The facilitation glossary.

AB 1825

The 2004 California law that first required harassment prevention training for supervisors at larger employers. Later expanded by SB 1343. See the live training mandates guide.

Abusive conduct

A required component of California's harassment prevention training for supervisors and employees under Government Code section 12950.1. Teach it inside the course, not as an add-on.

Accessibility floor

The things on by default in every session: captions, materials sent in advance, five seconds of wait time after a question. Nobody should have to disclose anything to get them.

Accommodation

An adjustment that lets a participant take part on equal terms. Plan for the common ones by default so nobody has to disclose to get them.

Action item

A single commitment with an owner and a date, said out loud before the session ends. Without both, it is a wish.

Active learning

Teaching that has learners doing something with the material, such as solving, discussing or practicing, instead of only listening. The core of any live session worth the time.

Active listening

Giving the speaker your full attention and showing it by paraphrasing what you heard before you respond. The cheapest way to make a quiet participant say more.

Activity ratio

Proportion of session time where participants are doing rather than receiving. Below about a third, expect a recorded module to perform the same.

Adaptive learning

Software that changes what a learner sees based on how they perform. Useful for practice at scale, no substitute for a facilitator reading a room.

ADDIE

A five-step design process: analysis, design, development, implementation, evaluation. The long-standing default for building training, often run as a loop rather than a straight line.

Adult learning theory

The set of ideas that adults learn best when the material is relevant now, builds on their experience and respects their time. Andragogy is the best-known version.

Advance organiser

A short framing given before new material so learners know where it will fit. Doing it costs ninety seconds and raises how much of the session survives the week.

Affinity mapping

Sorting a pile of individual ideas into groups by theme, usually on a virtual whiteboard. Turns twenty sticky notes into three decisions.

After action review

A short, blame-free debrief of what was meant to happen, what did happen, why, and what to do next time. Borrowed from the military and now common in project teams.

Agenda decay

The gap between the agenda you published and the session you actually ran. Some decay is responsive facilitation. Past about a third, you built the wrong agenda.

AI acceptable use policy

A written rule on which AI tools staff may use, with what data and for what purpose. The first document to write before anyone pastes a transcript into a chatbot.

AI agent

Software that takes actions on its own toward a goal, instead of only answering a question. In a session it could book, summarize or speak, which is why someone must be accountable for it.

AI disclosure

Telling participants where AI was used in producing materials or running the session. Increasingly expected and cheap to do.

AI drafts, a human decides

My rule for using AI in training: let it produce first drafts and options, and keep every choice that affects a person with a human. [Urban term]

AI literacy

The knowledge to use AI tools well and critically: what they do, where they fail and what to check. Now a standard topic in upskilling programs.

AI notetaker

Software that records and transcribes a meeting and produces a summary. Changes what a half-formed thought costs to say, whatever the consent rules. See the article on notetakers and participation.

Air time

Share of talking measured across the room rather than felt. Facilitators reliably underestimate their own and overestimate the quiet participant's.

AI use rule

A written statement of where AI may help draft training content, who reviews the output and how its use is disclosed. Write it before the first draft, not after the first mistake.

AI voice participant

An AI that speaks in a live session. Treat it as a second facilitator with no accountability, and settle who may overrule it before it joins. See the article.

AI workplace surveillance

Software that monitors or infers things about employees. Some inferences, such as emotional state from a transcript, are restricted by California law. See the article on AI engagement tracking.

Alignment

Whether the objective, the activity and the assessment are actually measuring the same thing. Most courses fail here quietly.

All-party consent

A rule requiring every participant to agree before a conversation is recorded. California's Penal Code section 632 works this way for confidential communications.

Alt text

A text description of an image for people who cannot see it. Required on anything carrying meaning, and pointless on decoration.

Anchor question

The single question a session is built to answer. If the opening question and the closing question are not related to it, the session has drifted.

Andragogy

The study of how adults learn. Its practical core: adults need to know why, bring experience worth using, and want to apply it now.

Annotation

Participant marking directly on shared content. The lowest-friction participation tool in most platforms and the most underused.

Appreciative inquiry

A change method that starts from what already works and builds on it, instead of starting from the problem. Useful when a group is defensive about a diagnosis.

ARCS model

Keller's motivation model: attention, relevance, confidence and satisfaction. A checklist for why a learner is tuning out.

Asynchronous learning

Learning that does not happen at the same moment for everyone: recorded video, readings, discussion boards. Cheaper to scale, and finished by far fewer people than live work.

Attendance rate

The share of registered people who actually join a live session. Plan for the gap, then close it with reminders and a reason to come.

Attention spend

The idea that a room gives away attention in the opening and cannot get it back. Openings spend attention on purpose rather than requesting it later.

Attestation

A participant's recorded confirmation that they completed and understood the training. Evidence, not learning.

Audit trail

The record proving training happened, who attended and what was covered. The thing regulators actually ask for.

Authoring tool

Software for building e-learning modules, such as slides with quizzes and branching. A tool for packaging content, not for designing a session.

Automation bias

The tendency to trust an automated output over your own judgment. Why a human has to check what the tool produced.

Backchannel

Chat, DMs and side threads running underneath the session. Ignoring it does not make it stop; it makes you the only person not in it.

Backward design

Starting from the outcome, then the evidence, then the activities. The discipline that keeps sessions from becoming content tours.

Behavior change

Measured difference in what people do afterward. Level three of the standard evaluation model and the first level anyone outside training cares about.

Behavior statement

One sentence naming what is different on Monday. The first box of the session plan and the most common thing missing.

Blended learning

A program combining live and self-directed elements deliberately, rather than a live session with homework attached.

Bloom's taxonomy

A hierarchy of cognitive demand from recall up to creation. Useful mostly as a check that your verbs match your ambition.

Bot-free notetaker

A notetaking tool that captures audio on the device instead of joining as a visible guest. It removes the guest, not the recording or the data trail.

Branching scenario

A practice exercise where the learner chooses an action and sees the consequence. Good for rehearsing judgment calls in a safe setting.

