Online lessons & Webinars-How to make them more engaging #Webinars

Sign up to my newsletter and get updated with all the latest videos

This video tutorial shows you how to deliver a webinar and make your webinars and online lessons more interesting. I have been training teachers and using webinars for over 10-years. It doesn't matter what product you're using, the techniques that I'm going to show you here are relevant to anyone trying to give a presentation or talk or training using webinar tools.

The important thing when teaching online is to add lots of variety to the lessons. In this video I show you how to make your lessons more engaging but varying the media that you use and making use of a range of the tools that you can make use of when delivering an online class. Variety is the key but few teachers make enough use of the tools that are available.

In this particular video I'm working with the tool called ClickMeeting which I found to be very useful. However there are other tools that also very good that I have used in the past. I've worked with Zoom, Adobe Connect, WizIQ, Wimba just to name. The key to do an effective webinar presentation is to add lots of variety and this means good preparation. So when I give an online lesson or webinar, I make sure I make use of the tools that are available in the webinar. It doesn't take long to learn this. With just a little bit of time and effort you will become very effective in generating an interesting webinar with lots of variety in the way that you present.

Many of the rules about delivering effective online lessons are also applicable to generally presenting. However you do need to have those additional technical skills to be aware of all of the different options that are available to you. For example when I'm working with ClickMeeting I like to jump between doing a presentation to suddenly bringing myself on the webcam, to having a discussion, to suddenly doing a screen share, to suddenly playing a video from YouTub. CllickMeeting offers these different options. I can jump from one type of delivery to another. This add lots of variety to the way I'm presenting. It makes the whole presentation more engaging. Most of the technology tools do this very well. I particularly like working with clickmeeting because I like the way that it plays the video and I particularly like the av facility. It is one of many good online tools around but one I find very easy to use.

It's also important as well to stage your webinars so I always begin with a quick presentation where I'm on the screen. Then I move into the main presentation. Then I have moments where the participants discuss things in the chat window. Then suddenly I might play a video for 5-minutes, then come back to a discussion about the video. Then I might have a quiz or a poll on the screen I want my participants to answer. The result is that there's lots of variety, lots of different interactions taking place on the screen and it's not just me continually talking over a PowerPoint screen. This is the key.

In this video Russell is using ClickMeeting but his ideas can be applied to most quality Webinar tools

Russell focuses on

1) Making better use of the tools to vary engagement
2) Ways to bring the chat into focus
3) Ways to take the pressure off the presenter by having other media pre-prepared.

This one video will make a huge difference to way the way you give a webinar and will give you lots of useful ideas to bring variety to your presentations.

[Clickmeeting]

Thank you for this video, Russell! They're really practical tips anyone can implement in their webinars.

[yvettechua-carrion]

So, how many monitors/screens do you need for a webinar like this? Tnx

[Ottoslap]

There is a buzzing sound recording the video... I don't think I want to watch his video

[josephgarza]

Hey Russell, I thought your video was quite interesting. Especially since I recently began teaching online and have been doing research on E-learning tools. Nice video, Russell. Could you talk to us (the viewer) a little more about the tools available to teachers ( in this case, teachers of English to ESL students) please?

[navoditabhatt]

Is it necessary for students to download the same application? Or they can open in some other applications such as Acrobat...

[jimmystate]

nicely done, many people saying make webinars more engaging, but you showed us how. thank you

[dhinebratinella]

thank you for this video. Do you have tutorial for 2 or more hosts using zoom in fb live?

[ajaynangalia]

Excellent input! Thank you very much!!

[chentemccarthy]

This is an excellent video. Really helpful. For the interactive whiteboard how do you use it? I'd like to be able use it but scribbling with a mouse isn't great.

[leaheggen]

Thank you for your tips. I will be using Zoom any suggestions specific for that tool?