Introduction
Are you looking for ways to capture and engage your learners’ attention for your continuing education program? It might be time to consider investing in your continuing education program’s webinar strategy.
Webinars can help you reach more learners and boost learner comprehension. Read on for helpful tips to leverage webinars in your continuing education program.
Why your continuing education program should incorporate webinars
Webinars are a powerful tool to deliver high-quality continuing education content. If planned correctly, your webinars can help you attract individuals both inside and outside your program. By leveraging webinars, more learners can participate in your continuing education courses and events (regardless of geographic location), broadening your program’s reach.
Webinars also allow you to repurpose pre-recorded content, helping you stretch your continuing events and courses, and because learners can return to a webinar and rewatch it on-demand for increased access and convenience, you’ll notice an increase in learner retention.
Webinar best practices to improve your continuing education program
Here are 10 webinar best practices to create a successful experience for your continuing education learners:
1. Define clear objectives for your webinar
Before you begin planning your next webinar, you’ll want to determine your primary goal. Are you aiming to inform, educate, or inspire? Defining clear objectives will help you tailor your content and measure success.
Take the next step in defining objectives by identifying your target audience’s needs and expectations. What are your learners looking to gain from the webinar? Better understanding your learners will also guide your content development.
2. Diversify content
Create a steady stream of just-in-time webinar programming that could include industry insights, trending topics, and content learners need to know. You’ll also want to offer just-in-case webinar programming that could include content learners must complete for a certification or credential.
Having a solid mix of webinars and high-quality continuing education content is key to ensuring learners come back to your program.
3. Promote your webinars
Use email campaigns, social media, and your website to promote your upcoming webinar. Create visually appealing and informative invitations that highlight the key benefits of attending the webinar. If possible, tailor your program’s messaging to reach different segments of your audience, increasing the relevance of your communications.
Leading up to your webinar, send timely reminders. For example, a day-before and hour-before reminder can help ensure a good turnout.
4. Set learner expectations
As you build your webinar content, you’ll want to ensure that learners can find courses and programming that are relevant to their current skill level. Make sure that your course descriptions are accurate so learners will fully understand what the webinar covers. Also, include a skill level so learners can easily confirm if a webinar is relevant to their learning path.
5. Educate speakers on your LMS
Ensure everyone who works with your learning management system (LMS) knows how to comfortably use the platform. After recruiting a speaker, host a prep session so all speakers know the ins and outs of your LMS.
6. Boost learner engagement
Incorporate interactive elements in your webinars to drive learner engagement. Your LMS should include live polls, Q&A, chat options, and credit requirements (Ex. checkpoints, quizzes, or surveys). During your webinars, have staff members leverage your chat feature by starting conversations and driving discussion to engage learners.
7. Customize the learning experience
Take your webinars to the next level by personalizing the viewer layout and including your continuing education program’s branding. During webinars, highlight sponsors to thank them for supporting your event and encourage future sponsorship opportunities.
8. Archive all learning content
Build up your content library by archiving your live events and repurposing them as webinars to ensure that your continuing education content goes further and you appeal to more learners. Repurposing your material as webinars helps your program stretch content and reach more learners.
To attract even more learners, especially individuals who might not yet have purchased a continuing education course from your organization, consider offering member and non-member course prices. Highlighting a continuing education course price difference demonstrates the value of joining your organization, encouraging more individuals to become members.
9. Follow up with your learners
Provide attendees, and those who couldn’t attend, with a recording of the webinar. This extends the value of your content and keeps the conversation going. Gather feedback through a post-webinar survey. This can provide valuable insights into what worked well and what could be improved for future sessions.
Continue the conversation by encouraging your learners to stay engaged by joining your online community, getting plugged into your social media, signing up for further courses, or reading additional learning content.
10. Optimize your webinars
Review your metrics by analyzing data such as attendance rates, engagement levels, and feedback scores to assess the success of your webinar. You can use the insights gathered to refine your approach for future webinars. Continuous improvement is key to maintaining the effectiveness of your continuing education program.