I've participated as an audience member in a few webinars in the past, but being a moderator was a rather surreal and at times unsettling experience. I recognize the usefulness of webinars as a medium though which people who are far apart geographically can come together for a shared learning experience, but I have to say that I personally don't enjoy the experience very much as an audience member or a presenter.
Ultimately presenting the webinar with my group wasn't so bad, it went fairly smoothly and people seemed to be fairly engaged with our content, but I didn't like how disconnected I was from my audience. I have a background in theatre and I love teaching, sure I get nervous for presentations just like everyone else, but once I get going I love creating a connection with my audience or class. As a performer and an educator I see one of my greatest strengths as being able to read my audience or class and respond to the cues they are giving me. Being able to connect with my audience mean I can adjust my style and approach based on how my audience/class is reacting and in this way hopefully keep them engaged and alert.
With a webinar where not only can you not see your audience, but they could be anywhere being distracted by anything, this same kind of connection isn't possible. I can however see how this could be a huge advantage for individuals who get anxious and nervous about presenting in front of groups.
As an audience member I find it hard to participate effectively in webinars. If I am paying attention to the presenter and the slides, I can't pay attention to the discussion going on in chat, and if I participate in chat I miss much of what the presenter is saying. I actually prefer to watch pre-recorded webinars for this very reason, which lets face it isn't the point of webinars.
As far as the technology goes, it isn't exactly the most user friendly experience, but it isn't prohibitive either. Once my group worked with it a little bit, it really wasn't that bad and we got through our webinar without any issues.
My overall verdict? I don't really care for webinars, but I'm glad that I now have the skills to create and moderate one should I ever be called upon to do so.
I agree with all of your reflections on the webinar assignment. I haven't done the webinar yet, but I anticipate having a difficult time pacing myself with little cues from the audience of their understanding. From the perspective as a member of the audience, this was a major factor in my engagement. If the presenter was talking too fast, it was difficult to follow the details of their talks. There were very subtle differences between an engaging presenter and a presenter that lost my attention.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad your webinar went well. I was quite nervous to do my own and thankfully it went much smoother than I anticipated as well. I agree with your critique of the webinars. I didn't really enjoy doing them either. I understand why we had this assignment, but it wasn't the most comfortable task to accomplish. I really disliked the software we used. There were so many unexpected problems that just added to the stress. I'm sure the free version has many more problems than the paid version, but as one of my group members said, this isn't a good incentive for us to pay for this technology.
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