The Startup Training Approach of the MLL [1997]

Introduction

Following is an outline of the approach I took to orient and train faculty after installing the first integrated, multimedia CALL lab, the MLL, at CELOP.

 

Starting from scratch

• Selling CALL: The first task was to prove to the faculty that our new lab would offer everything the conventional lab did—and more that it didn't.
  • Demos: Sample lessons were demonstrated to faculty in an effort to show more than tell about the potential of the MLL.
• Flowchart: This was a graphical path to help faculty assess where they were and where they needed to go in order to hold classes in the MLL. This was accompanied by periodic memos explaining the various stages.
• Computer skills basics: Many faculty members did not have the Mac or computer skills to begin thinking about teaching in the MLL. Computer primers packaged with the Mac software and other applications as well as the MacAbilities Quiz and Tutorial were used for remedial work.
• Self-guided orientation: The Open Workshop Guide was developed to allow faculty to sit down at a computer with step-by-step instructions for perusing the applications and material available in the MLL.
• Segue activities: I designed a few lab activities to help faculty ease into the lab, using simple or familiar applications including Netscape and simple sound or video playing applications. For some of these, they used existing MLL material or their own.
• Workshops: One hour workshops were offered in the labs to acquaint faculty with vital applications, including the network interface and class management software. They participated in these as students and learned the student's perspective.

 

Continuing training

• Primers: Detailed, step-by-step written primers were developed and made available for faculty to learn more about using an application that they had seen while perusing the Open Workshop Guide. These were written in recognition of the fact that faculty were not going to read user manuals and needed something more succinct.
• Faculty tutors: A cadre of computer-savvy faculty emerged and, for one semester, received release time to develop material in the MLL. It soon became apparent, however, that they were more productive as faculty tutors, giving one-on-one help to colleagues who expressed interest in one MLL activity or another.
• Faculty workshops: This same cadre of computer-savvy faculty began giving workshops on the applications or activities that they specialized in, e.g., using collaborative writing software, writing web pages, using the commercial listening and text manipulation programs, scanning text, using simple authoring programs, etc.
• Self-access multimedia orientation and training: The next step in training was to make the written primers available on multimedia applications on the Mac to show as well as tell. HyperCard, HyperStudio, and SuperMacLang, among others, were used to deliver the computer version of these primers while also demonstrating the power of these applications to teach custom material.