Problem | Summary Justification |Front-End Analysis |Course Goals

Problem Statement:
Repurposing of Team Building Skills Seminar

In 1997, I was hired by the local university to provide an eight-hour seminar to teach university students teamwork skills. The peer advisory council sponsored the seminar, providing student enrichment and learning to the adult population at the university. The seminar was created from a need to teach the adult learners more effective skills in collaboration and team building The students were enrolled in undergraduate training and were enrolled in 300 and 400 level coursework at the university. The seminar goals included providing instruction in the areas of cooperation, communication and team building The course was offered for college credit and a professional development certificate of completion. The seminar was delivered during the Fall semester in 1997 and was considered by the learners and the sponsors to be tremendously helpful and useful for the learner’s academic and professional pursuits.

While working over the past five years with coaching and consulting clients I see the same issues that motivated the university offering of the Team Building Skills Workshop are present in businesses and professional employee challenges. Managers, business owners, employees and entrepreneurs face the challenges of working effectively as a team. Employees often lack essential skills or tools in the areas of communication and leadership. Many professionals do not have the skill level to implement a shared vision and create shared goals. In groups and organizations I see this familiar trend of inefficient work behaviors get in the way of the efficient flow and growth of the business. Additionally, a key characteristic in professional success is utilizing the skills related to team building.

Team building is a skill that can be introduced into an organization, business or team in a manner that empowers the group to be more engaged and efficient in the successful endeavors of the business or professional project goals. In the past five years of delivering programs and coaching clients I have realized that these same challenges that were addressed with the university seminar are common to many groups, organizations and businesses.

As a professional coach I recognize the skills taught in this workshop are useful for a broader audience than just this one-time offering at the university. This seminar provides professional tools that can be used by a wider audience if the instruction is repurposed to be delivered using the Internet and the Entrepreneurial Strategies website. I have delivered similar instructional products in the face-to face environment and find the limitations of time, resources and distance provide barriers for delivering instructional products to a wider audience. The learner technologies and supports available for delivery over the Internet provides an opportunity to extend this instruction to a broader audience.

One of my business goals is to continue to develop tools and supports for my clients. By providing this training using the Internet I can serve clients and potential learners more efficiently. Since my population of clients is diverse, I see this Team Building Skills Workshop as a long-term resource for existing and future clients. I find in my work with small businesses, professionals and adult learners that team-building skills are tools that support the individual to be more successful and proactive as a leader and team player in many situations, whether it is in school, employment or community leadership.

Since this course is an existing seminar taught in 1997, it will require some updating to be integrated for the web based environment.

Front End Analysis
In October of 2002 I conducted a learner survey for implementing a virtual business learning center (vblc). This survey was a precursor for future business and learning tools Entrepreneur Strategies is interested in developing for our business. Since the survey was conducted with our clients and learners who represent our target audience we can extrapolate from that survey that our learners make-up the following:

Our learners access the Internet daily for learning or accessing resources.
Most learners still access the internet using Modem. (See site goals for how we are addressing this in the design and development strategies.)
86.4% of respondents indicated they would expect to have Web Tutorials available to them in a virtual learning center
43.2% expect to have webinars and on-line seminars.
57.5% of respondents indicated they expected to pay for webinars.
82.6% indicated they would use the learning

This survey was conducted to determine the needs of our learners and the resources we need to include in a VBLC. We are planning on implementing the VBLC in the Spring, 2003. We would like to develop existing courses into courseware we can provide to our learners. We feel it would be helpful to begin to distribute the learning resources our audience has indicated they would use if these learner supports were available to them via the Internet. Our site goals have taken into consideration the needs of our learners, our audience and the technologies our learners will be required to use to successfully participate in the courseware. Also see the goals and strategies section as this details the learner supports we will be adding to address learner issues including technologies.

Justification to transition course from F2F to WLE
F2F= Face to Face LLLLLLLLWBL= Web Based Learning

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The existing workshop goals include:

Focus of the Workshop
Coach learners the principles of teamwork:
Communication
Leadership
Attitude and Responsibility
Goals and Vision.
Create a teamwork experience.
Build a new paradigm about what teamwork is and put the ideas into action.

Delivery of Services:
Demonstrate and coach students in teamwork attitudes.
Learn to begin to use teamwork in a problem solving exercise.
Begin to develop strategies to integrate teamwork into the learner's experience.

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last updated 12/15/02
© 2002 All materials are copyrighted and owned by Success Coach, Becky Haugen.