How to Run Great Webinars Workshop

Dan Freeman
PLEASE NOTE: We will be doing audio checks every few minutes, but
between audio checks we will not be broadcasting. If you do not hear
anything right now, please wait for the next audio check.
Welcome to
How to Run Great
Webinars
Wednesday, August 12, 2015

How to Run Great Webinars| Dan Freeman www.alatechsource.org
Use the Chat Space to ask
the presenter questions
and discuss with your
fellow attendees.
If you do not see the chat
window, please hit the
“Chat” icon in the upper
right-hand corner.
Chat Space

Click on the “Send to”
pull-down window
beneath the chat space,
private chat user “Host.”
Need Help?

• Q and A Session at the end.
• Type questions into the chat whenever you have them.
• Depending on how many questions we have, we may
not be able to answer all of them.
• Note: Make sure your chat is set to “Send to: All
participants” when you ask a question.
Q and A Sessions

Audio Broadcast: Calling Using Computer
(Streaming Through Your Computer Speakers)
Two Options for Audio
Calling in and Listening via Phone
(Note: This is a Toll Number)

To call in, Select the “headset” icon
above your chat box to open the
“Audio Broadcast Menu.” Then click
“I will call In.”
Calling in

If you are having audio problems,
you can reconnect by clicking
“Communicate” > “Audio
Conference…” at the top of your
screen and then selecting either “I will
call In” or “Call Using Computer.”
Audio Problems

In Order to Disconnect the Audio
Broadcast, select the “headset” icon
above your chat box to open the “Audio
Broadcast Menu.” Then select the
“Disconnect Audio” Button.
Disconnecting

Hear an echo?
If you are listening to the Audio Broadcast and
you hear an echo, make sure you do not have
two broadcasts running simultaneously. If you
do, close one.
Audio quality decreases?
If your audio quality decreases, you can try
stopping the broadcast and reconnecting by
clicking “Communicate>Audio Conference…”
Troubleshooting

• You’ll receive an e-mail within 24 hours of each session
giving you access to full archive, which is an audio/video
rendering of the event
• If you want your own copy of the slides, we’ll post them
to slideshare. The URL will be in the follow-up e-mail.
Materials and Archive
for Today’s Event

Save 10%!
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In Order to Disconnect the Audio
Broadcast, you must hit the “Stop” Button.
Disconnecting
How to Run Great Webinars | Dan Freeman www.alatechsource.org

• Online Learning Manager, ALA
Editions/ALA TechSource
• Produced and facilitated hundreds of
webinars
• Holds an M.S. in Library and Information
Science
Dan Freeman
dfreeman@ala.org
How to Run Great Training Webinars | Dan Freeman www.alatechsource.org

Poll:
What is your level of experience with webinars?
• I have been a webinar instructor/facilitator.
• I have attended webinars.
• My institution does webinars, but I’ve never
attended.
• This is my first webinar.

Defining a Webinar
• Mirriam-Webster: “a live online educational
presentation during which participating
viewers can submit questions and
comments”
• Interactivity not limited to Q & A
• Purpose not limited to education
• Though events always occur live, recording
can be equally important

Why Webinars
• Webinars are convenient:
• Distance no longer a factor in
scheduling
• No travel time required=easier to
squeeze into tight schedules
• Those who like to be quiet in meetings
can do so without the fear of looking
bad
• Ability to record event; make it available
later

Why Webinars
• Webinars are affordable*:
• Cost of travel eliminated
• Many low-cost platforms; some free
platforms
• No printing, no paper
• You can speak to a big group without
the need for a big room and the
equipment it requires
*If your goals are more ambitious, cost can go up….we’ll get to that
soon.

Webinars vs. In-Person Events:
What do You Think?
•Better? Worse?
•Different? How?
•Pros? Cons?

Webinars vs. In-Person Events
• The Key Difference: They arent that
different.
• The advantages and
disadvantages of each are
minor and cancel each other
out
• The disadvantages all have an
advantagous flip-side.
• Bottom Line: If you are comfortable
in a webinar format, you can teach
and learn just as effectively as you
can in person.

Webinar Cons…and Pros
• Con: You aren’t staring out at the sea of
faces, so you don’t really know how engaged
your audience is
• Pro: Less pressure
• Con: There is a camraderie factor with in-
person sessions that doesn’t exist online
• Pro: People are there for the stated
purpose only; no side chat, fewer
distractions, more focus

Webinar Cons…and Pros
• Con: People are not as engaged with your
material because they don’t have physical
documents with them.
• Pro: That isn’t really true.
• Con: Some people are more comfortable
than others with the online format.
• Pro: For those people, there is an
additional layer of learning going on and
they are likely to leave more
comfortable than they came.

