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Wobo | Digital Worksheet

Wobo is a digital workbook software for online courses. See how it can help instructors and students co-create the most effective learning environment.

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&nbsp;At Wobo, we’ve helped hundreds of course creators set up workbooks to help their students interact with their course content in an engaging and memorable way. There are infinite ways to make your workbook pop, but we’ve rounded up some of our top recommendations that you might not have considered when building your first digital workbook.&nbsp;<h3>Start at the end</h3>Wait, what? What we mean is: when planning your workbook outline, think first about how a student’s downloaded version should be structured. In Wobo, there are two options for students to download their work: by module (a group of workbook exercises) and by workbook. This means all of the content that you want downloaded together at the end should be in the same workbook. You can however, allow students to download modules from a workbook individually, without downloading the entire workbook. &nbsp;<h3>Picture your Student Experience</h3>While creating the outline for your workbook, think about how you want it to be encountered by students. Should they see cover pages before each module? Which sections or workbook exercises should be grouped together in the same module? Our general advice on workbook structure:&nbsp; &nbsp;<ul><li>Picture a student encountering your workbook in a course. Let’s say it’s an end-of-chapter worksheet after a series of video courses in a platform like Thinkific. Everything that should show up in that workbook should be grouped into the same module in Wobo. <img class="image_resized" style="width:25%;" src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_3_04_26_PM_87584915d5.png" alt="Screenshot 2023-01-05 at 3.04.26 PM.png" srcset="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_3_04_26_PM_87584915d5.png 157w,https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/small_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_3_04_26_PM_87584915d5.png 500w," sizes="100vw"> &nbsp;</li><li>You don’t need to have a cover page on each module, especially if you’re not a designer and making them will eat up a lot of your time. If you want to spice your workbook up later, you can add them, but for your first workbook, just stick to the workbook cover page and don't bother with cover pages for each module.</li></ul><h3>Don’t forget about mobile!</h3>In Wobo, everything you add is automatically mobile-friendly (phewph!) One thing you should check is your cover pages: are they legible on mobile? Is anything cut off when the image is re-sized to the dimensions of a phone? Here’s what we recommend:<ol><li>If you’re uploading a full-page cover page, avoid putting text close to the edge. Instead make sure there is a decent amount of space so that when the image adapts to different screen sizes, nothing is cut off on the edges.</li><li>Avoid super small text: images will need to shrink down to fit on a phone screen, so make sure your text is large enough that it will still be legible.</li><li>In preview mode, click the phone icon to see how your workbook will look on a mobile device: &nbsp;</li></ol><figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_10_44_PM_37cbef5a7d.png" alt="Screenshot of the Wobo platform. In preview, users can switch between desktop and mobile to preview across devices." srcset="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_10_44_PM_37cbef5a7d.png 118w,https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/small_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_10_44_PM_37cbef5a7d.png 379w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h3>Add Alternative Text to Images</h3>Whether or not your company is legally required to adhere to certain accessibility standards, make sure to take a moment to add alternative text to your images.Adding alternative text to images ensures that all of your students will be able to understand your workbook content. In Wobo, when you add an image, you can also add alternative text that will be read aloud by a screen reader when the image is encountered.&nbsp;<figure class="image"><img src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_42_34_PM_875d4b887c.png" alt="Screenshot of the Wobo platform showing how alternative text is added: A cartoon shows a group of people standing in a roped-off area shaped like a speech bubble. Someone is opening the rope to allow a person to enter." srcset="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_42_34_PM_875d4b887c.png 226w,https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/small_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_42_34_PM_875d4b887c.png 500w,https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/medium_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_42_34_PM_875d4b887c.png 750w,https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/large_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_42_34_PM_875d4b887c.png 1000w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h3>Do a Contrast Check</h3>Students with low visibility or colourblindness might struggle to read text that is placed on a background with low contrast to the text colour. Use a tool like <a href="https://contrastchecker.com">https://contrastchecker.com</a> to make sure your background colour and text colours will be suitable for all of your users.&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:75%;"><img src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_1_53_53_PM_cf3591df0c.png" alt="Screenshot of a colour contrast tool that allows users to enter a foreground and background colour to see if the contrast is sufficient to support low vision users." srcset="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_1_53_53_PM_cf3591df0c.png 245w,https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/small_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_1_53_53_PM_cf3591df0c.png 500w,https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/medium_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_1_53_53_PM_cf3591df0c.png 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure><h3>Avoid putting text in images</h3>There are a few reasons we recommend that text in your workbook be typed out rather than inserted as an image:<ul><li>Readability on mobile: since images shrink down on mobile, text that looks great on a computer will likely not be legible on a phone screen.</li><li>Difficulty to translate: for students who might need to translate your text into their first language to understand a word or phrase, having it in the workbook as text is much easier than re-typing everything.</li><li>Accessibility for screen readers: While you can (and should!) insert alternative text to describe the text in the image, if it’s a table for example, this could be much harder to interpret for someone using a screen reader compared to how a table with text could be navigated using keyboard commands. &nbsp;</li></ul><h3>Get creative!</h3>Our final piece of advice is to present exercises in different ways to keep your content engaging. If you’re finding a lot of your content is requiring the same type of input, ask yourself: could this response be a slider, a checkbox, or a table to provide some variety?Don’t forget that Wobo comes with a bunch of templates to help you get inspired. Here’s a sample from one of our templates that uses a bunch of different section types. Tip: See the green header? That’s a table with just one row and one column being used to style a title - try it for yourself!&nbsp;<figure class="image image_resized" style="width:50%;"><img src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_45_22_PM_eab49b33f8.png" alt="Screenshot of a Wobo workbook showing a variety of different input types: checkboxes, drop-downs, fill in the blanks." srcset="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/thumbnail_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_45_22_PM_eab49b33f8.png 156w,https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/small_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_45_22_PM_eab49b33f8.png 500w,https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/medium_Screenshot_2023_01_05_at_2_45_22_PM_eab49b33f8.png 750w," sizes="100vw"></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h4><a href="https://workbook.woboapp.com/creator-signup">Start a free trial</a> of the Wobo interactive workbook software today. It’s the professional software you need to create a workbook that’ll take your students' learning to the next level.&nbsp;</h4>

Here are the Wobo team’s top recommendations for building your first digital workbook.

