TRB Webinar Presentation Guidance

These guidelines will be disseminated to webinar panelists and moderators upon receipt of their webinar suggestion.

The webinar suggestion form should be completed prior to scheduling a webinar.

TRB Webinar overview

Lisa Marflak will provide the ability for each panelist to share his or her computer screens with the audience.  Panelists will launch the PowerPoint slides and advance their own presentations, which are saved on their own computers, during the session.  

All of the audience members are muted during the webinar. They may pose questions to panelists by typing and submitting them to our question and answer moderator at any time during the session.  The moderator will receive these questions and read them out loud to the panelists and the audience following the presentations.

Recommended webinar software practices

TRB recommends that panelists participate from their own individual offices.  GoToWebinar software will enable presenters to share their computer screens with the audience. This differs from some webinar software that uploads presentations to a central, online location.

Panelists can use the telephone or Voice-Over Internet (computer microphone and headset) for their audio connection.  If you plan to use voice-over-internet, please consider GoToWebinar's recommended audio devices. You will need to use a telephone handset or a telephone headset with microphone.  

Please do not use speaker phone or computer speakers.  Speaker phone creates feedback that can be heard by audience members, and it is picked up on the recording.  

Presentation length

90-minute webinars:

• Lisa’s introduction: 3-5 minutes
• All panelists’ presentations: 60 minutes
• Questions and Answers: 25 minutes

2-hour webinars:

• Lisa’s introduction: 3-5 minutes
• All panelists’ presentations: 90 minutes
• Questions and Answers: 25 minutes

Typically, the number of panelists is divided by the number of minutes to determine speaking time.   The length of the presentations are determined by the webinar requester, not Lisa Marflak. The webinar requester should inform the panelists about the length of their individual presentations.

Emailing slides in advance

TRB would like to email your presentation slides to audience members prior to the webinar.  Please prepare to email your slides to Lisa Marflak, LMarflak@nas.edu, one week in advance of the webinar.
 
Preparing for your webinar

To prepare for the webinar, TRB has a two-step training process to help our panelists and moderators learn how to use the webinar software.   First, panelists/moderators should view an 10-minute online tutorial one to two weeks before the webinar.
 
Second, panelists and moderators must attend a live practice session one or two days prior to the webinar to demonstrate using the webinar technology.  The practice is generally not a dry run-through of the presentation; instead, panelists and moderators will learn how to use the software.  If a dry run accompanies the presentation, we will inform you about that in our initial email. The practice session lasts approximately 60 minutes.  Lisa will suggest a date for the practice session after receiving information on your availability.

Professional Development Hour information

If TRB is providing Professional Development Hours, all presenters must read; sign and fax; or, sign, scan, and email the Presenter Quality Commitment Form to Lisa Marflak, LMarflak@nas.edu, Fax: 202-334-2920 at the time of submitting the webinar suggestion form.
 
Complimentary registration for webinars

If TRB is charging a fee for the webinar, each webinar panelist or moderator may receive one complimentary registration for a site that is not otherwise eligible for free registration for the webinar in which they are participating.  Please email Lisa Marflak, LMarflak@nas.edu, with the name and email address of the person you would like to have register, and we will provide complimentary registration.

PowerPoint Slide Guidance

1. Draft slides must be provided to Lisa Marflak at least one week prior to the live delivery of the webinar.
2. Slides should be reviewed by the webinar panelists and/or the TRB Senior Program Officer to make sure that the content meets the learning objective requirements.
3. If the webinar topic is focusing on a report from the Cooperative Research Program, please include a slide that lists the project panel members.
4. TRB is now authorized to issue Professional Development Hours (PDH) for live webinars. When PDHs are provided, logos from your agency, company, or organization may be sent to Lisa Marflak at lmarflak@nas.edu to incorporate in an introductory and closing slide.
5. When PDHs are not offered, logos may be placed throughout the slides.
6. If PDHs are provided, presenters and moderators must fill out the Presenter Quality Commitment Form. The form should be scanned and emailed, or faxed, to Lisa Marflak-- lmarflak@nas.edu or fax: 202-334-2920.
7. Include some form of roadmap or outline of where the presenters are in the sequence of the material to be covered. Stick to the roadmap or outline, and incorporate references to the learning objectives throughout the webinar.
8. A slide that outlines the webinar learning outcomes should be shown at the beginning and end of the webinar (this is what we anticipate that you will learn and this is what we hope that you have learned).
9. Close the presentation by showing the webinar learning outcomes.
10. The closing slide should also include contact information for someone whom attendees can contact with further questions. The TRB program officer, principal investigator, or panelists may be included.

Presentation Guidance:

1. The presenters’ material must support the learning outcomes, and the overall presentation must cover all the learning objectives of the webinar.
2. During the webinar, presenters should verbally remind attendees about the webinar learning objectives, and how their presentation is meeting these objectives.
3. Limit the number of speakers to 5 maximum, including the moderator.
4. Speakers should not read slide material verbatim, other than for specific emphasis.
5. Any introduction to presenters should provide only brief credentials, if to be read by the first presenter or moderator. Presenters and moderators have the option of introducing presenters, or having TRB introduce the presenters.
6. If TRB introduces the presenters, only the name, title, and organization will be mentioned. If the person is a chair of a TRB committee, this detail will also be included in the introduction.
7. Your presentation will be timed, and you will be asked to wrap up your remarks if you exceed your allocated presentation time frame.

Slide Design Guidance

1. Slides will be reviewed by Lisa for design and layout suggestions.
2. Presenters should not use videos or streaming audio. Slide transitions should be set to appear as opposed to being animated. GoToWebinar does not support these functions.
3. Don’t put too much text or too many bullets on a slide. We don’t offer firm rules as to what “too much” or “too many” means. Please use your best judgment and avoid being too wordy.
4. It’s suggested that presenters should use darker text with lighter backgrounds. Some participants may be colorblind, and dark backgrounds may wash out the text of slides.
5. In general, presenters should target a maximum of 1 to 1 ½ minutes discussion per single slide.

Pictures and Copyright

1. If a presenter takes any pictures or graphics from a source that is not public domain, he or she must obtain copyright permission.
2. Presenters should use pictures and/or graphics, even if no pictures were taken in the project. If presenters have trouble finding images, they can go to:

• Morgue File:  free public domain images.
• Wiki Commons: free public domain images.
• Compfight Creative Commons’ Flickr Search Tool: After conducting a keyword search, click on “Creative Commons” on the left-hand side for free public photos.