before their next meeting. 

• Share details in handouts and fact sheets after the webinar.
  

 What additional tips and techniques for supporting engagement would you add to this list? Please leave your comments in the chat below.

 NB: A version of this blog post originally appeared in an in-house blog for an organization where I was working. But it seemed too good to leave it there, so I’ve decided to republish it here.