In this article, we share our top tips and features to help you quickly and efficiently design instructor-led training programs in SessionLab.

You’ll learn how to use SessionLab to support every stage of the training process – from design to facilitation – and create training programs that engage participants and achieve your learning objectives.

If you would like a quick overview of the features that we recommend to use for creating your training plan, take a look at this video first:

Quickly design an effective training session by assigning color-categories to your blocks.

Assign categories based on activity type or learning objective to easily structure your agenda and design with your ideal learning flow in mind.

Click the assign category column and select a category to add color-coding to that block. Use an existing category or create a new one based on the needs of your training session.

You can change your session’s categories and their associated colors on a session-by-session basis. In the Session Planner, you can assign interaction color categories to your blocks, and the left-hand sidebar will show the color coding together with a proportional time overview.

Changing the categories and their colors in the Session Planner will only affect the session you’re working on.

If you would like to change the default categories for all the sessions in your workspace, you can do so in your workspace's account settings.

Your color-categories are present in the mini-map on the left-hand side of the Session Planner, making it easy to visually overview the flow of your session. This is especially helpful when adjusting your agenda – you might see that you need a break after lots of presentation activities or decide you need a training energizer.

Effective training often begins with clear goals and learning objectives. Add a note to the top of your agenda by clicking the + icon and keep important information front of mind while designing your training session.

Notes support rich text formatting, lists, links, and more. In addition to your learning objectives and goals you might also include:

Here is an example of how the notes could be used for storing your session-related information:

You may also want to use the note at the beginning of the plan to insert a Task list for the session to keep track of what’s been done and what is still to be completed.

To apply a check-box list to content in your session, first highlight the text you wish to change into a task list, then click on the option from the formatting menu to apply the check-box formatting. Clicking again on this will remove it.

Whether you’re collaborating with subject matter experts, co-trainers or stakeholders, SessionLab makes it easy to collaborate smoothly and maintain a single source of truth. Here’s how to make the most out of SessionLab’s collaboration features.

Creating an effective learning journey often means bringing in others to work on your agenda with you. You might:

The easiest way to begin work with collaborators is to invite a collaborator directly to your session.

In order to find the user you want to invite, just type their name or email address in the invitation bar. If the person already has a SessionLab account and you’ve invited them to collaborate on a session previously, then their name will automatically appear in the list when you begin to type their name.

If you haven’t invited them previously, then you will need to type their full email address before their name appears in the drop-down list. When you invite people to a session plan, they will receive an email notification with the link to the session.

For ongoing collaborations in a team, you can also invite a collaborator to your workspace where they can view, edit, and create their own sessions too!

Whatever your training format, it’s common for different learning designers to be responsible for designing or delivering different parts of the agenda.

In SessionLab, you can assign collaborators to specific blocks. This allows you to indicate who is responsible for which part of the session.

To assign your session collaborators to blocks, first make sure you have enabled the visibility of the 'Assigned to' column. You can then drag the column into your desired position in the Session Planner:

Then you can click on the 'Assign a person' button to choose from the list of your session collaborators:

When you have assigned collaborators to your session blocks, their icons will appear on the assigned blocks and also their names (without images) will be indicated on the printouts.

You can also assign collaborators to your session blocks by clicking on the dotted menu on the top left of any block and choosing 'Assign block to...'

SessionLab supports real-time collaboration, so any changes you make to your agenda will be instantly visible to all collaborators.

You can also work asynchronously by leaving comments and tagging collaborators. This is useful for keeping all discussions relating to your session in one place.

There are two types of comments you can make: either commenting on a specific block or on the entire session.

Click the comment icon on the right-hand side of a block to leave a comment on that specific block. You can tag specific collaborators by pressing the @ key and choosing the relevant person.

You can add a comment on the entire session and review all comments by clicking the Comments tab in the right-hand sidebar.

You can reply to a comment made on your session by your stakeholders by clicking on the ‘reply’ button. If you’d like to make another comment on the same block, click on the ‘Create a new comment thread’ button to create a new thread.

Every training program is different. You may want to display different information in your agenda based on your training format or what makes sense for your design process.

In SessionLab, you can adjust your columns to tailor your agenda to your needs. For example, you may want to display the Goal column to see which learning objective each activity is working on or move the Assigned To column to the front so it’s clear which SME or trainer is responsible for each block.

Adjust which columns are visible in the Session Planner by clicking the Session Settings button at the top right of your agenda or by hovering over any column title.

Here you can choose the order and visibility of all columns in your agenda. If you add more columns than will fit on a single screen, simply scroll left and right to see additional information.

