FLASHLIGHT Training, Talks and Other Events
(updated July 23, 2004)
The FlashlightTM Program offers a variety of services to help your institution involve more faculty members, staff and students in doing studies. Training is key because, the more people in your institution who do their own studies about their own issues, the greater the benefits from educational uses of technology. (Why do we think so? See below.) Here are some of the kinds of talks and training that we offer at institutions and conferences:
- Talks (on site, by phone, or recorded online) can be useful in attracting attention to issues. Sample topics: trends in technology use and their implications for studies; innovative methods; studies that have produced important outcomes for the people or organizations that carried them out.
- Training usually is "learn by doing". Participants learn to do studies by designing a study during the workshop. A variation on this model is "Study-Specific Support." We help you or your team learn to do studies by helping you do a study at your institution. The help is provided through a mix of online instructional materials, online help every step of the way from an expert evaluator, and, if you like, on site visits to help you brainstorm or design your research tools.
- "Train the trainer" workshops to help equip your staff to go on training their colleagues. This is especially important because, over a period of years, a substantial fraction of an institution's faculty and staff ought to learn the basics of designing their own studies.
Some of the most common types of events are described below. If you have other needs, please feel free to contact us at Zuniga@tltgroup.org – we’ll contact you and talk about what kind of service might best meet your needs.
More Information
- Currently scheduled Flashlight Workshops and Talks
- Types of Flashlight Workshops that we can offer for your institution
- Grassroots Evaluation: Why Should Lots of Your Colleagues Learn to Do Their Own Studies?
- Next Steps for scheduling an Event or Workshop
- What Some Folks Have Said About Our Events
Types of Flashlight Workshops that we can offer for your institution
Introductory Workshop
For institutions that do
not yet have many people doing studies, we recommend that you use a Flashlight consultant
to offer a both a talk (45-90 minutes) and a short workshop (2-4 hours). Depending on length, the
introductory workshop can cover some or all of the following sorts of topics: research
findings on teaching, learning, and technology; Flashlight tools such as the Current
Student Inventory, the Cost Analysis Handbook, and Flashlight Online; rudiments of
evaluation design.
Intensive Training Workshop
For institutions that have joined our Network or subscribed to the Flashlight Tool Series, we suggest scheduling a workshop of a day or more in length, publicized well in advance so that the potential participants can free up their time. You might add an extra half-day or day to the consultant’s visit for individual consultations or an open talk on campus. We can also convert this event into a "Train the Trainer" workshop. (Note: if you are interested in sending a team off-campus for training, we offer workshops once every month or two somewhere in the country.)
On-line Workshops
For more extensive support, we can also create a sustained, online training workshop, lasting around 2-4 months, to help participants work through the early stages of study development.
Hint if the workshop is on campus
During the trainer's time on campus, before or after the workshop, schedule visits with institutional leaders to talk about education & technology strategy and evaluation. The consultant can also work with individuals who are doing on their own studies.
Grassroots Evaluation: Why Does Flashlight Recommend That So Many People Do Their Own Studies?
The Flashlight Program offers workshops that can help you design studies of improvements in teaching and learning, with a special focus the uses of technology and its implications for program progress, problems, and/or costs. Although workshops are suitable for small groups, the Program is designed to help you educate relatively large numbers of staff, faculty and, if you wish, students in the basics of evaluation design and the interpretation of data. Why educate so many people to be evaluators? Because:
- The impact of technology depends on choices people make while buying or using it, often choices people make moment-by-moment during a course.
- Evaluation data can improve outcomes if it influence those choices – the choices about how teachers teach and how learners learn
- People are much more likely to be influenced by evaluative data if they themselves helped design the study or interpret the findings
- Most people in a university need at least a little extra training in order to do that. That's what we provide. We hope you'll consider a strategy (e.g., large workshop and/or using us to "train your trainers") so you can help large numbers of your staff learn to participate in the design of studies.
Next Steps
To discuss the possibilities and possible dates, or just to chat about the issues facing your institution, corporation, system, or association, please contact us at online@tltgroup.org .