Pre-webinar: Load up PresentationLoad up poll question?Firefox: Urgent Evoke, Canisius.edu/softchalk, MISSION Softchalk

What is MISSION Softchalk?1. Hello everyone and thank you for joining me. Thank you to Steve for that great introduction. I wanted to start off this presentation with a poll. I would like to find out more about you. What is your current Softchalk training situation at your school or organization?

We have a Softchalk training program in place. We don’t have a training program in place for Softchalk but would like to. We let faculty learn Softchalk on their own and don’t have the resources to train faculty

on this product. 1 minute to answer, then publish statistics. OK, so ___% of you have a Softchalk training program in place and maybe this webinar will give you some ideas for adding on to it. For the ___% of you do not have a training program in place but are interested in developing one, this webinar will present you with a few possible ideas for doing that. For those ___% of you that allow faculty to learn the product on their own and feel you don’t have the resources to spare, this webinar will also give you some low-resource suggestions for developing your own training program. Essentially, everything I’m presenting today could be converted to a completely asynchronous/self-paced course if you really wanted it to be. OK, let’s get to it.

2. At Canisius College, we wanted to come up with an innovative and engaging way to train faculty to use Softchalk. We wanted this training to walk users through step by step how to load and use Softchalk as well as help form a community of Softchalk users. We came up with MISSON Softchalk.

3. MISSION Softchalk is based on the popular online game, Urgent Evoke. Participants enroll as agents. They have to complete a series of missions and quests, present evidence, and engage other agents and their leader.

I found Urgent Evoke last year Loved that it combined social media, gaming, and learning

How do people sign up?4. Advertising the workshop is key. We send out announcements via e-mail, LMS announcements, newsletters, and campus blogs. In order to make sure the right workshop and sign up information gets out there, I set up a corresponding Web site. It’s built in Wordpress, which allows for easy creation and management of the site. Although the Web site concept could be a completely separate innovative webinar, I’ll just give you a brief overview.

Figured out early that we needed a catchy/cool name to get people interested Certified agents become advocates and add on to our advertising power

5. The Web site gives step by step instructions for downloading and using Softchalk. Some of the links connect to Softchalk pages and others house Canisius custom information like tutorials, styles and ideas we’ve created for our faculty. The events page is where we post the Mission Softchalk information. Participants click on the link to get to a sign up survey. About a week before the workshop begins, we start sending out introductory e-mails.

For those not familiar with Wordpress: Blogging platform the can be used for Web sites Set up pages Used the blog portion on the events page to continuously update events like the workshop

How is the workshop conducted?6. The MISSION Softchalk workshop schedule is as follows. As I mentioned before, participants are enrolled as agents and are referred to as agents in all communication- for example: Agent Ginni or Agent John. The week before MISSION Softchalk starts, all agents receive an introductory e-mail with information about the workshop and an invitation to the live webinar on that Friday.

Refer to participants as Agent Ginni or Agent John in e-mails and on discussion boards Adds a nice touch to the theme

7. Our Introductory Webinar is currently conducted in Elluminate and lasts about 30 minutes. The webinar starts with a brief introduction to the workshop, it contains screenshots of the workshop contents, it further explains the game concept, and it lets them know the work they must successfully complete in order to receive a completion certificate via e-mail. Then, I’ll share my desktop and walk them through the workshop in ANGEL.

Elluminate is the Web conferencing system we have here on campus Plenty of free Web conferencing systems out there if your campus doesn’t have one, like

WizIQ

8. This is how we utilize the LMS to conduct this workshop. The group homepage is where we post announcements each week to let participants know what will occur each week and any extra information like how to view the webinar recording. The group homepage also contains an ‘about’ nugget, and poll and news nuggets for us to poll participants or share Softchalk news.

9. The calendar lets agents know when new information has unlocked in the content area.

Each item is actually a link Click for more info Click to go straight to an item

10. The content area contains 5 folders of information. The first folder is the About folder with an intro video, the info they’ll need to complete to get the certificate, a link to the Softchalk User Guide, and a link to the Softchalk support center.

11. The Missions folder contains 3 Softchalk lessons that are unlocked each week. They are step-by-step instructions for participants to move ahead with Softchalk at a beginner, intermediate, and what we consider a mastery level. Each week will reveal a new mission that will guide agents to learn about, act on, and imagine the possibilities of Softchalk. The Imagine area contains links to our discussion forums where participants can jump right in and answer the questions and interact with other agents.

One question I had when I first started Softchalk: “How can you connect the LMS discussion forums and drop boxes?”

Grab the discussion forum URL and link to it. If you find it’s not working, ask for help from an ITS/lms admin.

12. Agents also have to complete these 3 quests, or surveys, to develop their Softchalk story. Each week, a new quest unlocks. We remind agents that this is all about who they really are, so don't invent a fictional persona. Be yourself!

This may seem a bit silly In Urgent Evoke they added a personal element to the game. Add human element? Connect participants to the product. Visualize themselves using the product in the future.

