The Webcast Audio Seminar format, while not new within the corporate world, is a different communication/presentation modality for IAMSE. Therefore, the following recommendations are offered to our academic participants as a means to derive the optimal benefit from time you will invest on this webinar.
Read Any Posted Materials BEFORE the Seminar
Presenters are offered several options for managing the learning environment they wish to create. This means literature readings related to the objectives of the seminar may be posted in advance. An electronic “handout” may be offered to seminar participants, and/or PowerPoint slides may be used. If any of these cases applies to the seminar for which you have registered, you will be notified of such materials in the reminder notice sent by e-mail the Monday prior to the session. Please review these materials before joining the session.
Arrive On Time And Stay for the Complete Audio Seminar
IAMSE Webcast Audio Seminars adhere to a strict schedule as a courtesy to everyone involved. Each will begin promptly at the hour designated, so we ask that you connect to the webinar 3 to 5 minutes before the starting time. Likewise, Webcast Audio Seminars will end at 60 minutes.
Be an Active Participant
While holding an evenly distributed discussion among many people anywhere is a challenge, we do encourage you to actively contribute to our seminars. You are asked to hold questions and comments until the question/answer period at the end of the session; however, you can pose any questions/comments you may have during the session in the question/answer pane within Zoom. As with the small group Focus Sessions at IAMSE Annual Association Meetings, all presenters are expected to engage their audience in some interactive manner. Your comments and experiences relative to the subject being discussed provide an important contribution to the success of each session.
Don’t Be Shy About Speaking Out or Asking Questions
We tell our students “There’s no such thing as a stupid question,” yet as faculty members often consider our own questions too simplistic or “dumb.” We encourage our students by reminding them that many others in the audience also want to know the answer, or felt the same way, but they were too reticent to speak. Such limited thinking has no place in these seminars, since the very foundation of IAMSE is based upon openness and sharing. In this organization, we all learn from each other.
Be Conscious of Conference Call Etiquette (Netiquette)
The importance of this cannot be overstated when several individuals are connected to the same conversation. Distracting sounds, background noise, even breathing too close to the mouthpiece can all seem amplified. As of October 2020, the IAMSE Webinars are held through Zoom Webinar where these issues are usually not a problem; however, these tips are still helpful for attending a webinar.
A separate file has been prepared on IAMSE Webcast Audio Seminar Netiquette, and you are encouraged to review this prior to the call. Briefly, that file reviews the following precautions in more detail:
SPEAKERPHONES
* If it is necessary to call the audio seminar using a speaker phone, please be sure to use the mute function to block any distracting background noise.
HEADSETS
* Please do not use these unless they are of excellent (and proven) quality of microphone.
TWO-LINE PHONES
* Please turn the “ringer” off your second line.
CONTRIBUTING
* Request to be recognized by the presenter or moderator
* Clearly state your name and institution each time you speak
ARRIVAL and DEPARTURES
* Be on time and remain until the end, as discussed above.
AUDIO RECORDINGS
* IAMSE Webcast Audio Seminars may not be recorded by any participant.
Benefit From the Presenter’s Expertise and Desire to Help
Invited presenters at IAMSE seminars all share a common willingness to help others understand the methods and materials that many of them have personally developed. Do not hesitate to ask for clarification. If a topic is particularly germaine, participants may choose to pursue this outside the structure of the seminar. This has been up to and including invitations to have the presenter visit the participant’s medical school and address the entire faculty.
Complete and Submit the Seminar Evaluation Form
At the end of each IAMSE Webcast Audio Seminar, all participants will be requested to complete the electronic evaluation form sent to attendees via email. These anonymous forms provide necessary feedback to the presenter(s) and to us, the organizers. We are grateful for your cooperation in this.
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We cordially invite you to join us for this interactive means of sharing information relevant to medical science education and medical science educators. The benefit of IAMSE Webcast Audio Seminars is that they are presented live, in real time, and are totally interactive, with experts in the subject presenting and leading the discussions. Also, because there is no need to leave your office, it is both efficient and relatively inexpensive.
For answers to your questions, please contact the IAMSE Admin Team as below.
IAMSE Admin Team
1014 6th Ave
Huntington, WV 25701 USA
TEL: +1-304-522-1270
FAX: +1-304-523-9700
E-MAIL: support@iamse.org