Running a training session as a workshop: how to improve your training sessions, even remotely

What is a training workshop?

For many of us, the word “training” brings back memories of long hours in class listening to the boring lectures of a teacher who had the amazing power of making minutes seem like hours. Other teachers, on the other hand, knew how to keep the class interested and encourage participation, by getting students to interact.

In a working environment, the latter type of coach is obviously what is needed, because a professional audience has higher standards and no time to lose. Training is definitely not an easy task, especially when an element of distance is involved....Klaxoon’s Workshop Platform sheds new light on your training sessions. 

Find out about Klaxoon’s collaborative and engaging workshop, based on three workshop methods, to be used either individually or in combination!

Board, the visual workshop to make ideas come true

Board is Klaxoon’s flagship solution to improve teamwork, in any collaborative context, whether synchronous and asynchronous. It comes in the form of an unlimited digital whiteboard. This visual tool offers a wide array of communication options: text, image, video, drawing or file sharing. Board can concentrate and store all your messages and ideas in the same place: it’s an interaction hub between you, the coach, and your trainees!

In class, Board is a powerful communication and training space which merges all your training materials and activities. The advantage is that it also works for non classroom-based training sessions. With Live, the built-in videoconferencing tool, you can conduct your training sessions remotely, if some of your trainees can’t attend on site.

A Board can be integrated into other workshop modes, such as Session and Network.

Session: the sequenced and inclusive workshop

The Session workshop mode is used in class and remotely, but only in live mode. As a coach, you can display presentation boards, run Klaxoon activities (Quiz, Survey, Board, etc.) and use Questions to collect immediate feedback from your trainees.  

Network: a private space to keep your workshop materials  

With Network, keep and share your Klaxoon activities, training resources and activities in a dedicated space, without any time or space-related restrictions. For each new training session, create a Network for your group of trainees. When the training course is over, why not encourage your trainees to add their own content with the Article activity? It’s a great way for everyone to learn from each other! 

Why conduct a training session with Klaxoon’s Board?

Use an all-in-one training tool for all your sessions

Board gives you a head start if you want to run your training session like a workshop:

• You interact with the group and share ideas in various forms: text, drawings, pictures, videos and links to documents or websites. They are materialized as colored thumbnails that can be moved and interconnected according to need.
• With the suite of engaging activities developed by Klaxoon (Question, Quiz, Adventure, Survey and Mission), keep your group engaged and get everybody to participate.
• There are various ways of engaging trainees. Board can be used to post all the ideas suggested by the group, like a conventional paperboard. Ask the trainees to sort them by category or color to organize their thoughts. Ideas can also be resized depending on their level of importance. Trainees can vote for their favorite ones using the “like” button. The Question tool is also useful to get everyone involved. For example, use the Question Storm to get everyone’s ideas on the fly, as a word cloud. Add some fun into the equation, with the Challenge Question, where the first trainee to give the correct answer wins.
• Keep an eye on the clock with a timer or a countdown for hands-on activities.
• Optimize the training time, alternating between synchronous and asynchronous work phases.
• Create tailored training sessions while relying on ready-to-use templates, available from Klaxoon’s Template Library.

Conduct your training sessions on site or remotely hassle-free

With Klaxoon’s unique workshop experience, your training session will have the same impact on your trainees, whether they’re only a few feet away in the same room, or thousands of miles away. This method improves your training sessions, even remotely, as coach Thierry Rouffet explains.  

This experience is also suitable for blending learning, a combination of classroom-based training and e-learning.

Tailor your training sessions to your needs

Board is entirely customizable in terms of training materials: you can incorporate your own activities and content.  For instance, if you already have PowerPoint presentations, add them to Board and display them from the platform.

Board is also customizable in terms of design, with the available colors and graphic items. You can add your personal touch to reflect your training theme or style.

Use your existing materials

No need to start from scratch for each new training course. To save valuable time and use previous materials, all you need to do is copy the required Board! Naturally, you can make any necessary changes as you go along.

Meet the legal requirements for your professional training courses

The attendance sheet

At the start of each half-day, ask the trainees to sign the attendance sheet. Use the available ready-to-use template. This document keeps track of trainee attendance, late arrivals and absence and is the legal proof that the session has actually taken place.

Learning assessment test

Klaxoon’s Quiz and Adventure activities can be used during the training session to assess trainees’ skills. They are used to determine whether the training session’s goals were met. 

Conducting a training session with Klaxoon’s Board in workshop mode

If you’re not yet familiar with Klaxoon’s Template library, you’ll love browsing through it… It features hundreds of ready-to-use templates for Board. The template “Running a training workshop” offers a fully customizable framework. Let us tell you all about it!

Before the session starts, engage the trainees with Board.

Optimize your time to be more productive

Your training course lasts 3 days and you know out of experience that an extra half day wouldn’t go amiss? Use Board’s asynchronous capability to optimize your time and make sure that your trainees are ready to get down to business right away!

