The Linguist is a languages magazine for professional linguists, translators, interpreters, language professionals, language teachers, trainers, students and academics with articles on translation, interpreting, business, government, technology
Issue link: https://thelinguist.uberflip.com/i/135206
ONLINE LEARNING Weaving a webinar Sarah Dillon looks at the benefits and limits for participants, and offers some top tips for presenters I am an avid webinar attendee. To date, I have attended more than 100 of them, either as an organiser, speaker or audience member, across a range of topics and industries. Some were so engaging that the sense of excitement and motivation from my fellow attendees seemed to hum across the wires. Others sent virtual tumbleweed blowing across my screen. Interestingly, neither subject matter nor speaker experience seems to indicate which of these two camps a webinar will fall into. A webinar is a presentation, lecture, workshop or class run entirely online. It may also be called a web conference, webcast or online workshop. Organisers, speakers and audience members use their desktop computers, laptops or even mobile devices to 'dial in', and either attend the live event or view a recording at a later date. Webinars compare very favourably to face-to-face events in terms of cost and convenience. You rarely need special equipment or software and, of course, there are no transport costs. This makes webinars particularly suited to translators, interpreters, language teachers and other professionals who work across countries, languages or time zones. Based in South Africa, Rebekka Wellmanns has used the webinar platform Webex to teach English and Spanish to a range of students from around the world, including children. She says she prefers webinars to Skype for online teaching, as there tend to be fewer issues with connectivity. She also feels she has more control over her classroom environment. 'Being able to use uploaded slides and whiteboard tools, as if you were in a traditional classroom, is great. You can see your chat participants, use the mute/unmute 18 The Linguist JUNE/JULY Finding the right webinar You can easily find interesting and low-cost webinars with a quick Google search. Translators and interpreters should also try: • eCPD Webinars; www.ecpdwebinars.co.uk/events.html • ProZ; www.proz.com Most software companies run free webinars to demonstrate their tools. Other organisations providing free webinars include: • The British Council; www.teachingenglish.org.uk/webinars • Oxford University Press; elt.oup.com/feature/global/webinars/ • MacMillan Publishers; www.macmillanenglish.com/webinars/ function and enable video, all at the same time. You can basically do the same with Skype, but having to switch between sharing screens, the chat box and controlling who gets added to the call, can be a little tedious.' Sharing a class with such a diverse range of learners clearly benefits her students, and Wellmanns enjoys the lively interactions that take place during her lessons. However, there are some unique downsides to a virtual classroom. 'If they choose not to put their webcams on, are they still engaged? How can you keep their attention?' she asks. 'But there are always techniques you can use if you can anticipate these situations ahead of time.' Even experienced teachers and presenters can struggle to apply their skills to a remote and diverse audience within a webinar environment. It doesn't matter if you are trying to re-create a classroom, lecture hall, meeting or workshop. In the absence of other environmental cues, two areas in particular take on a heightened sense of importance for a webinar audience: visual aids and content. Visual aids Your audience is used to viewing video on their screens and will expect visual changes to hold their interest. They may think their screen has frozen and try to log out if your session stays static for too long. Some experienced webinar speakers recommend introducing a new visual element every minute or so. A webcam can seem an obvious way to replicate the visual element of a face-to-face experience. Unfortunately, it doesn't always pay off. Speakers tend to look at their screens instead of into the webcam, and this apparent lack of eye contact can make them look shifty. Poor lighting and video quality can make facial expressions indiscernible. One way around this is to limit video to introductions and closings, especially if the webinar is in the form of a lecture or software demonstration. Remember, too, that there is a time lapse of a couple of seconds between what you see on your screen and what the audience sees on theirs. There is often also a slight delay on the audience's side between what they can see and what they can hear. Video feeds, detailed slides and software demonstrations can exacerbate this lag and lead to confusion. Brushing up on the basics of good slide preparation, and reviewing your material in light of this, is always time well spent. A www.iol.org.uk