7 Tips for perfecting your first digital workbook

When it comes to learning, whether it’s for personal or professional development, both students and teachers are constantly looking for ways to make the experience more impactful and relevant. One tool that’s become very popular in the pedagogical field over the last decade is the learning journal. Learning journals provide a unique opportunity to help students actively dig deeper into course materials using reflection and reinforcement.&nbsp;This post will help explain the ins and outs of learning journals, and how to use them to bring learning to life. We’ll answer questions like:<ul><li>What is a learning journal?</li><li>What should a learning journal look like?</li><li>What does a learning journal contain?</li><li>How is a learning journal structured?</li></ul> Plus, we’ll provide some bonus prompts to help you get started. &nbsp;<h3>What is a learning journal?</h3> A learning journal, sometimes called a reflective journal, is a learning tool for students that’s meant to encourage reflection and the internalization of subject matter. It’s a steadily growing document that learners use to record the progress of their learning and how they’re engaging with it.<h3>How does a learning journal work?</h3>Learning journals provide a space for learners to reflect on what they’ve covered and take notes over the course of their program. The overarching premise is that by integrating reflection questions with course content, learners can process their learning experience and consider how they’ll apply what they’ve learned.&nbsp; At the heart of it, a learning journal is a workbook that acts as a resource they can continue to refer to after the course is done and continuously engage with the learnings. That’s partly why digital workbooks like&nbsp;<a href="https://woboapp.com/">Wobo</a> make such great platforms for learning journals. They allow learners to pick up where they’ve left off and revisit it over the course of many sessions. Learning journals may also be used to share ideas with other learners or reflect on their learning experience with a mentor or teacher, something that a solution like Wobo enables while keeping privacy and security at the forefront.<h3>Why should you provide learning journals to your students?</h3>While learning journals can definitely be used to summarize the information at hand, they’re not meant to be used strictly for note-taking. What makes learning journals especially compelling and useful as a learning tool is that the process of writing is about active learning. Writing is done for the sake of learning, rather than for the purpose of demonstrating knowledge acquisition. By providing your students with digital learning journals, you can empower them to enhance their learning, make deeper connections to the information, and build upon their knowledge over time. Wobo’s digital workbooks allow you to play with form to create an engaging experience. Encourage self-reflection with open-ended questions and keep things interesting with different input types like checkboxes, long form responses, checklists, tables, ranking scales, and fun mad lib-style fields to take pulse checks and assess understanding of the materials.<h3>What should a learning journal look like?</h3>There are no rules when it comes to what a learning journal should look like, but it should be visually appealing (in the 2020s, there is no excuse for an ugly or boring workbook).&nbsp; The way you set it up might be different for different types of courses or training sessions. As long as it encourages reflection and furthers the learning, a learning journal can take any format. That said, there are a few common components that you can use to create digital workbook learning journals for your students.<h3> What does a learning journal contain?</h3>At their most basic level, learning journals contain questions that incite thoughtfulness and probe a learner’s understanding of the application of their learnings. That means open-ended questions about the content and links to extra learning materials for the students to interact with and respond to, applying their newfound knowledge.&nbsp;<h3>How to create a learning journal</h3>First, you’ll want to consider when the learning journal should be leveraged by your students: before, during, and/or after the training.<h4>Before the class</h4>Learning journals can be helpful for setting the tone for your courses or training sessions. You can use the learning journal as a home for pre-course activities like short articles or recommended readings, thought-provoking questions with long form answer spaces to help get the wheels turning before day one, or to provide case studies to consider before things kick off.<h4>During the course</h4>A learning journal can provide a place to write notes and enter information from breakout activities during the training. After each module, you can give learners the space to reflect on what they’ve covered and how they can use it in their lives. In multi-session courses, learning journals also serve as a tool to connect content and themes from one session to the next.<h4>After the fact</h4>Learning doesn’t stop when the course ends. After the course has wrapped up, learning journals serve as a resource for additional information, encourage reflection, and perhaps a conversation guide to complete with a teacher, manager, or mentor. Wobo’s digital workbooks allow for sharing and visibility between the student, instructor, and the instructor's invited team members in real time, and can be downloaded as PDFs to refer to down the road. Workbooks can not be seen by other students within the same group, ensuring privacy and encouraging vulnerability and candid self-reflection.<h3>How is a learning journal structured?</h3>When you are fleshing out your learning journal for your students, a popular way to structure the journal is to include a long-form response area for students to dig deep into the learnings, responding in three parts.&nbsp; &nbsp;At the end of a module, provide a space for students to: &nbsp;<ol><li>Summarize their key reflections</li><li>Explain the learning and relate it to prior knowledge</li><li>Explain the significance and implications of the reflections, answering big picture questions like ‘what does this mean for your future?’ or ‘what has this changed for you?’</li></ol> &nbsp;For multi-session courses&nbsp; programs, organize learning journals with a section for each week, including a section for a weekly summary. By using a Wobo workbook for a learning journal, students can pick up right where they left off, letting the information snowball with every journal update, then download the PDF to keep a copy for future reference.<h3>Prompts to include in a reflective journal</h3>Depending on the type of course, workshop, or training session you’re leading, you’ll want to ask different questions to help your learners really sink their teeth into the information. Here are some questions to consider including that will help your learners really contemplate their relation to the information in your teachings: &nbsp;<ul><li>What did we cover in the course?</li><li>How do you feel about the experience of the course?</li><li>What insights have you gained?</li><li>What helped or hindered your learning?</li><li>Will you conduct yourself differently or in the same way because of this learning experience?</li><li>What was the most interesting thing you read about this topic?</li><li>What did you previously think was true, but now know to be wrong?</li><li>What have you changed my mind about as a result of this session?</li><li>What did you learn that I may be able to use in your day-to-day life?</li><li>What are you still unsure about?</li><li>What issue or topic would you like to dive deeper into?</li></ul> &nbsp;<h3>Empower your learners with the power of reflection</h3>Learning journals are a powerful teaching tool. Providing your learners with digital workbooks that help them engage with course content and core teachings is a great way to ensure that they internalize the information and assess their own relationship to it. Leverage Wobo’s extensive features and diverse templates to empower your learners with their ongoing personal and professional development.&nbsp; &nbsp;<a href="https://workbook.woboapp.com/creator-signup">Get started with a free trial of Wobo today</a> &nbsp;

Learning journals are a powerful teaching tool. Find out what a learning journal is and how it actively supports your students in their learning journey.

