09-24

=**MentorMe**= toc

**RTO**
Sydney Community College

**Contact**
Frank Storey - Project Manager frank.storey-at-scc.nsw.edu.au

Jackie Williamson - Project Coordinator jackie-at-jbcoach.com.au

Marina Chadiloff - Project Facilitator marina.chad-at-bigpond.com

Ann Brady - E-Learning Advisor ann.brady2008-at-gmail.com

**Category**
Empowering learners/RTO-Business Partnership

Executive summary
This project will develop and trial a mentor training program for volunteer mentors from the Skilled Migrant Mentoring Program (SMMP) and the Refugee Mentoring Program (RMP). Sydney Community College (SCC) has a strategic focus to utilise e-learning as a key component of it’s teaching and learning practices. We are also committed to using the skills of volunteer mentors in our business programs to help embed the learning from these programs. The project applies both of these concepts, e-learning and mentoring.

The SMMP and RMP are funded by the Board of Adult and Community Education. The role of the college is to coordinate the recruitment of volunteer mentors from the business and government sector, match them with skilled migrants or refugees and find placements for work experience. At the time of writing we have enrolled fifty volunteer mentors to match with approximately one hundred skilled migrants and fifty refugees. Our experience is that some volunteer mentors, although willing to share their knowledge and expertise, are untrained in the skills of mentoring. Our challenge is to train this large and growing number of mentors.

We will develop a blended learning solution to address this challenge using a combination of online learning and a practical work-based project. Participants will be assessed against TAADEL40B Facilitate individual learning, a unit of competency from the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment. The online learning environment will be built in Moodle. Learning strategies include case studies and knowledge quizzes. Upon completion of the online training program, mentors will be matched with mentees and undertake a work-based project. Assessment will be made against the online learning activities and the work-based project. We believe that this flexible approach will improve our mentors capacity to assist mentees and lead to increased employment of skilled migrants and refugees.

Beyond the life of this project the training will continue to be used for new mentors from the SMMP and RMP, for refresher training, and for volunteer mentors on other courses offered by SCC.

The project in a nutshell is available here.

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__//Our site is available to view - if you want to have a look you can login as a guest.//__

=__Background__=



Sydney Community College (SCC) is a Not-For-Profit organisation. Our vision is to be a premier, self sustaining not-for-profit provider of innovative education and training. Our mission is to enrich lives, to strengthen organisations and to build communities through innovative high quality education and training. The college is governed by a voluntary board, details of which are at http://www.course.com.au/about/board. Full details of the college history, policies and educational philosophy are available at http://www.course.com.au.

Community Colleges are part of the Adult Community Education (ACE) sector. Sydney Community College employs less than 10 permaent staff and is located in the metropolitan area of Sydney. The college also employs a casual tutor base of approximately 300 people.

The college has a strong equity focus. In 2008 and 2009 we commenced two equity programs, The Skilled Migrant Mentoring Program (2008) and the Refugee Mentoring Program (2009). Both programs are funded by NSW AMES.

These programs provide mentoring, work experience and training to help refugees and skilled migrants to overcome barriers to employment associated with migration. The projects rely on volunteer mentors. In 2009 we aimed to provide a service to 187 skilled migrants and 50 refugees. This requires matching as many as possible with a volunteer mentor. These projects have a website where volunteers can register http://getskilled.sydneycommunitycollege.com.au.

We have experienced a large volume of interest from prospective mentors; however we also experience problems with volunteer deployment. Mentors need to be trained and this creates a bottleneck with large numbers of volunteer mentors and insufficient resources to provide face-to-face training. The solution was to develop an online training course for volunteers. You can visit the course and login as a guest at http://scc.moodle.com.au/course/view.php?id=17.

To assist us with our goal to develop an online course for volunteers the college applied for funding through the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, NSW E-learning Innovations business activity in the category ‘Empowering Learners”.