Breakout brief

The instruction a small group carries into a breakout room. Written, visible and timed, or the group spends its first two minutes reconstructing it.

Breakout drift

Small groups sliding off the task once the facilitator is not present. Almost always a symptom of a weak breakout brief.

Breakout of three

The working group size for live sessions. Two becomes an interview, five rebuilds the silence you were escaping.

Breakout room

A separate small-group space inside a live online session. Works when the prompt is specific, the time is short and the group knows how it will report back.

Bridge

The sentence that connects what just finished to what starts next. Sessions rarely fail on content and frequently fail on the joins.

Bystander intervention

Training people to notice and safely respond when they see harassment or harmful behavior. Part of how many employers now teach prevention.

Cadence

The rhythm of activity changes across a session. A room can hold roughly twelve to fifteen minutes of one mode before it needs a different one.

Call and response

Prompting for a short, low-cost answer from everyone at once, usually into chat. Cheapest way to test whether a room is still with you.

Camera norm

The stated expectation about cameras. A norm you announce is fair; a norm you imply is a trap.

Camera-off learner

A participant who contributes without being visible. Designed for rather than corrected.

Cancellation policy

The written terms for what happens if a client or participant cancels. State it before booking, in plain words.

Capability framework

The map of skills an organization says it needs. Useful when it drives budget and decorative when it does not.

Captions

Synchronised text of what is being said. Used by far more people than those who need them, which is the argument for making them default.

CART

Communication Access Realtime Translation: a trained person types what is said live so participants can read it. Different from auto-captions and often more accurate.

Certificate and certification

A certificate shows you finished a course. A certification shows you met a standard set by an outside body. Know which one you are selling or buying.

Chat storm

Deliberately asking the whole room to answer in chat at the same moment, so nobody is first and nobody is exposed.

Check-in date

The day, set before the session runs, when you look at whether the behavior changed. Usually thirty days out.

Chunking

Breaking material into pieces small enough to hold in working memory.

Civil Rights Department

The California state agency that enforces the state's anti-discrimination and harassment laws and publishes training guidance. Formerly the Department of Fair Employment and Housing.

Close

Decisions, owners and dates on screen before anybody leaves. Written live, not after.

Closed question

A question that can be answered yes, no or with a single fact. Good for confirming a decision, poor for opening a conversation.

Coaching

A one-to-one relationship focused on helping a person reach their own goals through questions and feedback. Different from mentoring and from training.

Co-facilitator

A second facilitator holding part of the content and part of the room. Different from a co-host, who holds the controls.

Cognitive accessibility

Design choices that reduce unnecessary processing demand: plain language, predictable structure, one idea at a time.

Cognitive load

The total mental demand on a learner at a moment. Three kinds: the material itself, the way it is presented, and the effort of building understanding. Only the second is fully yours to cut.

Cohort

A group that moves through a live program together, small enough that everybody facilitates in front of the group. The retention mechanism most self-paced products lack.

Cohort-based course

A course where one group moves through the material together on a set schedule. The peer accountability is much of why completion runs higher than self-paced work.

Co-host

A second person holding platform controls. Different from a co-facilitator, who holds part of the content.

Cold call

Asking a named person to answer without warning. Useful in a safe room, damaging in an unsafe one.

Cold open

Starting on the substance with no preamble, housekeeping or introductions. Buys attention at the cost of orientation, so it needs the housekeeping later rather than never.

Color contrast

The measured difference between text and its background. A design question with a pass or fail answer, not a taste question.

Community of practice

A group of people who share a role or problem and learn from each other over time. Where informal learning becomes durable.

Compensable training time

Training time that must be paid. In California, required training for hourly employees counts as hours worked. See the article on paid training time.

Competency-based training

Training organized around what a person can demonstrate, not how many hours they sat. Pair it with a way to observe the skill.

Competency model

A defined list of the skills and behaviors a role needs, with levels. Lets a training plan point at specific gaps.

Completion certificate

Proof that a learner finished a course. It is different from a certification, which assesses skill against a standard.

Completion rate

Proportion of enrolled learners who finished. The easiest metric to export and the weakest evidence of anything.

Compliance training

Training an organization is required to run. Distinct from training it chooses to run, and usually designed as though completion were the goal.

Confidential communication

The test that decides whether California's Penal Code section 632 applies to a recording. A small, candid session about a workplace problem is more likely to qualify than a large session with a clear recording notice.

Connection budget

The bandwidth and device reality of the room. Design for the worst connection present, not the average one.

Consent-based decision

A decision rule where the proposal passes unless someone has a reasoned objection, rather than waiting for everyone to say yes. Faster than consensus and safer than a vote.

Consent prompt

The notice a meeting platform shows when a recording starts, asking each participant to agree. In Zoom, declining means leaving the meeting. Use it, and do not rely on it alone.

Constructivism

The idea that people build understanding from experience and reflection rather than receiving it ready-made. The reason a good session has learners do something.

Contingency plan

What you will do if the platform fails, the guest does not arrive or the room goes sideways. Write it before the session, not during it.

Continuing education credit

Credit toward maintaining a professional license or certification. Whether a program counts is decided by the certifying body, not the provider.

Contracting

The explicit agreement at the top of a session about what participation will look like. The most skipped five minutes in facilitation.

Control group

A comparable group that did not receive the training. The difference between a claim and a finding.

Convening

Deciding who needs to be in the room, why, and what they must leave with, before any agenda exists. Most bad sessions were badly convened.

Corrective action

The immediate and appropriate response an employer owes once it knows or should have known of harassment. A manager who sits on a complaint holds that response up.

Corrective conversation

Feedback that requires something to change. One of the three conversations every new manager will face in the first year.

Cost formula

The calculation behind the lowest price you can accept: your time, preparation, tools and overhead. It is the floor beneath value-based pricing.

Curriculum map

The view across a program showing what is taught where and what is assumed already known.

Data minimization

Collecting only the information you need for a stated purpose and keeping it no longer than necessary. A sound default for session recordings and transcripts.

Day rate

A flat price for a full day of a facilitator's time. Set it from your cost formula, not from a competitor's rate card.

