Launching an Open Webinar series: From Concept to Execution

Session Format

In-person Poster

Conference Tracks

Library Instruction and Instruction Design; Outreach, Services, and Programs

Short Description

Interested in developing a robust webinar series at your institution? In this poster, we will cover how to submit a proposal for a series of webinars, strategies for getting collaborators, and articulate reasons why your institution should support a webinar series.

This poster will also offer suggestions for the most effective execution for a series, addressing questions of identifying topics, orienting the presenters and logistics.

Long Description

Many online librarians face the challenge of scaling instruction to a large population of users. While embedding and asynchronous instruction are two common tactics, a library at a private research university with a large population of online graduate programs tried a different strategy: a series of interdisciplinary open webinars.

With only one online librarian, initial efforts to move library instructional programming online had to start small, with a pilot of a single webinar. Student interest and feedback encouraged the library’s citation management team to begin offering more programming online, with a couple of new librarians trying out the webinar format. With the hiring of a second online librarian, the webinar series was finally able to take off and incorporate a variety of librarians across departments.

This poster will describe not only the goals behind this webinar series, but also the tools and people needed to make it happen. It will help attendees identify topics suitable for a webinar, how to select dates and times, as well as strategies for encouraging participation from library colleagues who may be new to online learning. Finally, it will provide logistical tips for anyone interested in implementing an online instructional series at their own institution.

Learning Objectives

  • List benefits to offering a webinar series at their institution

  • Identify collaborators for potential webinars

  • Explore outreach strategies to garner interest in the webinars

  • Create a basic logistics plan for administering webinars

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Launching an Open Webinar series: From Concept to Execution

Many online librarians face the challenge of scaling instruction to a large population of users. While embedding and asynchronous instruction are two common tactics, a library at a private research university with a large population of online graduate programs tried a different strategy: a series of interdisciplinary open webinars.

With only one online librarian, initial efforts to move library instructional programming online had to start small, with a pilot of a single webinar. Student interest and feedback encouraged the library’s citation management team to begin offering more programming online, with a couple of new librarians trying out the webinar format. With the hiring of a second online librarian, the webinar series was finally able to take off and incorporate a variety of librarians across departments.

This poster will describe not only the goals behind this webinar series, but also the tools and people needed to make it happen. It will help attendees identify topics suitable for a webinar, how to select dates and times, as well as strategies for encouraging participation from library colleagues who may be new to online learning. Finally, it will provide logistical tips for anyone interested in implementing an online instructional series at their own institution.