Webinars have always been a very popular training format within online training, especially since it fuses the convenience and ubiquity of online courses with the interaction and reciprocity of face-to-face courses.

Like any training practice, online seminars require prior planning. It is important to know what is going to be explained, how it will be done, who will participate and how long it will last. These are the steps to follow that we recommend being able to carry out a successful webinar.

1. Types of webinars you can do

The first thing to keep in mind when considering a webinar is its objective. Depending on what you want to achieve with it, we recommend several formats:

Class

This type of webinar would follow the structure and the classic format of a class, where there would only be one speaker, the professor who explains the lesson, with more or less participation from the spectator. The structure of the class would be similar to that of a face-to-face or online class.

These are usually small to medium group webinars, so they are ideal for answering questions from participants or doing joint exercises.

This format is the most popular for those companies that sell a product or service and offer training to their clients or potential clients to show them the benefits of the product or how to use it for different situations.

Unlike a video tutorial, doing it in a webinar format allows you to more specifically answer the doubts and questions of the participants, and get them to better understand what you are showing.

Tutorship

Tutorials are meetings with a person or very small groups dedicated to monitoring learning and being able to answer questions.

Doing it in a webinar format through an LMS platform such as Foxize Cloud allows you to have all the training tasks and keep track of the students' progress on the same platform.

In the event that you want to reward your training with Fundae, it is important to include tutorials in your training plan.

Mass conferences

A webinar can become a massive event lasting one or several days, with different guests, talks, interviews or moderated tables.

Mass lectures start from a main theme and are broken down into different interventions.

Being a webinar with many participants, it is important to keep a strict control of the participation, which is usually relegated only to the chat or in fragments dedicated to them.

2. Roles of the participants

Giving roles to certain participants of the webinar will help us organize the day and the intervention of the participants. Depending on the number of users in the webinar, more or fewer roles will be required, but we recommend that you have at least these that we list below:

Host or Presenter

This person is the one who organizes the webinar and has full control over the administrative aspects of the session: starting the webinar, activating or deactivating microphones and cameras, giving way to speakers, sharing screen, documents, eliminating participants, etc. Some webinar platforms also allow you to put co-hosts who can help with the task.

Speaker or Panelist

The presenter is the person conducting the webinar. These people also have the control of activating their webcam, microphone, and screen sharing to develop the activity, but they do not have the administrative functions of the host active.

Spectator or Assistant

They are the listening participants of the webinar. Depending on the type of webinar you do, they will have permissions to activate their microphones or webcams, or on the contrary, they will not be able to use them. Its activity is mainly focused on chat. The hosts are the ones who control their functions.

Moderators

Moderators can be part of the host or co-host team. This role is dedicated to being attentive to the webinar chat, actively reading participant comments and answering questions they throw or saving them for later. In addition, they can also energize the participants, opening debates regarding the topic of the presentation.

3. Structure and duration

Before starting the webinar, be sure to do the necessary technical tests and verify that the microphones, webcams, and the connection are working properly.

When the session begins, allow a few minutes for people to connect to the session, but not much for those who have been punctual. Some webinar tools like Zoom offer a waiting room for those who arrive early to the session.

Presentation

It begins by presenting who you are, who will be the speakers, what will be discussed in the webinar, what structure it will follow and the rules of participation of the listeners. This short introduction of no more than 10 minutes will allow time for those who are missing to connect.

The main content of the webinar

This is the section that should last the longest and where you should develop the entire webinar topic. Having a script prepared and following the keys to storytelling will help you structure the presentation.

To make it more attractive, you can help yourself with Powerpoint presentations, videos, Excels, live demos and a great etcetera.

Questions and answers section

As we have already said, the biggest advantage of webinars is the interaction with the participants. For this reason it is important to define a space to answer your doubts and questions. It is best to present a section at the end of the webinar or between topics so as not to interrupt the presentations.

Promotion

At the end of your webinar you can take the opportunity to promote other services that you offer related to the subject of the webinar, such as other courses or products that may be of interest to your students and / or clients, and even offer discount coupons.

These are the keys to developing successful webinars. If you have not considered doing a webinar yet, this is the time to do it. In previous posts we have shared with you different tools available for conducting online seminars and the integration of Zoom in our Foxize Cloud LMS.