Dead air

Silence the facilitator has not chosen. Distinct from wait time, which is silence the facilitator is holding on purpose.

Debrief

The structured conversation after an activity where the learning is actually extracted. An activity without a debrief is an anecdote.

Decision log

A running record of what was decided, by whom and on what date. Ends the argument about what the last meeting actually said.

Decision rule

How the group will decide before it starts discussing: vote, consent, consensus, or the sponsor decides after hearing everyone. Naming it early removes a fight later.

Delegation

Handing over the outcome and not only the task, with a date and a reviewer. The skill new managers practice least.

Deliverable

What a breakout group must produce. Groups told to discuss produce small talk; groups with a deliverable produce work.

Desirable difficulty

Practice that feels harder in the moment but makes the learning last, such as recalling instead of rereading. A reason to resist making every activity easy.

Detractor

A participant actively working against the session. Rarer than facilitators fear, and usually carrying a real grievance nobody has answered.

Digital badge

An online credential that records a specific skill or course, often shareable on a profile. Worth only as much as the assessment behind it.

Disclosure

When a participant reveals something about their own situation, often about conduct. Handled by protecting the person first and the agenda second.

Discovery call

A short first conversation to learn what a client needs and whether you are the right fit. Where scope is shaped before a proposal exists.

Diverge and converge

Two phases of group thinking. Diverge to widen the options with no judging, then converge to narrow them. Mixing the two phases in one conversation is why groups stall.

Dominant voice

The participant absorbing a disproportionate share of air time. Manage the structure, not the person.

Dot voting

Each participant gets a small number of dots to place on the options they favor. A fast way to see where a group's energy is, not a way to decide on its own.

Dual attention

The facilitator's split between running content and reading the room. The thing that makes a co-facilitator worth the cost.

Dual-channel participation

Running voice and chat as equally legitimate ways to contribute, rather than treating chat as overflow.

Early bird pricing

A lower price for people who register before a set date. Rewards decisions and helps fill a cohort.

Emotional intelligence

The ability to notice and manage your own emotions and read others'. A common training topic and, for facilitators, a daily working tool.

Employee resource group

A voluntary, employee-led group built around a shared identity or interest. Often a source of informal mentoring and feedback to HR.

Enabling objective

A sub-skill a learner needs before the terminal objective is reachable.

Energizer

A short, low-stakes activity used to change a room's physical or mental state. Pick one that fits the group's comfort, not the facilitator's.

Evaluation, four levels

Reaction, learning, behavior, results. Most organizations measure the first and report it as the fourth.

Experiential learning

Learning through a cycle of doing, reflecting, generalising and applying.

Facilitation

Making it easier for a group to do its thinking. Distinct from teaching, which transfers content, and from chairing, which manages process.

Facilitation services

Paid help designing and running structured group sessions, from planning and change management to legally required training and facilitator training.

Facilitator certification

A process confirming someone can deliver a given program to standard. The mechanism behind train the trainer.

Facilitator guide

The run document for delivering a session: timings, prompts, transitions and contingencies. Distinct from slides.

Facilitator neutrality

Holding the process without steering the content. Genuine in a decision workshop and dishonest in a training session, where you do have a position.

Facilitator notes

The written guide that lets somebody other than the author run the session. What separates material from a deck.

Facilitator-only recording

A recording of the facilitator's content with practice and discussion left unrecorded. My default for sessions where people rehearse hard conversations. [Urban term]

Facipulation

Manipulation dressed up as facilitation: steering a group to an answer chosen in advance while appearing to ask for its views. The fastest way to lose a room's trust.

Fatigue silence

A room that has stopped because it is spent. Fixed by ending early, not by pushing.

Feedforward

Advice about what to do next time, instead of comment on what went wrong. Easier for most people to hear.

First 90 days

A three-month structure for a new manager: listen and set expectations, build a rhythm of one-on-ones and delegation, then hold the first performance conversation.

First application

The task, date and reviewer a participant names before a program ends. Checked at 30 days to show whether the training transferred. [Urban term]

First six minutes

The window in which a session is won or lost.

First-time manager

Someone in their first year of managing people, usually promoted from the team they now lead. In California, a new supervisor needs two hours of harassment prevention training within six months of promotion.

Fishbone diagram

A cause-and-effect map that sorts the possible reasons for a problem into branches. Use it to widen the diagnosis, then test the likeliest branch.

Fishbowl

A small group discussing while the rest observe, with a mechanism to swap in. Good for modelling a hard conversation.

Fist to five

A quick show of support where participants hold up zero to five fingers. A fist means a block, five means full support. Shows doubt a thumbs-up hides.

Flat fee

One price for the whole engagement regardless of headcount. It suits sessions whose preparation cost does not change with the size of the room.

Flipped classroom

Learners study the material on their own first, and the live session is spent practicing and discussing it. Needs a short, clear pre-assignment to work.

Floor

Who currently has permission to speak. Managing the floor is most of what separates a facilitator from a presenter.

Force field analysis

Listing the forces pushing for a change and the forces pushing against it, then deciding which to strengthen or remove. A structured way to hear the resistance.

Formative assessment

A check during learning used to adjust delivery. Cheap, frequent and mostly informal.

Forming, storming, norming, performing

A stage model of group development. Useful as a reminder that friction in a new group is expected rather than a delivery failure.

Four stages of competence

The path from not knowing what you cannot do, to knowing it, to doing it with effort, to doing it automatically. Explains why new facilitators feel worse before they feel better.

Framing

The few sentences that tell a group what the session is for, what is in and out of scope, and what a good outcome looks like. Done well it replaces most of the control a facilitator would otherwise need.

Gagne's nine events of instruction

A sequence for a lesson, from gaining attention through assessing performance and aiding retention. A planning checklist for a single teaching block.

Gallery view

A screen layout that shows participants in a grid. Useful for reading faces, hard to use when there are too many tiles.

Gallery walk

Participants circulating between posted work and responding to it.

Gamification

Adding game elements such as points, levels or badges to non-game settings. Motivates some learners briefly and annoys others, so test before committing.

