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Title:
Teach Beyond Your Reach
Review:
As a professional trainer, I know how to lead people when I'm standing
in front of them. But I didn't know how to transform an in-person
course into an e-learning course. "Teach Beyond Your Reach", by Robin
Neidorf, provides the answers.
The book and its companion website
http://www.electric-muse.com/tbyr.asp are written in an informal,
readable style that is suitable for instructors with or without
experience using e-learning techniques. The book takes the reader
through all aspects of creating and delivering a course or workshop
for adults. This starts with a review of multimedia teaching tools
backed up by useful sidebars which show, at a glance, the pros and cons
of each tool. For example, asynchronous discussion -- conversations on
a bulletin board or listserv -- works best for in-depth group
discussion.
Neidorf stresses that successful e-learning means getting to know the
students and developing a rapport with them. Learners need motivation,
stimulation and active involvement to excel in a distance-learning
environment. The book is packed with tips and best-practice examples
to achieve this. Have a look at Neidorf's checklist for the well-run
classroom for examples
http://www.electric-muse.com/pdf/Chapter5checklist.pdf.
I had naively assumed that the instructor's role stopped after
developing the course, but Neidorf's book shows that this is wrong.
Distance learning requires hours of preparation both before and during
the course; this is demonstrated in the chapter about the classroom,
which I found most interesting. She advocates using push communication
(the instructor delivers information to the students) rather than pull
communication (the learners are responsible for finding static
documents). For instance, the author's e-mail signature block includes
a classroom tip, which is rotated every few days.
Two chapters relate to instructional design and content development.
Initially an instructor must develop an instructional framework,
starting by considering learner needs and desired outcomes. This tip
is a good refresher for me, but I was interested to see how
establishing this framework for an e-learning environment differs.
"Teach Beyond Your Reach" does separate distance-learning design
particulars from physical classrooms. For example, Neidorf says a
unique characteristic of the online classroom is that while teachers
can present content in a linear fashion, they can also simultaneously
customise the same information for different learner groups.
Neidorf offers some tips on how to write this content. She recommends
working with the end-user in mind and using short sentences, as most
learners will be reading lectures on a screen. She advises not trying
simply to convert existing presentations because this does not make
best use of the web, which is visual and interactive. She suggests
making the online course into a virtual library, field trip and
scavenger hunt.
It's clear the virtual classroom provides instructors with a platform
to create exciting learning opportunities. This manual's strength is
that it describes real-life examples, and you know that the author is
speaking from her own experience. I would enjoy being in Neidorf's
class, but in the meantime, I'll learn what I can from her book.
Free Pint Reviewer:
Olivia Freeman works as a freelance trainer, researcher and
information-management specialist. She develops and delivers training
on topics such as strategic planning, evaluating information resources
and data protection. She undertakes strategic research, specialising
in research for product development and competitor monitoring in
financial services.
Olivia is active in professional groups and has held various executive
positions. She regularly speaks at meetings and conferences and has
published many articles published. She can be reached at
marketintellig1@btinternet.com
.
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