How to Host a Webinar From Start to Finish!
“Webinar" is short for Web-based seminar, it is a presentation, lecture, workshop or seminar that is transmitted over the Web using video conferencing software. A key feature of a webinar is its interactive elements — the ability to give, receive and discuss information. Contrast with Webcast, in which the data transmission is one way and does not allow interaction between the presenter and the audience. ” according to Webopedia. It is a great way to pull together a group of experts or interested participants and have a conversation about a specific topic. Often times there is a backchannel running simultaneously or chat for participants and for attendees who watch the webinar. The backchannel provides a place for viewers of the webinar to comment, ask questions, and provide additional resources. The chat within the webinar provides a place for the webinar participants to talk behind the scenes.
There are several webinar services to choose from for hosting a webinar. The type of service depends on the type of webinar. Number1Reviews.com provides a buying guide for how to choose the right service. If budget is an issue consider a free hosting service.
For our MSU-MAET project, Students were required to host a webinar. Our team, 4Tech, hosted a webinar on July 16, 2014 at 7:00 in the evening. Our focus – Social and Ethical Uses of Technology: A Webinar for Intellectual Property and Copyright in the Classroom. We used Google Hangouts Live and were featured on Michigan State Universities webinar series called MAET Bridge. To follow the MAET Bridge go to http://bridge.educ.msu.edu/, to follow the backchannel for MAET Bridge webinars use Twitter #MAETBridge.
Following is the process we went through from beginning to end to make this webinar possible, and evidence/samples are provided as hyperlinks:
Webinar Preparation and Conceptualization: Get the logistics out of the way:
Step 1 – Determine the topic
Webinar Execution: The Nitty-gritty During the Show:
The 4 Tech webinar ran with minor issues. This can be greatly contributed to the practice sessions we conducted which supported us in determining technology issues and finding solutions to them. Our tech expert, Lauren Villaluz, did a phenomenal job ensuring that the webinar ran smoothly. Renee Jorae, our backchannel moderator, kept us well informed of our audiences thoughts throughout the webinar.
The webinar took on a great conversational feel as participants were able to add in their knowledge, expertise, and experience. The main topics of conversation were:
- what is copyright?
- what is fair use?
- what are resources for educators and students?
- what are common misconceptions educators have about copyright?
- ways to best educate students about copyright?
Throughout the webinar we uncovered that there is a lot of gray area when it comes to copyright and fair use, but that explicitly teaching copyright will ultimately lead to increased creativity and increased awareness over copyright laws. In addition to explicitly teaching copyright it is essential, as educators, to model fair use and copyright.
Another important element of the discussion was expressing that staff and administrators need to be on the same page when it comes to dealing with copyright and fair use. In order to be on the same page it is important that the misconceptions and misunderstandings are addressed – for example, fair use does not mean that anything goes.
Together the panel put together numerous resources that can be useful to teach about copyright laws and be used to avoid break copyright. Despite copyright and fair use being a gray area there are many resources to support the public.
Webinar Post Work: Wrapping it up:
Step 15 – Complete the blog post for the MAET program.
Step 16 – Update the Titan Pad for a record
Step 17 – Copy all conversations as evidence for Coursework
There are several webinar services to choose from for hosting a webinar. The type of service depends on the type of webinar. Number1Reviews.com provides a buying guide for how to choose the right service. If budget is an issue consider a free hosting service.
For our MSU-MAET project, Students were required to host a webinar. Our team, 4Tech, hosted a webinar on July 16, 2014 at 7:00 in the evening. Our focus – Social and Ethical Uses of Technology: A Webinar for Intellectual Property and Copyright in the Classroom. We used Google Hangouts Live and were featured on Michigan State Universities webinar series called MAET Bridge. To follow the MAET Bridge go to http://bridge.educ.msu.edu/, to follow the backchannel for MAET Bridge webinars use Twitter #MAETBridge.
Following is the process we went through from beginning to end to make this webinar possible, and evidence/samples are provided as hyperlinks:
Webinar Preparation and Conceptualization: Get the logistics out of the way:
Step 1 – Determine the topic
- 4Tech – Social and Ethical Uses of Technology: A Webinar for Intellectual Property and Copyright in the Classroom
- 4Tech – Our Google Doc was a work in progress and constantly changed to reflect what we were currently discussing.
- 4Tech – Before the first practice session , everyone created questions that they thought should be used for the webinar on the shared Google Doc.
- MODERATOR: Alexis Miller, wrote the abstract and found resources for background knowledge for 4Tech preparation and prepared herself for webinar conversation.
- BACKCHANNEL: Renee Jorae (Twitter #maetbridge), created the blog post for the 4 Tech Team to share on their MAET portfolio, researched information and create a document to use for twitter posts for each question, thus making it easier to copy and paste into Twitter as we go along. This also documents the event through Twitter. We were each required to write our own evaluations.
- TECHNICAL SUPPORT COORDINATION and COMUNICATION: Lauren Vallaluz, learned how Google Hangouts Live works (Training Authors Tutorial and YouTube Video), Lauren monitored the audio and video input during the hangout.
- CO- MODERATOR/PANEL EXPERT : Kate McCallum, located resources for the background knowledge for team to read to prepare for the conversation and for links to tweet out. Prepared herself for webinar conversation.