Generative AI

AI that produces new text, images, audio or video from a prompt. Fast at drafting, unreliable on facts, and no judge of a room.

Gradient of agreement

A scale from full support to veto that lets people show how much they agree, instead of a yes or no. Reveals the gap between consent and enthusiasm.

Groan zone

The uncomfortable middle of a group decision, after the easy ideas are out and before shared understanding forms. Name it, stay in it and the group usually comes out the other side.

Ground rules

Behavior agreed at the start. Stronger when the room writes them and weaker when the deck does.

Groupthink

Convergence on an answer because dissent feels costly. The direct product of a room with no psychological safety.

Growth mindset

The belief that ability can be developed through effort and feedback. Useful as a framing, less useful as a slogan.

Hallucination

When an AI states something false with complete confidence, such as a made-up source. Always check the facts it gives you.

Handoff

The point where material becomes runnable by somebody else. The goal of every build program here.

Handover

The moment control passes between co-facilitators. Rehearse it or the room will watch two people negotiate in real time.

Harassment prevention training

Training that teaches employees and supervisors what unlawful harassment is and how to stop and report it. California sets who must receive it, how long it must be and how often.

Hard stop

An end time that cannot move. Say it at the start; a room that knows the boundary gives you more inside it.

Hidden agenda

A purpose someone brings to a session that they have not stated. Surface it in contracting or it will surface in the middle of your activity.

Holding the frame

Keeping the session inside its stated purpose when a participant pulls toward a different one.

Hostile work environment

Unwelcome conduct that is severe or pervasive enough to make a workplace intimidating or offensive. A legal category and a common training topic.

Human in the loop

A design where a person reviews or approves AI output before it reaches anyone. The minimum standard for anything carrying legal or personnel consequences.

Hybrid facilitation

Running one session for people in the room and people on screen at the same time, treating both groups as equal. Harder than running either one alone.

Hybrid gap

The distance between the in-person experience and the remote one in the same session. Closed by designing for the screen first.

Hybrid learning

A mix of live, online and self-paced elements in one program. Different from hybrid facilitation, which is one live session split across two locations.

Hybrid tax

The extra facilitation load created when part of the room is in person and part is remote. Real, consistent and routinely unbudgeted.

HyFlex

A format where each learner chooses whether to attend in person, live online or later by recording. Demands a lot of the facilitator and the technology.

Icebreaker

An opening activity meant to help people feel at ease. Choose one that needs no personal disclosure, or it becomes a performance test.

Implicit bias

Associations and assumptions that shape judgment without awareness. Training can build awareness, and structured processes do more to reduce its effect.

Individual development plan

A written plan of the skills a person will build, how and by when. Works when a manager reviews it, not when it sits in a drawer.

In-house training

Training designed and delivered by your own staff. It fits content that is yours and repeats.

In-room proxy

A person physically present whose job is to represent remote participants' contributions. The cheapest fix for the hybrid tax.

Instructional designer

The person who builds the learning, distinct from the person who delivers it. In small organizations they are the same person and the design suffers.

Intake question

The question in the invitation asking what would make the session work for each person. Gets you accommodation information without requiring disclosure.

Interactive questions and answers

The training element in Labor Code section 6401.9 that gives employees a chance to ask a person knowledgeable about the plan. A live session meets it most simply.

Interactive training

The standard California uses for required harassment prevention training. A recording can meet the statute and still teach nobody.

Interactive training requirement

A legal standard in several jurisdictions requiring that mandated training allow questions and responses, which rules out an unattended video.

Interleaving

Mixing related topics during practice instead of finishing one before starting the next. Feels messier and produces better retention.

Internal trainer

An employee trained to design and deliver sessions for their own organization. Pick credible people and observe them before they teach alone.

Intervention

Any deliberate move to change what the room is doing. The lightest intervention that works is the right one.

Jigsaw

Groups each learn one piece, then regroup so every new group contains one expert in each piece.

Job aid

A short reference such as a checklist, card or template that guides a task at the moment it is done. Often a better answer than a course.

Job shadowing

Following an experienced person through their work to learn by watching. Strongest when followed by a debrief.

Just-in-time training

Learning delivered close to when it will be used. Sticks better than training given months ahead.

Keep It Real GPT

An AI assistant I am building on my own material, launching January 1, 2027. [Urban term]

Keyboard navigable

Operable without a mouse. The fastest accessibility check you can run on your own materials.

Kirkpatrick model

The four level evaluation framework in common use. Useful as a ladder, misused as a checklist.

Knowledge check

A short quiz or question inside a lesson to confirm the learner got the point. Cheap feedback for the learner and the designer.

Knowledge, skills and abilities

A way of describing what a role requires: what you know, what you can do and what you are capable of. Common in job analysis and training needs work.

Landing

The last three minutes, where the session is turned into something the participant can act on. Cut content before you cut the landing.

Large language model

The kind of AI behind most chat assistants, trained on large amounts of text to predict and produce language. Fluent, not necessarily correct.

Latency gap

The delay between speaking and being heard. Half a second is enough to make remote participants lose every interruption contest.

Leading indicator

A measure that moves before the outcome does. Useful because the outcome usually arrives after the budget decision.

Learned helplessness

What repeated training on things a person cannot change actually produces.

Learner persona

A short profile of the typical person you are designing for: role, experience, constraints, motivation. Keeps design decisions tied to a real audience.

Learning analytics

The collection and analysis of data about learners and their activity. Useful for spotting drop-off. Choose what you track with care, as some uses cross legal lines.

Learning and development

The organisational function responsible for building capability. Abbreviated L&D.

Learning experience design

Designing learning around the learner's whole experience, from first contact to application on the job. The wider frame around instructional design.

Learning experience platform

A system organising learning content around the learner rather than the catalogue.

Learning in the flow of work

Short, on-demand help delivered at the moment of a task, instead of a separate course. Close to what a job aid or performance support does.

Learning journey

The sequence of touchpoints a learner moves through before, during and after a program. Planning it prevents a one-off event from being mistaken for a program.

