NetNews Usenet Archive 1993 #1

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Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!SLUVCA.SLU.EDU!MILLESJG X-Envelope-to: nettrain@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu X-VMS-To: @NETTRAIN Message-ID: <F56AF09AC0007A4F@SLUVCA.SLU.EDU> Newsgroups: bit.listserv.nettrain Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 11:30:00 CST Sender: Internet/BITNET Network Trainers <NETTRAIN@UBVM.BITNET> From: Jim Milles <MILLESJG@SLUVCA.SLU.EDU> Subject: Some Training Initiatives Lines: 504 ------------------------------ Message follows ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 08 Jan 93 10:07:07 GMT From: Jill.Foster@newcastle.ac.uk I sent this out on various lists earlier this week. (How COULD I have forgotten this list!). I'd be interested to hear of any national training initiatives and of training materials. Jill Foster Network Training: Status Report - Dec '92 ========================================= As the range of information on the network expands - so does the potential user population. It is essential that these users receive training in using the networked facilities - in particular in making effective use of the tools available for searching for and retrieving information. The following notes are a distillation of thoughts and experiences as a result of: o UK NISP/ITTI Network Training Materials Project (at Newcastle upon Tyne, UK) (started June 1st '92). o Discussion on: itti-networks@mailbase.ac.uk o and at JANET User Support Workshop Sep '92. [Note that there is a glossary of most of the abbreviations used at the end of this report.] o UK NISP activities with training special subject groups. o RARE/IETF WG Sessions on Training Materials PISA and Washington Nov '92 wg-isus and us-wg A report of the Washington session is included as Appendix A. o The "Internet/BITNET Network Trainers" List: NETTRAIN@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu o Aarnet Training workshops by Newcastle (NSW, Australia) network training team and subsequent presentations and discussions at the Aarnet Networkshop Dec '92. I am Project Manager of the NISP/ITTI Project, Chair of RARE Information Services and User Support WG and co-chair of the RARE/IETF Training Materials WG. What's Happening? ----------------- The NISP/ITTI Project and RARE/IETF Training Materials WG aim to collect together existing network training materials, identify the gaps in materials available and produce materials where appropriate. The aim is to provide generic materials that may (if required) be tailored to specific sites and/or subject groups. The training is to enable them to make effective use of networked information services. A TopNode style template for the collection of this material will be issued. This type of information is already being collected in the UK (by the NISP/ITTI Project) and the Australians have agreed to do the same. In addition common problems associated with network training are being discussed. NISP Subject group training: One of the aims of the UK NISP Project is to help groups of academics build electronic communities. Work is in progress with several groups. The original idea was that, as part of this, a subject specialist would be trained to train his/her colleagues. In practice we have been running the workshops/seminars with some help from the subject specialist. National (UK) training workshops and seminars have been already been held for librarians and humanities staff. Various seminars have been held for physiotherapists and a variety of other groups; more workshops and seminars are planned. There has also been some work done with local faculty liaison librarians. Australia: Several university libraries and Newcastle University Library (NSW) in particular are making very effective use of librarians to train both other librarians from various institutions and small groups from particular departments within an institution. University of Newcastle Library (NSW, Australia) had local funding to develop a network training programme. Enid Roberts (Sydney) acted as Consultant and Jim Cleary and his team trained faculty members and ran "train the trainer" workshops. They have covered most university libraries in NSW and Brisbane. They seem to have been quite successful in this. Newcastle (NSW, Australia) found it best to second faculty librarians part-time. This meant staff kept in touch with printed material too. Also short term contract staff tended to leave taking their newly developed skills with them. Both the NISP subject group training and the Australian training involves presentations, live demonstrations and a significant amount of hands-on experience in workshops with course sheets. At the IETF in Washington the participants in the training session were mainly from Computing Services. Apart from the "Mining the Internet" Sessions and the Merit NSFnet training sessions, there seemed to be (relatively) very little in the way of user hands-on training being done. Those trainers from Australia (at the Oz networkshop) that were doing hands on sessions usually took between 5 and 15 people (Newcastle (NSW) occasionally had up to 30 at once). I should point out that both the Australian and North American groups I talked may not be a typical sample of the population of trainers. There are undoubtedly numerous local training initiatives and subject specific training initiatives of which we are not aware, but about which we'd be very pleased to hear! The Role of the Librarian in Network Training --------------------------------------------- Before visiting the Australian group, we had started liaising with our faculty librarians. Having seen how successful the Australian method has been, I am convinced that faculty/reference librarians should become involved in training their users to use the network and to search for information of relevance to them. They should know the networked information in their subject just as well as the printed information - and just as they help