How to Choose a
Platform…

What do you want to accomplish
with your webinars?
• Just hold meetings?
• Teach to small groups?
• Teach to large groups?
• Hold events for your staff or consortial
members?
• Hold community-wide events?
• Start small with plans to expand into
something bigger?

You cannot choose a platform before you have a
clear idea of what you want to accomplish.
• Hold meetings, have focus groups, talk to everyone you can
talk to…
• Make sure all interested parties have all bought into:
• Size
• Scope
• Purpose
• Ambition
• Budget
• PUT IT IN WRITING!!

A Side Note…
• A lot of this stuff sounds obvious, but please
don’t discount it.
• Running a webinar includes lots of small but
crucial steps
• Check out The Checklist Manifesto by Atul
Gawande.

How to Pick a Great Platform

Step 1: What features are essential to you?
• Capacity (more on this in a moment)
• Video with webcams neccesary?
• Is VoIP with headsets good enough, or do you
need for people to be able to call-in?
• Is it important to be able to load documents
in multiple formats (PDF, PPT, MS Word, etc)?
• Related: Do you need to impress the
audience?

Be sure to consider which features you want,
but do not need.

Step 2: Determine whether free is an option
• How big is your audience?
• If your audience is small enough for free
platforms, how likely is it to outgrow that
platform?
• Do the free platforms have the features you
need?
• How important is technical reliability?

How much do you need to impress your
audience?
• How big is your audience?
• Who are the people in your audience?
• How formal is your presentation?
• What’s the purpose?
• Teaching?
• Trying to justify funding?
• Just a meeting

Consider a free-trial
• GoToMeeting
• Instant Presenter
• ON24
• Adobe Connect

Things to remember about free products
• Technical support is minimal at best, probably nonexistent.
• You might not have access to your recording…make sure to find out
in advance.
• If a for-profit company distributes a free product, the free product is
the lowest priority in terms of resources, bandwidth, etc.
• Free products are subject to disappear or completely change their
interface without any notice
• This makes practice sessions even more important!
• You and your audience might be subject to promotions when using
free products—examine whether or not this is the case before using
them and weigh whether or not it matters.
• But most importantly…

Free products are a really good deal! If you
can use them, you should!
• There are a lot of free products that are
really good!
• If you are getting started with webinars and
you aren’t sure where your webinar program
is going, minimal commitment
• Obvious benefit to your budget
• You will look very smart to your boss or your
board or whoever you are trying to impress
• If you are trying to justify funding, using a
free product underscores the worthiness of
your funding; shows you are anything but a
frivolous spender

Exploring a couple of free
products:
This is not an exhaustive list.

Google Plus Hangouts
• Pros:
• Cutting edge; has tons of bells and
whistles, interface really impressive
• Technical reliability very solid for a free
product; backed by Google’s power
• Has pretty much every feature you can
imagine: Video, Screen Sharing, Chat,
Ability to share YouTube videos live

• Cons:
• Always a work in progress so the
interface and features change
constantly
• So many bells and whistles that there is
a bit of a learning curve, and all users
must have the same basic knowledge to
use…bad for low-tech users.
• You must join Google+ to use.

• The Hangouts-On-Air Feature
• Broadcast your hangout live on the web
so anyone can see
• It appears like a YouTube video, you can
just embed it in your webpage
• It gets instantly recorded and stored on
YouTube.
• Check out American Libraries Live

• Bottom-line:
• Really good for small conferences
• Really good for webcasts
• Don’t use it if you need to assemble a
huge group
• If you are using to impress someone,
make sure you have a really good
handle on the technology
• Hangouts On-Air a really cool and
unique tool with incredible potential

Anymeeting
• Fee-based service that includes a small-
capacity free service.

Anymeeting
• Pros:
• Gives you pretty much all the features
you would want in a premium product
• Free product is truly an unlimited free
product…not a free trial or severely
limited version of the paid product
• They make their use and placement of
ads very clear

Anymeeting
• Cons:
• Any way you slice it, the ads are a
distraction.
• You don’t get your recordings with the
free verson.

Anymeeting
• Bottom-Line:
• A very impressive free product.
• HUGE capacity for a free product
• Great set of features

OpenMeetings
• An Open Source Tool
• Code is open—users can modify the
product itself
• 100% free (donations always suggested)
• Collaborative document editing,
whiteborard drawing

OpenMeetings
• Disadvantages
• Constant changes, constant bugs
• Security concerns with open source
• No customer service

Step 3: If free isn’t an option, start exploring
fee-based products
• Start by asking how much you want to spend
and how much your willing to commit
• Think about price in terms of capacity,
because that’s the first thing that’ll become a
deal-breaker
• Explore what’s out there; don’t limit yourself
to the big names.
• Wikiepedia has a great resource for features:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_
web_conferencing_software

Contact the Company Schedule a Sales Pitch
• The sales pitch will allow you to see the
product in action.
• The sales pitch will allow you to ask
questions of the company reps.
• The sales pitch will give you the experience
of being a webinar attendee—it’s great
practice!