Learning management system

The system of record for enrolment, completion and compliance reporting. Built for administration, not for learning.

Learning objective

What the participant will be able to do afterward, stated with an observable verb. If you cannot see it happen, it is not an objective.

Learning pathway

A suggested route through courses or experiences toward a goal or role. Gives a learner a next step.

Learning rate

The share of participants who can show the new skill after a session, as opposed to the share who finished it. It needs a check of performance, not a record of attendance.

Learning record store

A database that collects records of learning activity from many systems, usually using xAPI. Where activity data lives when it leaves the LMS.

Learning styles

The popular idea that people learn best in a preferred mode such as visual or auditory. The evidence that teaching to a style improves learning is weak, so vary the format for everyone.

Lecture budget

The share of a session's runtime you allow for the facilitator talking, set before the agenda is written. Many facilitators cap it at half and spend it in short stretches.

Legal facilitation

Facilitation of a session that must meet a legal standard, such as California harassment prevention training. It is not legal advice.

Liberating Structures

A published menu of small, repeatable group formats that spread participation. Learn a handful well rather than a long list badly.

Lightning round

Fixed very short contributions from everyone in sequence.

Live cohort

A program run in real time with the same group across multiple sessions. Cohort-based courses report 85% to 96% completion against 10% to 20% for self-paced courses on independent course platforms (Ruzuku, State of Online Courses 2026). On Ruzuku's own platform, business and professional cohorts finish at 59.0% against 42.6% for open-access self-paced courses (Ruzuku, How to Price Training Courses).

Live transcript

A running text record produced during the session, distinct from captions in that it persists.

Mandate calendar

The schedule of what training is legally due, for whom and by when. The single document that prevents most compliance failures.

Mandatory training

Training an employer is required by law or policy to provide, so the employer carries the duty to deliver it, document it and keep records. Late delivery or missing records can create exposure even when the content was sound.

Master services agreement

A framework contract that sets the general terms between two parties, so each new project needs only a short statement of work.

Mastery learning

Learners move on only after showing they have mastered the current step. Replaces seat time with demonstrated skill.

Material

Slides, notes, timing and handouts together. A deck alone is not material.

Meeting charter

A one-page agreement on a recurring meeting's purpose, attendees, decisions it owns and how it runs. Fixes meetings that exist out of habit.

Meeting facilitation

Running a working meeting so the group reaches a decision with an owner and a date. The same skill as training facilitation pointed at a different outcome.

Mentoring

A longer relationship where a more experienced person guides someone's development and career. Works best with clear expectations and a time frame.

Merrill's first principles

Five principles for effective instruction: solve real tasks, activate prior knowledge, show, let learners apply, and integrate into practice. A short test for any lesson.

Metacognition

Thinking about your own thinking: noticing what you know, what you do not and how you are learning. A skill a debrief builds.

Microcredential

A small, focused certification covering a narrow skill. Valuable when an employer recognizes it.

Microlearning

Short standalone units built for a single narrow skill. Effective for reinforcement and weak as a primary vehicle for anything relational.

Minimum threshold

How Government Code section 12950.1(e) describes the required harassment training. Employers may and often should do more.

Mixed-experience room

A group spanning wide differences in prior knowledge. The most common live facilitation problem and the least often designed for.

Mode change

Switching between presenting, discussion, small group, individual work or practice. The main tool against attention decay.

Moderator

Someone managing a discussion's process without responsibility for its learning outcome.

MOOC

Massive open online course. Open to anyone, usually free to start, and notorious for low completion.

Motivation, extrinsic

Doing it because of a consequence attached from outside. Gets completion.

Motivation, intrinsic

Doing it because the thing itself is worth doing. Gets transfer.

Multi-rater feedback

Feedback gathered from several people around someone, such as peers, reports and managers, often called 360. Needs careful handling and a plan for what happens next.

Needs analysis

The work of establishing whether training is the right intervention at all. Frequently concludes that it is not, which is why it gets skipped.

Net promoter score

A single likelihood-to-recommend question. Measures sentiment, not learning, and should never be reported as the latter.

Neurodiversity

The range of natural variation in how brains work, including autism, ADHD and dyslexia. A reason to offer several ways to participate and to avoid guessing at who needs what.

Nominal group technique

Individuals write ideas alone, share them in turn, then rank them privately. Keeps the loudest voice from setting the list.

Nonsupervisory employee

An employee who does not direct or discipline others. In California, nonsupervisory employees get a shorter harassment prevention session than supervisors.

Office hours

Open unstructured time attached to a program where participants bring their own situations.

Off-the-shelf training

A packaged course or curriculum bought ready-made. It fits generic, stable content and works better with a live session on top.

Onboarding

The structured first period in a new role. The highest-leverage training window an organization has and the most commonly wasted.

One-on-one

A recurring private meeting between a manager and one direct report, held on a schedule and kept for the other person's agenda.

One page plan

The five box plan I fill out before building any session: behavior, opening, participation, close, check.

One-party consent

A rule that lets a recording go ahead when one participant, including the person recording, agrees. The federal wiretap statute, 18 U.S.C. 2511(2)(d), takes this approach.

One-two-four-all

A Liberating Structures format: think alone, share in pairs, then fours, then the whole group. A reliable way to turn silence into contributions in about twelve minutes.

On-the-job training

Learning a task by doing it at work, with an experienced person guiding. Strong for practice, uneven unless the guide is trained.

Open enrollment

A program anyone can register for individually, as opposed to a private session for one organization. Seats are sold one at a time.

Opening act

The first thing every participant does, in writing, within three minutes.

Open loop

A question raised early and deliberately left unanswered until later in the session.

Open question

A question that cannot be answered with a yes or no and invites explanation. The default tool for getting past a one-word reply.

Open space technology

A self-organizing format where participants propose the topics, join the ones they care about and move freely between groups. Works when the group holds the knowledge, not the facilitator.

Outcome line

One sentence stating what participants can do by the end of a session. Write it before the agenda and test every block against it.

Outsourced training

Training delivered by an outside facilitator or firm. It fits regulated, high-stakes or skill-gap topics.

