Seminars

A seminar is a container for organizing related training sessions within an organization. Think of seminars as courses or programs that may run multiple times with different participants.

What is a Seminar?

Seminars help you structure your training programs:

• Course container: Group all sessions of a multi-day course
• Repeatable programs: Run the same workshop multiple times
• Content organization: Keep blueprints, materials, and sessions together
• Progress tracking: Monitor participant progress across sessions

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                      Organization                                │
│                     "acme-training"                             │
│                                                                  │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │                  Seminar: "Kubernetes 101"                 │  │
│  │                                                            │  │
│  │  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐  ┌─────────────┐        │  │
│  │  │  Session 1  │  │  Session 2  │  │  Session 3  │        │  │
│  │  │  "Basics"   │  │ "Deployments"│ │  "Services" │        │  │
│  │  │             │  │             │  │             │        │  │
│  │  │ Participants│  │ Participants│  │ Participants│        │  │
│  │  │ Environments│  │ Environments│  │ Environments│        │  │
│  │  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘  └─────────────┘        │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
│                                                                  │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │               Seminar: "GitOps Workshop"                   │  │
│  │                        ...                                 │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Seminar vs Session

Understanding the difference is key:

Example: A “Kubernetes Certification Prep” seminar might contain:

• Session 1: “Core Concepts” (Day 1, 4 hours)
• Session 2: “Workloads” (Day 2, 4 hours)
• Session 3: “Networking” (Day 3, 4 hours)
• Session 4: “Exam Practice” (Day 4, 6 hours)

Creating a Seminar

# Create a basic seminar
teactl seminar create kubernetes-101 
  --display-name "Kubernetes 101" 
  --org acme-training

# Create with description and tags
teactl seminar create kubernetes-101 
  --display-name "Kubernetes 101" 
  --description "Introduction to Kubernetes for developers" 
  --tag level=beginner 
  --tag topic=kubernetes

Managing Seminars

# List all seminars in organization
teactl seminar list

# View seminar details
teactl seminar info kubernetes-101

# Update seminar settings
teactl seminar update kubernetes-101 
  --description "Updated course description"

# Archive a seminar (soft delete)
teactl seminar archive kubernetes-101

Seminar Blueprints

Associate blueprints with a seminar for consistent environments across sessions:

# Add blueprints to seminar
teactl seminar blueprint add kubernetes-101 k8s-basic
teactl seminar blueprint add kubernetes-101 k8s-advanced

# List seminar blueprints
teactl seminar blueprint list kubernetes-101

# Remove blueprint from seminar
teactl seminar blueprint remove kubernetes-101 k8s-advanced

Participant Enrollment

Enroll participants in a seminar to grant them access to all its sessions:

# Enroll participants
teactl seminar enroll kubernetes-101 
  --emails [email protected],[email protected]

# Import from CSV
teactl seminar enroll kubernetes-101 
  --file participants.csv

# Create enrollment link
teactl seminar enroll-link kubernetes-101 
  --max-participants 30 
  --expires 2024-06-01

Enrollment vs Session Access

• Enrolled participants can see upcoming sessions and receive notifications
• Session access is granted when a session starts (environments are created)
• Enrollment is optional - you can add participants directly to sessions

Scheduling Sessions

Create sessions within a seminar:

# Create a session in the seminar
teactl session create 
  --seminar kubernetes-101 
  --name "k8s-basics" 
  --blueprint k8s-basic 
  --start "2024-06-15 09:00" 
  --duration 4h

# Create recurring sessions
teactl session create 
  --seminar kubernetes-101 
  --name "k8s-basics" 
  --blueprint k8s-basic 
  --recurring "every monday 09:00" 
  --duration 2h

Seminar Progress Tracking

Track participant progress across all sessions:

# View seminar progress
teactl seminar progress kubernetes-101

# Output:
# Seminar: Kubernetes 101
# Sessions: 4 total, 2 completed
#
# Participant Progress:
# ┌──────────────────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┬────────┐
# │ Participant          │ Sess 1 │ Sess 2 │ Sess 3 │ Sess 4 │
# ├──────────────────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┼────────┤
# │ [email protected]    │   ✓    │   ✓    │   -    │   -    │
# │ [email protected]      │   ✓    │   ✗    │   -    │   -    │
# │ [email protected]  │   ✓    │   ✓    │   -    │   -    │
# └──────────────────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┴────────┘

# Export progress report
teactl seminar progress kubernetes-101 --export csv

Notifications

Configure seminar-wide notifications:

# Set up notifications
teactl seminar notify kubernetes-101 
  --on-session-start "Session {session_name} is starting" 
  --on-session-reminder "1h" 
  --on-enrollment "Welcome to {seminar_name}!"

# Send announcement to all enrolled participants
teactl seminar announce kubernetes-101 
  --subject "Schedule Change" 
  --message "Session 3 moved to Thursday"

Seminar Templates

Save seminar configurations for reuse:

# Save as template
teactl seminar save-template kubernetes-101 
  --name k8s-course-template

# Create from template
teactl seminar create kubernetes-102 
  --from-template k8s-course-template 
  --display-name "Kubernetes 102"

# List available templates
teactl seminar template list

Billing and Costs

Track costs at the seminar level:

# View seminar costs
teactl seminar cost kubernetes-101

# Output:
# Seminar: Kubernetes 101
# Period: 2024-06-01 to 2024-06-30
#
# Sessions:
#   k8s-basics: $124.50
#   k8s-deployments: $156.20
#   k8s-services: $89.30
#
# Total: $370.00
# Per participant: $12.33 (30 participants)

Best Practices

1. Organize by learning path: Group sessions that build on each other
2. Use consistent naming: course-name-level (e.g., k8s-101-beginner)
3. Pre-enroll participants: Gives them visibility into the full schedule
4. Test blueprints first: Validate in a standalone environment before the session
5. Set up notifications early: Ensure participants receive reminders

Next Steps

• Create sessions
• Configure environments
• Manage participants
• Blueprint examples