The standout
idea of this session from the Werklund School of Education at the University of
Calgary was the use of graduate students as technology coaches providing
support to instructors in the implementation of a new learning management
system (LMS). The presenters described
benefits that were realized by the student-coaches, the instructors, and the
Werklund School and provoked discussion about effective ways to roll out new
technology. One of the main strategies
and benefits seemed to be the collaboration that developed among IT, the
graduate students, the instructors/users and the presenters. It seems like a very simple and logical idea,
but I have not heard of many institutions using graduate students working in
this way with instructors.
The
presenters invited input from the small group who attended the session, and a
few Bow Valley College people offered comments.
I observed the implementation at
BVC was on a smaller scale and was focused on pilot projects followed by workshop. In addition, budget and resources were quite
different as the U of C graduate students were paid as coaches, and the
timeline seemed quite a bit longer.
Overall, the
session provided some strong ideas for future technology implementations in an
educational institution.
You can access the recording of this session, presented by Luciano da Rosa Dos Santos and Jennifer Lock, on the UO Conference website.
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