
The coronavirus pandemic has brought a temporary halt to face-to-face training programmes during lockdown - but prompted experiments with different types of virtual learning including webinars and e-Workshops.
Most people will have heard of webinars but may not know how they differ from e- Workshops - a more personal and friendly experience.
Here's an easy guide to spell out the differences and introduce you to the pros and cons of e-Workshops.
What is an e-Workshop and how does it compare to a webinar? Webinars are typically short, lecture-type sessions of up to 90 minutes which can be attended by a large number of participants. They are normally limited to text-based interaction or polls.
An e-Workshop is a virtual classroom, limited to eight to ten participants and fully interactive. All participants have their audio and cameras on all the time and can ask questions and participate at any time. The e-Workshop can last a full day - with breaks - allowing participants to do exercises individually or in virtual groups.
How does an e-Workshop compare to a face-to-face workshop? Like a face-to-face session, the trainer and participants in an e-Workshop can interact in real-time. The trainer can present information, engage the participants in a discussion, assign exercises, and let participants share their screens and present work for group feedback.
The Thomson Foundation has used the break-out room feature of the video collaboration tool, Zoom, to split workshops into group discussions and exercises. If you are using Zoom, opt for a Zoom meeting rather than a webinar format to allow you to use the break-out rooms feature.
The e-Workshop can be used to teach technically complex subjects like mobile journalism (mojo), with Thomson Foundation mojo trainer Glen Mulcahy successfully running hands-on e-Workshops three weeks in a row at the Al Jazeera Media Institute.
Pros and cons of e-Workshops
Pros The advantages of being virtual:
Participants dont have to be in the same place.
No travel costs, training venue or catering required.
Time-efficient, with no travel time to a venue.
A more personal experience:
Everyone is visible and feels close up
Participants say they feel closer to the trainer than in a face-to-face environment.
The digital dividend:
The e-Workshop can be recorded and shared.
Assignments and participation are measurable.
It's democratic: the trainer can make sure everyone gets a chance to contribute, not just dominant personalities.
Cons The technical challenges:
Reasonable internet bandwidth is needed to take part.
Participants from different countries can cause issues like time delay (latency) - disrupting conversations.
Video playback during screen share is sometimes jumpy.
Audio is optimised for speech so natural sound almost vanishes.
The human factor:
Geographic spread means different time zones. Thoughtful scheduling is required to accommodate a sociable time for all participants.
Less easy for the trainer to read body language.
A variety of communication options makes it harder for the trainer to be across all the messages quickly.
Tips for a successful e-workshop A protocol for managing conversations: Set the rules of engagement at the start of the course.
Participants should be told how they should communicate with the trainer.
Let the group know whose turn it is to speak by calling out their names.
The trainer should check in regularly with the participants to ensure they remain engaged.
A second screen: Participants' smartphones should be used as a second screen, if possible, for easier access to video.
So, trainers should make any videos available for viewing online, rather than using, for example, Zoom screen sharing.
In the case of Glen's mobile journalism courses, participants watched example videos and each other's work on their mobiles rather than screenshare
Make it interactive: Ensure everyone gets a chance to introduce themselves at the beginning and to share what they want to get out of the course.
Use ice-breakers , make it engaging.
Be natural. This is more TV than theatre.
Include practical exercises and group feedback.
Trainers should use a blank document or PowerPoint as their white board or flipchart.
Outside the e-Workshop: If the course is spread out over days or even weeks, everyone should keep connected together through a WhatsApp group or equivalent.
Trainers should know their way round the platform they're using - or have adequate tech support - to avoid wasting time solving tech problems during the e-Workshop.
Necessity is the mother of invention, as the saying goes, and has accelerated the use - and types - of virtual learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. As we get better at it, we assume the e-Workshop will continue to be an attractive option for international courses and be used more regularly than we would have once imagined.
Hosam El Nagar Director of Innovation and Learning
About: Hosam is responsible for new products and services and is leading the foundation's drive into e-learning. He also manages key partnerships, primarily in the Middle East.
We get around. Explore our project map
More from Thomson
10/07/2025
The current holder of the prestigious Thomson Foundation Young Journalist of the Year Award has been forced to stop reporting over fears for her safety in Afgha...
08/07/2025
In an era where digital threats to journalists are becoming increasingly aggressive and widespread, MediaSafe Africa launches as a vital online resource to help...
24/06/2025
Have you got what it takes to be Thomson's Young Journalist of the Year 2025? If youre a journalist aged 30 or under, this is your moment. Entries are now o...
03/06/2025
What does it take to push back against disinformation in a world of fragmented a...
16/05/2025
Across Central and Eastern Europe, journalism is no longer the default source of information. It competes and often loses against a chaotic content stream drive...
16/05/2025
Journalists working in investigative reporting across the Western Balkans and T rkiye are encouraged to enter their published work for the 2025 edition of the E...
12/05/2025
As newsrooms around the world begin to experiment with artificial intelligence, many are asking the same question: how do we move beyond isolated pilots and emb...
09/05/2025
At the Frontline Club in London, a venue long associated with media freedom and ...
01/05/2025
As Tanzania approaches a pivotal election year marked by both promise and concern over the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on media, more than 300 journa...
23/04/2025
In 2024, Thomson's Total Turnout project played a pivotal role in elevating ethical election reporting and strengthening journalist safety in Pakistan.
Wit...
16/04/2025
At a time when Sudanese women journalists face unprecedented challenges, She Speaks Sudan has provided a critical platform for training, mentorship, and collabo...
