Teach and Coach Online with Blab

Tim Cooper

Aug 30 2015

Blab is yet another very exciting social media platform that while still in beta is offering some unique and useful features that are perfect for online instructors and coaches.

The first thing when looking at using Blab is that it is still very much in it's infancy, so preparation is key.

Prior to setting up my first public Blab I ran a couple of tests on my severely under-powered notebook and it appeared to run fine, so I published information about my upcoming Blab and invited two topic experts to join me - Johnny Beirne and Mark Timberlake.

As the go live time was approaching Johnny and I set up a test Blab session just to make sure that everything would run smoothly - just as well we did because we both ran into issues.

Johnny discovered he had microphone configuration issues and I found I had to put my old faithful notebook to the side and borrow my son's MacBook in order to run the Blab session successfully.

Mark Timberlake also experienced problems connecting to the room but was able to join us at around the 35 minute mark.

The other issue we discovered is that as the 4 seats filled the audio started to degrade. Initially with only 2 seats occupied there was no problem with my audio as I was using the Mac's built-in microphones.

However, both Mark and I started to experience problems with our audio as a low level hiss developed and our volume started going very quiet and cutting in and out once the 4 seats were occupied.

Apart from that, everything else ran very smoothly. We were able to have a group discussion about various aspects of online course creation, publishing and marketing.

I was also delighted to have two participants jump into the hot seat for some live coaching. I believe this really demonstrated the power of Blab for those of us who need to interact with our students or coaching clients in order to assist them in reaching their learning objectives.

I have included one the live hot seat coaching sessions from the Blab in this episode along with some advice Mark gave in relation to marketing your course when publishing to various platforms.

Just to Recap

Ensure your computer has sufficient power to connect and live stream on Blab.

Test everything before going live.

Use headphones or ear buds to avoid problems with fading audio as the room fills.

Resources and sites mentioned in this episode

The Power of Blab for Online Instructors & Coaches - Full Replay

Pick up your copy of the Periscope for Online Instructors & Coaches course here.

If you have a question about any aspect of online course delivery, from concept to market, please feel free to send me an email at [email protected]. I'd love to hear from you and your question would very well feature in a future podcast.

I want to deliver relevant material so keep those emails rolling in.

If you enjoyed this episode please like, share and comment below. Help get the news in the streets. If you could take a moment to pop over to iTunes and leave an honest rating and review I would truly appreciate it.