Tips for Maximized Experience Professional Development Events utilizing Webinars or Recordings
What can we do on our campus to maximize our attendees' professional development experience?
Make it an EVENT!
- Utilize the Web Event Host Guide, developed by Webinar Advisory Board Past-Chair Terry Musser and NACADA Web Event Producer Leigh Cunningham.
- Think through the various aspects of set-up and facilitation well in advance of the event .
Learn from these participants from previous NACADA webinars:
- For our first Webinar, we did not adequately anticipate that we would want to have a group discussion at the end; our room was not well-designed for that. Now we've changed to conference-style seating instead of lecture style, and we like it!
- We learned from our first attendance that we needed to reserve the room for a longer time period and plan for discussion prior to and immediately following the program.
- We weren't sure about this format going in, and we did get distracted at times, but we were also to make comments to each other that we wouldn't have done in a live setting. We held a great discussion/brain-storming session at the conclusion of the webinar.
- Because we had people from across campus attending, we were able to start a conversation about the importance of mission and learning outcomes for campus advising (not just in our units).
- We found that it was a good opportunity to share thoughts and network with folks from across campus we don't see often.
- Consider bringing in campus resource personnel to assist with facilitation or follow-up.
- Our campus facilitator typically invites staff from various student services departments related to the event or resources being presented for campus Q&A and additional local information that may differ from presentation.
- Our university invites the resource person from the university to add comments and talk about resources at our institution.
If you have comments or suggestions - such as those above - about what you learned from your participation that might be helpful to future participants, please email them to Elisa Shaffer.