Paraphrasing

Restating what someone said in your own words to check you understood it. Shows listening and slows an escalating exchange.

Parasocial audience

An audience that feels a relationship with a presenter who cannot see them. The default on camera and the opposite of a room, where people also have a relationship with each other.

Parking lot

A visible place to put questions that matter but do not belong now. Only works if you return to it.

Participant mute

The default of keeping microphones off until invited. Reduces noise and also reduces spontaneous contribution, so pair it with an easy way to unmute.

Participation design

The deliberate set of routes by which a person can contribute. Chat, poll, writing, small rooms, voice.

Pass it on

The obligation at the center of this work: knowledge is only useful if the person holding it teaches somebody else. [Urban term]

Pause, name, choose

A three-step move for a hard moment in a live session: stop the action, say what is happening, then pick the next step from a short list. It gives the facilitator a sequence to follow when the room tightens.

Peer instruction

Participants teaching one another a point they have just learned. Exposes misunderstanding faster than any facilitator question.

Peer learning

Learning from other participants rather than from the facilitator. A good session designs for it on purpose.

Per-attendee pricing

Charging by the head. It works when your costs rise with each attendee. A flat fee fits when they do not.

Performance gap

The distance between current and required performance. Training only closes the part caused by capability.

Performance support

Tools and resources that help someone do a task while they are doing it. Overlaps with job aids.

Personalized learning

Tailoring content, pace or path to an individual learner, often with software. Helps with practice, not a replacement for group discussion.

Phillips ROI methodology

An approach that adds a fifth level, return on investment, to the four Kirkpatrick levels by converting results to money and comparing them to cost. Use it for the programs where the cost justifies the effort.

Plain language

Writing and speaking in short sentences and common words so the widest group can follow. A benefit for everyone, not only for people with a disability.

Platform floor

The minimum set of platform features a session design depends on. Establish it before designing, not during delivery.

Plus delta

A two-column debrief of what worked and what to change. The shortest honest feedback format there is.

Post-test

A test taken after training to measure what was learned. Meaningful only when compared with a pre-test or a baseline.

Power distance

The felt gap between senior and junior participants in a room. Determines who will speak honestly and who will not.

Practice loop

Attempt, feedback, second attempt. A session without the second attempt has taught awareness rather than skill.

Practice run

A participant facilitating a real segment in front of the cohort. The thing that actually produces change.

Pre-brief

The short alignment with sponsors or co-facilitators before a session. Cheapest hour in the whole engagement.

Preparation ratio

A planning figure of about one day of preparation for each day of facilitation, which the UNC School of Government's facilitation unit builds into its daily rate.

Pre-read

Material sent before a session so the live time can go to discussion, not explanation. Only works if it is short and people are told what to do with it.

Pre-test

A test taken before training to find what learners already know and to give a baseline. Also shows where to spend the time.

Pre-work

A small task or reading assigned before a live session. Raises the level of the conversation if it is short and visibly used in the first ten minutes.

Prior knowledge

What the room already holds. Ignoring it insults experienced participants and strands new ones.

Private session

A session run for one organization's own people, at its chosen time, with its own examples. Priced by the engagement, not by the seat.

Probing question

A follow-up that asks for more detail, such as an example or a consequence. Separates a vague answer from a useful one.

Process and content

Content is what the group discusses. Process is how it discusses it. A facilitator owns process and stays out of content, which is what makes the stance neutral.

Procurement

The buyer's process for approving and paying a vendor. Expect forms, insurance and payment terms, and ask about them early.

Producer

A second person watching chat, time and tech during a session. The highest return addition to any large or hybrid room.

Prompt

The exact wording of a question given to a room or a breakout. Vague prompts are the single most common cause of a silent breakout.

Prompt engineering

Writing instructions for an AI so it returns useful results: context, task, format and constraints. A practical skill, closer to clear writing than to coding.

Prompt library

A maintained set of tested prompts for recurring tasks. What turns individual AI use into an organisational capability.

Proximity bias

The tendency to favor people who are physically near you. In hybrid sessions it hands attention and credit to whoever is in the room.

Psychological exit

A participant who is still present and no longer participating. Recoverable in the first ten minutes and rarely after thirty.

Psychological safety

The shared belief that speaking up carries no punishment. Built by what happens to the first person who risks it.

Qualified trainer

A person the law allows to deliver California harassment prevention training, such as an attorney, a human resources professional with the right experience or an instructor in the field. Check the credential before you book.

Quid pro quo harassment

Conditioning a job benefit, such as a promotion or continued employment, on submitting to unwelcome conduct. One of the two classic harassment categories.

Raise hand

The platform feature for signaling a wish to speak. Turns the floor into a queue the facilitator can manage and the quiet person can use.

Rank in the room

Who holds authority among the participants. Seniority in the room changes the session more than anything on the agenda.

Reactions

Emoji and hand signals participants send without speaking. A low-cost way to read the room, and easy to miss if nobody is watching them.

Read the room

Inferring state from participation, chat, pace of response and faces where visible. A skill, not an instinct.

Reasonable steps

The employer duty under California Government Code section 12940(k) to take all reasonable steps necessary to prevent discrimination and harassment. Supervisor training is one of those steps. It is prevention, not a defense.

Recording consent

Permission to record a session, captured before recording starts. Rules vary by jurisdiction and by who is in the room.

Recovery

Getting a session back after something has gone wrong. Covered directly in the Where Sessions Break program.

Recurrence interval

How often a mandated training must repeat. Commonly two years for harassment prevention and annual for several safety and security topics.

Reduced rate

The published 25% off seats and 15% off private sessions for nonprofits, schools and public agencies. No application.

Reframing

Restating a problem from a different angle so the group can see options it could not see before. A stuck room often needs a better question, not a better answer.

Remote-first

A way of working where the default is online and any in-person time is deliberate. Meetings are designed for screens, not adapted from rooms.

Replacement cost

What it costs to replace an employee. Ruzuku cites a Gallup estimate of one-half to two times annual salary, which frames the budget for reskilling a person instead.

