Wednesday, June 29, 2005
Distance Education at AUC update
I have been working with the American University of the Caribbean in Les Cayes to try to pilot a distance education model using conferencing technology and members of the diaspora. We are getting very excited as I've just recieved our new projector, router, and speaker system with which we will launch the program.
To start enculturating University staff to the idea of using technology to do things. I have started holding meetings and training sessions in Centra. So far, I've had fairly good results. I would say to this point that the biggest challenge is setting the schedule and making sure that people show up. When they are online, the communication flows easily and we are able to make decent progress. Tools are fairly intuitive and people are comfortable using them. The bigger challenge is most definitely coordination. There isn't a phone there that I can call when they are running late or have network problems. This leaves me wondering where they are.
I've noticed that the best way to try to deal with this is to take on the responsability to do the coordinating. Sending out several reminder emails. Spending extra time on messenger to catch people when they happen to sign on. Things like that. I'm hoping that as we work to develop a culture of concious use of online tools that coordination will become easier.
To start enculturating University staff to the idea of using technology to do things. I have started holding meetings and training sessions in Centra. So far, I've had fairly good results. I would say to this point that the biggest challenge is setting the schedule and making sure that people show up. When they are online, the communication flows easily and we are able to make decent progress. Tools are fairly intuitive and people are comfortable using them. The bigger challenge is most definitely coordination. There isn't a phone there that I can call when they are running late or have network problems. This leaves me wondering where they are.
I've noticed that the best way to try to deal with this is to take on the responsability to do the coordinating. Sending out several reminder emails. Spending extra time on messenger to catch people when they happen to sign on. Things like that. I'm hoping that as we work to develop a culture of concious use of online tools that coordination will become easier.
