Workshop Phase 1 Wrap-up

Whew! I made it through the first batch of Blackboard workshops with my pilot group. I knew it would be a lot of work, but I think I'd forgotten how draining this type of training can be. It's actually been a couple years since I did this much intensive training. I was fairly removed from basic level induction and training at Griffith, and generally only got involved on the fancier stuff, and on advising EDs and MDs. The workshops I designed and ran at ACU seem like forever ago. Judging on the feedback and progress of the sessions at Bond, I think I've become much better at this sort of teaching since then!

Here's what I'm taking away from these sessions:

I need to revise the program for the first session. Almost all the groups I've had have been able to get through a lot more in the 3 hours than I thought they would.

My contingency strategies worked a treat. Always have a spare account handy for the staff member who can't login.

For the most part, Bond academics are very efficient, practical folk. They are very time poor and very much appreciate being given the information they need to get on with their jobs, but don't tolerate "waffle" very well. I need to come up with better strategies to make sure the theory and the pedagogy is seamlessly slipped in with the hands-on, practical skills. I think this will become easier as I improve my own understanding of educational theories and how they can be applied

Never underestimate the power of cake. These workshops are almost as draining for the academics as they are for me. I was amazed how much people revive after the mid-session break. I need to schedule it for earlier in the session though. An hour and a half is too long to go without breaking

Revising key skills throughout the workshop worked really well. I think my scenario approach was good, but I want to refine it more. After taking the group through how to add announcements, folders, and various types of content, I took them back out to the portal page and gave them the scenario of "I'm a lecturer and I need to post an announcement to my students about the mid-semester exam, and I need to upload this week's lecture notes. What do I do?". I then asked the group to instruct me on how to do these actions. They perked up a bit as they tried to recall all the 'click here, then here, then here' stuff we had just gone through. I think I will continue to do this, but set a more complex scenario at the end of the session as well, which includes the use of the communication tools and discussion board.

Keep it light and fun, but still focused. One of the sessions got away on me a little and I need to work on taking a more serious direction when this happens.

Writing this wrap-up has been really helpful in clarifying my own thoughts on this. I look forward to doing the post-pilot review and getting the academics thoughts as well