There are many different ways of approaching your webinar or webinar content to fit the needs of the audience and maximize your instructor's time. As long as you answer the questions people signed up for, there's really no wrong way to go about it. However, here are three webinar/webcast content categories to help you understand what differentiates one learning method from another and what might work best for you.
Self-directed reading:
This category encompasses any webinar presentation or webcast where the presenter provides the audience with additional information they may read on their own prior to the presentation or after. Some speakers find it more helpful to direct their audience to the resources they need, whether it's a blog or report, and spend the majority of the presentation addressing more broad complex issues. Providing additional reading or a list of relevant links has become pretty standard across most webinars and webcasts today due to the fact that one hour is simply not enough time to cover a topic thoroughly.
Expert:
This category assumes that the audience has prior knowledge of the topic and there's no need to spend additional time reading materials to prepare for the presentation. It's often fast and very focused, leaving room for questions and comments at the end only. This method works great for webinars or webcasts that aim to address one issue and one issue only. Presentations that are broad and leave the audience with more questions than before will not perform easily under this category.
Peer:
This category allows people to interact with each other and share knowledge. It's great for small audiences and casual settings but it requires the main speaker(s) to keep the presentation going in the right direction under a strict amount of time, which can be challenging. This method is less common because of time constraints and unpredictability but it can prove very successful and beneficial under the right circumstances.
There's really no method that's better than the other; it all depends on what kind of presentation you want to lead and what will benefit your audience the most.