2016-10-25 - ELAG Meeting - Face to Face in Wellington

• Check attendance details and apologies

Refer to Conflicts of interest section in the Advisory Groups Manual. 

• All members to confirm they are aware of need to declare any conflicts of interest.

Changes to Advisory Group Manual - Yearly Calendar - note on timetable for selection of AG members.

Newly chosen AG members begin their terms on 1 October.

There is no changes to the terms of reference for the ELAG.

Update on course statistics and feedback

WRT Implementation course we work towards getting a zero backlog. Which we can with the increased capacity in the team. We are considering options for more frequent intakes - we do not have the solution yet.

Same demand for Content course as Implementation course - however, the resources available for the content course are less.

Additional notes:

Within the last 6 month. the Implementation course has been updated.

We are now four people tutoring/leading webinars. The induction of new members of staff will finish within the next month.

Related to content development course. Cathy has been supported by a contractor, Geraldine Wade, who is also doing webinars. Related to capacity, the content course is the one with the highest demand.

There was a discussion about why people choose to withdraw from the course. We do not currently monitor this, besides from the reasons we are given by students via freshdesk. Our feeling is that it primarily is because of increase in workload, unforeseen illness etc. We could consider to more formally track the reasons for students that drop out.

We also discussed that it could be beneficial for the future evolvements of our courses that we develop a follow-up questionnaire for students that have completed the courses.

Heather will share follow-up questions. Suzy suggested that we add a discussion on the ELAG confluence page on what follow-up questions that would be relevant, in order for the ELAG to suggest and discuss what questions to ask.

Looking at figures on whether the depth of coverage met learning needs…. Heather made a comment that we need to be very clear about why certain topics are important. Eg. do we explain why DL is important for the different types of audiences to know about.

Heather asked whether we track the questions that we get on freshdesk to provide more FAQs? This is a challenge currently, because we have different, several places for FAQs at the moment. But this is definitely a thing to look at in future.

The AG to provide advice and feedback on E&PS team plans for expansion of Open Access E-Learning in the first quarter of 2017 with an approach that enables addition of alternative study pathways.

Foundation course. We have found a way so that we can provide immediate enrolment on the Foundation course. This has been requested by vendor engagement. So, in the nearest future we will have zero delay on the foundation course. (POST-MEETING NOTE: As of October 31st auto-enrollment access of the Foundation course has been launched)

With open access we can then provide assessed and un-assessed pathways. We also have the option of postponing webinars and assessments to allow people to just do the presentations… (sign up/request webinars?)

The AG to provide advice on specific content to be included in the short course (' 2 day crash course') for implementers, which will be developed by the team in response an MF priority item of 2017.

We need a clear picture of what needs to be within that course. Include some topics from the foundation course - basic information about components etc. Ian suggest that not all of the material in the presentations should be included - maybe just some parts/slides of a single presentation.

We talked about whether or not we can assume that people who take the crash course have taken the foundation course. This would be preferable, but probably not what will happen.

Discussion about timing/duration of such course. Ian commented that the key thing was that 6 month was too long - therefore, just allowing people to complete at their own pace - that would help a lot. 

There should be no assessments for this course. We should consider whether we will offer a statement of attendance/completion. But we should choose our word carefully, e.g. not use the word certificate.

 Discussion about importance of getting directions to source material. I.e. to provide a grand overview of the material with clear references to more detailed material.

Heather: Important with clear specification about the outcome of the course.

Ian: A lot of this will be covered by the open access. Point that many software developers will look at material when they need it… Therefore the course should position them to know where to look for material.

The outcome of the discussion was that we will work towards a more generic approach to the crash course that can be used by any type of audience. And also a more use case- driven approach. Here, the students can build there own course based on their individual needs... I.e. by selecting specific topics and and maybe a statement of the level of detail required. This approach also align with the ideas we have for open access to our E-Learning material.

Pim asked about hands-on elements? We are considering providing demonstration videos. Team response is that this is something we are looking into and will include where feasible.

Please notify the chair in advance if you have a planned detailed report for this agenda item. Otherwise the chair will invite short summaries from Member Representatives on any significant new educational activities or progress with existing activities.

No updates provided by those present

See ELAG 2016 Group Self-Assessment

DMA showed the self-assessment, which was positive in the sense that the group met the goals setup. The group is therefore recommended to continue.

• AGs have to develop their work plans for 2017 by end of year
• AG work plans must support work plan priorities for 2017
• Team to 
  • Summarize E-Learning work items and agreed priorities for 2017
  • Specific areas where advice is requested
• Group to discuss relevant updates to 2017 work plan to meet requirements in 2017

• Agree how much time to request for next face-to-face

• Any other business at discretion of Chair subject to available time.

Update on documentation:

Almost all the product support documents are now on Confluence. The TIG has been separated into different spaces to make it more manageable. We are looking for ways to approve it in terms of appearance and access.

Encourage group to comment on our documents.

Ian requests the option of getting notified about changes/updates to specific sections in the TIG. DMA illustrated that this is supported by watching the space or individual pages and that history of changes can be reviewed by comparing earlier versions of any page.