You can also quickly reorder columns by hovering over a column title, clicking on the title box, and dragging it to your chosen position.

By customizing your columns, you can easily create a setup that allows you and your collaborators to access the most important information quickly.

If your session contains handouts to provide participants with reference materials they can review before, during, and after the session, you may attach them directly to your session in the Session Planner.

You can do this by navigating to the Block details view for the block you want to attach to (by clicking on the sideways arrow icon to the right of the block), and then you can choose between 4 options to attach:

If you would like to add your materials as inline images, you can do so in the Description and Additional information fields of the block, as well as the Instructions and Background fields which are accessible in the block details area.

To add an inline image (as a session owner/editor), you can click in one of these fields in an empty row and a small + symbol will appear.

Clicking on this button will allow you to add a bulleted list, numbered list, checklist, or image to the respective field in your block.

Your images can be added in JPEG or PNG format.

Images you insert will appear among attachments, so you can see them under the Block details area and in the summarised list of all attachments in the Attachments tab on the right-hand sidebar.

If you’d like to delete an image, you can hover your cursor over the image (either in the Session Planner or in the attachments tab) and click on the small trash icon that appears.

To ensure smooth training facilitation, print out the agenda and facilitator guide or share an online version with your team. Whether you're conducting live or virtual training, having these resources at hand will enable you and your team to facilitate confidently and effectively.

In the Print Preview Screen of the Print/PDF option, the drop-down menu under ‘Preset’ will give you four different choices of how to export your session, depending on the level of detail you would like:

If you would like to share a quick look at the session plan with your trainees or trainers, you may wish to print your session in a view similar to what you see in the ‘Overview’ screen which shows you a clear zoomed-out overview of all the days in your agenda.

On the Print Preview Screen, you can choose ‘Day Overview’ from the preset dropdown menu to print just one day of your multi-day session, or choose ‘Multi-Day Overview’ to print a high-level overview with all the days in your agenda, similar to what you can see in the Overview.

Training programs come in all shapes and sizes. Even if you’re running an ongoing leadership training program or course, SessionLab can help you manage complex sessions and stay organized.

Click the session overview button to get an instant overview of your entire program. Here, you can instantly see your complete agenda and move activities between days or learning modules.

To add an additional day or module, click + day to get a blank day, ready to fill with content. From the session overview screen, you can also duplicate an existing day. This is especially useful if you have a repeating training structure that you want to adjust for later modules or sessions.

Moving activities between days is also easy. Simply hover over a block and drag and drop it to your chosen day using the grip icon. Even if you need to adjust a training program mid-session, SessionLab will automatically recalculate timing for all affected days.

The session overview is also a great place to review your entire training program in one place. Remember those color categories? Ensure they’re set for each activity and you’ll instantly be able to see a visual breakdown of your entire multi-day program.

When you’re done, you can also set a date for each individual day or module of your training program to keep you and your training team organized.

Reusing your most effective training agendas is a great way to save time and deliver exceptional training. In SessionLab, you can easily duplicate an existing session or create a template for continual reuse and adjustment.

You can duplicate an existing training session in two ways. You can click Export in the Session Planner and duplicate your session from there. Alternatively, you can find your session in your personal or team workspace, click the additional options button, and duplicate the session from there.

When searching from your dashboard, you can filter by name, description, client, or tags. This makes it easy to find, adjust, and re-run a previous training program.

We recommend adding client and tag details to all your sessions to keep them organized and easy to filter through. Click the Edit Info button on a session in your workspace to add these details.

Alternatively, you can add them in the session info tab while working on your training agenda in the Session Planner. With the Session Info tab, you can also:

Creating a reusable template from your best training materials makes it even faster to create new sessions in the future.

Create a template from any session by opening it up and clicking Export. Your original session will be preserved and you’ll have a new template ready to reuse and adjust as many times as you need.

When creating a template, you can choose whether to share this in your team workspace. Creating shared templates can help spread best practices and ensure your trainers and learning designers are all following company guidelines.

You can find your templates by clicking Templates in the left-hand sidebar of your workspace. You’ll find templates for your personal account and any teams you are a part of. Sort these by name, tag, or created date to click View Template to start working with that template as a base.

So there you have it, a host of features and tips for creating effective instructor-led training in SessionLab!

If you’re curious, you can see what a completed training session designed in SessionLab looks like in this Train the Trainer template.

Have any questions or need any help? Get in touch by clicking the live chat button below. We’re always happy to help!