How to make engaging learning journals for students

<h3>How to create a digital workbook for online courses&nbsp;</h3> It’s easy to memorize facts, but it takes more effort to understand how to apply them to real life. When your online courses and workshops include a digital workbook, students get to practice and apply their newly learned knowledge, increasing their comprehension of your course material.&nbsp;Educators have long used worksheets in their in-person curriculum. But with the recent popularity spike in online courses, many educators struggle to provide the same interactive experience online as they can in person. Digital workbooks fill this gap.&nbsp;In this article, we’ll look at how you can create a workbook online and use it to boost interactivity and learning comprehension in your students. We’ll cover the following:&nbsp;&nbsp;<ul><li>What is a fillable PDF workbook?</li><li>How to use an interactive workbook for your course</li><li>Interactive workbook examples</li><li>How do I create a fillable digital workbook PDF?</li><li>How do I create a student digital workbook in Canva?</li><li>How do I make an editable PDF workbook with Wobo?</li><li>What’s the best way to create a fillable workbook?</li></ul><h4> What is a fillable PDF workbook?&nbsp;</h4> A fillable PDF workbook is a book or series of worksheets and activities where students practice or test their knowledge. It’s delivered and viewed electronically rather than printed in hardcopy like “traditional” classroom handouts. Fillable PDF workbooks create a more interactive experience for those taking classes or workshops online.Digital workbooks can be as simple as a PDF file with fill-in-the-blanks sections where students can answer questions. They can also be more comprehensive and interactive and include various media types and ways for the students to interact with your course content.&nbsp; Why create a digital workbook? There are many reasons you would want to create a digital, interactive workbook for your course: Saves paper: Rather than asking participants to print their 50-page student practice book, they can interact with a digital copy on their computer or tablet. No more wasting paper on printed copies.&nbsp; Helps interpretation of content: When your students are engaged with you through their digital workbook, their comprehension of the material is heightened. They can better visualize and apply the course materials in different ways through open ended questions and interactive elements.&nbsp; Students can keep their work in one place: Digital workbooks can be saved on a local device so your students can view their completed work (or work-in-progress) at any time. Students can also download and save their workbook responses anytime for future reference.&nbsp; Instructors can view workbook responses: With comprehensive online workbook software, you can view the content your students input in their workbooks. It can help you see where students are struggling so you can adjust future learning content to compensate for or reteach specific skills. Coaches can take advantage of this visibility to provide feedback and guidance to their clients. &nbsp;<h4> How to use an interactive workbook for your course</h4> An interactive workbook is usually offered as an included supplement to your online course. You might teach your course live through a platform like Zoom or have your course content and modules hosted on a Learning Management System (LMS) like Thinkific or Teachable. Your workbook can be an optional or required activity, but strongly encourage learners to use it, as it could enhance their learning experience in a highly customizable way. The opportunities are endless for learners with digital workbooks including:&nbsp;<ul><li>Reflecting on their current state and setting goals for the future</li><li>Performing a self assessment</li><li>Answering open ended questions about course material</li><li>Acting as a template for learners to create a marketing, sales, or business plan</li></ul>&nbsp;For coaches, opportunities could look like:&nbsp;<ul><li>Offering opportunities for journaling and self-reflection</li><li>Including a weekly schedule or monthly planner</li><li>Providing a list of linked resources</li></ul><h4>Interactive workbook examples&nbsp;</h4> There are many interactive elements you can include in your workbooks: GIFs Your interactive workbook can include GIF animations to visually illustrate key concepts or processes. Moving images in GIF format helps those with a visual learning style. Links In the past, if you wanted to share a link to an educational resource in your course, you would write the link on their worksheet, which they'd have to manually type into their web browser to view. With hyperlinked text in an interactive workbook, students can click on the link, and the resource will open directly on their device.You can use links in your interactive workbooks to link to additional reading, videos, and resources that your learners will find valuable. &nbsp;Sliders, radio buttons, checkboxes, drop-down lists In a regular PDF, you wouldn’t be able to add these interactive elements. Learners would need to print their PDF out, then fill in check marks or select radio buttons with a pen. With digital workbooks, these interactive elements are simple to add and use, opening up a world of options for the types of questions that can be asked. &nbsp; &nbsp;Text and notes areas In your digital workbook, you can create spaces for learners to make their own notes as they progress in your course, instead of compiling notes in a notebook or separate document. This allows everything to live in one place, making it easy for learners and coaches to reference.<h4>How do I create a fillable digital workbook PDF?&nbsp;</h4> Until Wobo came along, the best way to make a digital workbook was to build it &nbsp;using a word processor like Microsoft Word or Google Docs, or design something more snazzy using Canva or Figma. There are a few main things to keep in mind with whatever you choose: the technical skills of your students, how much you care about the design of your workbook, and how smooth you want the experience to be. &nbsp;Share a Google DocYou could set up your workbook as a Google doc or other online word processor and even automate sending it out with Zapier. This allows you to use tools you’re already familiar with and you can have decent control over the design of your workbook. One main drawback of this option to be aware of is that Google docs and other similar tools have permissions for either read or write, meaning students could delete a question if they don’t like it! Creating a Fillable PDF in Adobe softwareIf you have advanced Adobe Acrobat skills, you can upload your PDF or existing Docx file to Acrobat and add fillable fields using text boxes. Fillable forms make it easy for students to fill in content, but aside from clickable hyperlinks, this method doesn’t work well for including other interactive elements and anything beyond text-entered data. Keep in mind with this option, students will always need to open this file in a different window; they can’t fill it out within your course experience. Updates are also a pain since they require several steps, and this document won’t be easy to access on phones.<h4> How do I create a student digital workbook in Canva?&nbsp;</h4> Canva is a free online design software that helps organizations create everything from social media and website graphics to book covers, videos, and presentations. You could create your student workbooks in Canva with interactive fields and export them as PDF Files.While easy to use, there is a learning curve to set up Canva to create a workbook. Additionally, if you have students viewing the workbook on a smaller-screen or tablet, a PDF doesn’t have an adaptive, unique layout that automatically optimizes based on the device used to view the PDF.&nbsp;<h4> How do I make an editable PDF workbook with Wobo?&nbsp;</h4> Making your online workbook editable with Wobo is easy when you start with a premade template. They’re easy to customize to your brand and make it easy for you (the instructor) to update and change in the future.&nbsp; &nbsp;Wobo for live edits When you need to edit the workbook in the middle of a course, your changes are pushed live to all workbook students (great for fixing typos or making more substantial changes quickly when needed).&nbsp; &nbsp;Wobo for Collaborations Wobo is also a great tool for collaborations. You can easily invite coaches, teachers, and other team members to help you edit and update the workbook. The editing process is easier as you can provide partial or full access to your team members.&nbsp; &nbsp;Editing a workbook for accessibility More businesses are ensuring their published content meets certain accessibility standards, including support for learners with special requirements. Wobo has accessibility editing features built-in. You can add alternative text to images (for screen readers) and include easy usability for keyboard-only navigation.&nbsp; &nbsp;Editing and IP Protection Another great editing feature of Wobo is you can invite fellow educators or co-workers to edit your source file, yet it remains protected for users. You can choose a security option to prevent learners from copy and pasting text into the workbook as well as adding watermarks for additional IP protection. You can also manage how much, or how little, students can download from your workbook.<h4>What’s the best way to create a fillable workbook?&nbsp;</h4> When you create an interactive digital workbook, you’re enhancing your students' learning experience. With these advanced visual aids possible, you can boost student interaction and learning, ensuring they fully understand even your most difficult concepts.Wobo is the interactive digital workbook for online learning. It was designed to help students reflect, react, and retain your important course content. You can start with a free trial and template to customize your own workbook for your brand by changing fonts and colors.Wobo makes it easy to meet all online course and student engagement best practices including: &nbsp;<ul><li>Fillable forms that don’t feel like a test</li><li>The ability to break up the text into bite-sized chunks to keep students’ attention easier</li><li>Including different formats like tables, sliders, diagrams, and selection options to suit learning styles</li><li>Formatting that is dynamic to ensure high-quality experience no matter your device</li></ul>&nbsp;Start a free trial of the Wobo interactive workbook software today. It’s the professional software you need to create a workbook that’ll take your students' learning to the next level.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Digital workbooks are a collaborative and customizable way to boost student learning online. Learn how to create a digital workbook for your online courses.

