Webex Webinar: Getting Started

Webex Webinar

Webex Webinars (formerly Events) make hosting an online event easy and allow you to deliver a polished, interactive presentation with multimedia, Q&A, and polling to engage your audience. To help keep the event running smoothly, you can invite panelists to serve as subject matter experts, answer questions, and manage polls.

A Webex Webinar should be used when hosting a large meeting or conference where remote participants will primarily be listening. A Webinar allows up to 1000 participants per meeting with a maximum session length of 24 hours.

Getting Started

• Webex Event Role Definitions
• Getting a Webinar set up
  • Schedule a Webinar
  • Edit a Webinar
  • Cancel a Webinar
• Participating in a Webinar
  • Start a Webinar
  • Hosting a Webinar
  • Join a Webinar
• After the Webinar
  • Attendance Report
  • Chat and/or Q&A Logs
• Virtual Event Support
• More Information

Webex Webinar Role Definitions

There are six roles within Webex Webinars: 

• Host:  The host is the person who schedules, starts and ends the session and or recordings of the session.  A host can also assign roles to other participants in the session. 
• Cohost:  Cohosts have many of the same permissions as the host. This allows them to help the host manage a webinar or start them if the host is running late.
• Presenter: Responsible for sharing and annotating presentations, whiteboards, documents, and applications. 
• Panelist:  A panelist is a person who has been identified as a speaker or presenter within the live session.  A panelist can also assist presenters by responding to chat messages, conducting polls and responding to questions in the Chat and/or Q & A panel. You can have multiple panelists in a session.
• Note Taker:  Note Takers write and publish notes, which can be referred to in the future or provide a summary for people who were unable to attend the webinar.
• Attendee: Any person attending the session who is not already identified as a presenter, panelist, or host. Attendees are typically who the session information is being presented to.
  

More information:

• Assign privileges in Webex Webinars
• Roles In Webex Webinars

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Schedule a Webinar

1. 1. Sign in to rowan.webex.com and select Webinar from the left column.
      
      
      
      
   2. On right-hand side of the web page choose
   3. Enter a Topic
   4. Under the Date & time section, enter the date and time of your webinar.
   5. Add Panelists (if applicable).  Refer to roles for more information
      1. To designate specific panelists as cohosts, hover over the next to the attendee's name and click Make this panelist a cohost
   6. Under Security
      1. Enter a Webinar password.  Attendees must enter this password to join your webinar. 
      2. Enter a Panelist password.  Panelists must enter this password to be part of your webinar panel.  Recommended: do not choose a password the Attendees can guess.
      3. Optional:
         1. Require attendees to sign in before joining the webinar.  This allows attendees to join the webinar the specified number of minutes before the host.  Note:  If you happen to start the event before this specified time, all attendees will be able to join from that point forward.
   7. Under Advanced options
      1. Enable Automatic recording, if needed
      2. Set Webinar options and Participant privileges.  These can be left with default settings as these settings can be changed during the Webinar.
   8. If you would rather create an Outlook meeting, or post the Webinar information elsewhere, and not email it, uncheck Automatically send email invitations to all participants when I schedule the webinar.
   9. For more information about all of the Webinar options refer to this article.
   10. When finished specifying your webinar details click Schedule.
       
       Sharing the Webinar information
       
       After the Webinar has been scheduled, if you want to share the details via an Outlook meeting, or email invitation:
       
2.  
   1.  Click on either Panelist or Attendee (depending on the invitee's role) select Panelist or Attendee, copy the information and paste it where needed.
      
      
      
      
   2. Keep your Webinar secure:
      1. Do not share the Host information with anyone who will not be a host
         
      2. Do not share the Panelist information with the Attendees

Note:  to schedule a Webinar via the Webex Scheduler in Outlook refer to this article

More information:

• Schedule Webex Webinars
• Advanced scheduling options
• Customize your registration page for webinars
• Require your attendees to register for a meeting or webinar
• Customize what attendees see when they join a webinar
• Hold practice sessions in Webex Webinars
• Managing a webinar series

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Edit a Webinar

You can edit a Webinar as long as the Webinar has not started.

1. Log in to rowan.webex.com.
2. Select Webinars > My Webinars.
3. Find your webinar, select it, and click on the edit button
   
   
   
4. Note:  If you had Automatically send email invitations to all participants when I schedule the webinar enabled, it may send additional emails to the participants invited.
5. If you adjust the time of the webinar and had sent the appointment through Outlook, make sure to update it there as well to send the updated time to attendees and panelists.

