Initial Publication Date: February 23, 2010
Workshop Leader Checklist
This page is intended to help Cutting Edge follow-on workshop leaders (and their mentors) keep track of all of the tasks associated with planning and running a follow-on workshop, from the beginning of planning through the final report.
Workshop Design and Website Development
- Set the goals and objectives of the workshop
- Set the scope of the workshop program
- Decide what participants will create/submit for the resource collection
- Set the selection criteria for workshop participation
- Write the application questions
- Set the application deadline (usually 2 months prior to workshop)
- Set the registration fee; this should be sufficient to cover all of the workshop leader's (or leaders') expenses
- Develop the workshop website, beginning with the index, overview, and application pages
- Develop the workshop program, paying attention to best practices in workshop design
- Work out the logistical details (room numbers, etc.)
- Expand the workshop website to include whichever of the following are appropriate: logistics page, program, registration form, participant list, any upload forms for participant submissions, and pages for those submissions
Publicity
- Think about who your target audience is
- Plan ahead: make sure your website will be ready when it's time to send out your first announcements!
- If your workshop will take place in association with a professional society meeting, your first publicity will be when abstracts have been accepted for that meeting, so that meeting attendees can plan their travel accordingly
- Think about how to get the word out to your target audience. There are many suggestions on the workshop recruitment and publicity page.
Workshop Evaluation
- Plan time for workshop evaluation, including reflection and action planning, into your program
- All Cutting Edge workshops (including follow-on workshops) collect a standard set of data for evaluation purposes. Information on these data can be found on the page about planning your workshop evaluation
- Your goal is 100% participation in the workshop evaluation process
- Consider doing some form of embedded assessment
Post-Workshop Reflection Report
- Write a workshop report and complete workshop reflection for evaluation
- How many participants attended
- What they learned
- What you learned: what went particularly well, what you would do differently if you did it again
- Any feedback you have about the mentoring process, both in terms of the workshop design and the website development process
Follow-up
- Update the workshop web pages:
- Collect and post files (presentations, posters, readings and relevant links) to the workshop program page
- Change workshop web pages to the past tense
- Collect missing, incomplete, or promised contributions
- Proofread the website
- Consult with web team mentor regarding incorporation of workshop results in the topical module
- Follow-up communication with participants, including check in on progress on individual action plans