=Project Implementation and Sustainability= This project is a new innovation that will develop a learning solution for training volunteer mentors including the use of Moodle, video, audio, graphics and text. Completion of the program will lead to the attainment of TAADEL403B Facilitate Individual Learning from the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment

The project will be conducted over seven months beginning in May 2009 in three distinct phases:


 * Development: || Developing the online course content and materials ||
 * Training and assessment: || Online training of 20 mentors recruited to participate in the online training commencing with a face-to-face meeting. 20 mentors are then matched to a mentee to complete a work-based project ||
 * Evaluation: || Evaluations include surveys, interviews and face-to-face meetings with the mentors at the conclusion of the project ||

__Beyond the life of this project the training will continue to be used for new mentors on the Skilled Migrant Mentoring Program (SMMP) and the Refugee Mentoring Program (RMP), for refresher training, and for volunteer mentors on other courses offered by SCC.__

=The solution= A Moodle learning management system was chosen to host our course and manage learner participation. The layout is contained on one page with hyperlinks to content and resources to assist with navigation.

The site contains information, activities, illustrations, audio, video and work-based assessment tasks.



=Benefits= Having an online course available at a time to suit the participant has real benefits for both the mentor and the college. Volunteer mentors are busy people who offer their time at no charge. This innovation has provided them with the opportunity to plan their learning at their convenience to better suit their work schedules and lifestyles. A feature of our program is an interactive forum which provides opportunities to connect with other volunteer mentors and share information both while they are learning and beyond the life of the course.

The ability to fast track through content makes this a more efficient use of the mentor’s time whilst providing a cost effective solution for the college.

Moodle itself is easy to use and offers a variety of resources such as chat, forum, quizzes, surveys, lessons and assignments.

=Framework resources= The project team utilised the knowledge and information provided by the Framework in the design and development of our e-learning strategy. In particular knowledge was drawn from:

• E-learning for industry • E-tools and tips • E-standard for training

All of these resources are freely available from the Framework website http://flexiblelearning.net.au

=The Case Study=

__Phase 1: Development__
Sydney Community College (SCC) commissioned the development of an on line training program in mentoring skills. The brief was to design a course in mentoring skills for volunteer mentors from the Skilled Migrant Mentoring Program (SMMP) and the Refugee Mentoring Program (RMP).

**Project Team**

 * The project team consisted of:
 * Project Manager Frank Storey:
 * RMP coordinator: Ruby Madan
 * Project coordinator and content specialist: Jackie Williamson
 * Content specialist and e-learning facilitator: Marina Chadiloff
 * On line learning designer and advisor: Ann Brady

__//(pictured below)// __

**The Participants**
Few have had formal training in mentoring or one to one facilitation, however most have supervisory or management experience, so that in their work and in their management training participants will have had some experience of mentoring.
 * Most work full-time and the training needed to be accomplished in their own time, and often in the evenings after work.
 * Those new to the SMMP or RMP needed to know about mentoring in the context of these two programs.

**What should the Course Look Like?**
The parameters were:- > - for participants wanting to attain the unit of competence unit of competency : TAADEL403B:Faciltate Individual Learning > - for supporting refugees and skilled migrants on the SMMP and RMP requirements.
 * Fit for purpose
 * Easily accessible and navigable such that a participant logging on after work could readily resume (where they left off) the course.
 * A ‘Just in Time’ resource for participants wanting to refresh their memory of a particular part of the training, say prior to a mentoring session.


 * The challenge** was to make this course **engaging** and at the same time sufficiently robust to equip the volunteer mentors with the appropriate skills and to attain the unit of competency, TAADEL403B:Faciltate Individual Learning

**Method**
The learning material was developed in word format, agreed with Sydney Community College; and then loaded on to the on line learning platform Moodle. Earlier in this report I mentioned that volunteer mentors would generally be accessing the course in the evenings, so I wanted them to be able to readily find their way around the materials, and to be able to dip in and out of the course when needed. To help them a system of sign posts was developed, to point them to the next section, let them know when they had completed a topic and when an activity was required (an assessment).

