Summary and Schedule
Welcome to The Carpentries course on Running Effective Online Meetings.
This is a professional development course teaching practical skills for running engaging, productive, and inclusive virtual meetings. This curriculum was designed to be taught over three hours. The target audience is anyone responsible for organising and facilitating online meetings in their workplace or community. It is particularly relevant for:
- Team leads, project coordinators, and committee chairs.
- Community organisers.
- Professionals and volunteers working in distributed or hybrid environments.
No prior experience with facilitation or online platforms is required. The training is applicable across tools (e.g. Zoom, Google Meet, Microsoft Teams) and adaptable to a variety of meeting formats and group sizes.
Learning Objectives
After attending this session, participants will be able to:
- Lead online meetings that are welcoming, efficient, and outcomes-focused.
- Apply strategies to ensure all participants are included.
- Document meetings in ways that support transparency and continuity.
- Cultivate a culture of respect, accountability, and shared ownership in virtual spaces.
| Setup Instructions | Download files required for the lesson | |
| Duration: 00h 00m | 1. Introduction |
What is covered in this course? Who are the instructors? Who is participating? |
| Duration: 00h 16m | 2. Creating an agenda | How do I establish and communicate goals for my meeting? |
| Duration: 00h 46m | 3. Assigning meeting roles | How can I use meeting roles to help my meeting stay on track? |
| Duration: 01h 31m | 4. Facilitation and disruptive behaviours |
How can I handle and reduce disruptions during a meeting? How can I ensure that every meeting participant can contribute effectively? |
| Duration: 02h 31m | 5. Note taking | What information is important to capture during a meeting? |
| Duration: 03h 16m | 6. Making decisions |
TBD :::::::::::::::: |
| Duration: 04h 01m | Finish |
The actual schedule may vary slightly depending on the topics and exercises chosen by the instructor.
Software Setup
No software setup is needed for attending this course. It will run through presentation and group exercises. Attendees will receive videoconferencing connection information for this course upon registration.