Making Waves

VoluntElearning NSW

Making Waves

VoluntElearning NSWThe project VoluntElearn was designed to deliver accredited training to volunteer committees on the following modules:• Meet the roles and responsibilities of a Board Member• Work with the Manager• Monitor financial management and budgets

The Drivers in Our Community

• Small rural community based organisations are run by volunteers who often have no experience.

• It was recognised that support was needed to help the voluntary management committees better understand their roles and responsibilities.

The Drivers in Our Community

• It was recognised that as small training organisations CTCs needed to be able to deliver flexible, cost effective training in a manner that has the potential to reach a wider audience. There was also the increasing requirement for CTCs to be more proactive in new and emerging technology. This project enabled CTC staff to gain valuable skills to support these needs.

Map of area

Partners

Method

• The team explored a variety of ways to not only present course content using available technology but to also allow the group of trainers to meet and discuss presentation and issues.

• Methods used were;– Moodle for course content,

including forums, chat room, quizzes, and assignments.

– Wiki for content collaboration– delicious Social Book marking to

share resources– Eluminate and DiscoverE web

conferencing.

Method

A team were trained to develop and present the VoluntElearn course.

Training and development took place online using a variety of collaborative tools.

10 CTC’s were the “beta testers” for the course, held over 5 weeks with 5 CTCs, and again with the second group of 5 after a period of evaluation.

Moodle

Moodle is a course management system that is open source (free) and easily maintained.

We used moodle to present the course and as a staff room for teachers.

MoodleThe advantages of Moodle are, Editing at a clickEverything in one placeEasy accessible layoutDiscussion Forums

Wiki“A wiki is computer software that allows users to

easily create, edit and link web pages. Wikis are often used to create collaborative websites, power community websites, and are increasingly being installed by businesses to provide affordable and effective Intranets or for use in Knowledge Management. Ward Cunningham, developer of the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, originally described it as "the simplest online database that could possibly work".[1] One of the best-known wikis is Wikipedia.”

Taken from Wikipedia

We decided to use Wiki as a platform to allow the users to provide ongoingInformation on the roles and responsibilities that can be updated or changed by future students and be a live, relevant, up to date source of information.

Feedback - Learners

Feedback was gathered via a few ways, email, phone as well as from feedback

forms and forum posts. All of it helpful, but the best gave us examples of what

the learners wanted and where we could improve the delivery.

Examples of feedback: “The best part of the course was being able to do it online as distance and convenient time is an

issue. Thank you all for all the thought, energy and skills you put into it”

“The navigation around the sites is not smooth or easy, could we not have all bits lumped together as below, a clearer explanation of what is reference material etc e.g. Complete Task 1 in a Word document after reading suggested reference material-Legal Responsibilities. Complete Task 2 after reading the suggested reference material-Consult the Community. Also an explanation that the reference material is provided by a link to a totally separate site might be helpful. “

“I spent a good 8 hours for week 2. There were so many links and so much information that I found it difficult and a bit frustrating to get through without constantly backtracking and reopening areas that had been closed. I felt I was browsing too much without getting to the core of the subject. I personally feel I need more definite directions with my level of computer expertise.”

Feedback - Teachers

Feedback from teachers was easier to draw out. We met each week via web

conferencing and were able to discuss using voice and text our experiences

and issues.

By the end of the 1st round it was clear that having different platforms to present

the course was confusing and inconsistent. The wiki was the least liked and

was dropped.

As one of our teachers said, “When we commenced the training I was feeling very 

confused. There was a large amount technology we were

introduced to was overwhelming. I felt I was struggling with

all this information and didn't feel like I was getting anywhere.

I was pleased when a decision was made regarding the

technology we would use to present the  course as we could

now concentrate on becoming familiar with this.”

Barriers

Time

Technology

Experience

Engaging students

Variety of tools

Communication Channels

Not all barriers have been overcome at this stage however they have been identified and work is now in place to find solutions ready to implement for ongoing use.

Difference Made

• 10 Committees who have a better understanding of their roles and responsibilities.

• We discovered a variety of tools that can be used in future projects.

• We now have a team of Elearning trainers, who understand how difficult and highly skilled successful online delivery is who can act as mentors and trainers for the network of CTC managers.

• We now have a course that has been through beta testing and is ready for review, further testing and packaging.

Collaboration

Potential New Partners

Shire Councils

Non Profit OrganisationsSuch as Red Cross

Sporting Groups Such as Little A’s

Community GroupsSuch as Lands Council

SchoolsSchool Councils

P & F’s