Replay

A recording made available after a live session. Helps people who missed it and does not replace the live practice that produced the learning.

Reporting path

Who receives a complaint and how fast, written down before a session that might produce one.

Request for proposal

A formal invitation to bid on a piece of work, with set requirements. Answer exactly what it asks, in the order it asks.

Rescue question

A prepared question that restarts a stalled room. Every facilitator should carry three.

Reskilling

Building capability for a different role. Distinct from upskilling, which deepens the current one.

Responsible AI

Using AI with attention to fairness, transparency, privacy and human oversight. In training, it means telling people where it was used and who is accountable.

Retainer

A monthly fee for ongoing facilitation support. Check what happens to unused hours.

Retaliation

An adverse action taken against someone for reporting a concern or taking part in an investigation. Treated as its own violation, and a core part of any compliance session.

Retention curve

The graph showing where viewers leave a video. It punishes the pause, which is why presenting habits built on camera work against a live room.

Retention period

How long a recording and its chat log are kept. Decided before the session, not after a request for it.

Retrieval-augmented generation

A way of giving an AI your own documents to answer from, so its answers rest on your material. Reduces made-up answers and does not eliminate them.

Retrieval practice

Making learners pull information from memory rather than re-read it. Uncomfortable and unusually effective.

Retrospective

A structured look back at how work went, aimed at changing how the next round runs.

Return on expectations

A measure of whether training delivered what the stakeholders said they wanted, agreed before it started. A practical alternative when a dollar ROI is out of reach.

Return on investment

Financial benefit against total cost. Only 16% of HR functions use ROI to measure their AI investments, and 56% do not formally measure AI success at all (SHRM, State of AI in HR 2026).

Reverse mentoring

A mentoring pairing where a junior person teaches a senior one, often about technology or a different perspective. Flips the usual status in the room.

Role play

Practicing an exchange in character. The most avoided and most effective activity for conversational skills.

Rose, bud, thorn

A three-part reflection: what is working, what holds promise and what is painful. Gives the room permission to say the hard part.

Round robin

Going person by person for a short contribution. Safe and inclusive up to about eight people, and deadly above twelve.

Rubric

A scoring guide that describes what each level of performance looks like. Makes feedback specific and consistent.

Run of show

A minute-by-minute plan for a live session that lists each block, who leads it and what participants do. It turns an agenda of topics into a script a co-facilitator can run from.

Runway

The time between a participant joining and the session actually starting. Wasted runway sets the tone for the rest.

Safety silence

A room not speaking because speaking has a cost. Fixed by removing attribution, never by cold calling.

SAM

Successive Approximation Model: an iterative design approach built on quick prototypes and frequent review. Faster to a usable result than a strict ADDIE run.

SB 1343

The 2018 California law that extended harassment prevention training to nonsupervisory employees and to employers with five or more employees. The reason most small employers now owe training.

Scaffolding

Support deliberately provided early and deliberately removed later.

Scenario

A realistic situation participants work inside. The closer it sits to their actual Tuesday, the more transfer you get.

Scope creep

Work that grows beyond what was agreed, without a change in time or price. Prevent it with a written scope and a habit of naming additions.

Scope of work

The written description of what will be delivered, for whom, by when and what is not included. See the article on proposal scope.

SCORM

A long-standing technical standard for packaging e-learning so a learning management system can track it.

Scrap learning

Training content that is delivered but never applied on the job. The waste measure behind a lot of corporate training budgets.

Screen reader

Software that reads interface and content aloud. Tests whether your structure is real or only visual.

Screen share fatigue

Attention loss caused by long unbroken periods of shared slides. Breaking the share is itself a mode change.

Seasonal and temporary employee

A worker hired for a short period. California sets a shorter window for training them, tied to days or hours worked.

Seat

One participant's place in a session or program. The unit most open programs are priced in.

Second screen

The device a participant is working on while nominally in your session. Assume it exists and design so the session wins.

Section 508

A US federal rule requiring government technology to be accessible. Often cited by buyers as a baseline for training platforms.

Self-efficacy

A person's belief they can do the thing. Often the actual blocker when a skills gap is diagnosed.

Self-paced course

A course learners complete alone on their own schedule. Ruzuku platform data shows lower completion than cohort courses, 42.6 percent against 59.0 percent.

Sequencing

The order activities run in. Two identical sessions in different orders produce very different outcomes.

Session plan

The one page that holds objective, behavior, opening, beats and close.

Session shape

The reusable structure underneath onboarding, policy rollout and skills training. Learned once, used everywhere.

Shadow AI

Staff using AI tools the organization has not approved or does not know about. Usually a sign that the approved route is missing or too slow.

Sign language interpreter

A person who translates spoken content into sign language in real time. Book early and share materials ahead so they can prepare.

Signposting

Telling the room where you are in the session and what comes next. Costs seconds and prevents the drift that makes people open another tab.

Silent brainstorming

Individuals write ideas without talking before any sharing. Prevents anchoring on the first idea spoken.

Silent start

Opening with individual written work before any discussion. Produces better contributions than asking a cold room to talk.

Simulation

An exercise reproducing the conditions of real performance closely enough that the decisions feel real.

Skills-based organization

An organization that plans work and hiring around skills rather than job titles. Training becomes a way to move skills to where they are needed.

Skills gap

The distance between the skills a role needs and the skills the people in it have. It decides whether the answer is upskilling or reskilling.

Skills matrix

A grid of people against skills showing who can do what, and to what level. Shows where the gaps and single points of failure are.

Smile sheet

A post-session satisfaction survey. Measures enjoyment, not change, and does not protect a budget.

Social learning

Learning by watching and working with others. The reason a live cohort finishes and a solo module does not.

Soft skills

Interpersonal and communication skills such as listening, feedback and collaboration. Also called durable or power skills, and the hardest to teach through video.

Spaced practice

Spreading practice across time rather than massing it. Beats a single long session on retention, reliably.

Sponsor

The person who funded the session and owns the outcome. Their absence from the room changes what the room believes about the session.

