Library: the vanguard of Internet training

There is clearly a demand for our Internet skills courses. We have 21 people on the waiting list for Internet Skills in the Workplace and 11 people on the waiting list for our Web 2.0 Workshop. To help reduce this I’ve been arranging additional sessions. This means we are almost running a course a week. And noteworthy that the Library alone is providing these courses. This obviously has resourcing implications for the Library. However, we have received very good feedback from delegates so far, and it appears we are delivering what the organisation needs. So it's all absolutely worthwhile, and right that this is what the Library should be doing.

It has also become clear that due to the speed at which the Internet changes both courses will be in perpetual Beta. I have already helped to make quite a number of revisions to course materials in light of feedback from delegates, Library staff and new resources we felt should be included. But by being aware of changes to the Internet and new tools, it will be fairly easy to keep our materials updated. Whilst this will take some resource to manage, the benefits of up-to-date course materials make this investment in effort worthwhile.

So, no surprise that since my last update I have been involved in a lot of development of Library course materials. Specifically:

Internet Skills in the Workplace
I completed co-writing the Internet Skills in the Workplace course materials and ran through the new Internet Skills in the Workplace course with the rest of the team for comments.

Web 2.0 Workshop
I completed co-writing the Web 2.0 Workshop materials. As with the Internet Skills course this includes trainers and delegates manuals, presentation, exercises and the course checklist for the trainers.

We received feedback on Web 2.0 Workshop exercises from Library colleagues, and redrafted the exercises taking comments on board. This proved to be particularly useful as the exercises provide much of the course content.

So far, I have been co-presenting all Web 2.0 Workshops. But next Wednesday all Library staff will be given training which will enable all Library trainers to deliver this course.

Web 2.0 for Policymakers
I co-wrote the course materials for Web 2.0 for Policymakers, although a colleague did most of the research on this, finding may relevant examples of Web 2.0 in Government. The course was successfully delivered on 26/11.

After further updating and tweaking, course material for the Web 2.0 Workshops and Web 2.0 for Policymakers is now complete. The resources we added to the policymakers course helps ensure the focus is on tools for Government staff. Therefore it was decided to put all the content into our Web 2.0 Workshop and run that for everyone. Trainer’s notes will help ensure we focus on resources relevant to delegates.

Corporate Induction
Having co-presented a Corporate Induction session on 29/9 it was agreed to make the Library part a bit more interactive, and we would spend a couple of minutes asking delegates what they thought the Library could do for them. Writing their ideas on a flipchart before revealing what we do via the ppt slides. This simple change does seem to work and liven up the session a bit.

SG Web 2.0 blog
I set up a test SG Web 2.0 blog (http://sgwebtrainingtest.wordpress.com/) as a place to easily make our course materials available and to encourage discussion amongst SG staff on Web 2.0. If you wish to see our current course materials, take a look. However, we are considering other options, so very likely we do this via another tool. Watch this space!

A-Z list of Library resources
I’ve also been working with our Digital Comms team to make the Library’s list of resources more accessible. Applying metadata to each resource will enable us to do much more with this potentially useful list.

Back in the thick of it...

Back from my holidays for one week now. Felt I was in the thick of it by Monday afternoon :-)

So, still helping with our hour long Discover Web 2.0 session (as she is now named). Going to run through it for the first and only time tomorrow. Course is on Wednesday! 15 attendees of a possible 30 already booked.

I've added our Oct-Mar course programme to our online booking system, so I can at last link that through to our training module on our new look homepage, meaning I can at last publish that. Good feedback so far. So, pleased about that.

And good news our corporate communications team are getting all Web 2.0. Well, they're promoting some of the more mainstream social media tools, and they've been speaking to us about these. Thus enabling us to reference that in our Web 2.0 courses. I think this will improve the content, as it'll make it much more relevant to our staff.

Still loads to do though. Especially course-wise. Thankfully I'm only helping :-)

Oh, and I need to write a short summary of the usefulness (or not) of podcasting in the workplace. My instinct tells me this is untapped training tool, aswell as being an effective way to blog.

Off to bed now. Up earlyish tomorrow. Gawd!

Teaching Web 2.0 skills in the workplace

It's been Graft Central at my desk this week. Back from my hols for a week and (amongst other duties) I've...

Collated and considered feedback for our new look library homepage. Now written, waiting to be published. Now to sort out the rest of them. Stares blankly into the abyss.

Discussed tweaks to the new Internet Skills course. Which needs to be called something zestier than 'Internet Skills'. Mmmmm. Must work on that.

Also helping with the materials for a short interactive hour long Web 2.0 course, and a full 3 hour version of same. Yep. A 3 hour long webby course.

Staff want Web 2.0 tools. Glossing over the apparent demand for YouTube, it's clear there is a need for this. And more tools are being made available in our workplace to satisfy this expectation. So we really do need to show staff the most relevant. It will be interesting to see their expectations, assumptions and interest in these tools. Which ones will they want to use and why?

Anyway, all that left me so weak with effort that I'm on holiday. Again. This time there's no plan to do any work whatsoever.

Well...

Wot I did on my holidays...

Apart from lazing around, punctuated by moments of guilt that induces, I wrote the first draft of our Library Service's all new Advanced Internet Skills course. Yes. Be impressed. This will replace two previous courses we have been running on alternate months - Essential Internet Skills (EIS) and Advanced Internet Skills (AIS). EIS was pitched just a bit too low and undersubscribed as most folks opted to book on AIS. However, AIS course content was too broad.

The all new AIS will launch in October. I think (I hope) it will go down well with all concerned. More on this work in future postings.