How to create a digital workbook

Everything from work to socializing has moved to the virtual world, and learning is no exception.Whether it’s training professionals or subject matter experts looking to leverage their knowledge for passive income, many are embracing online learning as their preferred education method.&nbsp;However, there are some obstacles to overcome with online and virtual learning, and you’ll need to use every tool at your disposal to help keep your learners engaged, motivated, and internalizing new information.This article will explore and explain:<ul><li>How do you design an online course?</li><li>How do you create content for an online course?</li><li>Why create an online course PDF?</li><li>How do you make an online course PDF?</li></ul>Plus, we’ll provide some templates to help you get started with your online course creation! &nbsp;<h3>How do you design an online course?</h3>How you set up your online course will vary based on the subject matter that you’re teaching. Some classes will benefit from extensive self-reflection and others might need extra video content to help demonstrate hands-on techniques.&nbsp; &nbsp;The question you need to ask yourself is&nbsp;what is the best way for me as an instructor to design online courses that will make online learning a success for my students? &nbsp;In order to engage your learners and make the best use of their time, there are certain considerations related to online course design best practices that will help you plan your course and ensure you’re creating all the right documents.<h3>Know your audience</h3>Once you’ve chosen your course topic, the next step is to identify who the course is for. ‘Anyone’ and ‘everyone’ are not helpful target audiences. The more you can narrow down who your audience is, the better you can target the information to them and promote your course effectively. A simple way to do this is to fill in the blanks of the following formula: &nbsp;This course will teach [audience] how to [end goal of the online course].&nbsp; &nbsp;For example: This course will teach [employees] how to [combat unconscious bias and build allyship in the workplace]. &nbsp;In this case, the person running the course not only knows what they’re teaching, they know how to target their messaging and how to promote the course objectives effectively.<h3>Outline your course</h3>Taking the time to create an online course outline is incredibly helpful for ensuring the information is easy to follow and understand. &nbsp;What are the core learning objectives? How does the information build up? Break down the learning journey into milestones; this’ll tell you how much content you need to create and help direct the focus of your lesson plans and curriculum.<h3>Use well-organized microlearning principles</h3>Microlearning is when education uses short-term strategies designed specifically for skill-based learning. With information delivered in smaller bite-sized quantities, students are less likely to feel overwhelmed by information overload.&nbsp; &nbsp;In practice, this means breaking your course down into small modules with well-defined objectives at the start, providing dynamic activities throughout for engagement, and space for summary and reflection at the end of each unit.<h3>Make your lessons interactive</h3>Student engagement is a huge contributor to positive learning outcomes, and interactivity is a huge part of increasing engagement. Beyond incorporating visual content and video lessons where it makes sense, fill-in-the-blank sections, quizzes, and open ended questions are great ways to spur interaction.<h3>Make content accessible</h3>As the course creator, it’s on you to create a good virtual learning environment. Everything about your course layout, PDFs and workbooks should be clear and concise. The resources should be easy to find, simple to access, and well organized. All of the files and content you link to or use in your course should be universally compatible so that students can use them easily.&nbsp; &nbsp;Web-based platforms avoid a lot of these major issues, and using a digital workbook to create your learning materials can help keep your online course navigable and easily used. <img src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Globalstyles_bf21afba5c.gif" alt="Globalstyles.gif"><h3>Structure your lesson plans</h3>This part is a lot easier when you’ve done the work to lay out your learning milestones and modules. The next step in the process is to start mapping out your information and the details you need to go with it.&nbsp; &nbsp;The easiest way to do this is to use a customizable template (with your interactive elements baked in already) that has preemptively done the hard work for you, and just customize it to fit your course needs and your branding. Wobo’s digital workbook templates have done the heavy lifting for you, so you can get your online course documents ready in no time. <a href="https://wobo.app/#templates">Explore our template gallery and find the right fit for your course.</a><h3>The better alternative to online course PDFs</h3>PDFs and other types of interactive documents are an integral part of online course design. They provide an area for learners to take notes, reflect on their learnings, and navigate the course. PDFs are handy because they can be displayed on many devices without risking formatting errors like you’d have with a Word document where the user doesn’t have the correct fonts installed. PDFs also allow you to create fillable fields so that learners can fill in their own information for a degree of interactivity.&nbsp; &nbsp;There are, of course, a few drawbacks to PDFs. If the student doesn’t have the right program installed on their home computer, they may not be able to easily save any information they’ve filled in. Instructors also don’t have real time visibility into changes being made, they have limited interactivity which hinders engagement, and you often need multiple programs to design PDFs. Digital alternatives like Wobo let users access and interact with your course documents, picking up where they left off if they’re learning at their own pace, then allowing them to download the finished documents as a PDF to refer to later on.&nbsp; &nbsp;Giving your learners interactive workbooks like Wobo gives them the tools they need to internalize new information while keeping a document to refer to later on in their learning journey.<h3>How do I make a PDF course?</h3>You can use any number of tools to create an online course PDF. Some tools like Canva provide templates for different types of course materials that you can download as PDFs. You can also use more complex Adobe tools if you’re familiar with them, like InDesign. PowerPoint and Word also export to PDF.&nbsp; &nbsp;However you decide to create your online course documents, it’s important to remember what happens next–your learners need to be able to easily use these documents. PDF fans and the IT crowd will tell you they’re generally universally usable, but some student experiences say otherwise. &nbsp;Not every person will have access to the required software to fill in PDFs, meaning some will need to print it out at home (which might mean you’re losing out on younger demographics) or just disregard the document completely. It’s worth it to explore interactive options that allow learners to access and interact with the documents online, then download the materials as PDFs later. <a href="https://workbook.woboapp.com/creator-signup">Custom online course content is just a click away.&nbsp;Try Wobo for free today.</a><h3>How do you create content for an online course?</h3>Once you’ve finished your course outline, it’s time to create content for your online course. This is where you give students the information in different formats and give them the space to practice applying their new skills and information. There are different types of learning content&nbsp; that you can create to stimulate and engage your students.<h3>Checklists at the end of each module</h3>Checklists are a quick win when it comes to engaging course content. They reinforce what students have just learned, and clearly instruct them what to do next.&nbsp;<h3>Workbooks</h3>Workbooks are one of the most powerful tools you can put in your learners’ toolboxes. Workbooks provide an interactive way for students to interact with course material both in and out of class. When they’re interactive and engaging, they help reinforce concepts covered in class and can help with problem areas that may need extra attention.&nbsp; &nbsp;Having a handy resource students can turn to and use for extra practice problems, assessments, additional resources, and space for reflection empowers students who learn in different ways to really sink their teeth into the material.&nbsp; &nbsp;Make sure to create workbooks built like your lesson plans. Best practice is to use smaller modules aligned with the lessons with different input types like checklists, fill-in-the-blank exercises, open-ended questions, and other activities to keep learners engaged and make sure it’s manageable.<h3>Lesson summaries</h3>At the end of each module or unit, it’s helpful to summarize the information using bullet points that’s been covered, and provide space for students to demonstrate their understanding of the core concepts. These can be included in your digital workbooks to keep things organized and easily accessed.<h3>Video lesson transcripts</h3>Every video in your course should not only be captioned for accessibility purposes, you should also provide text transcripts. This not only allows students to review the information in a searchable format, but a PDF transcript can also be offered to students with accessibility requirements.&nbsp;<h3>Online course PDF checklist</h3>No matter where or how you create your course materials, there are a few key elements and best practices that you’ll need to keep in mind. Follow this online course PDF checklist to make sure you’re ready to go: &nbsp;<ul><li>Brand all documents with your course logo</li><li>Include course copyright information&nbsp;</li><li>Be consistent with your designs</li><li>Ensure proper formatting of all documents on multiple devices and operating systems</li><li>Make sure lesson titles are clear</li><li>Provide space for students to take personal notes</li><li>Outline any actions or required next steps&nbsp;</li><li>Summary of key concepts covered in each lesson</li><li>Proofread everything at least twice with fresh eyes</li></ul><h3>How do I create an online training course PDF for free?</h3>When you’re first starting out with creating an online course, interoperability and interactivity need to take a back seat to cost concerns. As a free tool to prepare a basic PDF support system and create presentation slides to get your online class launched, Canva is a good starting point.&nbsp; &nbsp;When you’re ready to offer your clients and learners a better course content option that allows for collaboration, interactivity, unparalleled accessibility, and real time updates, try Wobo out for free.&nbsp;<h3>Improve your online courses today</h3>While PDFs can provide a great starting point for many online courses, Wobo’s digital workbooks provide an even better way to support your students through their learning journey. Digital workbooks empower students to interact with the materials without the headaches that can accompany PDFs, allowing them to jump in and pick up where they left off at the last lesson.&nbsp; &nbsp;Wobo also makes it extra easy for new course creators to create an online course with visually appealing quick-start templates and the ability to integrate your workbooks with major learning management software systems and online learning platforms like Thinkific. Interactive digital workbooks are a win-win solution for both you and your students.&nbsp; &nbsp;Level up your online learning.&nbsp;<a href="https://workbook.woboapp.com/creator-signup">Try Wobo for free today.</a> &nbsp;

