The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time
Devin Huntamazon.com
The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time
So you include Q&A as a flexible “schedule spring” which can stretch and shrink to soak up changes in the timing elsewhere. The inclusion of these springs is the secret to finishing exactly on time, even if you’re starting late or running behind. You’ll never be able to recover time by just talking faster; instead, you need to design some flex
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“Let me jump in here for a second. This sounds like a pretty specific issue. Let’s find some time to chat 1-on-1 about that during the next break so I can properly help you. Cool? (Then, speaking to the class) “Okay, does anyone have any other questions?”
Devin Hunt • The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time
A slide’s title is its most valuable real estate and should therefore contain the most important part of the message. Here’s the text from a slide which has fallen for this trap:
Devin Hunt • The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time
your students actually experience is the workshop’s underlying design, and that’s where you must work to influence their energy and attention.
Devin Hunt • The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time
In his wonderful book, Anything You Want, Derek Sivers shares the following story of learning to sing from a great coach named Warren Senders: For each lesson, I’d bring in one song I was trying to improve. First, I’d sing it for him as written. Then he’d say, “OK—now do it up an octave.” “Uh... up an octave? But I can’t sing that high!” “I don’t c
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Often, during a lecture segment, you’ll use a bit of creative storytelling, metaphor, or examples. These narrative stepping-stones are excellent candidates for some
Devin Hunt • The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time
Instead, you need to instruct your participants—explicitly and specifically—what they’re supposed to be talking about. And just saying it out loud isn’t enough, because they’ll inevitably forget and go off track. You need to write it somewhere visible (usually a slide) and leave it there for the duration of the exercise. Prompts don’t need to be co
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In a Post-Up, you ask the audience a question, and everyone responds by writing something down on a sticky note. They
Devin Hunt • The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time
Q&A’s primary purpose is to be deleted when you’re running late.
Devin Hunt • The Workshop Survival Guide: How to design and teach educational workshops that work every time
And a two-hour workshop will usually be a single chunk, plus some optional padding: