HOW EFFECTIVE ARE WEBINARS AS A TRAINING TOOL

Today, with most of the world being affected by the internet revolution, innovations in the provision of basic needs like food, clothing and education have been introduced with online shopping and distance learning. Slowly, other services like banking and travel are already catching up with the trend. As such, businesses are beginning to look at the use of the internet as a venue for training their personnel through what you call webinars.

The term webinars actually refer to web-based seminars. Through the internet, speakers are able to give presentations, lectures or workshops to a group of people across distance and time. Webinars allow people who are in different parts of the globe with different time zones to come together in one virtual web conference room to listen and participate in one discussion. With this, companies that have branches all over the world are enabled to give trainings to their personnel without having to physically gather them together in one venue.

The effectiveness of webinars as training tools is now being explored. Are webinars as effective as their on-site counterparts? The answer will depend on how the webinars are conducted which is also applicable to on-site trainings.  However, webinars definitely offer some advantages which can enhance them as training tools.

For one, webinars can be transmitted across distance and time. This implies that participants can attend the webinar in an area where they are most comfortable whether at home or in the office. Usually, the physical set-up of the seminar venue can be uncomfortable to the attendees, thus, limiting comprehension of the training subject. Furthermore, technical problems like the audio is either too loud or too soft depending on where you are seated unlike the webinar audio which can be set based on the listener’s preference.

Another thing is that webinars allow for greater participation among audience. Unlike regular trainings where questions may only be raised at the end of the lecture, webinars allow participants to actively join the discussion even while the lecture is ongoing as there are features for chat rooms and telephone conferencing. There is also an option where the participant may remain anonymous if they choose to be. This functionality helps create an unbiased learning environment where the speakers and participants are not affected by prejudices brought about by race, gender or other factors.

These advantages can make webinars very effective training tools. When properly planned and executed, webinars would not just be mere practical alternatives but would help companies reach their goals in personnel development.