Normally the softer skills such as listening and building rapport are learned in a face to face training environment where there is opportunity to demonstrate and take part in role plays. For the on line environment this face to face training was replaced with videos and audios to demonstrate these skills. These were used in conjunction with quizzes (the image below is an example). The audios and videos also served to provide a mix of learning materials, and had the added advantage of appealing to a broad range of learning styles. Diagrams were used to illustrate the text and provide a visual element to the on line environment.



**Choice of learning platform**
The course was developed in Moodlesimply because it was the SCC’s existing on line delivery platform. On occasions Moodle was slow and on other occasions the platform was simply not available; however this was a matter of frustration rather than actually slowing progress. Moodle is supported by Pukunui Technology who responded quickly to any technical issues.

**Learning that emerged from the Design of this program**

 * Volunteer mentors are an essential ingredient of the SMMP and the RMP, and without formal training these mentors had no benchmark on which to base or judge their own performance.
 * Mentoring within the context of the SMMP and RMP spans a spectrum of one to one learning facilitation methods, including instruction/ transfer of knowledge, mentoring, and skills coaching. The training needed to cover this range.
 * I had anticipated that there were be a considerable amount of adjustment required in transferring the written text to the on line environment.

**Why?**

 * The process adopted was to develop the training material in word format, gain approval on the content and then convert to the on line environment.
 * The training course was broken up into chapters and the first step was to take each topic or chapter and put on the learning platform.
 * However this produced multiple screens of text; which did not fit the engagement model for e-learning i.e. of bite sized pieces of compelling information.
 * Diagrams (mentioned earlier) did not significantly reduce the amount of text, since not all participants were visual in their learning style, explanatory text was also required.
 * Simply pruning the text was not an option since the participants needed sufficient knowledge to attain the unit of competence TAADEL403B: Facilitate Individual Learning and to be able to provide robust support for their mentees.
 * The challenge became how to convey the skills, attitudes and behaviours required for mentoring in an engaging and succinct manner.

**What happened**

 * The programme was developed organically, adding different formats after examining each topic and asking -**
 * What can be reduced?
 * What can be conveyed in tabular, pictorial, video, audio form?
 * T he final course length was 4-5 hours, longer than I had wanted. However the material remaining is essential to a foundation course in one to one Facilitated Learning. I feel confident participants will be able to attain the unit of competency and learn much to help them provide good quality support as mentors on the SMMP and RMP.

When the pilot was complete Ann and Sandra (participant pictured below) discussed the length of the program. media type="file" key="Length of the program.mp3" width="240" height="20"

The short answer is one that prevents the re-writes and a lengthy editing stage. Is this possible? Well to a certain extent, but not entirely, once on the screen the perspective changes and the need to ensure greater linkage of topics will always occur, causing some re-writing.
 * What methodology would I adopt in the future?**

The following methodology is proposed, based on the production: of a visual plan similar to a story board used in the development of advertising campaigns, making it easier to scope the volume of learning material and to gain a visual impression of the final product. This would help also to visualise what each topic or element would look on a computer screen.

> a. knowledge transfer, > b. skills > c. behaviours
 * To develop the plan the topics are identified
 * Agree the learning outcomes.
 * Based on use/purpose segment the topic or element:
 * Select media: text, visual, (diagrams, videos, photos) audio or text.
 * Design the assessment
 * Apply the ‘one screen full test’ for each piece of information or assessment.



**Quizzes**
The use of on line quizzes to test participants knowledge of mentoring and approach to the behavioural aspects was helpful since it forced me to be highly selective and analytical in my approach to the elements that needed to be assessed. However this process was extremely frustrating since much of the time I wanted to see the participants demonstrate the competencies ‘in a holistic way’, in live mentoring sessions.

A solution was at hand, since the unit of competency required multiple sets of evidence, and it was decided that after the completion of their work based project, participants would come demonstrate their mentoring skills, by mentoring each other on the application of the competencies learned.

