Below we’re presenting a case study of a fictitious higher education establishment. We’d like to give you an idea of what the implementation of a webinar platform in an university looks like and what benefits it can bring.
The University is a successful German higher education institution that offers students various interesting niche courses to join. To stand out from the crowd, the University strives to hire more experts in their chosen fields from all around the world.
However, the University’s goal is challenging to achieve. Despite their value, some niche courses don’t enjoy a great enrollment rate, so it’s doubtful whether they will ever start. So the University’s board needed to come up with a new solution to enable them to organize the courses differently and effectively.
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The Solution
The board wanted to make the University’s courses more accessible and interesting to everyone, so they decided to conduct them using webinars. This helped eliminate the geographical distance barrier and resulted in more students enrolling, so there was no problem with starting the course. The University’s offers gained popularity abroad, considerably increasing the number of signed-up students.
To accommodate both lectures and individual consultations, the University purchased 20 ClickMeeting accounts, each holding up to 50 attendees. Also, they obtained one account for up to 500 attendees for larger internal and external events.
The University staff found subaccounts useful. The institution creates subaccounts for lecturers so they can run webinars under the University’s name to ensure brand consistency. Each subaccount has unique login credentials with separate storage space for files related to lectures and operates as if it were a separate account. When a new lecturer takes over the course, the subaccount is rotated to them.
The Process
To attract prospective students, the University abandoned the standard format of part-time studies – lengthy sessions on weekends. Instead, they split the course into segments held on weekday afternoons. As a result, more people had time to attend, and the course was more effective.
The University pays nothing for a physical place to hold the lectures, so the board invested the savings in recruiting more experts from all over the world to run the sessions. Since no venue was needed, the University could offer more courses, eliminating not only geographical distance but also the limitations of auditoriums.
To advertise the courses, the experts run recruitment webinars to encourage prospective students to get to know the course and the University. The software is used to provide streaming during University open days so anyone can attend.
To maximize student attention and active participation, lecturers use presentations, videos, tests, and feedback polls at the end of a webinar. This makes the sessions interactive and interesting and enables lecturers to obtain real-time feedback. Also, the professor and each student can use private chat. Private consultations are available via ClickMeeting to make sure every student masters the material.
Exemplary lecture conducted via webinar.
Webinars have made things easy for the students because they can attend courses using their mobile devices. And if they miss a lecture, they can download the recording from Dropbox or watch it on YouTube.
The Benefits
Although not many students near the University are interested in the niche courses, the study program enjoys great popularity throughout Germany and abroad. The University is regarded as a front-runner in niche courses, so the enrollment increases every year despite the demographic decline. For students, the webinar courses are convenient, because the sessions are less time-consuming and more informative thanks to the investment in lecturers with niche expertise. It’s a win-win.
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