FAQ webinar – improve user experience

Some of you might be new to the webinar experience, others may have had some problems while attending webinars.

In short: 7 minutes before the webinar starts, you first close down your computer and then just re-start your PC. Once your PC is running again, just open the browser window but no other programs please. Then go straightaway to the webinar URL and enter the ‘room’ at https://My.dimdim.com/ComMetrics
Please shut down any programs like Microsoft Outlook and Word, Skype, etc. just your browser should be open.
You will be surprised how much better your webinar experience will be thanks to having done the above.

For those of you who want more details, please read on for some other tricks and details.

Page source: FAQ webinar – improving the user experience

Please read these points below carefully from the beginning to the end… it is worth the 5 minutes it will take. In turn, this will enhance the quality your webinar experience by miles.

1 — Do I need technical equipment?

It is a good idea to have and use earphones for webinars. Earphones that you can use with a computer cost around 10 Euros or more depending on the quality you want.

Using your computer’s loudspeakers makes it difficult to give you a chance to speak. Reason is that once you are given the microphone to say something, everybody will hear an echo because of the loudspeakers.

In turn, understanding what you say is nearly impossible.

If you have to use loudspeakers, turn your microphone off and keep things quiet. Also, it is better in this case if you do not ask for the microphone.

This will improve your as well as other participants’ webinar experience (no echo).

2 — What kind of internet connection do I need?

Please do not use your mobile phone, smartphone or G3 connection to participate in the webinar.

Try to be in a stationary location

Yes, you may use your computer’s wireless modem to connect to your LAN router at home But why take risks, the safest way is to plug your LAN cable from the modem into your computer. This will surely give you the best connection you can get based on the Internet broadband service you subscribe to from your provider.

Even if your connection is great, this does not mean everything runs smoothly everywhere around the world. Sometimes something goes a miss and we have, unfortunately, no control over it.

3 — Are there some things a can do to improve things on my end?

As you know, all programs running on your computer require system resources and many use part of your bandwidth in the background.

Some of these culprits are Skype, Microsoft Outlook and any browser tab that you keep open during the webinar besides the one needed for the webinar (i.e. having 5 web browser tabs open during the webinar slows down your connection considerably).

Please, for your own benefit, close all programs except the one you use for the webinar:

1 — Skype (e.g., see logo on quick launch bar in Windows XP, Vista or Windows 7 – lower right of screen). Just right-click and choose exit to close Skype or any other program for that matter.
2 — Close all Microsoft programs including Outlook, Word and so forth.
3 — Make sure that your daily anti-virus scan was performed before the webinar starts

It is a smart move to start up your PC about 20 minutes before the webinar starts to be sure all the above and AV scans are done.
Program updates usually happen when you have just started the PC (e.g., Microsoft Patch Tue = Wednesday morning Microsoft downloads security patches). Some downloads require a reboot right afterwards. Would be terribly frustrating for you if this happens during the webinar.

Some things about the webinar itself

4 — How can I participate during the webinar?

If you attend a webinar or a series of webinars for the first time you might choose to just listen and take it all in.

If you wish to participate, a good way is to send a question to the moderator or host using the chat window. The host usually watches the chat window and passes questions on to presenter.
Yes, nearly all webinar services offer a chat function.

But please, to minimize detractions for all webinar participants and not to confuse the moderator, keep your questions focused on the topic.
Also, please refrain from chatting with other participants during the seminar because it detracts everybody thereby lowering your and everybody else’s experience.

Please refrain from infomercials telling us about your consulting services or other things… again it detracts from the webinar.

Sometimes you may also be given the chance to ask your question using the microphone. However, giving participants the microphone depends on the number of participants and the quality of the sound and connection offered during a particular webinar.

With any webinar provider or software, it can happen that when we pass on the microphone to somebody else, the sound becomes worse for some people. These techncial glitches are unavoidable. But please read point 5 below.

5 — What can I do if I am loosing sound on my end any time during the webinar?

In some cases, our webinar participants have advised us that their sound had gotten worse.

This can indicate a problem with your internet service provider’s line to your office or other technical glitches.
Best is to just reload the browser window or tab window.
Hence, neither log out nor close your browser window or tab, just click the reload button. You may be asked to enter the webinar room again, usually an indication that your connection got cut off somewhere.

If you reload your browser window and re-enter the webinar room you will loose what was in your chat window before. A small inconvenience considering that the sound should be back again.

Also if you enter the webinar room late, previous chat contributions will not show for you, so better come early.

6 — What else can I do to be as ready as can be for the webinar?

Most important is to be on time because some webinar services make it impossible to enter the virtual meeting room after the meeting or webinar has started.

Best way to make sure that everything runs smoothly on your end is to follow the above steps.

- start your PC 30 minutes before…. do what is suggested above and enter the meeting room 15 minutes early, then
- grab a cup of coffee, tea or water 5 minutes before we start, and please
- be there 1 minute before we are scheduled to start because we will begin right on the dot.

With some systems you have to make sure that your microphone is off. Otherwise one can hear anything and everything you say even before the webinar starts. This means everybody online can hear it when you use the keyboard.

7 — Do we use a Webcam?

We did use a webcam during some webinars. However, this resulted in a slightly worse user experience for many of our users for such reasons as:

a — some people live in remote places where the Internet connection is not that wonderful – Okovango Delta – Botswana, using webcams does make participation for these colleagues even worse,
b — some members thought using a webcam was a privacy invasion, others reported that
c — using a webcam forced them to stay dressed up late at night or make sure to look their best before 6am in the morning which was too much to ask for and, finally,
d —some participants felt webcam use did not enhance their learning environment…

So we agreed to restrict interactivity by keeping just the chat function open. We hope you agree with us that this was a wise choice.

8 — Can I do something to help Windows?

Sometimes computers do weird things. For instance, one registered person told us that Firefox could not start properly and with Google Chrome the webinar page was not accessible.
This might be an error that is not the fault of your web browser. Without going into any technical details about Windows 7 or Windows XP, our recommendation is:

7 minutes before the webinar starts, shut down your PC and re-start it. Just open the browser, nothing else pls. Then visit the website and enter the webinar room.
Surprising how things improve that way including sound quality.

9 — What should I do after the webinar?

For starters, download the material the presenter is providing you with, such as the powerpoint slides and/or the white paper. Save the file, print it… and keep the printout. It might just come in handy when you need it next week for your work.

As importantly, why not tell the moderator and/or presenter what your experience was. Send him or her an e-mail, always works wonders.

A nice way to provide feedback is to  put it on your Facebook wall or send out a tweet on Twitter (please the #ComMetrics hashtag so people can search for it).
Very important is to send the moderator and/or presenter constructive feedback. This is always useful and helps improve the webinar series further.

Remember, many small but frequent steps toward perfection will make your next webinar experience that much better. So the organizer needs your support and you should follow the above step when joining next time to improve your experience.

PS. Most important, PLEASE REGISTER FOR THE NEXT WEBINAR in our series. Thanks so much.