From checklists to workbooks, learn how to create an online course PDF support system for e-learning. Get started with free templates today.

How to create an online course PDF (+FREE Templates!)

Continuing education is the ultimate workplace win-win. Employees want opportunities to continue their personal and professional development while companies want to build and retain high-functioning teams. This puts training professionals in an exciting position. And yet, the mental image of a corporate training session is often one of a boring meeting with stale coffee.&nbsp; &nbsp;Whether your workshop’s being run virtually or in a boardroom, there’s no need for it to be boring. In fact, it&nbsp;needs to&nbsp;not be boring.&nbsp; &nbsp;This article will explain how to make training more engaging and answer common questions like:<ul><li>Why should training be engaging?</li><li>How do you create engaging training content?</li><li>How do you offer engaging training? &nbsp;</li></ul><h3>Why should training be engaging?</h3>If it’s not engaging, people won’t participate or internalize the learnings. No matter how informative it is, the information will go in one ear and out the other. The relationship between learner engagement and performance is scientific;&nbsp;<a href="https://edpolicy.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/publications/student-engagement-framework.pdf">Stanford&nbsp;</a>research has found that learner engagement is actually a strong indicator of learning performance. Furthermore, highly engaged learners<a href="https://www.talentlms.com/ebook/learner-engagement/importance-learner-engagement-performance"> usually become deeply engaged employees</a>.&nbsp; &nbsp;As a trainer, much of your work is measured through attendee feedback. Getting great scores can lead to more workshops and training sessions. Every piece of your program presents an opportunity to create a memorable learning experience that will help build your business.&nbsp;<h3>How do you create engaging training content?</h3>The first step to engaging training starts well before the session itself. Relying on shoddy Word docs or boring PDFs simply won’t do, especially as we continue to see the transition to virtual learning. Crafting thoughtful training materials using interactive digital workbooks will not only keep your attendees from checking out, it’ll help you structure your sessions.&nbsp;<h3>1. Customize content to your audience</h3>When it comes to corporate training, whether it’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.tidalequality.com/">Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) training</a>, cognitive bias workshops, or corporate sales training, no two attendees are identical.&nbsp; &nbsp;For example, when running a DEI workshop, it’d be important to remember that managers have different responsibilities when it comes to creating a safe and equitable workplace, and that should be reflected in the training materials they receive.&nbsp; &nbsp;Another way to easily personalize your content is to keep it contextual. Consider including case studies and examples from within the company or industry. Wobo’s digital workbooks make it easy to link to case studies or include images and infographics that are specific to your client’s team or industry.<h3>2. Make sure your content flows logically</h3>When preparing your learning materials, make sure it flows. It may seem easier to do an information dump, but what’s easy for you to type is almost certainly not the best way for people to learn.&nbsp; &nbsp;Start by clearly defining the learning objectives, then use those points to guide the framework. Clear cover pages in Wobo digital workbooks let you set session-specific goals and set the tone.&nbsp;<img src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Libra_cc7cb0fb08.png"> &nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;<img src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Level_Up_c5780ab152.png"> &nbsp;<h3>3. Create visually appealing material</h3>There’s no excuse for bland documents or pesky PDFs. Especially not if you want your content to stick. Your topic isn’t boring, so why should your materials be?&nbsp; &nbsp;Your learning materials are a great opportunity to create an experience around your own brand, too. Using Wobo’s extensive and customizable templates, you can easily create and distribute visually appealing, branded workbooks that will elevate your learners’ interest and expectations. &nbsp;<a href="https://wobo.app/#templates">Bring your training brand to life. Check out our templates today.</a><h3>4. Engage through empowering your learners</h3>As you bid adieu to your boring PDFs, consider an online workbook that empowers your learners. Instead, use a tool that engages and encourages. &nbsp;With a digital workbook tool like Wobo, you can play with layouts, interactions and the type of content you make available to your learners, like radio buttons, sliders, infographics, and fillable text areas. Wobo also helps you make the information easy to revisit to continue the learning. Unlike survey tools, submissions, and convoluted email threads, Wobo allows learners to pick up where they left off, revisiting material on demand and exploring supplemental resources, keeping the learning party going long after the course has ended. Having visibility into your learner’s work also helps you provide better feedback and support to your learners.<h3>5. Incorporate interactivity</h3>‘Interactive’ does not mean interrogative. This is not a call to add more questions. Long form responses absolutely have their place, but that doesn’t mean they should dominate your workbook.&nbsp; &nbsp;Mixing up response types helps reduce the amount of work a learner has to do to respond to a question. Instead of static text blocks, leverage online workbook interaction features like ranking questions, checkboxes, sliders, drop down lists and more to allow for quick interactions and pulse checks. It’s also important to mix things up with video and responses. This gives learners the opportunity to answer questions while the content is fresh in their mind. With Wobo you can break up the workbook and embed it into different parts of your course while still allowing one clean and simple download at the end of training.&nbsp;<h3>6. The KISS rule applies</h3>Keep it simple, silly.. When text gets too long it can be a blur for learners, especially if they’re expected to digest it in long training sessions. There’s a reason TED talks are limited to 18 minutes; it’s to keep it concise while delving into their topic.&nbsp; &nbsp;Keep your writing short and sweet, and try to stick to short sections followed by quick exercises or reflection questions. Separate your information by nice to know and need to know. Include only the content that is most relevant and integral to achieving those north star learning objectives, then link out to the nice to know information with your supplemental resources. &nbsp;If this is your first course and you don’t have student feedback to work from yet, try this exercise: if a given exercise will take longer than 18 minutes, break it up into smaller lessons. With Wobo, you can group exercises into modules which can be embedded throughout a course to keep it bite-sized.<h3>How do you offer engaging training?</h3>Now that you’re prepared with engaging course materials, how do you actually run an engaging training session?&nbsp;<h3>7. Kick employee training off with an icebreaker&nbsp;</h3>Icebreakers are a great way to relieve tension and set the tone for the session. This can be especially helpful if your topic is relatively heavy or simply uncharted territory for your learners.&nbsp; &nbsp;Icebreakers for in-person sessions might include something as simple as sharing a fun fact or asking people to stand up if they match a certain cue. Online sessions can make use of the different features in their video conferencing tool like ‘raise hand’ or emoji reactions.&nbsp;<h3>8. Establish a safe space&nbsp;</h3>Depending on the type of workshop or training session you’re running, attendees may get more out of the session or engage with the learning in a deeper way if they open up and share about themselves. In a DEI workshop for example, you may want to encourage employees to get vulnerable. That means you need to create a safe space and assure them that things will remain private, both in their self-reflection and conversations. Wobo workbooks are a great option for encouraging honesty and reflection as they ensure privacy between the learner and the facilitator.&nbsp;<h3>9. Make it matter</h3>In the immortal words of Simon Sinek, ‘start with why.’ Why is this training session happening and why does it matter? Finding meaning in new information helps learners not only connect with the content, but it also helps them grasp the knowledge more intuitively. And when you’re teaching something as impactful as DEI, safety and culture orientation, or providing coaching services, it’s vital that your learners feel connected to the content.<h3>10 Don’t make it feel like a test</h3>When they’re engaging in professional development initiatives, nobody wants to feel like they’ve been transported back to high school. This is especially true for adult learners in a professional setting.&nbsp; &nbsp;Move beyond reductive ‘right or wrong’ quizzes and focus on asking open ended questions that dig deeper into the learning material and help your learners apply the concepts to real life scenarios.&nbsp;<h3>11. Encourage attendee dialogue and self reflection</h3>According to&nbsp;<a href="https://hbr.org/2016/10/why-leadership-training-fails-and-what-to-do-about-it">research</a>, a huge barrier to training engagement is the lack of social interaction and honest conversation about the usefulness of course materials. Group feedback and discussion conversation is stimulating and can drive home much of the material.&nbsp; &nbsp;Incorporate discussions and check-ins at the end of each training module. Ask attendees to summarize the knowledge or the activity they just covered in their own words. In addition to keeping everyone engaged and in the moment, reflection questions incorporated throughout the workbook will also help make sure that the information is being understood.<h3>Kickstart your corporate training sessions</h3>Engaging courses and training sessions start with engaging course materials.&nbsp;<a href="https://wobo.app/#templates">Explore our templates&nbsp;</a>and see how Wobo’s digital workbooks can take your learning and development initiatives from&nbsp;ennui&nbsp;to engaging. &nbsp;<a href="https://workbook.woboapp.com/creator-signup">Get started with a free trial today.</a> &nbsp;

Run a training session that matters. Discover the latest techniques and technologies to help you make your next corporate training session more engaging.

Engaging training: 11 tips to energize your audience

Businesses and course creators have long used fillable PDFs to collect input and responses from students, staff, customers, and other stakeholders. However, creating a fillable PDF can often be cumbersome, requiring multiple software programs, and big learning curves. &nbsp;In this article, we’ll look at how to create a fillable PDF for free and share an alternative, more feature-rich option to collect or record information using the Wobo online workbook creator software. We will discuss the following:<ul><li>What are fillable PDFs?</li><li>Who uses fillable PDFs?</li><li>Is there a free way to make a PDF fillable?</li><li>Alternative to fillable PDF forms: Wobo</li><li>Creating your first (or next) interactive workbook</li></ul><h3>What are fillable PDFs?</h3>An interactive or fillable PDF form allows users to digitally add written content to a PDF file and save or send it to another person. It’s suitable for adding fillable text fields or collecting digital signatures, but other input options or rich media are limited or unavailable. &nbsp;A PDF form can be sent via email, uploaded to a website, or distributed through online learning platforms. Using a PDF form creator, anyone can create customized PDF forms for distribution and data collection.&nbsp; &nbsp;Learn more about interactive PDFs.&nbsp;<h3>Pros and cons of fillable PDFs</h3>Creating a PDF form has long been the “traditional” way to record responses from others without requiring internet access. Yet, today, they are not the only way to collect data from staff, customers, or students. Here are the pros and cons of using fillable PDFs: &nbsp;<figure class="table" style="width:468pt;"><table><tbody><tr><td style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:5pt;vertical-align:top;">PROs of fillable PDFs<ul><li>Protects the design of the document from tampering</li><li>Allows others to input text content</li><li>Can collect digital signatures</li><li>Allows for text fields, drop down list, radio buttons, and date input field types</li></ul></td><td style="border:1pt solid #000000;padding:5pt;vertical-align:top;">CONs of fillable PDFs<ul><li>Requires software to view/edit</li><li>PDFs are static. You can’t see updates in real time</li><li>Usually no automatic saving of user-inputs</li><li>Limited availability to add rich media like videos and audio files.&nbsp;</li><li>Requires design knowledge to design the doc</li></ul></td></tr></tbody></table></figure>&nbsp;A powerful alternative to a PDF file is an interactive&nbsp;<a href="https://woboapp.com/">workbook created by Wobo</a>. With a Wobo interactive workbook. You can update the content anytime and push updates to students immediately. It also embeds in many popular Learning Management Systems (LMS) for students to view online. With Wobo workbooks, student work in the book is automatically saved and can be exported to a consolidated PDF file for future reference.<h3>Who uses fillable PDFs?&nbsp;</h3>Fillable PDFs are great for all types of businesses and uses. If you have people who need to fill in a form, you can convert paper documents to digital, fillable forms using a PDF editor.&nbsp;&nbsp;Here are some examples of fillable PDF forms:<ul><li>Employment forms</li><li>New client/customer intake forms</li><li>Contracts</li><li>Weekly/Monthly team member reports</li><li>Surveys and feedback collection</li><li>Online course worksheets</li></ul><h3>Is there a free way to make a PDF fillable?&nbsp;</h3>Yes, there are several ways to make fillable PDFs, although they often requires multiple software programs. Most software requires you to make the existing PDF document in another program (like Microsoft Word, Adobe InDesign, or Canva), then to create a fillable PDF document, you upload it to a second program.To create fillable forms, you need a PDF editor (like Adobe Acrobat) with the ability to add form fields to an existing PDF document.&nbsp;<h3>How do I create a fillable PDF without Adobe?&nbsp;</h3><a href="https://www.adobe.com/acrobat/resources/how-to-create-fillable-pdf.html">Adobe Acrobat</a> is a popular fillable PDF creator with a big learning curve. You open your existing PDF in Adobe Acrobat and add your form files. A helpful feature is the ability to accept online signatures and “lock” the PDF form to editing after a signature has been added.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;However, there are many other free and paid online tools to help you create fillable form fields in a PDF file. These tools include:&nbsp;<ul><li><a href="https://www.jotform.com/fillable-pdf-form-creator/">Jotform</a>: With their online form software, you can create a fillable PDF form that users can use regardless of device or internet access. They allow you to make a form from scratch or upload your existing PDF and add the fillable form fields.&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://www.sejda.com/pdf-forms">Sejda</a>: With Seja, you upload your existing PDF and easily drag-and-drop form fields where you need them. They offer free (limited features) and paid access to their fillable PDF form maker.&nbsp;</li><li><a href="https://www.docfly.com/">DocFly</a>: Like the other PDF form creator software, you upload your PDF file to their online interface and add fillable form fields to the file. Their free version allows for up to 3 document exports per month before paying for a subscription.&nbsp;</li></ul> &nbsp;Read more about creating interactive PDF files.<h3>Alternative to fillable PDF forms: Wobo</h3>PDF forms are suitable for basic data collection needs, but if you want more powerful features and interactive, rich media, we suggest creating a digital workbook with Wobo. Here’s how to create your first interactive workbook: &nbsp;<ol><li>Log on to your&nbsp;<a href="https://workbook.woboapp.com/creator-signup">Wobo account</a>.&nbsp;</li><li>Click on the blue “New workbook” button in the top right corner.</li><li>Browse the optimized, pre-designed templates, or click “Build your own” to start from scratch</li><li>When prompted, give your workbook a name.&nbsp;</li><li>Click on the “Global Styles” button to set your brand logo, colors, fonts, and styles to apply to the whole document</li><li>Click on the “Modules” button to add sections to your workbook.&nbsp;</li><li>Edit content by clicking on it on the page or navigating through the left-side toolbar.&nbsp;</li><li>When you want to add a new section on the page, click “Add Section” and choose the content type and options you want.&nbsp;</li><li>Follow the prompts and options to customize your workbook.&nbsp;</li></ol> &nbsp;Don’t forget that changes are automatically saved as you work. You can preview your book, as students will see it, by clicking on the “Preview” button. Another helpful feature is that you can preview it as it appears on a browser and mobile.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;Ready to publish your changes and have them updated for all students simultaneously? Click on the “Publish” button near the top right corner. It will turn blue when you have unpublished edits and appear grayed out when there are no edits to publish.&nbsp;<h3>Creating your first (or next) interactive workbook</h3>Wobo is the best interactive digital workbook creator for online learning. It’s designed to help students reflect, react, and retain more information than fillable PDF student workbooks.&nbsp; &nbsp;Wobo Interactive workbook creator helps<ul><li>educators launch faster&nbsp;with our professionally designed, fully customizable templates and easy-to-use interface.</li><li>educators create accessible workbooks to include learners with unique visual or auditory learning needs.&nbsp;</li><li>educators update content on-the-fly with the ability to push workbook updates to students in real time.</li><li>educators protect their IP&nbsp;by adding watermarks, disabling copying, and more.</li><li>students download workbooks to PDF files to save coursework for offline reference.</li><li>students save work-in-progress automatically within the workbook.</li><li>students learn better&nbsp;through interactive elements within the workbook, including videos, audio files, and fillable form fields.&nbsp;</li></ul> &nbsp;Wobo is a much more robust option than using restrictive PDF documents and static form fields. With Wobo, you can add increased interactivity and powerful features for your student workbooks.&nbsp; You can try Wobo online workbook creator for free today and see how easy our workbook designer is.&nbsp;<a href="https://workbook.woboapp.com/creator-signup">Start your free trial today</a>.&nbsp; &nbsp;

Are you using fillable PDFs for your online course? If not, here’s how to create them, including a way to create more feature-rich digital workbooks instead. 

How to create a fillable PDF form for free

Want to boost student engagement? Elevate your course material with a PDF or interactive online workbook.  Here’s how to create one to enhance your learners’ experience.    


How to create an interactive PDF: A simple guide

Online classes don’t have to be one-sided. Here are 10 ways to make online classes more interactive so you can enrich your students’ learning experience. 

