“E-Learning” Items

Poynter’s News University: Site Structure

I’ve have learned that when trying to create something new, it is helpful to draw a picture. Some folks learn by reading; others by looking at a picture.

The site diagram of the 1st technology phase of Poynter’s e-learning project was helpful in working with our technology vendor, DataGlyphics [which became YourMembership], as we figured out to link various elements. We decided early in the process that to build a learning management system [LMS] would be too difficult given all of the other tasks, especially building courses.  We really didn’t know much about e-learning or a LMS, so we decided to integrate three different sites:

  1. The News University landing pages and other static pages
  2. The eCollege LMS site [with Poynter NewsU content]
  3. Poynter Online for promotion and traffic generation

This is one of the first News University documents.  Even earlier is the memo I wrote to Robin Sloan, one of the first NewsU staff members. That memo outlines the technology goals we hope to accomplish, thanks to a grant from the Knight Foundation.

Sidebar: Robin is now an accomplished best selling author and olive oil entrepreneur. Wonderful olive oil.

NewsU Story Contest Finalists

Poynter’s News University liked to celebrate its users and held a couple of contests to get compelling stories from its students. This document is a worksheet for those at Poynter who were tasked to pick the best stories. [The stars note candidates that I thought were solid entries.]

Training Needs of Journalists: Poynter NewsU Survey

As we geared up development of Poynter’s e-learning project, the lack of information about journalists and online training was very evident.  While there were many studies about what journalists said they wanted in terms of training, there was scant evidence about how an online training program would be received.  I pushed hard to do a training needs assessment and by early 2004 we published the “Training: It Matters More Than Ever” report.

Many of the conclusions aren’t surprising, even 10 years later.

What stands between journalist and more training?

* Time
* Money
* Accessibility

What was surprising was the acceptance of e-learning as a potential for journalism training.  While only 18 percent of survey respondents had any experience with online training, more than 70 percent were interested in participating in e-learning.

“It validates our belief in e-learning,” Finberg says [in the report]. “It’s the research evidence that the concept we came up with is valid.  The real challenge will be in the execution…”

Bob Andelman wrote the report. He also wrote a story for Poynter Online.

How NewsU Makes E-Learning Courses

Among the challenges facing Poynter’s e-learning project, NewsU, was the problem of explaining why e-learning could be an effective way to train journalists and the approach we use to make training that works.  Here’s what I wrote in a blog post about the project:

Our concept is simple. If you make the training tightly focused, you’ll help journalists learn. If you make the training engaging, you’ll help them learn. If you deliver training that is relevant, you’ll help them learn and do a better job.

This ran about five months after our launch.

While I wrote many journalists had “good instincts when it comes to teaching,” I also made this point:

To be effective at e-learning, you need to clearly understand WHAT you want to teach and HOW you want to teach.

 

NewsU’s First Annual Report: Infrastructure

With great sums of money comes great responsibilities to explain how the funding is used.  That’s the way it works when it comes to foundations.  So, Poynter NewsU sent along its first “annual report” to the Knight Foundation in June 2004, a little more than 15 months after receiving our first funding.

  • Conducted a survey of journalists [2,500 responded out of 12,000 sent] to better understand the potential interest in e-learning, the types of courses that would valuable and the technical capacity of those interested in online training.
  • Developed and presented the “meet NewsU” presentation to various journalism groups, including the National Council of Journalism Organizations, the Knight Foundation Chairs in journalism, and a meeting of the foundations that support journalism activities.
  • Built staff of two Interactive Learning Producers and hired a recent college graduate to fill a one year internship position.
  • Explored more than 10 learning management systems (LMS) intended to handle course development, asset management, course listings and registration, course delivery, class communications, and student testing and tracking.
  • Installed a LMS offered by eCollege on a trial basis in order to better understand NewsU’s technical needs. This trial period also provided NewsU an opportunity to beta test two faculty-led online courses offered to members of AAJA.

An interesting note in the report stated “more than 275 users have registered with NewsU, prior to the offering of any e-learning courses or any advertising or marketing effort. These are journalists who discovered NewsU on their own and have told us to keep them aware of course offerings.”

Developing the First NewsU Platform, LMS

Poynter’s e-learning site was originally built upon two different platforms.  The first was a Web-based content system that used Microsoft technology.  That linked to a learning management system created by eCollege.

In July 2003 Robin Sloan and I spec’d out what we wanted in this ‘unholy marriage” of systems and sent it to DataGlyphics, a local development and hosting shop in St. Petersburg, FL.  DataG was also the home of Poynter Online at that time.

From this we learned what not to do [no marriage of cats and dogs 🙂 ?]. It wouldn’t be our last development efforts.  Here are the overall guidance we gave to get started:

NewsU Site Structure. lst Phase

What does this first version of NewsU do?

It begins the process of building a database of users. It acts as a gateway to the eCollege
learning management system that we’ll be using to build courses initially. It provides a
comprehensive database (“the NewsU database”) of training opportunities for journalists
on- and offline.

From this little acorn…

E-Learning Rocks, NewsU Launch Movie

J. Paige West, an interactive learning producer at Poynter NewsU, came up with a great idea to help folks understand what we were creating.  In the early 2000s, e-learning was still an unknown concept for training and she thought it would be fun to create a video along the lines of the animated musical educational short films that aired on “School House Rocks.”

She did a great job with both the animation and the script.  The video was built in Flash, the hot interactivity tool in 2004.  I did my “voice over” and Paige played the journalist looking for training.

“E-Learning Rocks” debuted at NewsU’s launch party at the American Society of News Editors on April 11, 2005. We also put a copy on the CD-ROM that was part of our “launch box.” More on that in another post.

YouTube player

 

Poynter’s E-Learning Future. The First Memo

You have to start someplace when you are looking a big project.

I had joined The Poynter Institute in 2002 as its “Presidential Scholar.”  One of my tasks was to explore e-learning and how the Institute might use that method of teaching.  I wrote a memo (of course) with a number of areas that should be explored and a desire to make sure everyone saw the scope of such a project and shared some of the same language:

The biggest challenge to exploring any topic is for the stakeholders to develop a common understanding of the scope of a project. Some of Poynter’s faculty and staff might envision e-l,earning as an opportunity to accomplish Poynter’s mission with remote teaching. For others, distance learning could provide a chance to extend the Poynter’s experience beyond the confines of on-site seminars. Still others might see such a program as an opportunity to use collaborative or groupware tools to increase the effectiveness of discussion leaders and other off-site faculty. Each vision is important and each could overlap with the others.

The reference to “the Poynter experience” would echo throughout my time at the Institute. More on that later.