Hosting a Webinar

For this activity I chose to use Cisco’s WebEx hosting platform.  While I’ve attended a few webinars over the years, this was my first experience hosting a webinar.  The topic for this activity was using Adobe Bridge software in my Digital Photography classes.  There are four teachers who teach the same class so I felt this would be a good way for all of us to get together and collaborate about a possible curricular change to the course.

 In terms of getting familiar with WebEx, I started by signing up for a Basic account.  This allows for meetings up to six people without paying a fee.  I completed a few edits to my profile in WebEx so invitations from me would be viewed as legitimate. 

 The platform itself was fairly straightforward to use and set up meetings.  I liked the ease and ability to upload files for meetings.  I completed a few Practice sessions until I felt that I was competent enough to host my webinar.

I then set up the webinar for Friday, February 27th at 2 pm.  I invited my three colleagues to attend.

 The meeting began on time.  However, we had a few issues getting audio to everyone. I used sticky notes to write messages to the attendees with instructions on turning on their audio.  It turned out that they just needed to select the audio button twice to turn in on.  It took a few minutes to work out the audio problems but we were all finally connected with video and audio.  The meeting lasted about 15 minutes.  We discussed the use of Adobe Bridge and all agreed after viewing the uploaded PDF file that it would be a good addition to the Digital Photography course we all teach.  One issue I had was the files I uploaded for the meeting could only be viewed when I shared my screen.  For some reason none of the three attendees were able to open the files. I found it interesting that the three attendees to the webinar were also very interested in the WebEx platform and trying to use it in their courses.  So essentially the webinar covered both Adobe Bridge and WebEx.  

 I was able to record the webinar but had some difficulty downloading and re-formatting it into a Windows Media Audio/Video file(.wmv).  The meeting is recorded on the WebEx site as an Audio Rich Format file(.arf) which cannot be opened unless your are on the WebEx site.  I believe this process would become easier with more use of the site.

 Overall, I felt this was a great experience and one that I believe can been used in any classroom.  It would be a great tool to record lessons and then post them for absent students to stay caught up in class.  I also feel that it could be used in a class to teach a new concept on a computer.  The ability of the host to share his screen is a great asset.  Students could follow along visually and see how to complete a specific task.  This would be a great option in my Digital Photography classes showing students how to complete assignments in Adobe Photoshop.   

Click here to view my webinar