users to find printed information they should help and train them to find on-line information. Library staff have experience in managing information resources and in reader education. They also have good links with faculty staff. My feeling is that the ideal "coalition" for a training team is: o Computing Service staff o Faculty librarian(s) o Subject specialist (for feedback and input and for local (departmental) support) o Staff Development Officer This naturally brings up all sorts of problems about job descriptions, demarcation etc and some people (often computing service staff) become "territorial". In recent presentations I've talked about today's users being able to roam the global network unrestricted by local or national barriers: "Le USER sans frontieres". What we need therefore is to join forces and co-operate to provide "Le USER SUPPORT sans frontieres". There are more users than enough to go around! and by pooling our resources and making the most effective use of our various skills we can do much to improve effective usage of the network. Evaluation ---------- Feedback is important. Most trainers attending the trainer's discussion panel at the Australian Networkshop did have an evaluation sheet - but I haven't heard of any who go back say a month later to find out how they've got on and what they've used. I believe it is very important to give the group something to aim at: then ideally get the group back 2-4 weeks later for a further training session - and a joint discussion on what they found useful, what other training needs they have - and to share what they have discovered. If it isn't convenient to get them back, and they are all email users (or new email users) - perhaps we could use email to get them pooling their ideas and providing feedback on the training. Geoff Isaacs (Staff Development Officer at University of Queensland) urged us to include standard staff development and evaluation techniques. He said that it was important to include open questions - as most feedback was received in answer to these. He suggested that the users be asked to keep a diary of their network usage and discoveries for a month as one useful indicator of whether the training had been worth doing. (And they may well discover useful sources for including in future training programmes.) Training Strategy ----------------- Karen Scott of University of Wollongong (one of the first to provide training) gave a short (10 minute) presentation at the Training Panel (Australian networkshop) which neatly summarised the major issues: As part of training strategy o enlist help (library, computing service, department) o plan and document aims and objectives o include strategies to teach concepts and skills that will carry over to the future. o List your resources o Skills in the group and who is responsible for what o Audio Visual aids have access to o Suitable venue for training - near to users own facilities if possible. o Support staff from User Community: recruit someone from each department to filter enquiries o Evaluate the current skills/needs/hardware/software of users. o Plan to market the applications as part of your training. How for example the use of gopher will help in that department o Relate new concepts to what users already know For example: Pull something from the network and print it out. Tell the trainees that this is like going to the library and getting a photocopy. [Karen felt it was important to do something like this to give a concrete example of using the network in a way they could relate to their normal working experiences.] o Provide handouts with login information for specific (relevant) information resources - email lists etc o Teach responsibility in the use of resource (for example: look locally first) [Network etiquette etc] o Always ask for evaluations following your training And I would add o Follow up i.e. don't just use evaluation sheets at the end of the session - but tell the group you'll get back to them in 2 to 4 weeks to see what they've used, discovered/found useful. And do it! o Error/problem shooting: Teach your users to be independent - to start to be able to solve problems in using the network themselves. Help them by de-mystifying the network for them. The emphasis should be on understanding and the relevance to their everyday work situation. Hand out lists of interesting resources (e.g. Yanoff's or December's) - some actually tailored to suit the audience if possible. The training groups we talked to aim to pool these subject specific guides and add to them. We would like to hear from people who have put together subject specific guides or training materials. Concluding Remarks ------------------ o Most people in Europe, US and Australia are working basically along the same lines - It is very reassuring to see that we are able to gain a lot by pooling resources and experiences here. o If you do decide to try a network training programme, run a pilot and make sure you include some staff not experienced in the use of computers on the network o Consider putting new network users in touch with a network "buddy": someone more experienced than they are in using the network - who would be willing to act as their network mentor. o Join one of the Working Groups and share your network training experience and materials. Jill Foster 5.1.93 Glossary -------- NISP: Networked Information Services Project. Based at Newcastle and centrally funded by the UK Information Systems Committee. Runs the national Mailbase (mailing list) Service and helps subject groups build their electronic communities. ITTI: Information Technology Training Initiative. UK wide - centrally funded. NISP/ITTI Network Training Materials Project: a two year project (start date June '92) to produce a mix and match pack of existing and new generic network training materials. IETF: Internet Engineering Task Force. RARE ISUS WG: Association of European Research Networks (RARE) Information Services and User Support Working Group References ---------- Yanoff: Special Internet