- 4Tech – We wanted to get various people who would provide different perspectives about copyright and fair use guidelines. Each of us contacted individuals and once they confirmed we sent an email to our team’s Technical Coordinator, Lauren. (Contact Sample)
- 4Tech – Our panel of experts:
- Adel DiOrio – St. Johns Middle School Principal (unable to attend at last minute)
- Kyle Dunbar – Tech Integration Specialist
- Jeremy Whiting – President of the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association
- 4Tech – Practice Session 1 was Tuesday, July 8 from 6:00 to 8:30. We discussed where we were at, made final preparations, determine the structure of the webinar, the order of the questions and learned the features of Google Hangouts Live.
- 4 Tech Practice Session 2 was Sunday, July 13, 2014 from 6:30 to 8:30. We finalized everything possible and shared further information about the backchannel, documents, and format.
- 4- Tech – Online Live Webinar was Wednesday, July 16, 2014 at 7:00 in the evening. Our panel of experts along with our team checked in at 6:30 and tested equipment to make sure everything worked properly. We introduced ourselves and got acquainted, used the Google Toolbox and set our lower third (names and additional information), answered questions, and went over the format of the live webinar.
- 4-Tech Lauren sent the email and our questionnaire to the experts as soon as she received a confirmation email. When participants replied back she shared these with the team in our webinar folder. The questionnaire provided a brief biography of the participants and important contact information.
- 4Tech – Our abstract was shared with participants and coordinator of the MAET Bridge, Michelle Hagerman. She then added it to the MAET Bridge to encourage viewers to participate.
- 4Tech – Our draft of the webinar format also included specific script for individuals as well as tips. Hint: It may be helpful for the host to use note cards or a teleprompter for introductions and questions so they are looking up and not down at their notes. ipad works good for this with a teleprompter app.
- 4Tech – Renee is responsible for #maetbridge on Twitter; posting comments, updates from the webinar, and providing links to resources. She has prepared a resource ahead of time with shorten URL’s and possible Titter Posts for 4Tech to add to if they find more resources.
- 4-Tech – Renee will communicate the Twitter feed questions to our panel using the chat feature within Google Hangouts Live during the webinar so they can answer questions as we go if they so choose. The panel could also answer the questions in the last 10 minutes if any are left.
- 4-Tech – Renee will use the Titanpad to document what is going on in the chat when participants post resources or answer questions. She will also use it for the Q and A part of Twitter. This may not get done during the live Webinar. The purpose of the Titanpad (previously Etherpad) was to documents questions of viewers and the panel, then provide a place where anyone can provide answers as well. If a question is not answered during the webinar our team needs to find the answer or a resource and put it on the Titanpad. The Titanpad was embedded at http://bridge.educ.msu.edu/ under our webinar session. Our TITANPAD LINK - https://titanpad.com/9yQYiKJ86w . Note that Renee put information on the Titanpad before the webinar session.
- 4 Tech – Renee will send an email to MAET Bridge Instructor Support providing the Titan Pad Link (Rohit)
- 4Tech – For a good example of how to use Titanpad in conjunction with a webinar, visit the Teachers Teaching Teachers TitanPad
- 4Tech – Each member of the team sent out an email, twitter posts, Google+ posts to invite participants. Samples below:
- 4Tech – Our blog post with participant bioswas shared with participants and coordinator of the MAET Bridge, Michelle Hagerman. She then added it to the MAET Bridge to encourage viewers to participate.
- 4Tech – Lauren contacted Rohit to see how to add the MAET Bridge YouTube Intro to our webinar. We were not sure if we add it afterwards and splice it in for the recording or during the show? Answer: Rohit will send us a link, we need to add it and then resend the video back to him.
- 4Tech – Renee shared this document with Jon. He approved all to use the same post and add in personal reflections at the end. Our shared Blog Post for our coursework.
Webinar Execution: The Nitty-gritty During the Show:
The 4 Tech webinar ran with minor issues. This can be greatly contributed to the practice sessions we conducted which supported us in determining technology issues and finding solutions to them. Our tech expert, Lauren Villaluz, did a phenomenal job ensuring that the webinar ran smoothly. Renee Jorae, our backchannel moderator, kept us well informed of our audiences thoughts throughout the webinar.
The webinar took on a great conversational feel as participants were able to add in their knowledge, expertise, and experience. The main topics of conversation were:
- what is copyright?
- what is fair use?
- what are resources for educators and students?
- what are common misconceptions educators have about copyright?
- ways to best educate students about copyright?
Throughout the webinar we uncovered that there is a lot of gray area when it comes to copyright and fair use, but that explicitly teaching copyright will ultimately lead to increased creativity and increased awareness over copyright laws. In addition to explicitly teaching copyright it is essential, as educators, to model fair use and copyright.
Another important element of the discussion was expressing that staff and administrators need to be on the same page when it comes to dealing with copyright and fair use. In order to be on the same page it is important that the misconceptions and misunderstandings are addressed – for example, fair use does not mean that anything goes.
Together the panel put together numerous resources that can be useful to teach about copyright laws and be used to avoid break copyright. Despite copyright and fair use being a gray area there are many resources to support the public.
Webinar Post Work: Wrapping it up:
Step 15 – Complete the blog post for the MAET program.
Step 16 – Update the Titan Pad for a record
Step 17 – Copy all conversations as evidence for Coursework
- 4Tech – The following documents our conversations and backchannel during the webinar:
- 4Tech – Resources For Teachers on Copyright and Fairuse – We shared it with our panel and tweeted this out as well
- 4Tech – Thank you letter to participants
- 4Tech – Twitter Wrap-up