Best practices for a Live Hub (Beta) session

A Live Hub course in Adobe Learning Manager brings Instructors and Learners together for real-time training, with interactive capabilities such as chat, polls, quizzes, whiteboards, breakout rooms, recordings, and analytics. This companion guide focuses on the practices that Administrators, Authors, and Instructors can adopt to create a smooth, engaging, and effective learning experience.

Every Live Hub session moves through three phases. This guide follows the same rhythm, and most of the effort that determines a session’s success happens before anyone joins the room.

Prepare for the session

Thorough preparation helps ensure a smooth, engaging virtual classroom experience. Before learners join, configure your course, prepare your activities, and verify that your room is ready for delivery.

Enable the Live Hub feature

Before an Author can create a Live Hub course, an Administrator must enable the Live Hub feature for the ALM account. Confirm this setting is turned on first so that course creation, enrollment, and scheduling are not blocked later.

Verify that your account’s licensing or subscription plan includes Live Hub. If the option does not appear in the admin settings, confirm entitlement with Adobe support before troubleshooting further.

After enabling the feature, notify Authors and Instructors so they can begin designing courses and preparing sessions without delay.

Design the course for clarity

As an Author when creating the course, use a clear, descriptive title that helps learners understand the session’s purpose. Add a concise description that explains what learners can expect to learn or accomplish.

Define the skills that the course develops and assign the appropriate skill level and credit value. Accurate skill mapping helps learners discover relevant training and improves reporting accuracy.

Assign Instructors while creating the course so they have sufficient time to review content, prepare activities, and familiarize themselves with the room setup.

Enroll learners in advance

Enroll learners early to give them adequate notice before the session begins. Depending on your Adobe Learning Manager configuration, learners receive notifications in the platform and by email.

For open-access training programs, consider enabling self-enrollment so learners can register directly from the course catalog and access the session from My Learnings.

Before publishing the course, verify that learner notifications are enabled for your account to ensure invitations and reminders are delivered successfully.

Join the room before the session starts

As an Instructor, join the room at least 10-15 minutes before the scheduled start time. This allows you to verify your audio and video devices, test screen sharing, and resolve any technical issues before learners arrive.

Use this preparation time to configure room settings, review activities, and ensure that all session resources are available.

Configure participant permissions

Review participant permissions before the session begins. Enable features such as screen sharing and whiteboard access only when they are required for the activity.

Configuring permissions in advance helps maintain focus during the session and reduces interruptions caused by making adjustments while learners are waiting.

Prepare polls and quizzes

Create polls and quizzes before the session so they are available when needed.

Consider starting with an icebreaker poll to encourage participation and help learners engage from the start of the session. You can also create knowledge-check questions that align with the learning objectives and reinforce key concepts.

Prepare additional polls or quiz questions to launch if you need to increase engagement during the session.

Set up collaboration tools

If you plan to use third-party collaboration tools, such as Miro, sign in and configure them before learners join the session.

Connecting and authenticating collaboration tools in advance helps avoid interruptions caused by sign-in prompts or account verification during the live session.

Configure breakout rooms

If your training includes breakout activities, create and configure breakout rooms before the session begins.

Define the number of rooms, set the duration, and provide clear instructions for each activity. If different groups require different tasks, add room-specific instructions.

Choose the participant assignment method based on your training needs:

Upload AI reference materials

If your session uses AI-assisted question-and-answer capabilities, upload the supporting materials before the session starts.

Add presentation slides, documents, or other source materials that learners are expected to reference. Providing relevant content helps the AI generate more accurate, session-objective-aligned responses.

Keep uploaded materials up to date and include only content relevant to the training session.

During the session

Once the session begins, focus on delivering content clearly, encouraging participation, and adapting to learner engagement. Use the available collaboration and facilitation tools to create an interactive learning experience.

Start recording and transcription

Begin recording at the start of the session to capture the complete learning experience for future playback. Recording also generates a transcript that learners can use to review key discussions and concepts after the session.

Inform learners that the session is being recorded so that expectations are clear before the discussion begins.

