Creating a Project Plan

As previously mentioned, one characteristic of effective webinars is that they are highly organized and well planned. It follows, then, that having a well defined project plan will facilitate a strong design. Think of your project plan as a human body, with your audience assessment as the heart and your learning objectives as the backbone. All of the other components are driven by the these two key components, that you’ve luckily already completed in the previous modules. Your plan does not have to be a formal document, however, having the following items spelled out will help in keeping focused and making strong decisions throughout the design process.

• An overview of your project
• A list of learning objectives
• An activity rationale explaining why the material is relevant and necessary
• The target population
• A brief description of learner motivation
• Prior knowledge and prerequisites
• The context and setting for the webinar
• Sample assessment activities
• Technical requirements
• A plan for evaluation

ADDIE Model

As you’ve taken part in the planning process documented by the modules on this website, you’ve been following the ADDIE Model, a technique commonly used by designers and educators for developing learning objects. The model, which was developed in the 1970s for the U.S. Army, covers the lifecycle of instructional projects. ADDIE stands for:

• Analysis
• Design
• Development
• Implementation
• and Evaluation

The ADDIE model highlights the importance of planning before any design or development decisions are made. It also builds in steps for evaluation and assessment to ensure that subsequent projects take advantage of new knowledge on the success in meeting learning outcomes. As you develop your design plan for your webinar, consider the steps of the ADDIE model, ensuring that you have accounted for analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation as part of the process. ^[1]

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
Nelson Mandela

Creating a Strong Agenda

At this point you have defined your audience, specified what you would like them to learn, and stated how you will impart this new knowledge to them over the course of the webinar. If you are transferring a face-to-face lesson to a synchronous online format, you may already have a lesson plan that you can work from in creating the agenda for the webinar. Regardless of whether you are starting from scratch or repurposing older materials, you’ll want to keep a couple of best practices for effective presentations in mind: