My Current Process for Designing Workshops for Adult Learners
I’m working part-time at my local library and I love it! I am a library assistant on the Adult Services Reference team, and I organize our free tech classes. I also teach some of these classes along with library colleagues and a few outside presenters. We offer 1–2 hour hands-on workshops as well as Tech Talk lectures and Appy Hour presentations on various apps.
At the library, we plan for our next programming cycle far in advance. For example, our content for our January — March 2025 newsletter is due September 5th and then a whole departmental process begins to edit and refine our offerings. I’ve based our tech class offerings on feedback from patrons and from what classes have proven popular in the past. I also am relying on my own observations working with patrons. For example, we work with many iPhone users and we often help patrons with using them during our regular drop-in help hours called Tech Tuesday. Thus, I’ve added a “Getting to Know Your iPhone” class to our repertoire. Last night, I taught a class on “Managing Your Digital Photos” as that’s also another frequent topic that patrons need support on.
Typically, I write a short description and outline for each class. Then, I put it into ChatGPT and ask ChatGPT to create a more detailed outline on the topic. Then, I take this outline and put it…