The Sales Pitch is Extremely Important
• It will probably be a pain to get everyone to
agree on timing, but it is well worth it.
• It’s more than due dilligence; it’s a neccesary
component of buying a product.
• It gives you the opportunity to get multiple
sets of eyes on the platforms.
• Equivalent of a test drive.

After the Sales Pitch…
• Get all stakeholders together for a debriefing
• Think of it like a focus group
• (If applicable): Put it to a vote.
• No consensus? Get more sales pitches;
considering bringing in outside voices.
• Patrons Involved with the Library
• Faculty
• IT Staff
• Don’t rush it! You can get more sales pitches.

Once You’ve Made Your Decision…
• Start training; get as many staff members involved as possible
• You can’t have too many staff members trained to run a webinar
• Use the documentation and training provided by the platform—it’s
probably really good!
• Run as many mock sessions as you possibly can
• If you can, run short mock sessions and run them frequently

The Mock Session
• As you begin to experiment with your new
platform, the picture of your ideal session
will emerge
• Document that and recreate it
• Get as many people involved in the mock
sessions as you can
• Have people participate in all roles—
presenter, attendee, host, etc.

Practice, Practice, Practice
• The technical aspect of running a webinar is always going to be a series of
many small steps.
• It’s not likely that any of these steps are going to be a huge challenge, but
there are going to be a lot of them and they will all be essential.
• You need to be able to complete these steps without thinking about it so
you can focus on your content, not the technical steps.
• Before you actually do a live session, you should practice enough that you
can launch and prepare the session without looking at a cheat sheet. That
being said…

Make Cheat Sheets!
• Having documentation is absolutely essential:
• It gives you a checklist of everything you
need to do to launch so you can think
about it less
• It is a training tool so you can ensure that
others will be able to run an events
• If there’s some emergency and an
untrained person must run the event, the
show can still go on

Take Note of the Pre-Event Features
• Registration Page
• Registration form—what information do you want to collect?
• Reminder/Confirmation E-mails? Write a template.
• Register as an attendee to get the experience.

Take Note of the Post-Event Features
• Easy to ignore but important
• Does the platform give you the ability to send a follow-up email
• Write a template for you follow-up e-mail?
• Is there a survey tool? If not, create an account at SurveyMonkey

Building Good Documentation
• Create the documentation with the person
who has no experience in mind
• Use checklist format
• Use screenshots when possible.

Running the Event: 1 Person or 2?
• The ideal way to do it: 1 Presenter, 1
“Producer”
• Producer is responsible for technical aspects:
• Launching event; ensuring all settings
are correct
• Handling audience techinical questions
• Troubleshooting

Develop a Plan for Tech Problems
• You need two types of tech problem plans:
• A plan for the common problems
individual attendees may experience
• It may take some time to figure out
what these are
• A plan for a major disaster

Develop a Plan for End-User Problems
• It might take some time before you can figure out what the most common
problems are going to be, but you can get a good grip on that by running lots
of practice sessions.
• Write a script(s) that you can paste into chat. Here’s one of ours:
• Sorry you are having a problem with your audio. I'm assuming you are listening via the audio
broadcast. If you're audio got interrupted, wait 10-15 seconds, and it should come back.
• Be prepared to deal with people who are angry/stressed/panicky
• The best approach is a customer service approach, even though the people
attending probably aren’t customers.

Develop a Plan for the Disaster
• Disasters can take a lot of forms, but the
bottom line is that we’re talking about a
situtation where your event gets severely
disrupted or terminated.
• The first step in building a disaster plan is
accepting the possibility that this could
happen.
• You can mimimize the possibilty, but not
eliminate it.

• Before deciding what you will do, examine
what you can do:
• Does your platform give you a way to gather
the e-mail addresses of all participants? If so,
get that together as part of your preparation.
• If the event “dies”, can you quickly relaunch?
• Given the size of your group and significance
of your event, what’s the possibilty of
rescheduling?

• Develop template e-mails to send to
participants:
• We just crashed; please re-join
• We will need to reschedule
• Keep in mind that people are generally pretty
understanding when these technical
problems occur.

Questions?

Delivering an Awesome Presentation
• Our scope today is webinars for librarians
• In your follow-up e-mail, you’ll get access
to Maurice Coleman’s webinar on
presentations (more general).

How Long Should Your Presentation Be?
• Ideal length of a webinar: 60-90 Minutes
• Not enough time to cover everything? Break
it into multiple sessions rather than stuffing
it all into one long session.
• Warning: If you make your session longer
than 90 minutes, people will disengage!

