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When it’s time to hit ‘send’ on the invitations to a new training workshop, how do you want participants to feel?
Excited? Antennae up in anticipation? Eager to spread the word?
Employee training workshops don’t always get that type of buzz. But with a fresh focus on design and preparation, your workshops will engage your learners and share content that sticks.
Ready to create better training workshops? This article will walk you through the foundation of a great training workshop, steps to create your own, and our best tips along the way.
Ensure a valuable training workshop experience for all participants by following these steps:
1. Define the purpose and goals
Ask questions like:
- What do I want participants to learn or do after this workshop?
- Will any parts of the workshop involve hands-on participation?
- Will we be focusing on skill development, professional development, project planning, or something else?
Draw on the outcomes of performance reviews and training needs analysis to determine what content will be the most valuable for your learners.
Be sure your goal for the workshop is specific and realistic, and break that down into smaller learning objectives. These objectives are more targeted than a broad learning goal. You can use the objectives like a checklist to make sure your workshop covers everything you want your learners to understand after the session.
2. Choose your delivery method
Establishing the purpose and objectives of your workshop will help you choose the right delivery methods. Critically, you’ll be able to decide whether in-person or VILT (Virtual Instructor Led Training) is a better choice for your workshop. Consider who is going to be the workshop facilitator, and where their strengths lie in delivery and teaching style.
With an LMS to centralize and administer your training, running a virtual training workshop is simple. You can track user attendance, automatically create calendar invites for attendees, and collect feedback. If your LMS has key integrations with tools like Zoom, then a big chunk of admin work will be taken care of with a few clicks!
3. Select content and make an outline
Use your training objectives for the workshop to help you prioritize what content needs to be shared. Put that content into a clear sequence, make note of any training materials you’ll need, and estimate the time that each section will take to complete.
As you’re planning your workshop, allow for breaks, prioritize microlearning principles, and use a mix of media formats to share information. For example, add videos, infographics, and breakout sessions to break up your slideshow presentation. All of these are proven ways to boost engagement, target different learning styles, and offer interactive training.
Continu reading: What is Active Learning?
4. Design training assessments
Decide how you’ll assess your participants or gauge understanding. This can be done during the workshop, at the end, or in the next few days afterwards. Again, if you have an LMS to deliver employee training, creating an assessment for your learners is a simple process you can easily grade and track.