10 ways to make online classes more interactive

Whether it’s in the realm of career coaching or life coaching, coaches play a powerful role in their clients’ lives. As a coach, you’re in a unique position to help your clients achieve their most ambitious professional and personal goals. That’s why it’s so important for you to be equipped with the right coaching tools to help you thoughtfully plan out your coaching sessions. &nbsp;Benjamin Franklin had it right when he said that failing to prepare is preparing to fail, and a little bit of preparation can go a long way in making sure you and your clients are on the same page. That’s why we’ve prepared this digital coaching template to make it easier than ever to map out sessions, objectives, and outcomes without the headache of traditional PDFs.This article will explain:<ul><li>How to create a coaching plan</li><li>How to use the coaching plan template</li><li>How to structure a coaching session</li><li>What are the key elements of coaching</li><li>How to kick off your coaching session</li><li>What makes a good coaching session</li></ul>&nbsp;<a href="https://wobo.app/#templates"><img class="image_resized" style="width:46.03%;" src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Jewel_1fc3c3d6e6.png"></a> &nbsp;&nbsp;<img class="image_resized" style="width:45.48%;" src="https://wobo-website-cms.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Minimal_7c257e04c4.png"> &nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>How to create a coaching plan</h3>Coaching plans are the foundation of your relationship with your client—whether you’re a life coach, personal or professional development coach, or leadership and business coach. All of the work you do together must be built on a solid foundation with an end goal in mind in order to be meaningful and productive.&nbsp; &nbsp;You wouldn’t start building a dream house without pouring a solid foundation first, so why would you start working towards your clients’ dreams without an action plan? But it doesn’t need to be as labor-intensive as building a house. It’s just a matter of having the right coaching tools.<h3>What is a coaching plan?</h3>Your coaching plan is a framework for your client, giving you space to discuss and decide on goals together. It’s your way of saying ‘here’s what I can help you achieve, how I’ll help you do it, and the work you’ll have to do on your own to get to the finish line.’ They’re just as important for professional development or leadership coaching as they are for life coaching and personal growth. &nbsp;Coaching plans encourage you to think about each new client’s journey, and which techniques you’re going to use to support them along the way. It also offers space for you to communicate with your client about their thoughts on how you can best help them. Beyond establishing goals and expectations, they also help you keep track of client progress during their sessions and across the span of your time together.&nbsp;<h3>What needs to be in your coaching plan</h3>You’ll likely have different preferences about how your plans are organized or expressed, but most coaching plans share five common elements:<h3>SMART goals</h3>Goals are the cornerstone of a coaching practice. This is where you learn what your clients want in their lives and careers, and how you can do your part to help unleash their potential. Goals are as unique as the people who dream them up, but within a coaching program, they must follow the SMART structure:&nbsp;<ul><li>Specific&nbsp;- Hone in on the details</li><li>Measurable&nbsp;- How will you know if this goal has been achieved?</li><li>Achievable&nbsp;- Challenging goals are great, but they still need to be something you can realistically accomplish.</li><li>Relevant&nbsp;- Think about the big picture. Why are you setting the goal that you’re setting?</li><li>Time-bound -&nbsp;Deadlines make a difference.&nbsp;</li></ul><h3>Session frequency</h3>Your coaching plan should outline how many sessions you’ll have and how often you’ll meet for the duration of your relationship. Beyond setting parameters and avoiding confusion with your client, this will also help you set realistic goals and timelines together.<h3>Session objectives</h3>Once you’ve agreed upon the desired big picture outcome of your coaching engagement, you should set incremental objectives for each individual session.<h3>Client responsibilities</h3>Coaching isn’t a solo performance. It’s a duet that depends on your client’s voice as much as yours. Much of the meaningful progress is made in the moments when you’re not present in their day-to-day life.&nbsp; &nbsp;Your coaching plan should cover the client’s responsibilities for any work that you expect them to do between your sessions. Use your individual session goals in section two to assign homework. Give your client a clear breakdown of what they need to do prior between the sessions in order to be successful.<h3>Progress tracking</h3>Are there really any wins if we can’t identify and celebrate them? That’s why your coaching plan should include a way to track the progress being made. Including a progress tracker to specifically monitor client’s progress in terms of goals set for each individual session and the bigger goals helps to maintain motivation, flag momentum concerns, and celebrate the milestones along the journey.<h3>How to use the coaching plan template</h3>Our coaching template is designed to provide enough structure to successfully guide your sessions while also being flexible enough to accommodate your unique coaching practice and your client’s goals. It’s an interactive tool built with continuity in mind, letting you pick up where you left off after the last session, which is key to long-term coaching engagements. It’s more intuitive than a fillable PDF and allows more visibility into your client’s goals and learnings.