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    Webinars: A Cookbook for Educators
    Webinars: A Cookbook for Educators
    Webinars: A Cookbook for Educators
    Ebook207 pages2 hours

    Webinars: A Cookbook for Educators

    By Nicky Hockly

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    About this ebook

    This book is a comprehensive guide to running excellent webinars. Whether you're an old webinar hand, or have never attended or run one before, you'll find useful advice and ideas based on over a decade of experience in organizing, attending and running webinars. Giving a good webinar is like cooking and serving a good meal. This metaphor frames the book. So let's get into the kitchen, and start cooking!

    This book is aimed at:
    - Educators interested in exploring the options provided by synchronous online communication
    - Online conference/webinar presenters and moderators
    - Teachers of online classes
    - Anyone thinking of offering webinars but unsure of how or where to start

    This book includes:
    - Video extracts from real live webinars, showing activities or tools in action, in the Video Bank.
    - A Glossary of useful webinar-related terms and terminology.
    - Links to external online sources, resources and video tutorials.
    - The 5-10-30 Challenges. You'll also find a series of tasks or 'challenges' to help you explore tools and techniques in more depth. There are 5-minute, 10-minute and 30-minute challenges to choose from at the end of several chapters. You can do these challenges yourself in order to develop your own webinar skills. And you can use them in teacher training or development sessions if you work with other educators.
    - Useful advice from webinar experts around the world, in the Last Word section.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNicky Hockly
    Release dateMay 22, 2012
    ISBN9781476334523
    Webinars: A Cookbook for Educators
    Author

    Nicky Hockly

    Nicky is the Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E (www.theconsultants-e.com), an online training and development organisation which helps teachers with technology in the classroom. She has been involved in EFL teaching and training since 1987, and is co-author of several methodology books about technology in EFL, including 'How to Teach English with Technology' (Pearson 2007), 'Teaching Online' (Delta Publishing 2010), and 'Digital Literacies' (Pearson 2012). She specialises in online teaching and training via virtual learning environments such as Moodle. She gives talks and training courses all over the world both virutally and f2f.

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      Book preview

      Webinars - Nicky Hockly

      INTRODUCTION

      I was 32 when I started cooking; up until then I just ate

      Julia Childs

      I still remember the first online event I ever attended. It was 1997, long before video-conferencing was widespread. It took place via audio, and it was an all-day online conference for English language teachers. Armed with some sandwiches and a thermos flask of coffee (my association of food with online events dates way back), I sat at my desk at home and listened to a series of invited speakers talk about current developments in the field. It felt revolutionary. It felt like the future.

      And indeed it was. It would take at least another decade before online events and workshops would become as common as, well, lunch.

      Why this book?

      Since that first online event experience, I've attended and given countless webinars. Originally these were via text chat and/or audio, with my learners on an online MA programme. Back then the majority of my learners had slow and unreliable dial-up connections only. Video-conferencing was prohibitively expensive, required broadband connections, and webcams were rare. But times have changed. Video-conferencing is ubiquitous, many platforms are free (or reasonably priced), and many learners and teachers now have better access to far faster internet connections.

      Hence this book. Because if you haven't yet attended a webinar, you should. They are a fantastic free professional development resource for educators. And if you haven't yet given a webinar, you could. This book shows you how to run great webinars.

      Who is this book for?

      Imagine you have something to share with other educators. A project you carried out with your learners, some good teaching ideas, thoughts on learning... Offering a webinar on the topic is a good way to create some buzz, share ideas and get other educators involved and interested.

      Imagine you teach a class online. Offering regular synchronous (in real time) classes is an effective way to help an online group gel. It also helps you to establish that all-important online sense of presence. And most importantly, with preparation, an online class can be a useful learning experience for your students. Indeed, for some contexts and subjects, an online class or webinar can be an extremely powerful learning experience (see Chapter 6: Recipes for examples).

      In short, this book is for:

      all educators interested in exploring the options provided by synchronous online communication;

      online conference/webinar presenters and moderators;

      teachers of online classes;

      anyone thinking of offering webinars but unsure of how or where to start.

      This book is a comprehensive guide to running excellent webinars. Whether you're an old webinar hand, or have never attended or run one before, you'll find useful advice and ideas based on over a decade of experience in organizing, attending and running webinars. Giving a good webinar is like cooking and serving a good meal. This metaphor frames the book. So let's get into the kitchen, and start cooking!

      What special features does this book have?

      There are several extra features in this book:

      Short useful advice from webinar experts around the world, in the Last Word section.