13. There are also evidence drop boxes and repository prompts. Each week agents are asked to share their progress with their fellow agents. The first week they simply have to do a Jing screenshot or a screen capture of their progress and submit the files to the drop box. This drop box is open to everyone, so agents can get ideas from other agent submissions. Weeks 2 and 3 are linked to a repository that all agents have editor rights in. They are able to upload their submissions there. We ask agents to comment on fellow agent submissions in the Discuss area.

For those of you not familiar with Jing, it’s a great free screen capture product. Weeks 2&3 are just a page of directions w/ links to the lms repository link. Do have to add the current roster to the repository as well. Get to experience uploading Softchalk in an LMS first hand.

14. The discussion forums are open to encourage discussions, networking, and sharing between Mission Softchalk Agents. There are no deadlines in these discussion forums, so agents can post throughout the Workshop and continue to post after they finish.

15. One improvement I tried to make during the second run of this workshop was keeping people engaged. I came up with three ways. First, I have automatic e-mails that go out at the end of each week to remind participants of what they should have accomplished that week, and if not, to remind them to tackle it that weekend. Second. I scheduled pop up alerts for anyone that hasn’t logged in within three days to ask them if everything is going OK, and if not, to contact me for help. Lastly, the weekly announcements go up at the beginning of each week to let them know what’s in store that week.

We are just finishing up the second run of this workshop and I did see a huge jump in participation.

It’s always tough to grasp people in an asynchronous, self-paced workshop that isn’t required.

These little tricks helped. All pre-scheduled through ANGEL Agents Console nothing to do during the actual workshop

Show and Tell16. Now let’s do a little show and tell. I would like to show you three things: first, the Urgent Evoke online game that I pointed out earlier. Second, I would like to briefly show you around our Softchalk Web site. And finally, I’ll give you a little tour of MISSION Softchalk in our LMS.

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Urgent EvokeUrgent Evoke ran last year with a lot of participants. The basic goal of the game was to complete a few different missions, quests, and evidence of your work to support those causes.

MISSIONS<Mission 1First, you read the Mission brief.

o LEARN With each mission, you had to learn about it through Web content.o ACT Then the game asked you to do something about it, by subscribing to

someone active in that area or creating your own content about the cause.o IMAGINE The imagine portion asked you to imagine that the crisis has been

solved and what the world would be like in the future.

QUESTS<Quest 1The quest area asked you to imagine yourself as a superhero- what powers do you already possess, who inspires you, and how can you use your resources to inspire others.

EVIDENCE<Lastly the Evidence area housed all of the blog posts, photos, and videos that agents created.

That was the basic framework I used to create MISSION Softchalk. I created content to fit each of those categories.

Softchalk SiteWhen Canisius first licensed Softchalk in the Summer of 2010, I saw a need for a one stop shop for all of the Softchalk resources we would create or wanted our faculty and staff to have.

What is SoftchalkThe “What is” page gives a brief overview of Softchalk.

DownloadHas our download instructions which direct faculty to our LMS to download.

Sample LessonsIs a link to the Softchalk Sample Lessons page.

Style Ideas and tutorialsHouses style ideas, custom styles we’ve created for departments, and tutorials that we’ve done.

Help and FAQ and Browser The Help and FAQ page house the Help and FAQ info. Browser Support is a link out to the Softchalk page.

EventsThe Events page is the blog part of the site so we can easily list events like upcoming Workshops and webinars.

Softchalk in Social MediaIncludes links to the Softchalk social media profiles.

User SurveyAllows us to poll our faculty and ask them about their experience and how they are using Softchalk.

MISSION SoftchalkLet me show you how we have MISSION Softchalk set up in our ANGEL lms.

Group Homepage: contains the announcements, group polls, about this, section and group news. I try to make sure the page is well branded with the MISSION Softchalk logo I created.

Calendar: lists when each content item opens. Content: Contains the about folder, the missions, the quests, the evidence, and the

discussion area.

o About folder: I creating an intro video with theme music from Mission Impossible,

MASH, Star Trek, and Star Wars to really put the agents in the game. It also contains the completion info. Links to the Softchalk User Guide and Support Center.

o Missions: I’ll take you on a tour of M2.

Well branded: logo and currier font= typewriter Objective for each part. Videos to illustrate each point- either embedded using Jing or the

frame embed code that Malissa Attebery from Lonestar mentioned in an Innovative session a few months ago.

In the Act area, I’ve tried to include examples of what is being presented where possible.

Include supplemental information on the sidebars.

o Quests: Short essay quizzes asking participants to reveal Softchalk story through

the weeks.

o Evidence E1: Drop box includes info to do a screen shot or capture of their

Softchalk progress. The bullets for what the Softchalk item should include at the bottom are extremely helpful, and they build each week.

E2: E2 and E3 are directions with a link out to the repository I mentioned before. I think the naming convention line is also really important when you have a bunch of participants uploading to the same area.

o Discuss The discussion forums are open to encourage discussions, networking, and

sharing between Mission Softchalk Agents. There are no deadlines in these discussion forums, so they can post throughout the Workshop and continue to post after they finish.

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