Engage and build collaboration through a Webinar: The Library – a wealth of information and support: 6 October 2020

Posted on November 30, 2020

The COVID19 pandemic made it imperative for the DLS (Department of Library Services) to reconsider all products and services and find innovative ways to communicate with all users. This was achieved through blended learning and fully online modules, webinars, virtual training, Zoom and Google webinars, and online consultations.  These new ways of engaging with our clients will support them with all their future needs.

The Learning Centre contacted the educational designer of online modules, Dr Moodley to initiate an online meeting with Eugenie Wolf and a few colleagues with different expertise to identify their future vision and needs for fully online modules.  During the online meeting, it became clear that lecturers and course designers were not aware of all the products and services offered by the DLS. A decision was made to arrange a webinar focusing on introducing lecturers and course designers to the virtual services and products of the DLS.

Lesego Makhafola represented the information specialists and introduced the webinar attendees to specific services and products. Maritz Visser discussed e-books and shared important facts about e-books, access and subscriptions. Gerda Ehlers and Mulalo Mushaisano communicated the importance of blended learning and the role of the library in teaching and learning, and introduced online training and tools to the attendees. There was also a panel discussion after the presentation during which attendees could ask questions about the information specialists, research, e-books and copyright.

After successfully marketing the webinar with Elsabe Olivier and her team, 150 people registered for the webinar. There were 90 attendees in total, the majority of whom were lecturers. There were many questions on e-books, copyright and training. The feedback indicated that there is a huge need for more webinars of this nature as many attendees mentioned that they were unaware of many of these services – 95% indicated that they found the webinar very informative.

Webinars are becoming an important alternative to reach all our users. They give us an opportunity to market, to communicate and to listen to our users, and are necessary to raise awareness of new and existing tools, to identify what the needs of our users are and how we can add value through our services, products and more online resources. The DLS should see Webinars as future collaborative opportunities to ensure that the DLS stays relevant and addresses users’ needs.  I encourage colleagues to identify collaborative webinars in which we can display existing products to our users. There is no doubt that through online webinars we can showcase that we already add value and can increase that. Grab this opportunity in 2021 to reach more of our users and listen to their needs.

- Author Gerda Ehlers

Copyright © University of Pretoria 2024. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 Corona Virus South African Resource Portal

To contact the University during the COVID-19 lockdown, please send an email to [email protected]

FAQ's Email Us Virtual Campus Share Cookie Preferences