Friday 28 June 2013

ScHARR MOOC Diaries - Part XV: Our first live webinar session!

1.Part XV: Our first live webinar session!



Live from ScHARR MOOC Headquarters
Well, that was a new experience! The ScHARR MOOCs team (led by Dr Angie Clonan) delivered their first LIVE webinar today. This was our first synchronous ScHARR MOOC session online and although it had an experimental nature to it, we felt it was something of a success!

We used the Blackboard Collaborate platform  and invited MOOCsters from the Sustainable Healthy Diets MOOC to sign up and take part beforehand.

During the webinar, we were able to successfully deliver an interactive review of the MOOC's first week, answer questions which had been raised throughout the week and hear from some of the MOOCsters themselves.

The webinar agenda was based on a template which will remain fairly similar through the remaining weeks of the MOOC, and consisted of:
Dr Angie Clonan leads the week 1 webinar

1. Introductions
2. Ground Rules
3. Briefly revisiting some of the weekly content
4. Discussing some of the blog posts
5. Answering questions posed prior to the session
6. Post webinar evaluation survey


There were less participants in attendance than we had prepared for, which allowed us to share the microphone around during the session, enabling participants to introduce themselves (where their own microphone allowed) and really led to a feeling of being able to share opinions in a relaxed format.

In true form, the enthusiasm of the participants who attended this webinar reflected that which we have encountered so far on the course, and this really added to the experience. We had anticipated scenarios where we had to take stronger moderating roles, but this situation never arose, and we worked our way through the webinar structure, finishing on time and on point!

Next week we have four guest experts participating in the webinar, so we may have less opportunity for verbal interaction with those in attendance, which will mean that our managing of the chat function maybe further tested!  

Tune in next week!






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