15/04/2025
As women in Afghanistan are stripped of their rights - banned from education, barred from public life and rendered invisible - a number of women journalists con...
14/04/2025
Rwanda's vulnerability to climate change is underscored by its ranking of 124th out of 182 countries in the Notre Dame Global Adaptation Initiative's in...
19/03/2025
Applications are open for the second cycle of the Validation Booster programme, offering European media outlets, networks, and content creators the opportunity ...
07/03/2025
Increasing restrictions on women and girls in Afghanistan is forcing women journalists take extraordinary risks to their own safety to tell their stories.
The ...
21/01/2025
Two senior war reporters from the BBC and Sky News have joined an outstanding array of experts in a unique series of training courses for journalists covering p...
16/01/2025
We are pleased to announce the appointment of Gary Mundy as Thomsons new Director of Research, Policy and Impact. Gary will join the organisation in March 2025,...
15/01/2025
The buzz around artificial intelligence (AI) in journalism reached a crescendo a...
08/01/2025
A landmark document examining key issues into how the media industry is grappling with the challenges of explaining how its using AI in its publications and bro...
30/12/2024
Leaving Thomson after 21 years, former Managing Director David Quin reflects on a career spent navigating the shifting sands of global media development. From r...
20/12/2024
Podcasting has become one of the most popular ways to tell stories and connect with audiences, but getting started can be intimidating, especially when it comes...
16/12/2024
Thomson's Executive Learning Series wrapped up its 2024 calendar with a landmark event in Prague. The AI in Media masterclass brought together 24 media lead...
13/12/2024
Reporting in secret under the oppressive shadow of Taliban rule in Afghanistan, ...
04/12/2024
Somaiyah Hafeez, one of this year's finalists for Thomson's Young Journalist of the Year Award, had a transformative visit to London. As the only finali...
26/11/2024
A woman journalist from Afghanistan has been named Thomson Foundation's Young Journalist of the Year 2024.
The journalist, who we are not naming for her ow...
13/11/2024
Award-winning journalists from the Western Balkans and T rkiye break new ground with impactful investigations on healthcare, environmental threats, human rights...
05/11/2024
Somaiyah Hafeez, a journalist and writer from Balochistan, Pakistan, stands out for her commitment to telling the stories of overlooked communities in her regio...
05/11/2024
Aisha Farrukh a multimedia journalist from Pakistan focuses on human interest stories and aims to create change through her storytelling. Twenty eight year old ...
05/11/2024
One of the three finalists for the Young Journalist of the Year 2024 is a woman journalist working in secret in Afghanistan because of the restrictions imposed ...
31/10/2024
Three journalists whose stories give a voice to people who are oppressed or marginalised have been chosen as the finalists for the 2024 Young Journalist of the ...
16/10/2024
We are pleased to announce that Federica Varalda has been appointed as Managing Director - Development for the Thomson Group. She will be leading project develo...
23/09/2024
Reporting from a female journalist who is working in secret due to Taliban restr...
30/07/2024
We caught up with Yara El Murr, winner of the Young Journalist Award 2023, to find out how her life has changed since scooping the main prize for her investigat...
23/07/2024
Brussels was the location of our third Thomson Talks with Madhav Chinnappa held on 25 June 2024, focused on the specific subject of AI/News & Regulation. Four k...
03/07/2024
AI's integration into journalism has sparked a mix of enthusiasm and scepticism across Central Europe, according to research led by Thomson Foundation in co...
01/07/2024
This was such a confidence boost and so much motivation to keep pushing forward in my work and public service journalism.
Yara El Murr from Lebanon recollecti...
21/06/2024
A new platform dedicated to helping journalists win audience trust and tackle disinformation has been launched and with it a competition offering newsrooms (fro...
30/05/2024
Navigating Strategy, Ethics, and Innovation in the evolving European media lands...
28/05/2024
This is a summary of the report commissioned by Thomson on AI Disinformation Attacks during Taiwans 2024 Presidential Elections, written by Professor Chen-ling ...
13/05/2024
Journalists from the Western Balkans and T rkiye can now submit their investigative stories published in 2023 for the EU Award for Investigative Journalism 2024...
03/05/2024
An innovative learning tool to help media and civil society better understand ho...
29/04/2024
A groundbreaking initiative offering training and mentoring to 30 women journali...
23/04/2024
Psychology can play an important role in helping us understand what audiences respond to (Dr Jon Roozenbeek, Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab)
For newsroo...
10/04/2024
A regulator, a technologist and a politician walking into a conference room - the beginning of a very geeky joke - or more accurately, the start of the second T...
09/04/2024
This is a summary of the report commissioned by Thomson on AI Disinformation Attacks during Taiwans 2024 Presidential Elections, written by Professor Chen-ling ...
04/04/2024
This fantastic course will help you understand and fight disinformation, an absolutely essential skill to acquire during this global election season. Sign up an...
02/04/2024
Thomson's work in captive, closed and repressive media landscapes has long been about making sure we get the best possible idea of what people really need f...
28/03/2024
Out of an estimated 20,000 journalists in Pakistan, less than one thousand are women according to a recent Gender Disparity Report published by the Internationa...
15/03/2024
To help empower Sudanese journalists living in exile amidst the ongoing conflict in their homeland, Thomson trainers have been delivering workshops designed to ...
01/03/2024
MoJo is something I want to pursue further and include, not as a last thought, but as a one of the components of my daily work. Michelle Banda Vodacom Young Jou...