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E-Learning
OverDrive’s Training Month
Jul 15th
This is for those of you in libraries that offer OverDrive digital media for checkout to your patrons. Here at MPOW, I am offering people the ability to come to the main System office to watch the Webinars together in a conference room on a large screen TV. This is helpful for those who don’t have a dedicated computer they can use to join the Webinars. It will also generate some useful discussion before and after the Webinars. These will also count towards continuing education credit hours for anyone who attends. I attended these last year and found them to be very good. This is just another way to make less work for a single trainer and to utilize e-learning.
OverDrive’s Training Month.
September 2010.
Free online courses for library staff, beginner to advanced
Register now!
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OverDrive’s Training Month is an educational and fun program to increase staff knowledge and help maximize circulation of your OverDrive ‘Virtual Branch’.
Registration is now open. To guarantee the best selection of available dates and times, sign up now.
Sessions will be offered online throughout September with open enrollment for individuals and groups. Contests and prizes are included.
NEW for 2010: In response to participant feedback, audio for Training Month sessions will be provided via speakers/headphones on your computer. A phone connection is NOT required.
The curriculum includes courses covering each aspect of your OverDrive service:
- Collection Checklist
With OverDrive’s collection checklist, you’ll be quickly up to speed with online ordering. Best of all, you’ll learn how to attract users to your Virtual Branch website by creating an exciting and easy to maintain collection. - Browse, Check Out, and Download!
Join us as we demonstrate how to browse, check out, and download titles from a library’s Virtual Branch website. At the end of this course, staff should feel comfortable answering basic questions about your OverDrive service. - Patron Assistance
We’ll help take your understanding of your OverDrive service to the next level so you can share your knowledge through support and training. We’ll review frequently asked questions, support tips, and online help resources. - Community Outreach
In this session, we’ll share creative, easy, and cost-effective ideas for introducing new patrons to your OverDrive service. We’ll also feature prize winners from this year’s ‘Outreach Program’ contest. - Real-Time Reports
We’ll showcase reports which best track circulation, new patrons, site traffic, and popular titles. Your team can then evaluate how your Virtual Branch is doing, and chart a path to future success. - Mobile Update
In this session, you will be introduced to new mobile access options for users. Devices highlighted include iPhone®, BlackBerry®, Android™, and more. We’ll also preview upcoming mobile features.
More than 7,500 librarians participated in Training Month 2009 and four libraries were the lucky winners of OverDrive’s Training Month award packages. Don’t miss out in 2010!
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Loading ...ALA 2010 Training Showcase On YouTube
Jun 28th
Howdy from ALA 2010.
It is hot and humid. Really hot and humid. If you are attending ALA and missed the Training Showcase to take a dip in your hotel pool, I understand. So if you were otherwise engaged in cooling off activities or were unable to make your way here to Washington DC, do not fret.
Here is Stacy as an excellent example of the brief but effective videos. You can find the rest bu clicking the playlist links above. I hope these videos give you a flavor of the great Learning RoundTable ALA 2010 Training Showcase.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Free Web Seminar – Building An Online Community In Your State
Jun 9th
Tomorrow, Thursday June 10th, ALA Learning writer Maurice Coleman, along with Nini Beegen, Maryland Online Learning Coordinator, Maryland State Department of Education, Division of Library and Development Services are presenting a web seminar tomorrow at 1 pm eastern time for WebJunction about Building An Online Community In Your State.
Click here to register for this free web seminar.
I hope to see you all tomorrow.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Project Runway: 5 lessons for training and design
Mar 23rd
I recently got hooked on Project Runway, the reality show in which aspiring fashion designers compete to create new designs within significant restrictions on time, materials, and theme. I’m not a fan of reality shows nor am I a fashionista, but I find it fascinating to watch the participants’ responses to working creatively under intense pressure. I see some application to training and instructional design.
1. Mind the scope
The Project Runway participants perform under grueling time constraints. They hear about the theme of the week, make some quick sketches, go shopping with specified budget and time limits, start fabricating, fit their models, and polish the garments into readiness for the runway—all within a 15-hour day, followed by a 4-hour stint. It is critically important for them to gauge their designs to what can effectively be accomplished in that relentless schedule. Awareness of the realistic scope of a project is essential. In episode 6 of this season, Amy launched into an ambitious effort to create a pair of pants out of multi-layered, overlapping petals of fabric. She miscalculated the scope of the effort needed to pull it off successfully and she ended up being smacked down by the judges. Instructional designers and trainers also need to be mindful of scope. Although they may have more time to create training modules, the time constraint is in the delivery of the learning. It is tempting to cram too much into a lesson, to overload the learner and defeat the learning. Know your parameters and design accordingly.
