Webinar Wire

Do Your Webinars Stink?

Posted by Ken Molay August 5 2008 6:50 PM EDT

Doug Sohn at the American Management Association sent me a link to a fantastic article in the current digital issue of Chief Learning Officer. Allison Rossett, Ed.D. has written a long article entitled What Stinks About Webinars?

Allison asked two "webinar addicts" to track and report on their impressions of many different web presentations over the course of several weeks. The women pointed out the benefits of being able to get a quick, convenient overview on a topic of interest.
But they both found that the majority of the webinars they sat through were poorly created or delivered.

They said that some webinars seem to exhibit no planning or organization. Others relied on monotonous recitation from a script. Some did not deliver the promised content. They wanted more interactions, more time for Q&A, and more human empathy in the presentation. They also related difficulties in accessing recorded versions of events.

Allison ends with a call for more integration with Web 2.0 features such as social networks, peer participation, and alternate communications methods.

I can offer no more compelling call for going to the link than to repeat the last sentence of the article verbatim: "Chan and Cunningham hope fervently that the people planning their upcoming webinars will read and act upon the ideas in this article."

Hear hear!!