What's the Big Idea? (Module 4)

“The force that propels the human spirit on the clear way forward and upward is the abstract spirit.” ~ Wassily Kandinsky

My topic is “using webinars to facilitate training.” Webinars have become a well known tool in recent years and many businesses and educational institutions use them on a regular basis. The term webinar is a shortened name for a “web -based seminar.” One of the benefits of utilizing webinars for training purposes is that they provide trainers with the ability to facilitate a course to a wider audience. Also since webinars are delivered via the Internet, participants do not have to be onsite or even in the same region.  This capability can be both a positive and negative for trainers and Instructional Designers.

A Negative: Webinars are not suitable for all types of training

I discovered this potential problem by taking an abstract view of webinars. Looking at things from an abstract point of view is a universal concept. According to the Root-Bernsteins, “…learning how to abstract in one discipline provides the key to understanding the abstractions of all disciplines (87).” As much as I appreciate the flexibility of using webinars, I realize that they do not work for all learning environments. For example, a webinar would not be the best way to teach a CPR course, but it is an excellent way to teach an introductory social media class.

A Positive: Webinars can be more cost effective than face to face classes.

I discovered this positive aspect to webinars through analogizing. The Sparks book states that, “In its most general sense, analogy refers to a functional resemblance between things that are otherwise unlike (137).” Take for example how the Internet is needed to deliver a webinar. A good analogy of that is in how a bridge is needed for a car to cross over a large body of water. To extend that analogy one could argue that in most instances, driving a car one hundred miles is cheaper than buying a plane ticket to fly the same distance. This is also a good case for using webinars for appropriate courses. For budgetary reasons, it is much cheaper to deliver content to an audience of people who live in five different cities via a webinar than it is to pay for them to fly to one place for a face to face class.    

As I continue to focus on whether to integrate more webinars into our training curriculum I will reference the positives and negatives to make a sound determination. They will be similar to the ones I provided in this post.  One of the things I will do immediately is include the cost effective aspect into my current evaluation report. Something that I am considering for the future is looking at webinars from a more abstract point of view. This course of action could prove to be quite productive. But for now, it is full speed ahead in my examination of webinars for my workplace and for my topic in this class.