Lesson 2: Enhancing Webinar Participant Engagement

3.6. Participant Interaction

The participant interaction component of the rubric is critical for engaging participants in a webinar. If you do not use interaction, then there is no need to use a webinar to present the information. You could simply record it and supply a link to the archived recording. Three indicators were used to evaluate this component: active learning approaches, the expectation of participation, and questions.

Some key participant interaction best practices described in the video are:

• Present information using a variety of approaches such as demonstrations and examples.
• Engage participants by asking questions using interactive tools such as chat and polling.
• Tell participants at the beginning of the webinar that you will be giving them opportunities to actively participate in the presentation. Let them practice by having them type something such as their location in the chat window and/or have them answer a quick poll.
• Let users ask questions throughout the webinar. Be sure to explain at the beginning how you will address these questions. For example, will you immediately answer them or will you stop at certain points during your presentation?