Note:  to edit a Webinar via the Webex Scheduler in Outlook refer to this article

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Cancel a Webinar

1. Log in to rowan.webex.com.
2. Select Webinars > My Webinars.
3. Find your webinar, select it, and click on the Cancel Webinar button
   
   
   
   
4. If you sent the event appointment through Outlook, make sure to cancel it there as well.

Note:  to cancel a Webinar via the Webex Scheduler in Outlook refer to this article

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Start a Webinar

1. Log in to rowan.webex.com.
2. Select Webinars > My Webinars.
3. Find your webinar, select it, and click on Start
   
   
   
   NOTE: Unless you specified that attendees can join before the host, make sure that you start the event early so that attendees can join it.
   

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Hosting a Webinar

Test Your Network Connection

You can test your network connection to ensure it is ready and capable of hosting your webinar by going to https://mediatest.ciscospark.com/

Webinars have a similar interface to Webex meetings, with the main difference being the Participants panel

Video Layouts

• Video layouts in meetings, webinars, and events 

Conduct a Q&A Session

• For information on Q&A for Webinars refer to this article.
• For live polls, Q&A, quizzes, surveys, ranking rating, and word clouds, see Welcome to Slido

Tips for Hosting a Webinar 

• Refer to Webex: Best Practices for Secure Meetings
• Try before you have a live event:  Before hosting your first event create a test webinar and invite some colleagues to familiarize yourself with using Webex Webinars
• Assign an cohost (see Schedule a Webinar) so if you can't make it, someone else can start the event.
• Designate one or two panelists attending the event to managing the chat and/or Q&A
• Have a way to communicate with all of the panelists outside of the webinar for any issues, questions, or communications needed.  Examples are Webex messaging, email, text messages, or phone calls.  Ensure this is communicated to the panelists before the event starts.
• Provide the panelists the link and login information (see Schedule a Webinar) for attendees if they happen to have issues logging in as a panelist.
• To change an attendee to a panelist, click View all attendees. Select the attendee and select Make Panelist.
• Join your hosted event early (15-30 minutes) to allow attendees to join ahead of time.
• Create a custom document greeting attendees and sharing meeting expectations / agenda (Google Slide, PowerPoint slide, Word document, etc.)
• Options such as Chat, Q&A, and Feedback can be disabled after starting the Event (if Event 1000 was chosen during scheduling) by selecting Event and then Options from the menu.
• The Host key should only be shared with alternate hosts to allow them to take over the role of host if needed.  To take over as the host select the Participant menu, then choose Reclaim Host Role. The 'Reclaim Host Role' window appears. Type the 6 digit Host key, then click the OK button.
  
  

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Join a Webinar

Refer to this article for information about joining a webinar

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Run an Attendance Report

After the event, you can run an attendance report from the rowan.webex.com site. You can download reports that have to do with usage, recording information, attendance, and registration.

1. Sign in to rowan.webex.com and click Meetings > Completed.
   
   
   
   
2. Select your webinar.
3. Click on Export attendance report
4. Select the report you want (Q&A, Chat, Polling, or Notes), then click Download report.

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Chat and/or Q&A Logs

If you recorded the webinar as the host, you can download the in-webinar activity report for Q&A, chat, and polling once the recording is complete.

Only questions answered publicly appear in the Q&A report. Questions not answered or answered privately don't appear.

1. Sign in to rowan.webex.com and click Meetings > Completed.
   
   
   
   
2. Select your webinar.
3. Click Activity.
4. Select the report you want (Q&A, Chat, Polling, or Notes), then click Download report.

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Virtual Event Support

If, after going through the topics in this article, you need additional help IRT will provide support for hosting virtual events through Webex in some cases. Depending on the type of the event, the support provided may include direct or on-call support before and during the event. Support is available to faculty, staff and students. However, the level of support provided for a virtual event varies depending on the type of the event.

• Direct Support for High-Profile Events
  
  Direct support, including one-on-one assistance with creating, communicating and hosting a virtual event, is reserved for events that directly involve the President of Rowan University, the Board of Trustees or a high-profile external speaker, such as a visiting senator, gubernatorial candidate or prominent celebrity.
  
  In exceptional circumstances, other events may qualify for direct support. That support will be determined on a case-by-case basis.  Request must be made via the IRT Support portal ten(10) business days prior to your event.
  
  
• On-Call Support for Standard Events
  
  On-call support may be provided during other virtual events, so an event sponsor can quickly escalate a request for help if issues arise during the event.  IRT does not provide in person support on the day of the event.

To request help supporting your event, please visit go.rowan.edu/eventsupport.

IRT staff will directly coordinate with event sponsors once we determine the level of support required for the virtual event.

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If you have any questions or need help, please contact the Technology Support Center at 856-256-4400 or submit a ticket in the IRT Support Portal.

More Information

• Webex: Getting Started
• Webex: Join a Meeting
• Webex: Frequently Asked Questions
• Webex: Best Practices for Secure Meetings
• For live polls, Q&A, quizzes, surveys, ranking rating, and word clouds, see Welcome to Slido