Trainers feedback / suggestions for ToT section

[ioalexei]

Various feedback/tips on running and facilitating - may have implications for content too.

Format considerations / best practices? Maybe to use in Trainers corner.

• set objectives at the start of each session – e.g. “at the end of this session you will be able to...”
• Give rough timings at the start of each session – e.g. “45 mins on X, 90 mins on Y, etc.”
• Give timings of breaks at the start of the session
• Say which bits of the platform we will be using and if we’ll be skipping any sections
• When introducing exercises, say what learners are supposed to get from it (e.g. “this exercise will help you practice X and Y” (and this should be clear in trainer notes)
• Don’t have to answer all questions, especially if they are off topic. Can say there isn’t time to go into it now and share relevant resources at the end – e.g. “this is an advanced topic so I won’t answer it now”.
• Keep coming back to why what we are teaching is relevant to people – what kinds of questions does it help them to answer, how will it help them when they’re trying to make maps in their day-to-day work
• Should give learners exact instructions on how to unzip the download files - there was some confusion about needing to additionally unzip the SHP files inside the exercise data zip they already extracted
• some good ad hoc use of prompts by facilitatorys, e.g. at the end of part 1: does anyone have examples of maps they've made or used? This kind of prompt would be useful to go in the trainer's notes - would be good to have similar questions trainers can ask for each section to check understanding and break up the presentation a bit

• If we already plan for exercise during the session, we can ask participants to download the exercise file in advance
• remind participants to open new project in QGIS for new exercise
• We should really dedicate more time for exercises with GIS as it is more about having hands-on experience.
• Participants found the exercises were run too quickly. Would be nice to have some quick checks : we click a button and explain it, wait a bit and ask if everyone follows, the continue to the next button, etc. So that they can find the right button among so many little and read what the button is for, etc.

[isikl]

#38 information for trainers