How to design effective and inclusive training

I'm creating quite a lot of new courses this summer, some for clients and others to launch next year. Over the years I've learned works well from my own experience, from fantastic resources such as Sharon L Bowman's 'Training from the Back of the Room', and working alongside Deb Barnard of RD1st for five years (a most skilled trainer). I've tried to capture the key design principles I use as an aide member for myself before embarking on designing the next suite of courses, especially as I'm co-designing one with @sarahfox and so being clear about my assumptions about what works is useful in how we'll contract our work together.

I'm really interested to hear others' thoughts - what have I missed that you do to make training effective and inclusive? What

1. Joining instructions – 1-2 weeks ahead (plus repeat 1-2 days before)

Tell people what to expect in greater detail – eg size of group, types of activities, technology to be used

Allow people to prepare – e.g. if working on examples and share follow-up resources in advance for those who want to read ahead of the session

Task instructions for preparation exercise

Reassure that group contract will be discussed and agreed

Include contact details of trainer

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2. Course design

Begin before sessions starts – use preparation exercise to make best use of time in the room.

Connection at start – create opportunity to introduce group to one another and connect with topic (their personal learning objectives)

Encourage ‘all voices in the room’ early – in a safe way via a round robin exercise. Create different ways for everyone to contribute to group discussions eg Chat, written questions, generating questions in pairs.

Create psychological safety - through group contracting and offering options where possible (eg volunteers to share rather than picking people, choose your group, choose your examples for exercises)

Avoid long sections of content - max 10 mins (online) 15 f2f. Punctuate content with interaction – eg questions, individual tasks

Start with what participants know - and build on that, use peer-peer learning throughout (observer/ feedback exercises, jigsaw preparation, Troika formats).

Skills – allow plenty of concrete practice and reflection (including self-reflections) around skills.

Build-in conclusions for each section before moving into new content.

Stories – use examples that are inclusive, funny (to be memorable), and relevant to the participants (so have a range of stories available and select most relevant to context).

Vary formats – include movement-based, drawing, speaking, writing exercises and variety of formats and groups sizes.

Give options - where possible, provide a range of ways to do a task.

Make it fun and meaningful – trainers are authentic and encourage others to bring whole self into the room.

Include reflection time – allow 1-2 minutes for individual reflection/ writing before starting group tasks.

Write up (flipchart/ chat) task instructions given verbally and read-out written instructions.

Don’t over-pack/ rush the agenda – be prepared to drop/ change exercises instead and include 10% contingency in design.

Afternoons of day-long sessions – expect a dip in energy and concentration, use movement and pacey formats to keep group focussed (walk and talk, constellations, quizzes).

Training materials – design to be simple and clear (large sans serif font, minimal text, use of diagrams or visuals, colour for highlights).

Dual-coding – provide images/ metaphors and stories for key concepts to increase memory.

Build-in conclusions and action-planning into session.

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3. Follow-on

Learning resources – include third-party videos and podcasts as well as short articles, blogs and books to enable follow-up.

Create bespoke accessible learning resources - that recap core content (not just copies of the slides, but include slides).

Encourage peer-peer learning beyond the event - create connections and share formats in sessions including practice pairs, Troika, accountability partners etc.