MC Strategies 2009 Administrator Roundtable Wikis, Blogs & Forums January 22, 2009 Happy New Year!

.  Definitions  Objectives – Do you need interactive communication with Learners?  Discussion:  Who will use them  How will you maintain them  Which format would you prefer  Wrap-up

Blogs: A blog or web log is generally maintained by an individual with regular entries that could be commentary, descriptions of events and other materials ( photos video clips etc. It is similar to keeping a diary or journal except ii is online and visible to a multitude of people.

Wikis Wikis are a type of collaborative website made up of pages of content designed to allow anyone to change the information. No special knowledge is required to contribute and or edit the information. The format could be similar to a dictionary or an encyclopedia or any document (ex: policy) that you want to allow input on.

Collaborative Writing The term collaborative writing refers to projects where written works are created by multiple people together (collaboratively) rather than individually. Some projects are overseen by an editor or editorial team, but many grow without any of this top-down oversight Collaborative Learning The term collaborative learning refers to projects where [ ] by multiple people together (collaboratively) rather than individually.

Message/Discussion Board An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site, or the modern equivalent of a traditional bulletin board. Discussion boards are usually web applications managing user-generated content.

Social Networking The term collaborative writing refers to projects where written works are created by multiple people together (collaboratively) rather than individually. Some projects are overseen by an editor or editorial team, but many grow without any of this top-down oversight

What Do You Need? Why are you interested in interactive communication ? Discussion: Those attending indicated they needed 2.0 technology to support a full blended learning program with collaboration between student and instructor, preceptor and learner, and/or for pre-event or post-event activities. What information are you trying to gather ? Discussion: Those attending indicated they needed an opportunity to assign staff additional activities, to dialog through learning issues, and/or to manage performance objectives, or provide post-event learning assignments and application of course information. How does it relate to learning activities? Discussion: Most of the discussion centered around discussions available as part of event management. Although mention was made of having a dialog available for on-line lesson information sharing, most discussion was around events (collaborative classroom learning).

Who Will Use them? Discussion: Learners, administrators, anyone within the learning program. Do you need to control permissions? Discussion: some level of permissions will be needed, but the conversation didn’t get into the details How will you maintain them? Discussion: Those attending indicated the format could be relatively standard. The system should retain the discussion for historical purposes, but they do not need to appear in the transcript. Which format would work best for you ? Discussion: Those attending indicated some level of discussion board would be most useful. They discounted the need to have wikis to build policies and procedures since they had other systems in-house that provided that support.

Select Development Partners (3-5) Objectives:solidify the design requirements for new functionality Commitment: 1.Participate in design meetings 2.Review/Test functionality 3.Help promote solution in the industry hours per week over the next 8-10 weeks If you are interested in participating as a development partner, please send your contact information to As of January 25 th we have space for 3 more partners.

February 19, Strategic Enhancements and Customer Support and Status on Collaborative Learning Development March 19th, 2009 Administrator Functionality and Permissions April 16th, 2009 Knowledge Manager – New! Competency Management and Assessments with Remedial Training Watch for future information regarding our first annual user’s group conference!