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Webinars are the same as training, right? No, but webinars are a great way to disseminate a lot of information to a lot of people in a short amount of time. They allow you to introduce attendees to your facilitation style and some of your training methodologies, as well as give them enough knowledge on a topic to entice them to want to learn more.
So, what’s the difference between a webinar and training? The main components of training are presentation, application, and feedback. You can present information in a webinar but, typically, your participants won’t practice or receive feedback on their progress to a degree that allows them to perform to standard back on the job. This is due to the large number of participants in a webinar. The industry standard for a virtual training program class size is 12-15 people. A webinar can have an audience of hundreds or even thousands of participants. Those numbers would never allow for effective practice and feedback.
I often hear people say, “But I have a lot of people I need to train quickly! A webinar seems like the best approach to save time and money. What else can I do?” When there’s no option for in-person or virtual classroom training, my answer to that is to consider a blended approach. Use the webinar to present your content. Within the webinar, try to engage your learners cognitively with activities using tools available in your virtual classroom software, like polls, whiteboard activities (depending on the number of participants), and video paired with a debrief. Then incorporate post-webinar activities that allow attendees to practice back on the job with a coach or manager who can observe and evaluate their performance and provide feedback.
On their own, webinars are a great marketing tool and a way to provide knowledge to large numbers of people. But don’t make the mistake of thinking your participants are trained on the content. Think about incorporating them as a component of a full training package for your team or organization.
To learn more about combining training strategies, attend our Blended Learning workshop. And why not sign up for one of our free monthly webinars to see how our first-rate facilitators create interest and engagement on a number of training topics! Simply click the button on the bottom left of any page of our website.