Send your trainees the access link or code a few days ahead of the training session so that they can test the water.  Coaches who use Klaxoon usually send the invitation to join Board between 5 and 10 days before the training session.

Help your trainees to consolidate what they’ve learned

By joining Board ahead of the training session, trainees can get a better idea of what’s on the menu. They can read the program and the training objective, and also find out who their coach is.

You only get one shot at making a good first impression, so optimize your chances by using the right tool to score points. Whatever the format (text, photo or video), the idea is to catch the trainees’ interest in the course by giving them a hint of your coaching style.  

As a starter, get them to do activities before the session actually starts to get them to know one another and find out what they hope to gain from the session and what they already know.

• Activity No.1: introductions

Ask the trainees to post their photo and name in the dedicated fields. Those who are not already familiar with Klaxoon can easily find out how it works. If group members are not already acquainted, they can get to know each other before the start of the session.

• Activity No.2: trainee expectations

Be aware of your group’s expectations and wishes so as not to veer off course! Use the Question tool to quiz the group and get valuable feedback so you can adapt the content and roll-out of your course accordingly. When supply meets demand, the goals will be more easily reached.

• Activity No.3: trainee skill level

Assessing initial trainee skills levels is essential to get the right focus for the session. Suggest a Klaxoon Quiz, and use the consolidated scores to make the necessary adjustments to your training content. The Quiz is one of Klaxoon’s Workshop Platform’s tools: it’s a fun way of testing knowledge with 9 types of questions that can include photos and videos.

When the course begins, your group of trainees, whether in class or remote, will be engaged and ready to get down to business!

 Keep the trainees engaged throughout the session

 First, break the ice

At the start of the session, start an activity to help the group feel at home. An icebreaker will do the job perfectly! This type of activity can be repeated at the start of each day, or after a break as a warm-up. We have a number of icebreakers for you to use: pick the one that best fits your audience, your goal and the time you wish to spend on it. Klaxoon’s Template library features many icebreaker options that suit different purposes: getting to know one another, team building, boosting creativity or the group’s energy.

Go through the training sequences

It’s now time to get down to the training session itself, with sequences centering on three key phases:

Theoretical training to impart new knowledge

Each sequence involves the presentation of training materials, designed to help the trainees acquire the theoretical background. Your training materials may come in various forms: a link to a document or website, a video, text, images, drawings, etc.

Engage group members by singling out the key elements they need to learn and placing them in the dedicated space.

Practical training to consolidate skills

Once your trainees have acquired the theoretical knowledge, move on to practice with activities to be used either individually, in pairs, in subgroups or all together! Use the Timer feature to stay within your training schedule.

• Run a Question session to energize the sequence, engage the group and collect feedback. Select the right type of Questions: poll (multiple choice), yes/no, ranking (1 to 5 stars), storm (word cloud) or a challenge, the ideal way to spice up the training course. The first one to answer the Question correctly wins the challenge.

• Run the Klaxoon Quiz mentioned earlier to check what the trainees have learned from the sequence. Another alternative is Klaxoon’s Adventure, a gamified training path that can include up to 10 stages. They are introduced by an optional content page (text, video, image), then interspersed with one or more quiz questions. Add an extra bonus to Adventure by ranking trainees according to their answers. This is a particularly useful way of uncovering the most competitive personalities in your group!

• Start a role play: ideal to facilitate learning. For example, assign a role and instructions to a pair to simulate a specific situation. While they are doing the activity, other group members watch and make comments on Board in the observation chart.

• Start a case study to explore the subject further. Give the group the case and note down your instructions in the dedicated space or add a link to a Word, PowerPoint, Excel document or to a shared document. This can also be done remotely! Use the ready-to-use “Breakout Rooms” template to easily set up an activity in subgroups. Each subgroup has their own space on Board to share their ideas.

• Start a round table session to let everyone give their ideas. To close the round table session, everyone “likes” their favorite idea. The most popular ideas can be copied and pasted in the key elements area.

Summary of the skills assessment sequence

After finalizing the sequence’s theoretical and practical phases, take tabs on the key elements that trainees need to know. In the dedicated space, during a group discussion, add the ideas to be learned.

To wrap up the sequence, ask trainees for their feedback. This valuable information will be useful for the rest of your training session, and even for future sessions. For example, start an Assessment Question.

Wrap up the training session with a summary of the program

Start a group discussion and compile all the key ideas in the dedicated space.

Knowing what the trainees think at the end of the session is key to the continuous improvement process. Use Survey to collect trainees’ comments and use them for your upcoming training courses. You have real time consolidated information, available immediately.  

Going a step further, after the training course

In the dedicated space add additional resources to delve deeper into the subject. As a bonus, use Mission to offer an e-learning module! This activity by Klaxoon is used to share knowledge in a fun environment, with up to 10 Quiz, Memo and Survey stages. This training path is for trainees to explore by themselves to check they have understood the training session contents and is a useful feedback collection solution!

So what is your first training session using Klaxoon going to be about?