Fermilab LInC Online

Fermilab LInC Program Plan for 2000/2001

Team: Fermilab


This shows a sample roll-out plan using the program you are in now as an example.

LInC Online Course

Test chat date: Wednesday January 3 Chat meeting day before class starts to meet facilitators and classmates and to make sure chat software is working
Start date: Wednesday January 10 First day of class - Almost all past teams have chosen to offer their first course in the winter. This allows time in the fall for enrolling participants and making sure all tools and materials are ready. Please coordinate with your facilitator for all dates and times in your 2001/2002 plan. We would like to have you continue with guidance from your current facilitator. To make this possible, you will need to pick mutually convenient times.
End date: Wednesday April 18 Last day of class - Typically the class lasts 14 weeks, not counting the test chat or vacations.
Chat meeting day: Wednesdays Day(s) of week you will hold your chats - Typically at least 2 hours weekly is needed.
Chat start/end time: 6:00 - 8:00 PM CST Time of day your chats will be held, include time zone - Typically at least 2 hours weekly is needed.
Weekly staff meeting day/time: Wednesdays after chat (30 min online) and face-to-face staff meetings on Thursdays 5:00 - 6:00 P.M. CST Day of week and time (including timezone) you will get together for weekly staff meetings - Typically at least one hour is needed.
Audience: K-12 teachers, library media staff, curriculum coordinators, and staff developers Describe the primary audience for your course.
Number of participants: 37 participants with 6 facilitators
(Stephen Meehan, Sharon Gatz, Sharon White, Pat Pentek, Chris Marszalek, and Jill Mueller)
12-20 is the suggested number for a first course. Please do not exceed 24. Typically each facilitator works with 4-6 participants (1-3 project-teams).
Course modification (optional): Have teams complete a plan for their own LInC course roll-out instead of the usual staff development plan for their school/district. The plan will ask for information needed for the teams to be most productive at the facilitator academy. Knowing specific dates and having web and bulletin board space will allow them to complete more of the materials needed for their class during the academy. It will also allow them to upload their materials to wherever they will reside for their course and to make the postings on their bulletin board that are needed for the start of the course. Describe the modifications (if any) you are planning for the course. You may need to make modifications if you have a different audience such as pre-service teachers. If you do not need to make modifications for a different audience, you may wish to avoid making a lot of changes until after you have offered the course one or two times and feel more comfortable with the process and tradeoffs.


Facilitator Academy

Start date: June 19 or July 10 First day of facilitator academy - This is typically offered over the summer.
Number of days: 4 Length of your academy - Typically this is 3 days for participants who will be offering a shorter staff development than a full LInC course. Your participants are not expected to offer a full LInC course or an online course.
Academy format: face-to-face Online or face-to-face


Course Enrollment

Coordinator: Laura Mengel
lauram@fnal.gov
630-840-8107
Fermilab, Mail Stop #120
P.O. Box 500
Batavia, IL 60510
Who will be taking the lead for organizing this aspect? Please include contact information (e-mail, phone, and address).
Announcement date: August 1, Applications due on October 1 When will your team start announcing the course to others? Typically this needs to be started 4 months before your course starts.
Steps:
  • E-mail relevant listservs such as state listserv for library media specialists, technology coordinators listserv, staff developers listserv, ...
  • Announce at local, state or national conference presentations. (In our case: NECC, SITE, IMPEL, APS, and NCREL)
  • Announce at local or state meetings such as a county/district meeting of technology coordinators.
  • Announce in a university course schedule or a brochure published by your organization.
  • Call and/or meet with leaders in districts that we would like to work with. If interested, ask them to recommend staff they would like to be on a LInC leadership team in their district.
What steps will you take to let prospective participants know about your course? Who will you e-mail, meet with, call, or U.S. mail? In what publications and listservs can you post information about your course? When is the deadline for inclusion in these publications? What events can you attend to let potentially interested parties know about the course?
Incentives:
  • 6 graduate credits at low cost ($50 per credit)
  • Web editor and chat software
  • Stipend
What incentives can you provide to your course participants?
Credit: Aurora University collaborating academic partners program - Agencies must fill out forms to become a partner. New course requests must be made 60 days in advance and include a syllabus and a new course request form. How will you arrange to have credit granted for your course? What is the process for getting a new course approved? What deadlines are involved?
Screening: Online application with questions about technical prerequisites, vision for effective use of technology, availability for program commitments; committee of 6 facilitators to review applications How will you make sure your applicants have the qualifications needed to be successful in your course?
Leadership: Online application with questions about support needed and past staff development experience; support letter from key administrator listing the needed support items How will you make sure your applicants have the administrative support and capabilities needed to provide leadership and offer staff development in their schools/district after the course?


Technical Issues and Support

Technical Support: Note: It is recommended this be a different person than your course coordinator.

Laura Mengel
lauram@fnal.gov
630-840-8107
Fermilab, Mail Stop #120
P.O. Box 500
Batavia, IL 60510
Who will set up the communication tools for your course and provide support on technical issues? Please include contact information (e-mail, phone, and address).
Clerical Support: Note: It is recommended this be a different person than your course coordinator.

LaMargo Gill
lgill@fnal.gov
Fermilab, Mail Stop #226
P.O. Box 500
Batavia, IL 60510
Who will provide clerical support such as copying course handouts, sending out mailings, taking course registrations, updating assignments status sheet, ... Please include contact information (e-mail, phone, and address).
Web/FTP Server: /lincon/w01/ Give the URL of the web server you will use to provide your class-specific materials such as home page, assignment sheet, and chat schedule. This web space (50-100M) with FTP access needs to be available to you by the time you arrive at the facilitator academy at Fermilab. Then you can upload your work from the academy right into your class web site. The LInC core materials will be available on the LInC web site. These should not be copied.
Electronic Bulletin Board: COW (Conferencing on the Web) What bulletin board software will you use for your course? If your agency already provides bulletin board software, you can use that if it is accessible to your intended audience. Most past LInC teams have chosen to use the free www.blackboard.com bulletin board software for their course. Whatever software you choose, it will need to be available to you by the time you arrive at the facilitator academy at Fermilab. Then you can populate it with postings for your course while you are at the academy. If you chose blackboard.com, we can help you get a class board at the academy. (Note: We are not associated with blackboard.com and do not receive any funds from them.)
Chat tool: IRC Chat server (ircd) on a UNIX machine What chat communication server software will you use? Most past teams have used IRC server software that works with MSChat and ChatNet. Your chat server software is not required for the academy, though it would be a good opportunity to test it. Your chat server software should be up and running at least 30 days before your course starts.


Other Issues

What issues or obstacles do you anticipate? How will you address them?

This will be a much larger class than usual. So we will need to encourage bulletin board communication between participants and downplay listserv communication in order to avoid e-mail overload. We will also need to ask participants to collaborate on project teams of 2-4 people instead of creating projects individually.

Since we have participants from both east and west coasts, we will have to schedule chats and office hours at times that are possible for educators on either coast.

This year's program requires a larger organizational commitment than past courses. So we will need to clearly delineate the commitment and support needed. We will also need to get support letters from the organizations involved rather than from individual applicant's principals or superintendents.