The AMS Webinar Program allows both seasoned and first-time webinar organizers the opportunity to submit a proposal and receive help with the development, organization, and promotion of their webinar. The goal of this program is to expand AMS's webinar offerings and to add value to the great work many AMS members, boards, and committees have been doing. If you are thinking about offering a webinar, the AMS Community is a great place to suggest topics in order to solicit help organizing and developing the content. Once an idea has been formulated, the webinar organizer should complete one of the below proposal forms.

AMS Webinar Guidelines

There are a variety of formats suitable for webinar presentations, and organizers should account for a variety of learning modes. Periodic audience polls will enhance the participant’s webinar experience. In general, it is recommended to aim for a webinar presentation length of 30–45 minutes, with an additional 10–15 minutes devoted to a Q&A session at the end. (Note that the total presentation should last a minimum of 50 minutes if intended to count for CCM, CBM, or AMS Seal holder professional development points—0.25 points per webinar viewed. In addition, presenters receive 0.50 professional development point per webinar given.)

Webinars hosted by AMS can take place between 11 am and 3 pm Eastern time, Monday–Friday, except for holidays or times of limited AMS staff availability. Please consult our calendar for available days and times. 

Presentation materials & dry run

All materials (PowerPoint presentations, PDF “handouts,” etc.) should be prepared in advance and ready for a scheduled “dry run” a minimum of one week before the webinar date, again referencing the AMS Webinars calendar to select an open date and time.

Each webinar should begin with a title slide, followed by a list of goals and takeaways. There should also be a slide containing summary points at the end of each presentation. Presenters should use care in selecting font sizes that are large enough to be easily viewed by the audience, and text should be as concise as possible. Figures should have adequate captions and include a concise bullet(s) describing the main point(s) being illustrated. Avoid overuse of slides; a good rule of thumb is a maximum of one slide per minute of presentation.

Intellectual property

Webinar presenters are responsible for obtaining copyright clearance on any materials presented and/or distributed. For instance, please do not copy figures from non-AMS journal articles or images from the Web without obtaining permission to use them.

Evaluation

To maintain a high quality of webinar offerings, evaluations from participants are needed that identify not only what is successful, but any unmet needs and areas for improvement as well. By default, the webinar platform will launch a questionnaire after the webinar concludes that contains the following default questions:

• Was the level and amount of information appropriate?
• Were the presenters knowledgeable and prepared?
• Were the presenters clear and professional?
• Did the presenters provide valuable information?
• Was the difficulty of the webinar appropriate?
• Was the webinar a good way to learn this information?
• Would you recommend this webinar to a colleague?

Webinar organizers should submit any additional questions to be included in this survey to the AMS at [email protected].

Have questions about the AMS Webinars program? Please contact [email protected].