I am in a new position with a law firm and most of our training is delivered through webinars. I have noticed that a majority of our speakers could use some suggestions on how to be more effective speakers and was wondering if anyone has any tips to share? Of course I have already witnessed a few, especially a reminder about how sensitive the microphone is, but was wondering if there are pitfalls out there, that I haven't thought of?

What is it that you have witnessed with the presenters that you believe needs to be improved upon?

Also, is this training or a presentation?

I'm defining training as the instructor and learners interacting with activities and such, while a presentation is the instructor talking with a powerpoint while "learners" (a.k.a. captive audience) are passive.

Check out the elearning guild tips guide on this subject- filled with ideas.

My experience is that the most effective instructors are the ones that engage in dialog vs just presenting (actually, this applies to presentations as well): engage the audience. Thus, many mechanisms to get the audience to participate in the discussion is strongly encouraged.

I agree with David. I'm not sure what vendor you use for your webinar services, however the tool that we use allows the instructor to break the group into breakout sessions just like the class room, transfer files, share a white board, conduct a poll, chat etc. The online environment should be very similar to that of the formal classroom. Its a culture shift for the instructors who are used to feeding off of non verbal queues in the classroom. If you find that you are not engaged, you should bring it to their attention (perhaps after class). Otherwise they may not realize there is anything wrong with the way they are conducting the training session. Good Luck!

Hi, you might want to see this latest free review of virtual classrooms with some top tips for running webinars from Kineo Open Source.

http://www.kineoopensource.com/index.php/free-resources...srooms-overview.html

Good luck

Steve