Start with a quick technical intro
• Spend 1-2 minutes going over the interface
• Outline the most common technical
problems; how to troubleshoot and who to
ask for help
• Include info on how to participate via
chat…not as obvious to some as to others.
• Explain the benefits of the webinar format
(recording, chat, Q and A, etc…)

Get Right to the “Meat” of Your Topic
• Avoid long preambles; introduce yourself and
your topic, then dive right in
• This illustrates a key difference between in-
person and online presentations—there is
less socialization, people are there to get
down to business
• Because you have less ability to charm
people than you do in person, you want
them to get their “money’s” worth

Engaging a Webinar Audience
• Your ability to know that the audience is
engaged is different from what it is in-
person.
• Best strategy: assume they are engaged and
proceed accordingly.
• Keep in mind that every audience has its own
personality and the chat space is not
neccesarily an indicator of people’s
engagement.

• Get your audience involved from the start—
that means before the event even begins:
• Pre-event surveys/readings polls
• Opening the event with a poll or an
open-ended question
• Using the “warm-up” time to encourage
attendees to chat amonst themselves.

• Always ask your audience about their level of
experience with your subject matter.
• This will get them talking, since they are
there to learn about this topic
regardless of experience
• You need to know where they are
coming from; even tiny snippets of info
are valuable.

Remember that You’re Talking to a Library Audience
• Use library-specific language and anecdotes,
even if your training is about something that
isn’t library related.
• Encourage the group to talk about their jobs.
Ask them where they work. What type of
library?
• Talk about your own library experience (as it
relates to the topic) as much as possible

Build Interactivity Exercises and Tools into Your Event
• Polls
• Exercises
• Open-ended Questions

Avoid Silence
• Talk while people are engaging in an exercise
or filling out a poll
• Don’t wait until everyone has submitted
their answers to comment; start right away

Always do Q and A
• Ideally, add a break for Q and A in the middle
of your event
• Make sure you have a strategy for handling
questions beforehand (producer or no
producer)
• Keep an eye on the clock

The Visual Component of Your Presentation
• The visual component of a webinar is
usually a slide deck
• This is much more important in a
webinar than an in-person
presentation
• Without slides, it’s just a voice

Building Your Slides
• You don’t need design sense and you don’t
need artistic ability.
• Base your slides on your outline
• Include images to keep it interesting (more
on this in a moment)

Building Your Slides
• While most webinar platforms will
recognize PDFs and Word Docs, it’s
best to work in PowerPoint because:
• PowerPoint is universal (more or
less)
• It’s easy to export to other
formats from PowerPoint
• Stick with “common” fonts

How Many Slides?
• The number of slides you use will vary
heavily depending on your presentation style
• A general guidelines is one slide per 90
seconds, but your results may vary!
• Think of your slides from an attendee
perspective—do you have enough to keep it
interesting?
• Using charts and graphs? Slow down!

Images on Your Slides
• Don’t go too text heavy—use images,
even if its just ClipArt
• There are TONS of sources of free
images on the web:
• Wikimedia Commons
• FlickR (check CC license)
• OpenClipArt.com
• You don’t need to spend a ton of time
worrying about relevance, colors, etc.

Using Screen Sharing
• Use it; don’t abuse it
• Great tool for demo’ing software,
websites
• Not a great tool for sharing your
slides
• Mind the lag!

ALWAYS do a Run-Through
• Too short? Not a big deal?
• Too long? Cut the fat!
• Cut your intro, cut your preamble, cut
audience interaction activities (but not all of
them)

Assessing Your Event
• Simple, easy and very helpful
• Most platforms have built-in tools
• Many free tools available; I recommend
Survey Monkey
• Include a survey in your follow-up e-mail

• Multiple choice questions:
• How useful was this event?
• How effective was the instructor
• Open-Ended Questions:
• How could this event have been better?
• Were there areas not covered that you
felt should have been?

• Don’t take it personally! Remember, people
are anonymous, so they might be mean!
• Filter out the meanness and focus on the
actual substance behind it.
• If you are really sensitive, have a colleague
study the survey results and convey them to
you, but…
• Whatever you do, don’t ignore the survey!

Putting the Assessment Into Action
• When you view the survey results, try to jot
down immediate notes about how you can
translate them into actual change in your
presentation
• Keep your notes with you when working on
revisions or a new presentation

Closing Thoughts…
• Always wrap up with some closing thoughts
• They don’t need to be profound; just avoid
the sudden ending

My Closing Thoughts…
• Webinars are here to stay; the technology
will change.
• The ability to run a webinar is a marketable
skill that will only grow more important
• You can teach/learn just as effectively online
as you can in person

• Contact me anytime with questions,
comments, etc.
Dan Freeman
dfreeman@ala.org

How to Run Great Webinars Workshop

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