      Video extracts from real live webinars, showing activities or tools in action, in the Video Bank. You'll need an internet connection to watch these videos.

      A Glossary of useful webinar-related terms and terminology.

      Links to external online sources, resources and video tutorials. You'll need an internet connection to access these.

      The 5-10-30 Challenges. You'll also find a series of tasks or 'challenges' to help you explore tools and techniques in more depth. There are 5-minute, 10-minute and 30-minute challenges to choose from at the end of several chapters. You can do these challenges yourself in order to develop your own webinar skills. And you can use them in teacher training or development sessions if you work with other educators.

      1 STARTERS

      An overview of webinars

      I don't like gourmet cooking or this cooking or that cooking.

      I like good cooking

      James Beard

      Good cooking requires four basic things: cooking utensils (pots, pans, oven or stove...), a cook, ingredients (the fresher the better) and a recipe. Running a good webinar is not unlike preparing a good meal. You need your webinar utensils (the platform -e.g. text chat, audio or video-conferencing), a recipe (an overall structure or plan), ingredients (the content and activities – the more engaging the better), and a cook (the webinar presenter).

      A judicious combination of utensils, recipe and ingredients in the hands of a good cook results in a good meal. The combination of an appropriate webinar platform, with well-structured content and activities in the hands of a good presenter results in a good webinar. Let's not forget that a good meal is also nutritious. Well, so is a good webinar. Your webinar should provide a learning experience for your participants, and at the very least, food for thought.

      In this chapter

      What is a webinar?

      Example webinars

      5 Key ingredients of a great webinar

      The 5-10-30 Challenge

      What is a webinar?

      The internet offers a wealth of information, resources and events - a veritable smorgasbord of possibilities. Educators have easy access to a huge range of free educational resources. These include course materials and lesson plans, articles, PhD theses, online conferences, recorded lectures, slideshows, audio and video podcasts, blogs, videos, online discussion groups and networks....and online events like webinars.

      A webinar is a seminar offered via the internet or web: web + seminar = webinar. Here are some features of webinars:

      Webinars are often free (but not always).

      Webinars are 'synchronous' events (they take place in real time).

      Webinars can take place in different 'platforms': you can have a webinar in a text -based platform, where participants and presenter interact via text (e.g. in Facebook); you can have an audio-only webinar in a platform where you hear but don't see the presenter and participants (e.g. in Skype); you can have a video-conferencing webinar in a video-conferencing platform where you see and hear the presenter - and possibly other participants as well (e.g. in Adobe Connect).

      If a webinar is recorded, the recording can be viewed asynchronously (at any time).

      Webinars have participants (the audience).

      Webinars usually last about an hour (but can be longer or shorter).

      Webinars are often open to the general public (but can be for a closed group).

      Webinars are frequently one-off (but can form part of a series).

      A webinar is not exactly the same as an online class, although they share many features in common.

      Although we use the term 'webinar' throughout this book, all of the tips, technology and techniques explored can be applied to online classes.

      Example webinars

      If you've never attended a webinar, the best way to give you a flavour is to share a few examples with you. But like any meal, a description only partly conveys the experience. To appreciate a good meal, you need to taste it. To appreciate a webinar, you need to attend one. However, you can also take a look at webinar recordings, which will give you a good idea of how they can work. Here are two examples of recorded webinars I have taken part in. One is a public webinar sponsored by a teachers' association, and the other is a private or closed webinar given as part of an online teacher training course.

      Example Webinar 1: Teaching Online

      This webinar formed part of a regular series of public monthly webinars for the IATEFL (International Association of Teachers of English As a Foreign Language) Business English Special Interest Group (BESIG). You can watch a short version of the webinar with highlights. Click on the URL below the image to access the recording (an internet connection is needed for this).

      [7.42 mins]

      http://bit.ly/Heg49d

      Example Webinar 2: E-moderation course

      This webinar was for a closed online teacher training course called 'E-moderation skills'. It was the third and last time the group was meeting synchronously. Click on the URL below the image to access the recording (an internet connection is needed for this).

      [57.48 mins]

      http://bit.ly/HfWlbe

      5 key ingredients of a great webinar

      Tasty dishes have a subtle blend of individual spices and flavours that together make something delicious. Webinars also need a judicious blend of ingredients to make your webinar not just palatable, but outstanding. Let's look at each of these ingredients in turn:

      Ingredient 1: Planning

      The first step is to make sure that your webinar is well planned with a clear and logical structure. Ensure that there is an aim or outcome, and that you communicate this to your participants at the beginning of the webinar. Ask yourself exactly what participants are going to take away from your webinar, and plan your

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