What is a webinar? Pros and cons of this form of training

With the development of the Internet, online webinars began to gain popularity among the users of the network, enabling the teacher to distance learn students, and listeners to learn in real time.

What is a webinar? This is a seminar, training, any other form of education with a variety of topics, which is conducted online (online). The possibilities of such training are quite large and require minimal expenses. The student does not need to leave the house, go anywhere, but there is an opportunity to get advice from the teacher, talk with the coach, talk to other participants.

Webinars online differ from conferences and presentations in that they are used directly for training, rather than advertising services, meetings, etc. One of the reasons for the popularity of such education was the facilitated mode of work for the teacher, because for him such a seminar is an opportunity to share knowledge with a large number of listeners at the same time. For all participants of the training requirements for software are minimal. You need to have headphones, an installed browser, a microphone, an internet connection, the desire to participate in training.

Consider what a webinar is, and what its potential for education is.

Video recording. A big plus is the opportunity to view the course after the seminar, if there is a need for a repetition of the material.

Video. You can use video clips on the webinar, videos recorded earlier. Listeners can see the teacher.

Chat. A good means of feedback is chat. It allows you to exchange messages that are immediately available to members of the group.

Audio communication. Webinars online allow the student to hear the teacher and communicate with him through voice communication.

Study board. As in a regular school, on a virtual blackboard you can record, erase, leave pictures and messages.

Working with text files and documents. During the seminar, the teacher can show the students documents, exchange text files.

Pros. For a teacher, this form of education has many tools and tools to facilitate the learning process. Training online remotely requires minimal costs. Realizing that such a webinar, it becomes clear how low the cost of such training. You can simultaneously transfer knowledge and perform practical work with listeners. For students online lessons are very convenient. You can say about the webinar, that such training requires minimal material costs and allows you not to break away from the main activity. Qualitative training can be obtained from professionals located in any part of the world.

Minuses. Webinars online have some difficulties when doing remote work for a teacher. It is difficult to control the presence of a student at a lecture, he can simply turn on the computer and leave the lesson. It is difficult to take into account how well the students have learned the material, since there is no possibility to see the reaction of listeners, there is no visual contact. After the seminar, it is desirable to conduct testing, interview students about how they evaluate the learning outcomes. You can use the mailing of questionnaires to improve the quality of courses. Certain statistics on the success of the seminar can be obtained by noting the attendance of participants at each subsequent course.

The number of teachers and students who learned about what a webinar is, and evaluated the advantages of distance online education, is growing rapidly. I would like to hope that such training will be applied in many educational institutions.