Facilitating eLearning--a summary of what I learnt. 6 August 07

I was lucky enough to receive some one to one coaching from Leigh today, to help me get my head around some of the channels of communication in our Facilitate e learning course.
He should be in sales, because when I thanked him for his help, he replied that all I needed to do to repay him, was to post a summary of what I had learnt on my weblog.
Well that’s a good learning technique and so the following is my attempt to clarify for myself, how some of the technology in the course works. If this document helps others, then that is a bonus. As most of this technology is new to me I expect there will be some errors and omissions, however I hope that by the time other members of the group have had a look at it and added their pointers (and corrected where necessary) then we might have something that could be described as the Idiot’s Guide to surviving weeks 1 & 2…

Well it seems to me there are 5 channels I need to get to grips with at this stage. There will be more coming along later like Wiki, but that is for another day. The 5 are:

1 Blackboard:
This has the course material in it and assessment information. It is accessed at
https://emit.manukau.ac.nz

2 The Discussion Forum: This is a Google e-mail forum where members can talk about the course and associated issues (a bit like talking during the tea breaks in a face to face course). The e-mail address is:
learning-communities-aotearoa@googlegroups.com
At Otago Polytechnic I receive emails from this source in my usual Groupwise system and I can reply in the usual way.

3 Sometimes there will be e-mails, but from a different address as below:
Google Groups noreply@googlegroups.com
These are e-mails that relate to the management of the course e.g. Cheryl’s e-mail dated 1 August 07 where she asked to join the group. We receive these e-mails because the course facilitators want to hand over the management of the course to the participants.
Personally I’m not ready for dealing with management issues, so I ignored this one (sorry Cheryl). At this stage I’m struggling to deal with the basics. Perhaps later I will be able to engage with course management matters. However I can see the facilitators’ reasoning, because one day hopefully, we will be managing a course on line.

4 Course Blog (weblog)
It sounds to me as though this will become the main means of communicating about the course. It can be accessed at:
Online-learning-communities.blogspot.com
It contains:
instructions about the course (LH pane – info supplied by facilitator)
a calendar of upcoming events
a list of all links referred to
a list of topics put onto the discussion forum referred to earlier.
(2, 3 & 4 are in RH pane and are imported from other sources).

5 Individual weblog. For me this is accessed via following address:
kevinhelm.blogspot.com

Then I must sign in with my user name and password. We will be encouraged to load our assessment evidence, reports, comments etc into our individual blogs.

My blog is set up so that it automatically sends me an e-mail of what I have entered into it. When I asked Leigh why would I want an e-mail of what I have in my blog, his answer made a lot of sense. So that if I want to then pass that information onto the other members of the course I can do so easily by forwarding that email to:
Learning-communities etc.

Another advantage of an individual blog, is that it is an easy matter for the facilitators to have a look at everything I have done for assessment purposes.

Leigh reminded me this individual blog is available to the world so it should be professional – a chance to advertise myself / my work. I’ll have a go at including a photo in the blog at some stage.

So far I should have 3 postings (the term used for adding documents to a blog).

The first posting is about the work I do & myself.
The second posting is about the results from the learning styles & strategies (this has suffered a major format shake up in transferring from a Word doc. to Blog, so is anything but professional looking – I will need to tidy that up.
The third posting is this ‘Idiot’s Guide to surviving weeks 1 & 2.....( I have prepared this in Word and so I hope it transfers to the Blog without getting scrambled)

As well as the various communication channels, Leigh set up Elluminate software for me. We tried a microphone I had, but it was not receptive enough. Leigh’s advice – buy one from The Warehouse for $30 (an earpiece and microphone combo.)

For me the Elluminate sessions are difficult to attend because I am away from my office a lot. A solution looks like it may involve a laptop.

One final tip Leigh gave me was Tab Browsing sometimes called Power Browsing. This is a simple way to have multiple tabs open at once. Two ways to do this:
Control T and copy the address I want
Click the scroll wheel on mouse pad down (like a middle key) on the link in a doc and that puts that doc in a tab
That way I can read the parent doc and then open up each tab and view between tabs easily.

Tab Browsing was totally new to me and so I’m happy to pick up extra tips as I go.
I look forward to receiving feedback on these notes.
Thanks for your help Leigh

Cheers
Kevin

Learning Styles Results

Results for: Kevin Helm ACT X REF 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- --> SEN X INT 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- --> VIS X VRB 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- --> SEQ X GLO 11 9 7 5 3 1 1 3 5 7 9 11 <-- -->

If your score on a scale is 1-3, you are fairly well balanced on the two dimensions of that scale. If your score on a scale is 5-7, you have a moderate preference for one dimension of the scale and will learn more easily in a teaching environment which favors that dimension. If your score on a scale is 9-11, you have a very strong preference for one dimension of the scale. You may have real difficulty learning in an environment which does not support that preference. We suggest you print this page, so that when you look at the explanations of the different scales you will have a record of your individual preferences. For explanations of the scales and the implications of your preferences, click on Learning Style Descriptions. For more information about learning styles or to take the test again, click on Learning Style Page.

Kevin Helm

General:
I am a management trainer specializing in delivering "in-company training" in management and supervisory skills. I also assess candidates against unit standards on the NZQA framework.
Whilst my employer is Otago Polytechnic, my clients are drawn from the following industries especially: Food ( meat and dairy), Engineering, Transport, Construction and Manufacturing.

This work takes me all around New Zealand and involves working face to face in small groups. In the future I see myself becoming more involved in distance education and training/assessing more flexibly.

Areas of Expertise:
Identifying training needs.
Developing training initiatives to meet clients’ training needs
Training /developing individuals and groups in the skills of management and leadership: employing a full range of training techniques. These may be formal workshops/ seminars, on the job training, coaching/mentoring, experiential leadership development etc.
Guiding small work based project teams.
Assessing members against NZQA units and qualifications

Please see the Training and Consultancy Portfolio below for a detailed breakdown of disciplines:

Training Philosophy:
Will develop a sound base of management principles on which future training can be built. In doing so, the principles of leadership and quality management will be developed rather than quick fix solutions. Will focus on managing resources and leading people. Leadership issues will be based on values and principles. We will also be concentrating on applying the information, rather than examining theoretical issues.

TRAINING AND CONSULTANCY PORTFOLIO:

The current portfolio is made up as below. These may be presented within New Zealand or abroad by whatever means best suit the client.

1 Communications
Training the Trainers
Discussion Leading / Facilitation
Presentation Skills
Assertiveness
Written
Listening
Interviewing
Appraisal
Discipline
Selection

2 Organisation
Job description
Time management

3 People Management
Motivation / Leadership
Handling conflict
Disciplining
Delegation

4 Planning
Critical path methods
Operations

5 Production
Managing quality
Continuous improvement
Method study

6 Safety
Legal requirements (NZ)
Hazard spotting
Managing safety

7 Team Building

8 NZ Legislation
Health and Safety in Employment Act
Employment Relations Act
Human Rights
Privacy


Contact details:
Kevin Helm
Otago Polytechnic
Private Bag 1910
DUNEDIN
email: kevinh@tekotago.ac.nz
telephone +64 (0)3 479 6123
Cell +64 (0)21 735 458.