2. Failure is okay …to a point
On Project Runway, designers are encouraged to take risks. Those who play it safe or stick to reliable formulas are not likely to arouse the judges’ admiration and votes. In many organizations, there is increasing attention to the productive aspects of risk-taking and failure. All this is good. However, there should be self-check points along the path of risk. When Jonathan’s colleagues were referring to one of his dresses as an explosion in a toilet paper factory, it was time for him to stop and seriously appraise his direction instead of plunging blindly ahead (episode 6). When Amy worried about the unruliness of her hair-filled, cowl-necked dress, it would have been a good move to just cut it off and rethink her expression of the concept (episode 8). Risk-taking stretches designers and trainers in new directions, but if those directions are not productive, know when it’s time to pull out and start over.
3. Limitation is liberating
In my favorite episode of this season (#7), the crew headed to the hardware store to buy all of their materials. As usual, they had a limited budget and time in which to make purchases. This combination of constraints produced some of the most impressive fashion creations I’ve seen on the show. Jay fabricated a stunning haute couture outfit out of black plastic garbage bags and blue painters tape. Mila sliced up black and white plastic paint tray liners into an amazing dress that totally belied the humble materials. By contrast, a later design challenge that was conceptually wide open, asking for fashions evoking earth, air, fire, or earth, yielded the least interesting garments. It’s tempting to seek out ever more sophisticated design tools to deliver effective training, but it’s a good exercise to see what you can accomplish with humble materials and simple techniques.
4. No prima donnas
Episode 9 paired the remaining eight designers in teams, forcing these highly individualist design sensibilities to work collaboratively. Jay, who has displayed superstar qualities in design and craftsmanahip, bombed seriously when he had to work with Mila. The animosity between the two of them was right on the surface. Mila was able to keep cool and focused but Jay stumbled badly. He was not able to manage his emotions and concentrate on the outcomes. Not only was his design poorly conceived, it was poorly crafted—a setback for the man who had produced that brilliant garbage bag outfit. There’s more room for prima donna behavior in the fashion world than there is in the training world. In training, collaboration is common. Even for those trainers who work solo, there is always team-building with your learners. Excellent training design and delivery is underwritten by those soft skills that enable good communication and teamwork.
5. Be unruffled
I am always impressed at the calm and confidence of the designers as they watch the models walk the runway in their creations. They speak with assurance about the concept and the technical effort they had put into the fashions, even if they are about to be cast out of the competition. In training, it’s the learners who are the ultimate judges. Go before them with confidence, take critiques in stride, and take your lessons learned back to the drawing board for the next round.
(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Five Tips For Successful Webinars
Mar 15th
Good webinars don’t just happen. Beyond having a relevant topic and a great presenter, there are a number factors that affect the end result. Whether you are scheduling and producing webinars, or creating and presenting them, these tips will help you deliver a great webinar experience for everyone.
- Write for the medium: Regardless of the webinar platform you use, tailor the lesson plan to the webinar environment. Most webinars consist of an audio feed, a chat space, and a space that allows the presenter to share a slideshow, and possibly share their desktop or a whiteboard. The webinar environment doesn’t allow for the useful visual cues that body language and eye contact provide in a f2f environment, and may not even provide audio feedback for the presenter. For these reasons, well-designed lessons that work like a charm in a f2f environment might fail to engage the audience and hold their attention in a webinar environment.
You can mitigate these issues and engage the audience by building in more questions, and taking advantage of whatever interactive features are offered in your platform. Does your platform offer polling? Use it! Shared whiteboard? Use it! Hand-raising or yes/no capability for participants? Use them!!
MORE INTERACTION
I like to start webinars by posting a map of the state (or country) and asking participants to use the arrow tool in Wimba to point to where they are on the map. This communicates to the participants early on that the webinar will not be a passive experience for them–they are going to be involved. I also work with trainers/presenters to build in slides/questions that can be drawn on (literally) during the webinar, and encourage presenters to include these types of interactive activities throughout the presentation. At minimum, plan on using more questions, and using them early, to mentally engage participants and create the expectation that they will not be passive observers.
