Introductions and Building Community

Another feature of a successful webinar is the ability to utilize group dynamics to foster a sense of community and cooperative learning. As you begin the webinar, you’ll want to focus on defining the group, and letting learners know what they will complete together over the course of the session. Dr. Susan Weinschenk states that, “You don’t have to feel good about the group with a group activity in order to be more cooperative. Just the act of doing a synchronous activity seems to strengthen social attachment amongst group members.” ^[1] By fostering a sense of camaraderie from the very beginning, you let your participants know that they are now a part of a community of learners that they can rely on over the course of the session and hopefully beyond.

First Impressions

A presenter can set the tone by seeming relaxed and welcoming as participants enter the meeting room. Just as you might do in a face-to-face session, greet participants in the chat box as they enter the meeting room, encourage participants to introduce themselves, and let them know that it’s appropriate to mingle with their fellow learners in the time before the session. You might also consider playing music as participants enter the meeting room. Weinschenk states that “listening to music releases dopamine in the brain,” which can put your participants in a more positive mood. ^[2] Just be careful to choose music wisely, as music choice is rather subjective and personal. Click on the links below for locations with free music available for download:

• Epitonic
• Jamendo

In that most folks tend to arrive to the session early, you may want to consider placing a timer or welcome message on the screen let users know when the presentation will begin. Also make sure that your screen is set up in a self-evident way in terms of what participants are supposed to do so that latecomers can simply dive right in. This is another instance where a facilitator or producer can help immensely – they can greet late comers and get them caught up while you continue to present.

Introductions

Paola Domizio articulates that “One of the most overlooked parts of a good lecture is the form of words that introduces you before you start to speak. A good introduction raises and audiences interest in the lecture and establishes your authority to give the talk in the first place.” ^[3] Indeed, beginning your lecture by giving the audience insight into your unique expertise and viewpoints will allow them to better understand what you are bringing to the table. Keep your introduction warm, relaxed, and personable, and invite the participants to share information about themselves as time allows. You can also use the chat tool to ask questions about your participants, or use a whiteboard function to allow participants to mark where they’re accessing the webinar from on a map. These two simple engagement activities take very little time and help to foster connections between participants.

Sharing the Game Plan

Once introductions are out of the way, you want to state the agenda and articulate your expectations of participants throughout the session. Let users know exactly what they’ll be doing over the course of the session and how you would like them to engage with some material. That way, at any given time during the webinar, they will know exactly where they are, what they’ve done, and what’s to come.

In the previous module we discussed the process of activating prior knowledge as the second step of Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction. One simple activity that will allow learners to share what they know and what they would like to know is to have them complete a KWL chart. The concept of the KWL chart was created by Donna Ogle as a means of helping learners to define what they know, what they want to know, and once the lesson is complete, what they learned. ^[4]

Create chat boxes or note areas for your participants to fill in the K and the W blocks on the KWL chart. This will help you to complete the first three steps of Gagne’s nine events of instruction in that you will gain learner attention, inform the learner of the objectives for the lesson, and stimulate prior knowledge. Having learners complete the L block of the chart at the end of the lesson will allow you to assess their performance and enhance retention/knowledge transfer, which covers the last two steps of Gagne’s nine events of instruction. You may consider showing participants the K and W blocks as they fill out the L block so as to demonstrate the change that has occurred over the course of the webinar.