**Conclusions**
The ability to mentor well is a competency comprising of experience, knowledge, skills and a set of behaviours, needless to say attempting to develop an e-learning course to address this competency mix is more complex than developing a theoretical knowledge based course. In this respect mentoring skills was a good choice of subject for testing the development and application of e-learning.

Videos and audios were extremely useful in demonstrating the softer elements of mentoring competences, such as rapport building, listening and questioning skills. (Professionals were engaged to produce videos and audios and graphics throughout the site).

A simplified method for the development of an e-learning course emerged from this trial, based on a pictorial design framework.

__The handover__
Jackie met with Marina to explain the design approach and the next phase of the program - the facilitation of training and assessment online. Marina was involved in benchmarking the program so that all the activities were appropriate and sufficient to meet the assessment requirements of the unit of competency TAADEL403B Facilitate Individual Learning. She also completed the e-learning module to get a feel for the activities and process.

The original target was for 20 mentors to participate and complete the Mentor Me program. This was scaled down to 10 mentors as the time recruitment process took longer than anticipated and arranging a date for the face to face meeting was difficult. 22 mentors initially expressed interest and for a variety of reasons (other study, annual leave and overseas travel) 9 mentors agreed to participate in the program. 2 mentors were from the Refugee Mentoring Program (RMP) and the other 7 mentors were from the Skilled Migrant Mentoring Program (SMMP). The program consisted of three sections - the e-learning module, participation in a forum and completion of paperwork associated with meeting mentees on a weekly or fortnightly basis. The paperwork included a mentoring agreement, weekly or fortnightly meetings etc.

Introduction Evening
To kick off the program Ann Brady and Marina Chadiloff invited the mentors to attend a face to face meeting where we met the mentors and introduced the program to them. The introduction evening took place on Wednesday night 28 October.

The agenda for the evening was:


 * Ice breaker
 * Overview of the whole program - e-learning module, peer support through the forum and meeting with their mentees
 * Introduction to the e-learning environment
 * Assessment requirements

Mentors found the introduction session very useful and were quite positive as we were able to answer many of their questions around their involvement, time required etc. One of the features of this program is the potential to gain a Statement of Attainment after completion of all assessment tasks and was viewed as an attractive option and as this is a pilot group, the assessment process is at no cost to them. We set an end date of 30 November to complete all three sections of Mentor Me.

As part of our evaluation we recorded some feedback from mentors. We asked Sandra about the pros and cons of this face to face meeting.

media type="file" key="Sandra - pros and cons of f2f.mp3" width="240" height="20"

**The online module**
Mentors were required to complete 10 sections of independent self paced study covering topics such as What is mentoring?, Workplace culture, SMART Goals, Learning styles and Listening skills to illustrate a few. The range of learning materials and activities included audio, visual and text based media with case studies, short answer questions and quizzes. We set a 7 day deadline to complete the module as we believed that a shorter timeframe would encourage the mentors to complete the module. A number of mentors experienced a variety of issues:
 * confusion about the 'traffic light system' (icons we used to identify the end of a section or whether a section continued),
 * the automated zero result - we selected short answer questions. Moodle required us to grade the questions and because participants answers were NEVER exactly the same as our suggested response the system returned a zero grade. This was demotivating for participants.
 * difficulty in keeping track of progress and some error messages returned by Moodle.

So the deadline was set back a couple of times to enable the highest level of completion. We didn't want the mentors' level of frustration at this early stage to prevent them from completing the module. To date 6 mentors have successfully completed and 2 mentors have partially completed the e-learning module.

