Oxford Professional Development - Find out how our webinars work
Aug 29, 2025
Webinars are a great way to get 'bite-sized' professional development. Not only can you hear about concepts and practical ideas in teaching and learning from expert trainers and authors, but they also provide an excellent opportunity to connect with teachers in other institutions, regions or countries, or even with your own colleagues.
Welcome to this short introduction to OUP webinars.
This video will show you the main functionality of the webinar room to
help you take part fully in the webinar, ensuring you can focus on the content
in the webinar experience and not worry about the technology and finding your
way around. 24 hours before the webinar you've
registered for, you'll receive our pre-webinar email
inviting you to join the session. This email will confirm the title, date
as well as providing a link to a time zone converter
and useful information about how to access the webinar room.
It will also contain your joining link. You'll need to click on this to enter
the webinar. When you click on the link in your email
you'll be directed to this page. Following this there will be a few
moments of software installation. Simply follow the instructions on your
screen. Following the software installation
you'll see this loading screen. When all five circles are highlighted
the webinar room will open. Once you're in the webinar room
you will see the four main areas. The video audio area,
the chat area, the participants area and the main presentation screen or
whiteboard area. You will also find your presenter and an
OUP moderator in the room with you. Let's look at the
video audio area first. For most OUP webinars video and audio
will only be used by the presenter and possibly the OUP moderator. This
means you will see them and hear them but they won't see or hear you. Their
image will appear here and you will need to ensure that your
sound is on either through headphones or speakers.
When you join the room you can do a quick audio check.
Simply click on tools, audio and audio setup wizard. Now let's look at
the participant area. Everyone that's joined the room will be
listed here. You'll also see a number of icons. Your
presenter may refer you to these during the webinar
so let's look at them more closely. The first icon
shows a face and will give you a list of emoticons that you can use.
The second icon is the away button. Click it to show us if you stepped away
from your computer and are unable to answer questions at
that time. Clicking it again brings you back into
the room. The third icon is the raise hand icon.
Click this icon to raise your hand. To lower your hand simply click the icon
again. Your presenter may ask you to use this
to answer questions. For example raise your hand if you've never been to a
webinar before. The last icon is the voting or polling
icon. The presenter can use this function to
ask you yes, no, true, false or multiple choice questions.
Now let's focus on the chat area. This is an important area
as it's where you'll communicate with your speaker, moderator
and other participants. The most important thing to note about this area
is that everybody can see what everybody writes.
To write a message simply click in the box at the bottom of the chat,
type your message and then click enter. You can also select from a number of
emoticons. If the chat area feels too small and
you're finding it hard to read or see the messages
you can click on the edge and drag it to make it bigger.
The final area of note is the whiteboard area.
This screen and the presenter's voice will be the main focus of the webinar.
For most OUP webinars your speaker will have visuals and text in this area.
Your speaker may also ask you to annotate this screen.
If they do a toolbar will appear to the left of the whiteboard area
with options such as pen, text box and shapes.
Simply take part as instructed and remember that everything you write on
the screen will be visible to all the other
participants too. Now that you're familiar with the four
main areas of the webinar room here are some tips to help you get the
most out of your experience. Focus on the content of the webinar.
Stay on topic in the chat area and try not to be distracted by others
going off topic. Respond to your presenter's questions
and instructions otherwise they feel like they're talking
to nobody. Ask any questions you might have when
directed to by your presenter. Any questions asked while the speaker
is talking may be missed. We look forward to working with you
online and we hope you enjoy the OUP webinars you take part in.