Incorporate Live Webinars in Blended Learning was an interactive good time!  If you want to catch the recording, you’ll find it here.  What follows is one of the FAQs I didn’t get to during this well-attended event.  To be fair to readers, a number of these answers assume you were there, so you might check out the recording. 

George A. asked, “How often should interaction or interactivity occur during a webinar?”

Short answer:  more frequently than whatever your interactivity is when face to face.

Longer answer:  In my experience, people will tune out if one, you’re boring (relevant “what’s in it for me” content still reigns) and/or two, you don’t interact.  Adult learners prefer being active over passive, and they’ve got valid opinions and input that will be valuable if you let them be.  Remember to assume some portion of your audience is multitasking, so whatever you’re used to doing in person, I’d turn it up a notch – from none to some, or some to some more.  This is MUCH easier in training sessions that are smaller than the almost 500 participants we had today.

A word of warning:  it’s important to be natural.  Don’t use a poll, for instance, as a technique.  Use it to have meaningful input.  In my case, I ask a genuine question at the beginning of a webinar about the relative experience of my audience – it helps me guide how I share illustrations.  Figure out where and how you’d naturally dialogue with your audience and nudge that a bit in the direction of more frequent.