If you are teaching via webinar, you have a special challenge to make the experience as engaging and valuable as face to face learning. Here are some tips to make your webinars interesting and effective:
1. Change your first slide within 5 seconds of beginning the webinar. This attracts the attention of the participants quickly.
2. Change slides every 15-20 seconds. The rule for webinars is different than face to face presentations – webinars require a higher number of slides to keep participants engaged.
3. Use great visuals on slides. Interesting graphics and photos entice the learner to watch the slides, using all
their senses to learn.
4. Avoid too many words on slides. OK, you know this already! It’s even more important for webinars, when people will get bored with an overload of words. Use key words or phrases and great supporting illustrations.
5. Include cartoons, drawings or art to support the message. Get permissions and don’t violate copyright laws.
6. Practice using all the features of your webinar software. Employ tools like the highlight or drawing feature. This shows real time action on the screen.
7. Use polls or chat to get feedback from participants. If it is a small group, open the mike and ask specific questions. Be sure to facilitate; don’t let people drone on and take up too much time.
8. Provide a handout prior to the webinar to focus participants. Include fill in the blank or other activities that can be performed to enhance learning during the session.
9. If possible, have an assistant on the webinar to handle participant issues with audio or connection and to field questions that you can’t deal with while speaking.
10. Vary the activity occurring on screen often, at least every 2-5 minutes: have a poll, ask a question to be answered on chat, show a video clip, highlight something in real time using a highlight tool. Be creative!