- Know your platform: There are many good webinar platforms out there including Acrobat Connect Pro, iLInc, Elluminate, Wimba, WebEx, DimDim, and GoToWebinar. Each platform has its own benefits and its own limitations. You wouldn’t go into a f2f training without knowing the room layout and the availability of training tools such as chartpads, markers, laptop, AV, projectors, screen, etc., so don’t go into your webinar environment without knowing the layout, the tools available, and how to use them. Most webinar platforms offer some great screen-shot heavy help files and/or recorded screencasts you can use to learn the layout and the tools. Find them. Use them. Once you know your platform…
- Test, Test Test: The most common reason a webinar tanks is technology failure. Wait, let me rephrase that. The failure is not the technology, but the failure of the webinar producer, presenter, and participants to account for the platform’s limitations, and prepare and test their computers. Each platform has it’s own requirements regarding browsers, operating systems, necessary bandwidth, and downloads/plugins recommended or required. Each platform generally offers a simple link that can be clicked to setup/test the user’s computer. Every person involved in the webinar must click the setup link prior to the webinar and make certain their computer is set up, tested, and ready to go. Send this information out early and often to the participants. And make sure the presenter has tested/setup the computer they will be presenting from, and make sure it is a wired, not wireless, connection.
Let everyone know the preferred method of audio participation. Nothing beats a good noise-canceling headset. (I love my Logitech Premium Notebook Headset.) If you’re offering dial-in access, send/post the number/PIN. If participants are going to use laptop or desktop speakers, make sure they know to mute their microphones! Nothing ruins a webinar faster than feedback (which is why you also need to know how to mute participants individually or en masse–it’s a lifesaver.) - Practice, Practice, Practice Whether you are the webinar producer, presenter, or both (not recommended), it is imperative that you log some practice time in the webinar environment. I highly recommend that there is at least one “producer” in the webinar (i.e. someone other than the presenter who knows the webinar platform cold.) The more experienced the producer, the less time the presenter has to practice–but the presenter ALWAYS has to practice. At minimum, the presenter should know how to advance slides (if using them), and how to log out and log back in again, in case of a network interruption. Desktop/application sharing, a vital part of some webinars, adds a higher level of complication, and usually requires the presenter to master the application sharing mechanism–something that is not always simple or intuitive. The producer needs to know everything else: How to advance slides, how to mute participants, how to expand/limit control of various room features (whiteboards, control of microphone, etc.), how to toggle between various features (polls, whiteboards, slides.)
- THE ACTUAL EVENT: So, the presenter has written a great lesson, you’ve learned your platform inside and out, everything has been setup and tested. Now there’s just the little matter of actually having the webinar! Here are a few tips that I’ve found will greatly reduce problems and add to the overall quality on the day of the event:
- Arrive early: Both the presenter and producer should arrive at least 15 minutes early to get logged in and do a final test to make sure the technology is working, and do one final review of the tools/features to be used.
- Webinar Environment Review: Before the presenter begins the lesson/presentation, spend five minutes doing a brief review of the webinar environment with participants. Walk them through playing with the features that they will be using during the webinar (writing tools, pointing tools, etc.)
- Have a wingman (or woman): In webinar parlance, the wingman is the the producer’s assistant. The wingman ideally knows the webinar platform inside and out, and is available to help participants with any tech/audio issues, and keep an eye on chat for questions or problems.
- Recording: Yeah, it’s a newbie mistake, but it happens to everyone. Don’t forget to hit “record”! (I put this right into my script in 24 point bold type. But then again, I need notes to myself to remember to leave the house with my pants on in the morning. Whatever works for you.)
- Take notes during the webinar: During the course of the webinar many useful resources and/or URL’s may be mentioned by the presenter or by the participants in chat. It’s a great value-added service if you can capture these resources and post them with the recording and other handouts (i.e. the presenter’s slideshow, supporting documents) after the webinar.
- Save the chat: Before logging out, copy and paste everything in the chat into a word document and save that document… Besides being a good backup for the recording, having a text copy of the chat to share with the webinar participants after the webinar can help them quickly find useful pieces of information that may have been shared in chat. I treat the chat transcript as semi-confidential and I don’t post it–but depending on the webinar I will send copies directly to those who participated.
- Extend the Learning. Post the recording, notes, handouts: Finally, spend some time in post-production (the specifics vary with each webinar platform) and get the recording posted to a website along with related documents and the presenter’s presentation, if available.
I hope you find these five tips useful in creating or presenting your webinars. Let us know what works for you!
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