Flipping the Webinar

In a flipped classroom, the bulk of the “content download” part of the lesson takes place prior to the class, so the shared time in the classroom can be used to ask questions and clarify difficult areas, or to work on assignments (rather than working on it later as “homework”). Using video for the pre-loading, the most common implementation, dates back to 2007, shortly after the launch of YouTube.

Now that seminars (and even conferences) are moving online, why are we not flipping them? Especially as we have so many opportunities to enrich the experience?

Basic Flipped Webinar

The presenter records their speech (combination of head-shot and screen-recording) and publishes it online, and the audience views it before the live event. While this has some benefits for the presenter (e.g. if they make a mistake, they can redo that section without anyone noticing), the main benefits are for the audience:

1. Don’t have to strain to comprehend garbled audio, as often happens in real-time video solutions.
2. Can respond to interruptions (e.g. answer a call, or request from co-worker or family member) without missing out on the content.
3. Can watch at a quality setting that works for their level of internet access, and/or download it during off-peak hours.
4. Can skip over parts that they are already familiar with / not interested in.
5. Can re-watch sections they want to understand more deeply, or pause it to watch related content

And pretty much the entirety of the live webinar time can be used for audience Q&A — the only presentation needed would be quick summaries to anchor the conversation as it flows from sub-topic to sub-topic.

Value additions:

1. Include a transcript with the video (the bulk of the transcription work can be handled by dictation software) — this not only makes the content more accessible (e.g. if there are terms that the viewer struggles with, it’s easier to search for it when they can see the spelling) it also makes it easier for the viewer to find the areas they want to watch.
2. Questions can be gathered even before the live event — this allows the presenter to give a more thought-out response.
3. The Q&A can continue after the live event, where the presenter responds to follow up questions.

Enhanced Flipped Webinar

The basic flip is based on the sage-on-stage (or at least, stage-on-camera) model, but the Internet makes it so easy to make it participatory:

1. The presenter makes a short video (say, 5 minutes) with a synopsis of what they would like to present, possibly linking to references (especially if it is a research publication)
2. The audience watches the synopsis as part of deciding whether they want to attend the session (and pay, if there is a payment required). After all, we’ve all had experiences where we missed a good session because the description didn’t appeal, or we wasted our time with a speaker who didn’t live up to their billing. The audience also give inputs / ask questions based on the aspects they are keen to know more about.
3. The presenter records their speech like in the Basic Webinar, but this time they don’t have to guess what the audience wants to know about, because they have that input at hand.
4. When the questions are opened up before the event, the presenter doesn’t only prepare to answer them live, they can answer some questions straight away. Other audience members are also encouraged to respond — so it becomes more of a discourse than a Q&A session.
5. The live event also becomes more of a discussion — audience members are not just throwing up questions for the presenter to answer, they can be providing a different perspective than the presenter’s (in a conventional seminar, this kind of discussion doesn’t happen partly because there isn’t enough time for it, and because it’s hard for the moderator to figure out who is trolling and who is making a useful point — but now we do have more time, and the moderator can profile audience members based on their previous posts)
6. The discussion can continue (on the same platform as before) after the live event as well, but of course it will be less intense than the live session.

Suggested Platforms

This article is not a review of video conferencing tools, so I presume you would continue with whatever tool (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx, Google Meets, Adobe Captivate, Jitsi, etc) that you would have used for the Webinar anyway.

For a single, basic flipped webinar: Use YouTube or Vimeo (no ads, but the free account is limited to 500 MB/week) for the video, and a Google form (or Microsoft Forms if you already use it) to gather questions. If you want to continue the conversation after the event, see below.

For a single, enhanced flipped webinar: Use YouTube or Vimeo for the videos (both the synopsis and full video) and then for the conversations (3 stages — after synopsis to shape the content of the full video, after full video before live event, after live event) use a free 14 day trial of Discourse. A group on Facebook / LinkedIn could also work if your audience already uses those platforms, but it can expose people to unwanted DMs and “friend requests”.

If you want a more chatty experience, use Discord (while you can separate the conversation into channels it’s harder to see individual topics), or a free Slack plan if your audience already uses it. WhatsApp is not recommended because participants would need to reveal their phone number, there are hardly any moderation tools (can’t delete an unwanted message), everything is in a single channel, and new members can’t see old messages.

For multiple sessions as part of a conference: It’s still manageable with the above tools, but going for a purpose built conference solution like Whova will make life a lot easier.