Inside Higher Ed has a post by Matt Reed “Workshops Don’t Work” that treads the familiar territory of low faculty turnout for workshops. However, is it that workshops do not work or is there a gap between what librarians and instructional tech coordinators think faculty want or should know, and what faculty really want?

I’ll get back to Reed’s post in a moment, but for now I’m curious to hear how you plan your workshops? Do you conduct surveys? Speak to faculty members with whom you have a close relationship? Plan workshops around new or changing technology on your campus? Whatever your process, please share it. Especially as summer is the time when most of us are planning next year’s offerings.

To get back to Reed’s post though, he talks about finding an early adopter and letting that person spread the message virally, or in pre-Internet speak, by word of mouth. But, does it take more than that? Is word of mouth good enough or could one do more?

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