&nbsp; &nbsp;The first section is designed to help you outline your coaching plan. What do you and your client hope to accomplish over the course of your time together? How are you going to help them achieve their goals?&nbsp; &nbsp;The second section is a template that you can use to outline all of your individual sessions with your client. Fill in the blanks with your target objectives, commitments, and meeting notes, and track your progress from session to session. &nbsp;As you work together using this template in a Wobo digital workbook, you can see your client’s updates in real time, meaning no more emails back and forth of dated documents. When you finish the coaching engagement, your client can then download the workbook PDF in full to keep and reflect on. &nbsp;Supercharge your coaching today. Take our&nbsp;<a href="https://workbook.woboapp.com/demo?template=levelup">Business Leadership template</a> for a spin to get started.<h3>How do you structure a coaching session?</h3>Establishing a defined coaching session structure will not only help keep you on track, it also helps your clients feel comfortable. A solid framework will help your clients find their flow because they’ll know what to expect.&nbsp; &nbsp;More pragmatically, following a framework for your coaching sessions means you’ll never miss an important breakthrough opportunity. Frameworks remind you of the need-to-ask questions while also making you and your service consistent, reliable, and professional. &nbsp;Don’t worry–session planning isn’t about sucking the spontaneity out of your coaching. It’s about mapping out the non-negotiable elements. There’s plenty of space to tweak your template to fit the needs of your practice and your individual clients.<h3>What are the key elements of coaching?</h3>There are five key elements to a productive coaching session. Your session should follow a logical flow that starts with a warm up&nbsp;that leads into&nbsp;goal setting. Then you get into the meat of your&nbsp;core coaching conversation before&nbsp;defining commitments and next steps on the client’s side, and a moment for&nbsp;reflection.&nbsp;&nbsp; &nbsp;How these elements play out in your sessions will depend on the subject area of your coaching practice, your coaching style, and what the client is trying to achieve, but this generic framework is a great starting point for all life and business coaching.&nbsp;<h4>1. The warm up</h4>This is how you set the tone and create a safe space for your client to open up to you.&nbsp;<h3>How to kick off your coaching session</h3>Just because you’re easing into the session, doesn’t mean there isn’t a way to start the work. There are two open ended questions that many coaches rely on to get the ball rolling. &nbsp;“What’s on your mind?”This seemingly innocuous question will get your client to highlight the purpose of the coaching session, whether they’re fully switched on to that or not.&nbsp; &nbsp;“And what else?”This keeps the conversation going and will help you move towards the nut of the conversation. It will help you uncover deeper insight while buying time when you’re discussing complex issues.<h4>2. Goal setting</h4>Your warm up should have indicated some areas to work on during the session. Set goals for your time together and make sure that you’re both aligned on the issue that requires work, and what the desired outcome is.<h4>3. Coaching</h4>It’s game time! This is where you leverage your techniques and strategies to help your client get to the ‘aha!’ moment. Depending on your coaching style, this might be where you incorporate anecdotes, examples, role playing, roadmaps, or other resources into the session.<h4>4. Defining commitments</h4>The work doesn’t stop when your meeting ends. Identify the action items your client will commit to taking to help change their habits or work toward their desired goals.&nbsp;<h4>5. Reflection</h4>It’s important to keep the session success vibes going beyond your time together. Once all the tough stuff is done, reflect on the breakthroughs you achieved together. Summarize the wins to reinforce the learnings and maintain the forward momentum.&nbsp; &nbsp;Wobo is built with reflection and engagement in mind. Leverage Wobo’s advanced functionality to ask open ended questions for the client to add their reflections and learnings into their digital workbook. And because coaching is about continuous learning, Wobo has the unbeatable ability to pick up where you’ve left off to keep the reflection party going over long periods of time. &nbsp;<h4>What makes a good coaching session?</h4>Defining success is just as important for you as a coach as it is for your client. Not unlike during your coaching interactions, this will come down to how you answer some big questions.&nbsp; &nbsp;Are your clients learning or moving towards achieving their goals? Do they leave the sessions feeling motivated? Are you equipping them with the tools they need to move forward? Do you have the coaching tools in place to facilitate and track the next stage of their growth?<h3>Final thoughts</h3>Now that you have the coaching templates to set your coaching practice up for success, you can use your whole crayon box to color in the lines with personalization and your own signature style. <a href="https://workbook.woboapp.com/creator-signup">Start your free trial</a> today with Wobo and take your coaching practice to the next level.

Make your coaching sessions matter. Use our interactive and intuitive coaching templates to help run effective sessions and support your clients.

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