Connections compiled by Scott Yanoff anonymous ftp csd4.csd.uwm.edu pub/inet.services.txt December: Information Sources: the Internet and Computer-Mediated Communication John December anonymous ftp: Host: ftp.rpi.edu, file: pub/communications/internet-cmc Appendix A ========== Report of Washington Session on Network Training - Jill Foster [The full IETF "Trip Report" is stored on the UK Mailbase Server. To retrieve a copy, email to Mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk with the following command in the body of the message: send wg-isus ietf.11.92 Alternatively use anonymous ftp to: mailbase.ac.uk file: pub/wg-isus/ietf.11.92 ] Training Materials BOF: Ellen Hoffman and Jill Foster ===================================================== The proposal was to form a joint IETF/RARE Working Group on network training materials and the problems associated with network training. The main objectives are: o to provide a comprehensive package of "mix and match" training materials for the broad academic community. o to provide a catalogue of existing training materials. I briefly described the UK NISP/ITTI Training Materials Project (which has very similar aims) and circulated a print out of the catalogue of training materials collected so far. The fields used were based on the TopNode Data Elements - but some more discussion is needed. (Pete Percival and Craig Summerhill of TopNode were at the IETF.) The members of the BOF (Birds Of a Feather) introduced themselves and described their training activities. Many gave presentations to their users on using the network and the networked services, but only a few provided hands on training. Those that were noted that this was very popular and successful. The group agreed to help to produce a catalogue of training materials on using the network (using the TopNode Data elements). CNIDR volunteered to host that database. The group plan to evaluate existing training materials and to identify materials to be produced. Problems related to network training were also discussed. The charter was agreed (with some changes for clarification) and it was proposed that a Training Materials WG be formed. Discussion is to take place initially on the us-wg list. Other "network training" lists are: o the "Internet/BITNET Network Trainers" list NETTRAIN@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu (which is quite "noisy" but nontheless useful) To join, mail to: listserv@ubvm.cc.buffalo.edu the command (in the text of the message): subscribe nettrain firstname lastname (substituting your own first and last name) o the UK ITTI Network Training Materials Project email list itti-networks@mailbase.ac.uk To join, mail to: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk the command (in the text of the message): subscribe itti-networks firstname lastname (substituting your own first and last name) The Merit/NSFnet Training Sessions included presentations followed by informal hands on workshops. Their Internet Cruise (disk based presentation) was also well known. It had been translated into Spanish: "El Cruso!" Also mentioned were: o The Internet Hunt (a monthly set of questions, the answers to which can be found scattered across the Internet) o Mining the Internet: UC Davis - a hands on workshop o Navigating the Internet. An Interactive Workshop. (Made available over the network and which closed subscriptions at 15,000!). Some sites put information on disk for training session attendees to take away. This information ranged from: Zen and the Art of the Internet to the various directories of information and mailing lists. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% OWN Notes: not for redistribution ================================= Training Panel Charmian Mitchell Newcastle Two separate two hour tutorials. One "technical". One trainer talks, then two help "hands-on". Mixed ability - sit novice next to expert user. Manual and Q&A worksheets. At back screen dumps and answers to help computer literate ones go through quicker. Kay Suters: Medical worksheets, trained 75 academics this year. Template for training materials on aarnet user support list. All on email (even book shop). Broadcast information on new resources (library staff) - De's machine. Zip slide shows too. Cecil Goldstein, QUT (Aarnet user guide) * aarnet course: telnet, ftp, news, email. * email course: email requires most interaction at local end. Number of courses for different systems. Email as tool: organise mail correspondence - electronic medium. emphasised addressing concepts - and what happened when use it and how to get email addresses. Aarnet: focuses on four main aarnet services and 3 hours (need more) May split courses. Emphasis on understanding. Take away mysticism. So if make mistake not worried. What use ftp for - scenarios. Don't train undergraduates. Diverse audiences. Will establish a training group - screen potential attendees (background etc). Start from basics. Find consolidation. Seven lists of faculty specific. But hand out sheets of interesting sources. Guided on-line experience post. Multi campus. 1. Restructure course. 2. Use network to deliver training - on-line tutorials. Get screen to show what would get if type command. 3. Departmental promotion of aarnet. Fifteen minute presentation - "recorded" session (not live demo) with examples of information sources (ftp etc) for that particular department. Geoff Isaacs. Student evaluation form (open questions needed). user-support-request@aarnet.edu.au ftp infolib.murdoch.edu.au o Various Australian librarians were using the Lipow/Tennant book (ref) (with permission) for handouts during training sessions. Lipwow Tennant o DATE and contact person should be listed on all training materials. Some sites had produced operating system specific hand outs. Some used XFerIt and Turbogopher on Macs. Others had Unix, DOS and VMS specific worksheets. Handouts on: Information Resources to telnet/ to archie/ Finding email addresses (whois, X-500 etc)/ Mailing lists John December list (Ref)