Feedback from our mentors indicated that the online training was valuable, even for experienced mentors. Hear what Brian has to say.



media type="file" key="Brian-experience.mp3" width="240" height="20"

**The Forum**
The forum was introduced as a 'Peer Support Network' after a gap was identified in the assessment requirements for the unit of competency TAADEL403B Facilitate Individual Learning. The unit requires two examples of facilitating a learning relationship. The mentors were initially required to show evidence of meeting with their mentees at least four times during the life of the pilot. The peer support forum provided a second opportunity to collect evidence but also provided an opportunity for online collaborative learning for the mentors. To be successful in this task we required the mentors to complete a series of interactions:


 * responding to at least three questions posted by your facilitator
 * initiating at least one discussion
 * providing at least three instances of support to your peers. You can do this by supporting one mentor on numerous occasions or separate instances of support for different mentors.

The forum has proved to be the stand out success and is without doubt the most beneficial feature of the whole program. Most mentors have contributed regularly and beyond the requirements of the assessment. Useful tips and suggestions have been shared and questions asked about their particular mentoring relationship and the other mentors have been very supportive. It was suggested that the forum be made available to all the mentors participating in the RMP and the SMMP. The college has recently distributed invitations and it will be interesting to see what the uptake is in the future.

The facilitator posted a question every week to generate discussion and used the forum to provide feedback on some of the earlier problems we experienced with the online module. It proved to be a very useful way of keeping the mentors informed of any new information about technical issues or a request for a post-project evaluation meeting.

Hear what Sandra and Brian have to say about the forum.

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media type="file" key="Brian Forum.mp3" width="240" height="20"

The work-based project
Part of the assessment requirement was for mentors to submit evidence of four meetings with their mentee. However, the opportunity for the mentors to hold regular meetings with their mentees has in a few cases been problematic as some mentees have found work (which is great for the mentee but made it difficult for the mentor to complete the required number of meetings). A few mentors did not have a mentee to start off with and this has delayed their ability to complete this section. For some mentors this has impacted on their ability to meet the completion deadline of 30 November. The college has agreed to extend the deadline for the submission of evidence until mid-December to resolve this issue.

The Results

 * 66.7% of participants completed all the activities
 * 22.2% partially completed the activities
 * Online activites*:
 * What is mentoring? - two attempts by each mentor and then about 12 mins on average to complete
 * Workplace culture - Generally one attempt and between 25 secs and up to 3mins and 11 secs to complete
 * SMART Goals - one attempt and between 2mins 31 secs and up to 30mins complete
 * Learning styles - one attempt and generally about 21 minutes to complete
 * Listening skills - between approximately 1min and 6mins to complete
 * 66.7% likely to be eligible for a Statement of attainment
 * The forum was the most popular part of the program
 * One mentor dropped out of the program and did not participate in any of the activities.


 * These times are indicate the time taken to complete the activities only. They do not include the time spent preparing for the tasks.

**End of program meeting**
An end of program meeting was conducted with as many mentors as possible to:
 * capture feedback about their experiences
 * identify any gaps in their evidence
 * provide feedback on progress and agree on a completion date

3 mentors were able to attend and we collected some useful feedback about the program. We also collected feedback from the forum.

Benefits
//RTO//
 * Ability to provide low cost self paced training for mentors of SMMP and RMP
 * Increase skills and knowledge of mentors
 * Ensures a standardised level of information and knowledge about mentoring
 * Addresses the expectations and requirements of a nationally recognised unit of competency at the Certificate IV level
 * Provide a better service to mentees
 * Provide opportunities for mentors to connect and collaborate with each other
 * Program can be offered to SMMP and RMP mentors from other organisations - potential link to a new market
 * Another trainer who is familiar with Moodle and has e-facilitation skills

//Facilitator/ assessor//
 * Gained skills in and knowledge about e-facilitation
 * Became familiar with Moodle as a learning management platform
 * This program was the focus of a mentoring relationship for the facilitator and has been invaluable as a practical application of e-facilitation
 * Use this experience and previous learning experience as evidence towards the unit of competency in e-learning TAADEL501B

//Learners//
 * Better skilled
 * Connected with peers
 * Learn at their convenience
 * Eligible for a statement of attainment
 * Ongoing support provided by other mentors

