Workshop Announcement

How to produce an instructional module on the Internet

A pre-conference workshop of the Online Educa Conference 2006 in Berlin:

A Hands-On and Blended Learning Workshop for Teachers, Professors, Trainers and Educational Experts

Workshop Leader: Sebastian Hoffmann is a partner at Hoffmann & Reif Consultants, Germany, http://www.hoffmann-reif.com

Sebastian has been eLearning-/ICT consultant at the Hoffmann&Reif consultancy network since 2001. Before that he had been the Head of Department at an eLearning solutions provider in Germany. In 1996/1997 he worked as a member of the technical staff at the Tele-Academy in Germany, conceptualizing and implementing online-courseware and knowledge management infrastructures. In 1995 he developed eLearning applications for digital broadband systems at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. He studied Media Computer Science at the Furtwangen University of Applied Sciences (Black Forest, Germany).

At Hoffmann&Reif Sebastian is working in the field of strategic eLearning consultancy, cross-media publishing and knowledge management in the context of international business development projects.

Venue: Technical University of Berlin, Straße des 17. Juni, No. 135, Main Building, Room 3017, Phone: +49-170-316 0173

Content: Content and methods of this workshop are action- and result-oriented and participants will actually produce e-learning content along the lines of a “Rapid eLearning Production” methodology. Before the face to face workshop will start, a trainer team will offer participants a short preparatory phase on the internet. During the workshop, the participants themselves will design e-learning course modules, with every individual result not only to be produced but also to be published on-the-fly on the internet. An optional follow-up phase on the internet will help to consolidate the workshop results. Related to each personal achievement, a certificate may be awarded.

There will be an e-learning platform made available, on which participants can prepare themselves for the workshop by viewing and studying workshop relevant resources. With this approach participants can prepare themselves better and eventually will have a greater output from the workshop. Participants are guided to publish their e-learning course module to be produced on their PCs. Each participant will become the owner of a designated personal space on an e-learning platform. Here he/she will produce and publish his/her own e-learning module with the help of a cutting-edge Open Source based Learning Content Management System.

The workshop will include an introductory presentation on instructional design and web publishing. Then follows a live demonstration and hands-on exercises on the internet. Based on this warming-up phase, the participants are coached by the trainers to produce and publish their own e-learning course module. This is done by taking digitalised teaching material and aids such as text, graphics, photos, transparencies, etc., which the participants bring in from their actual lessons or seminars and by using this material for constructing an e-learning module.

A maximum of 20 workshop participants will make this workshop a very intensive exercise.

Target Audience: Workshop participants are educationalists, teachers, trainers, HRD experts and professors, who appreciate a workshop in which their active participation is required and who want to get insights into e-learning and web-based course production.

The participant´s project will be assessed through an online assessment procedure.

Prerequisite Knowledge and Requirements: Participants are familiar with working on a PC on the internet and instructional design. Every participant has to bring teaching material such as text, graphics, photos, transparencies, etc., related to the subject she/he is teaching in a digital format to the workshop.

Outcomes: The participants will apply newly acquired knowledge to their teaching and training practice. At the end of the workshop they will have developed a course module suitable for eLearning and face-to-face instruction at the same time.

They will perform the following tasks (outcome in brackets):

• to practise a Rapid E-Learning methodology for courseware development (course module);
• to author a WebQuest document (WebQuest);
• to publish instructional content on an e-learning platform (course home page);
• to experience blended learning (documented learning interaction);
• to teach online (tutor messages);
• to use online evaluation tools (online evaluation forms).