A quick summary of the webinar session types in eWebinar and the differences between them.
There are four different types of sessions in eWebinar that you may allow registrants to join, depending on how you set up your schedule.
These four session types are defined below:
On-demand sessions
When visitors sign up for on-demand sessions, they are able to join their session immediately after registering for it by clicking the join link. In fact, their session will not begin until they click the join link (which could be an hour later). When it does, there are a few seconds remaining in the waiting room before the video plays.
Just-in-time sessions
When just-in-time sessions are enabled, it means there is always a session about to start after a visitor discovers your landing page. Thus, they are always "just in time" for the next session.
You can decide when you want just-in-time sessions to start relative to the time the visitors arrive on your landing page. For example, you could have the session start on the next hour, the next quarter hour, or on the next 5-minute mark.
Scheduled webinars
Scheduled sessions are what make up a recurring schedule. They are set to happen on specific days of the week at specific times (in a fixed time zone or in the attendee's local time zone, per your preference). For example, you might schedule your webinar to be available on weekdays at 11am, 2pm, and 6pm.
Replays
When visitors register to watch replays, they get a link that they can use to watch (or rewatch) your webinar at any time. The main distinguishing feature of a replay is that viewers may fully control the video (pause, skip around, control playback speed, etc.).
NOTE: You may give attendees some control over the video in other session types, if you like. For example, you can allow attendees to control the playback speed and/or pause the video in scheduled sessions. However, only replays give the viewer full control of the video player.
Replay links are also typically sent to registrants in a follow-up email.
Similarities & Differences
Here is a summary of the similarities and differences between the session types:
| On-demand | Just-in-time | Scheduled | Replays | |
| May be watched more than once | N | N | N | Y |
| Viewer fully controls the video | N | N | N | Y |
|
Has a waiting room |
Y* | Y | Y | N*** |
| Has an exit room | Y | Y | Y | N*** |
| Can have reminder emails | N | Y** | Y | N |
* The attendee of an on-demand session is only ever in the waiting room for a few seconds before the webinar begins.
** It's possible but, typically, just-in-time session do not have reminder emails, because they start so soon after the registrant signs up.
*** If you schedule interactions to appear in the waiting or exit room, keep in mind they will not appear at all in replays.
Ungated Sessions
On-demand and replays can also exist as ungated sessions, meaning the viewer does not have to register to join the webinar. They can just click to watch the webinar anonymously. Click here to learn more.