Sponsorship

When a senior person uses their influence to advance someone's opportunities. Mentors advise. Sponsors open doors.

Spotlight

Pinning one video feed for everyone. Useful for demonstrations and corrosive when overused.

Stakeholder

Anyone who is affected by a program or has a say in whether it succeeds. Name them early and ask each what a good outcome looks like.

Start, stop, continue

A feedback format asking what to begin, end and keep. Simple enough to run in five minutes at the end of any session.

Statement of work

A document that sets the specific deliverables, schedule and price for a project under a broader agreement.

Storyboard

A visual sequence of a session or module before anything is built.

Structure-first response

Redirecting a dominant participant by naming a rule about the session rather than correcting the person.

Subject matter expert

The person who holds the knowledge but not necessarily the ability to teach it. Abbreviated SME.

Summative assessment

A check at the end used to judge whether the objective was met.

Supervisor knowledge

The principle that once a supervisor knows, the employer knows. The reason manager training carries legal weight.

Supervisor training

Mandated training carrying a higher requirement for people who manage others. In California, two hours against one for other employees.

Supervisory employee

Who counts as a supervisor for California's two-hour training requirement is decided by Government Code section 12926, not by job title.

Synchronous learning

Learning that happens live, with the facilitator and other learners present at the same time. The format where feedback, practice and accountability are strongest.

Synthetic practice partner

An AI standing in as the other party in a role play. Useful for volume and reps, and no substitute for a real person's reaction.

Table read

Walking a group through a document line by line together, used when shared interpretation matters more than speed.

Task analysis

Breaking a job task into steps to see what a learner must know and do. The starting point for practice that mirrors the work.

Tech check

A brief test of audio, video, screen share and links before participants arrive. Ten minutes that prevents the first ten minutes of the session being lost.

Temperature check

A fast read of where the group stands on a question, by poll, reaction or hand signal. Used before a decision, not as one.

Terminal objective

The capability the whole session or program exists to produce.

Think, pair, share

Individual thought, then pairs, then the room. The default structure for getting a quiet group talking.

Timed agenda

An agenda where every item has a start, an owner and a length, and the total is checked against the time available. The first thing to fix in an overrunning meeting.

Time to competence

How long from training to independent performance. The most persuasive training metric in operational settings.

Trainer

Someone delivering content with responsibility for a capability outcome.

Training record

The dated proof of who attended, what they covered and who delivered it. Keep it where you can find it for the required period.

Training transfer

The degree to which what was learned in training is used on the job. The only result that matters, and the one least often measured.

Train the trainer

A program that leaves an organization able to run the session itself. Pays off at roughly three sessions a year.

Transfer

Whether the skill shows up in the job. The only measure of training that survives contact with a budget review.

Turn taking

The pattern of who speaks after whom. Left alone it concentrates; managed it distributes.

Unconference

An agenda built by participants at the start of the session rather than in advance.

Universal design for learning

A framework for designing instruction that works for the widest range of learners from the start, by offering multiple ways to engage, understand and show learning.

Unwritten rule

How things actually work here, learned in hallways by people with networks and by mistakes by people without. [Urban term]

Upskilling

Deepening capability in a current role.

Urban corporation

An urban organization incorporated as a C or S corporation. Used only where incorporation changes the advice. [Urban term]

Urban organization

Any employer built by or for the people the system reads last, growing on its own revenue: startups, minority-owned businesses and nonprofits of 10 to 150 people. [Urban term]

Urban professional

A first-generation or underrepresented professional who earned their seat on merit and is negotiating for what that seat is worth, without an inherited playbook. [Urban term]

Value-based pricing

Pricing from what the outcome is worth to the buyer, with your cost formula as the floor.

Vendor

An outside provider selling a service to an organization. A buyer who asks vendors the same questions each time can compare them fairly.

Vendor-led training

Training delivered by an outside provider. Buys expertise and speed, and needs internal reinforcement or it evaporates.

Violent incident log

The record California Labor Code section 6401.9 requires employers to keep of every workplace violence incident. Logs are kept at least five years.

Virtual classroom

An online space for live teaching, with video, chat, polls and breakouts. The room a virtual facilitator works in.

Virtual facilitation

Running a live session where the room is on screens. The same job as facilitation in a room, minus the signals you read without noticing, which is why it has to be designed rather than improvised.

Virtual instructor-led training

A live session delivered online by a person, abbreviated VILT. Distinct from eLearning, which has no live person, and from a webinar, which has an audience rather than participants.

Virtual meeting fatigue

The tiredness that builds from long screen-based sessions, often called Zoom fatigue. Shorter blocks, camera options and real breaks all help.

Virtual whiteboard

A shared canvas for simultaneous input. Excellent for divergence and poor for decisions.

Waiting room

A holding state before admission. Worth using for confidential sessions and worth skipping for everything else.

Waitlist

A queue of people who could not get a seat in a full cohort. Gives you a first call when a seat opens and a signal for when to add a session.

Wait time

The silence a facilitator holds after asking a question. Two seconds filters the room to the fastest talkers; five changes who answers.

WCAG

Web Content Accessibility Guidelines: the international standard for making digital content usable by people with disabilities. Levels A, AA and AAA describe how strict.

Webinar

A mostly one-to-many online presentation with limited participant interaction. Good for reach, poor for skill building.

Week one tasks

The five things a new hire must be able to do without help by Friday. The real content of onboarding.

Worked example

A fully demonstrated solution shown before learners attempt their own. Reduces load and speeds early skill more than discovery does.

Workplace violence prevention plan

The written plan most California employers must keep under Labor Code section 6401.9. The plan requirement took effect July 1, 2024.

Workshop

A working session that produces an artefact. If nothing is produced, it was a meeting with activities in it.

World cafe

A rotating small-group conversation where people move between tables and carry ideas with them. Built for large groups that need to hear from everyone.

xAPI

A technical standard for recording learning activity from many sources, not only courses. The successor to SCORM for tracking beyond the LMS.

Zone of proximal development

The band between what a learner can do alone and what they can do with help. The only band where teaching does anything.

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