Lesson 2: Enhancing Webinar Participant Engagement

5.2. Chat

Chat is the most commonly used webinar tool. At a minimum, it is used to provide technical support and let participants ask questions during or at the end of the webinar. While these interactions are important, you can use the chat window to support more active engagement.

Three ways to use the chat feature to enable active engagement are the following:

1. Ice breaker - By asking a simple question at the start of a webinar, you can get participants comfortable using the chat tool and begin connecting with them. A common question to ask is, "Where are you from?" Or ask a question that is relevant to the presentation. For example, begin a webinar on an introductory scientific computing topic by asking, "What is your scientific discipline?" After you get responses, be sure to highlight some of them before moving on to your presentation.
2. Recall of previous knowledge - Ask a question about their previous experience with the topic. For example, a question for a webinar about conducting effective webinars could be, "How do you typically decide what content you will cover?" This type of question helps them make sense of the new information you will present by relating it to something they have already experienced or know. It also helps you get a better understanding of your audience's skill level.
3. Push-pull information exchange - Sometimes, it can be advantageous to solicit input from the audience about a topic rather than just relying on the presenter's knowledge. Asking a question about how participants have handled a situation could provide useful information that you had not considered.

Managing Chat Activity

Using chat can be chaotic. It may be difficult to keep track of chat activity while also delivering the webinar content. Ways to manage this chaos include:

• Have someone help you monitor the activity and bring important input to your attention.
• Start small using just a few planned activities until you become comfortable with the interaction.
• Take (and plan) time for receiving chat input. Pause while participants are typing their input and read good responses out loud. Don't rush through it - it is part of the instruction.