Challenges
//Design//
 * Trying to stay within the 3 hour timeframe for completion of the e-learning module. We did not achieve this aim. The program is between 4-6 hours in length.
 * What to include and what to leave out of the content. This decision was somewhat guided by the requirements of the unit of competency but also our intention to provide a quality learning experience.
 * How to make it self paced but keep it interesting and keep people motivated. We believe that the variety of learning activities and delivery modes addresses this challenge.
 * How to provide adequate pre-online instructions so that people can log in and proceed easily. This was overcome in the face to face meeting however it is unlikely that a face to face meeting will be offered to future learners. A detailed learner guide will be available which we hope will suffice.
 * Marking and grading of responses to case study/ short answer activities - the system generated a zero mark regardless of whether or not the mentor has correctly completed the activity. This result was overridden by the facilitator. The zero mark was identified as a demotivating factor and might stop mentors moving through the e-learning program. We did continually advise the mentors that this was an automated system response and as mentioned the facilitator did regularly go in to mark and override the result. However, on a continuing basis it might prove a barrier to the successful completion of the e-learning. This issue has now been resolved by changing a setting in Moodle.

//Facilitation//
 * Learning curve in the marking process
 * Coming to grips with the forum and how to use it
 * Asked people to create a profile and picture but no one did (might be because we held an initial face to face meeting)

Marina talks about her experience as a new e-facilitator.



media type="file" key="Marina.mp3" width="240" height="20"

Learners
 * Overcoming any technical issues - most of our learners were reasonably tech-savvy but nevertheless they were required to become familiar with a new online environment and experienced some challenges
 * Staying motivated - as mentioned above the zero grade returned by Moodle affected motivation. To overcome this issue the facilitator responded quickly with customised feedback.
 * Learners need to engage with the content to successfully complete the activities such as case studies and short answer questions. To assist this process we provided a variety of video, audio and written materials
 * Learners who are part of the RMP suggested that it would be helpful if the online program to distinguished between the expectations of mentors who are part of the RMP and the expectations of mentors who are part of the SMMP. This comment related to the fact that it is more difficult for a refugee to find work than a skilled migrant and that consequently the development of the relationship between mentee and mentor and the point at which the mentee might find work are very different. Vanessa commented on this issue.



media type="file" key="Vanessa - RMPvsSMMP.mp3" width="240" height="20"

Where to now
MentorMe will be offered free of charge to all new volunteer mentors from the RMP or SMMP as a self-paced online program. A learner guide will be made available to all participants and completion of the online component will be a pre-requisite to be matched with a mentor. Participants will be given the option to undertake the assessment tasks and a fee will be charged to cover the cost of the assessor.

The forum will be ongoing and has been offered to all mentors participating in either SMMP or RMP. New mentors will be encouraged to join the forum. If the forum is to be successful it is likely to need a facilitator to welcome new members and to encourage ongoing discussions, particularly in the early stages of development.

Project Outputs
The following outputs were developed as part of this project:

1. The Mentor Me Learner Guide 2. The Mentor Me Facilitator Guide 3. An assessment task for Facilitate Individual Learning (TAADEL404B), a unit of competency from the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment - Facilitator and Learner copies 4. The Moodle course.

Acknowledgement
The Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) provides the vocational education and training (VET) system with the essential e-learning infrastructure and expertise needed to respond to the challenges of a modern economy and the training needs of Australian businesses and workers.

E-learning Innovations aims to embed e-learning into the national training system by supporting and enabling innovation in training design and delivery, at the state and territory level.

This is a NSW E-learning Innovations project output, developed by Sydney Community College with seed funding from the Framework.

For more information
For more information on Sydney Community College please contact Frank Storey Faculty Manager Sydney Community College Phone: (02) 8752 7544 Email: frank.storey@scc.nsw.edu.au

For more information on the Australian Flexible Learning Framework: Phone: (07) 3307 4700 Fax: (07) 3259 4371 Email: enquiries@flexiblelearning.net.au Website: flexiblelearning.net.au GPO Box 1326 Brisbane QLD 4001