We hope your return to work has been smooth! While some of you have been busy getting trained on Glowbl, we’ve been meticulously preparing the new, upgraded version of the Run Through feature
- Associate polls and announcements with steps;
- Restart and edit the timer;
- Prepare collaborative notes directly from the Run Through window;
- Import, export, and share your run-throughs—and get inspired by our templates.
If I may draw a comparison, it’s like Charmander finally evolving into Charizard!
Let’s explore these exciting updates together. And for our loyal users of table arrangements, there’s a little treat waiting at the end of this article.
📢 Associate polls and announcements with each step of your run through
The Run Through feature enables you to script and configure table arrangements, participant permissions, content, and timers for each phase of your session. Thanks to your feedback, you can now create and associate a poll or an announcement with a step in advance and launch it with a single click!
When creating a step, a new “Facilitation Tools” category has been added, allowing you to add or create polls and write announcements. The timer tool has been moved to this category for consistency, and its original location now allows you to set the estimated duration of the step.
When you start the Run Through, simply click the tool icon to launch or modify it.
⏲️ Edit or restart a timer
Since most of you are agile facilitators, having an uneditable timer during an active session could be limiting. Now, if you feel your group needs more time to complete an activity—or if you’re running late and need to shorten the time—you can simply click inside the timer to adjust its duration. A “Reset” button lets you restart the timer, so for recurring steps, you only need to create one step instead of “Round 1,” “Round 2,” “Round 3,” and so on.
🗒️ Format collaborative notes directly from the Run Through
Formatted collaborative notes are a great alternative to PDFs for your activities. Prepare the instructions, and let participants respond directly underneath. You could already associate blank notes or templates with steps, but now you can format notes directly within the Run Through. If you like your formatting, save it as a template for reuse in other Run Throughs or at a table.
When templates for notes or polls are associated with a Run Through step, they’re essentially copies of your original model. Editing the original template won’t affect the copy within the Run Through.
To make it easier, we’ve added a button in the “New Content Projection” window, allowing you to quickly create a collaborative note template. You can also easily update templates: click on one to open a preview window, then click the pencil icon to edit before projecting it.
🖥️ "Personal" vs "Shared" – What does it mean?
On Glowbl, you can create three types of reusable elements: collaborative note templates, polls, and Run Throughs.
We’ve standardised how these tools work. Anything you create—be it a poll, note template, or Run Through—is saved as “Personal,” meaning you can use it across all your spaces. To make it available to collaborators in a specific space, simply publish a copy to that space. These copies are independent of the original, so changes to one won’t affect the other.
Published copies can be co-edited by all facilitators in the space, making polls, notes, and Run Throughs fully collaborative!
📁 Import, export, and share Run Throughs outside your organisation
Our instructional design expert, Meghane Mercier, adapts collaborative activities from Thiagi’s games and Liberating Structures to meet diverse session goals on Glowbl. These adaptations are shared in our Academy Methods sessions, held once or twice a month. You can download Run Throughs of these activities from our Templates page and import them into your space.
Have you created a fantastic flow and would like the whole world to be able to use it? In the flow tab, click on the one you’ve chosen, then click the three dots to the right of the pencil icon, and select “Export to my computer.” Once downloaded, you can send or make the flow available on your website, for example. The user who imports your flow will find the steps, arrangements, and permissions you’ve selected, as well as your content, surveys, announcements, and timers. This way, you can offer your community ready-to-use workshops and training! We look forward to seeing your creations.
🌟 Make your activities look amazing with new arrangements
Meghane has also teamed up with our UX/UI designer, Jean-Claude Figueiras, to create custom arrangements for Academy activities. The good news? You can use them for your own workshops!
Would you like to quickly form teams? Use the arrangements from the Collaborative Quiz or Envelopes. All participants sit around the same table, and the colour of their chair determines the group they will be part of for the remainder of the workshop.
Want to facilitate sharing and feedback? Take a look at the Fishbowl arrangements. One group forms an “inner circle” where members discuss amongst themselves while being listened to by the “outer circle.” The outer circle then shares its observations with the inner circle. You can also adapt this arrangement to distinguish between speakers and participants at a conference.
Need to pair up your participants? The What? So what? Now what? arrangement (for blue lovers) or 1-2-4-All arrangement (for red lovers) provides a clean, simple setup for participants. Both are also available with a 20-chair version.
Thinking Meghane and Jean-Claude are amazing? Would you like to be able to invent your own activities and corresponding arrangements, just like them? It’s totally possible with our arrangement generator created on Draft.io!
Project new content ➜ click on Draft.io Whiteboard ➜ select “Use a Glowbl Template” ➜ launch the Arrangement Generator model ➜ move objects around the editing area, add text, images, and export the area!
I'm Aude-Marine and, as Digital Learning Manager, I'll be helping you to get to grips with Glowbl through workshops twice a week and filming before your sessions. A former video editor and festival coordinator, I'm looking forward to helping you organise inspiring and creative events, workshops and training courses. Linkedin
