Kolab Academy
Free guides, tutorials and templates for the people who run cohorts, fellowships, exchanges and convenings. Written by the TechChange team from more than a hundred global programs, including the ones that went wrong.
You have a cohort, a funder and a calendar. Read the guides in order, then send us your first agenda and we'll build it.
Read the guidesYou need to know where things are before Tuesday. Start with the four Start Here tutorials and the system check.
Open the tutorialsFilter templates by how many people you have and where the activity sits in the session.
Browse templatesWe build Kolab and run programs on it, which means we have broken it in front of live participants. Each of these cost us something, and each is why a specific feature exists.
One participant on a busy terrace pulled all of it into the breakout, and in a group of four that's the whole conversation.
Better noise handling, and every onboarding now says it plainly: headphones matter more than any setting. Better, not solved.
Mid-session, the person running the room dropped to unusable bandwidth. The co-host and the participants carried it.
Data saver mode, so a weak connection steps down instead of dropping. It's also why we recommend a second host on any session that matters.
We spent the opening fixing browser permissions one person at a time while the room waited.
A public system check page, a rebuilt camera and mic flow, and a waiting room with music so early arrivals land somewhere that feels finished.
We pushed features days before a client session and recording flaked at exactly the wrong moment.
Nothing ships into a client-facing week. If your program has a date, we freeze around it and tell you what changed.
Kolab is built for live sessions where people are meant to do something together. Here is where it's the wrong call, so you can rule it out in two minutes.
Five people and an agenda? Use the tool you already have open.
A one-to-many stream to a very large audience is a different product.
Use a community platform, with Kolab as the place that community meets live.
Mobile works, but the canvas and facilitator controls are built for a laptop. Tell us first if your cohort is phone-first.
Bridging a physical room needs someone whose only job is the bridge. No producer, plan all-virtual.
Persistent, reusable rooms are most of the value. A single session may not pay back the setup.
Adaptable text for the platform, engagement and data protection sections of a grant proposal.
Get the proposal languageSend this with every calendar invite so participants test their camera and mic before the session.
Run the system checkStep-by-step product documentation, and a dated list of everything that's shipped.
Open the docsKolab helped our virtual sessions feel like we were really in the room together. The spatial design and audio zones created an environment where people could move, connect, and share more openly.
Philip Davidovich, Project Director, Impact Fellowships Network (IREX)
Share the agenda for a session already on your calendar. We build it as a live Kolab space, record a short walkthrough of how it runs, and send both back within two working days. Free, yours to keep.
Ten a month, built by the TechChange facilitation team.
One short email when something new is published. Nothing here is gated, so skip this if you just want to read.