Purposeful Talent Development: Attending live virtual learning vs. getting the playback

When is it worth the effort to participate at the appointed time?

We have access to so many on-demand resources these days, including digital or audiobooks, streaming TV shows and movies, virtual workouts, and recorded webinars and podcasts.

As a result of widespread “pre-recorded” content and learning events, how often have you registered for a webinar or another live virtual educational offering, only to have something “more important” come up—knowing you’ll be able to catch the webinar later?

Sometimes we can still learn a great deal by getting the playback of the live event (such as can be done with CUES Elite Access courses and webinars). However, sometimes (such as with the CUES Virtual Roundtables) recordings aren’t made of a learning event. I encourage you to mark your calendar with “live-only” if a virtual learning event that looks like it would be great for you is only offered at a particular time and a playback will not be available later. (If you use Outlook, you can use a particular color to designate such events.)

On the flip side, participating live in online offerings has value in and of itself. You can use another color on such “must attend live” appointments in your Outlook calendar. But how can you decide when the on-demand version is fine and when you really need to be there (albeit virtually)? Here are some benefits of both live and recorded online learning opportunities that may aid your thinking.

 

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