Creating connection remotely with webinars

LOI is the biggest remote learning provider in the Netherlands and has been offering successful webinars for a long time. We spoke with Anouschka Valkhoff, who has been working at LOI since 2013. In her role as a coordinator, she is responsible for organizing webinars. LOI has been hosting webinars since 2014, which originally started as live lectures.

These live lectures gave students the opportunity to receive in-depth explanations on difficult topics within their field of study. Students could ask questions and chat with each other, resulting in valuable interaction. This initiative turned out to be a great success, and they have been active in this area for almost ten years now.

In 2019, LOI switched to WebinarGeek and has been extremely excited about it. Especially since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic, they have expanded their offerings. In addition to live lectures, they now also organize online open days and evenings. The initiative has been very well received, and as a result, they continue to grow.

Interaction through webinars

The webinars cover various topics. LOI offers substantive lectures to help students process information in their studies. Additionally, they cover current and challenging subjects. The main goal of these webinars is to support and guide students. Positive evaluations show that students are very enthusiastic about the opportunity to chat with each other during the webinars.

We know that students are really excited about it. It's cool to see that in the evaluations as well. - Anouschka, LOI

Another important goal of the webinars is to create contact and a sense of community among students. Since many of the students are studying remotely, they often miss personal contact. Thanks to the webinars, they still have the opportunity to connect with each other.

LOI uses live chat, allowing students to ask questions directly to study advisors, who promptly respond to them.

It's nice that we can provide a large group of students with the same information all at once this way. - Anouschka, LOI

Reaching a big audience in one webinar

One of the most successful webinar series is the introductory series for STAP students. Every two months, a large group of new students begins at LOI. To help them start their education, they organize an introductory series with automated webinars explaining how the learning environment works and where students can ask questions right away. They can have more than six hundred students participating in this series at the same time, which, according to Anouschka, is quite busy but incredibly fun to do!

One of the favorite interactive features is the public chat, where students can connect with each other. Anouschka mentions that it's amazing to see students making use of this possibility. The interesting part is that both the instructor and the team behind the scenes respond to the questions and comments in the chat.

Both the presenter, moderators, and students interact in the chat. That often leads to interesting conversations. - Anouschka, LOI

Valuable evaluations

The future plans for webinars are to continue on the same path. Webinars have become an essential part of their offerings. With each new development within the organization, LOI looks at how they can incorporate webinars.

They especially appreciate the evaluations at the end of each webinar, as they gain valuable feedback and learn to improve.

LOI chose WebinarGeek because of the many advantages it offers. It's a Dutch company, and the communication is easy. Moreover, they have experienced numerous benefits while using it and are very excited about it. They plan to continue using WebinarGeek for a long time.

According to Anouschka, it's great to regularly receive product updates, as they are always up to date with the latest developments. WebinarGeek is constantly being improved.

The possibilities are endless. We can set up and customize everything exactly the way we want. - Anouschka, LOI

As a tip for someone starting with webinars, Anouschka would say: Just start! You can begin small, with a small target audience. You might make mistakes and learn from them, so you'll do better next time. So, start and grow from there!