Share content effectively

When sharing content, share only the application window or browser tab required for the presentation whenever possible. Limiting what is visible helps learners stay focused and prevents unrelated information from appearing on screen.

Use annotation tools to highlight important information, emphasize key concepts, and guide learner attention during presentations. You can also save snapshots of annotated content for future reference.

If learners need to present or demonstrate content, grant screen-sharing permissions as required. Participants who share content can also use the available annotation and snapshot tools to support their presentations.

Manage discussions and questions

Use the chat and Q&A areas to organize conversations and respond to learner questions efficiently.

If AI-assisted responses are available, use them to generate draft answers for questions. Review and edit the response before posting to ensure it is accurate and appropriate for your audience.

Encourage learners to participate through chat, especially in large sessions where microphone access may be limited. Acknowledge questions and comments during the session to promote engagement and participation.

Monitor participation

Use the Attendees panel to track participant activity during the session. The panel helps you identify who is present, view raised hands and reactions, and communicate privately with learners when necessary.

You can also use room-wide controls, such as muting all microphones or clearing raised hands, to help manage transitions between activities. Use these controls only when needed to maintain an organized learning environment.

Use polls and quizzes to increase engagement

Launch polls and quizzes throughout the session to check understanding and encourage participation.

Consider using:

Sharing poll or quiz results can help generate discussion and provide opportunities to clarify misunderstandings before moving to the next topic.

Monitor participant engagement

Use the Participant engagement indicator at the top of the session room to track overall participant engagement in real time. Use these insights to adjust pacing, encourage interaction, or modify activities to keep participants engaged throughout the session.

Facilitate breakout activities

Launch breakout rooms when learners are ready to begin group activities. If breakout rooms were configured before the session, learners can be moved into their assigned rooms with minimal interruption.

Monitor breakout activities by moving between rooms, responding to learner requests for assistance, and reviewing AI-generated room summaries. The summaries provide an overview of discussions taking place in each room, helping you assess learner progress, identify rooms that may need guidance, and decide when to join a conversation. The summaries update automatically throughout the breakout session as discussions evolve.

If participants use the Ask for Help option, join the room to provide guidance or answer questions. You can also use collaboration tools such as Chat, Screen Share, and Whiteboard within breakout rooms to support group activities.

When the activity is complete, end the breakout session to bring all participants back to the main room. Debrief the activity and invite groups to share key takeaways with the rest of the class. After the session, review the breakout report or the Session dashboard to access room-wise summaries, participant details, and other breakout insight.

After the session

After the session ends, review the recording and session analytics to support learners, measure engagement, and improve future deliveries.

End the session for all participants

When the session is complete, end the room for all participants. This ensures that everyone exits the session together and is directed to the completion screen, where they can return to the course and provide feedback on their learning experience.

Encourage learners to submit feedback before leaving the session. Learner feedback can help you identify technical issues, refine your facilitation techniques, and improve future sessions.

Publish the recording

After the session, access the recording from the Sessions > Overview page and review it before sharing it with learners.

Use the editing tools to remove setup activities, pauses, or other non-essential content so that learners can focus on the instructional material.

The transcript generated during recording provides an additional learning resource by making the content searchable and more accessible for learners who review the session later.

Analyze session performance

Review session analytics to understand learner participation and identify opportunities for improvement.

Use the available analytics views to assess different aspects of the session:

Reviewing these insights can help you determine which activities were most effective and where learners may have encountered challenges.

Apply lessons learned to future sessions

Use analytics and learner feedback to refine future deliveries.

For example, if participation decreased during a particular activity, consider adjusting the format, pacing, or timing in future sessions. If a poll generated strong discussion or a breakout activity proved valuable, incorporate similar approaches into upcoming training.

Continuous improvement helps create more engaging and effective learning experiences over time.

Follow up with learners

Review participant activity after the session and identify learners who may benefit from additional support.

Consider sharing the recording, transcript, course resources, or any follow-up assessments with learners who missed the session or were unable to participate fully. Providing access to these resources helps learners stay aligned with the course objectives and continue their learning after the live event.