For my Webinars & Synchronous Learning (INTE 5670) class, I choose to review a webinar that took place on Wednesday, February 3rd starting at 11AM Mountain Time. It was entitled “10 Powerful Principles for Creating Impactful e-Learning.” The speaker was Ethan Edwards, Chief Instructional Strategist at Allen Interactions, the sponsor of the webinar. The website where I found this webinar is called Training Magazine Network. The Adobe Connect recording can be accessed at the hyperlinked webinar title through a membership login.
The webinar lasted roughly one hour, which was the advertised duration. In that 60-minute session, Ethan Edwards gave the registered 2000 participants, including myself, 10 tips on effective e-learning practices. One of the principles I found interesting was number 4: Talk less. Do more. Often, it’s easy for an online tutorial to become text or voice-over narration heavy. It’s better to get the learner engaged in an activity, which tied into principle number 2: Let the learner take control. The other principles he emphasized were:
- Don’t list formal objectives.
- Design the end of the lesson first.
- Create real-life experiences.
- Design specific gestures
- Avoid adversarial tone.
- Use context to create meaning.
- Stop judging and scoring everything.
- Hold the learner accountable.
Overall, I found the content of the webinar very insightful, but the context was a different matter. With 2000 registered users, there were limited opportunities for active, or for that matter, interactive learning strategies. Both the audio mic or video camera options were not available for the participants. There was a chat option in the Abode Connect platform, but with the large number of participants, there was a flood of responses. I posed a question about the mobile flexibility of a tutorial Ethan’s company created for Dairy Queen, but the question disappeared as more people chimed in with their chat replies.
On the other hand, the presentation by the speaker was impressive. Ethan spoke with clarity and high energy. I could tell he really enjoyed his work. The host, Gary Vanantwerp, did a great job of not only moderating the session, but also of checking Ethan’s microphone levels prior to the start. The slides were simple, easy-to-read, and incorporated many aspects of CARP (repetition of simple fonts, text alignment, etc). For the most part, there was a simple analogous color pattern of blue and green with a mix of white and black. This presentation would have been easy to read if it had been projected on a large screen in a lecture hall somewhere. Also, the absence of a video recording of Ethan drew my eyes to the Power Point slides while he narrated. It felt like a valuable Khan Academy presentation, where the vanity of the instructor is secondary to the instruction.
Ultimately, this was a very professional session, but it came off more as a webcast rather than a webinar. It would have been nice if there where more active and interactive learning opportunities, but with 2000 registered participants listening to a 60 minute session, I imagine that’s not a possibility. Still, this session gave me some good ideas on the style and substance of an effective webinar, particularly with the CARP slide characteristics. Plus, Ethan sparked my interest in creating a better e-learning module, which will come in handy as I build my ILT portfolio.