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    Chapter 26: Managing personnel online

      Distant Learning - Chapter 26

       

      Managing personnel online

      ■  How do I supervise the classes? 

      It will be helpful to visit the classes to see how things are going. You can continue to do formal observations. 
      It can also be useful to pop into classes to see what is going on, make program announcements, and provide support as necessary. You may find it useful to be as unobtrusive as possible, both to not interrupt the class or to intimidate instructors.  
       
      • Keep yourself muted and your camera off unless you are talking.
      • Use the chat feature to talk to the teacher.  
      • Consider staying in each class for a short time. If you stay too long, instructors may wonder if there is a problem.   
       

      Make sure instructors have a contact number for you so they can reach you in an emergency. 

      The remote environment makes doing student evaluations of classes easier than face to face using an online form. (See the Worksheets tab for a sample class evaluation form.)

       
       
       

      ■ What are some ways to effectively communicate with employees? 

      Communicate with people in different ways: online meetings, emails, texts. Online meetings can focus on areas you want to talk about or can just be check-ins to allow people to come in talk about how things are going. Ensure that responses are timely. You might want to have an auto reply if you aren’t going to respond right away.  You might also want to give deadlines for things you want them to do. Remember in this setting that people are getting a lot of emails, so think about how much information is essential and keep things simple. 
       
      Consider combining email topics so they aren’t bombarded. Only use “reply all” when the information is essential to everyone. For example, if your teacher asks a specific question to something you have sent to your instructors, just reply to the teacher. Email is often not the best way to have a discussion. It can be better to get off the email and jump on the phone.   
       
      Provide instructors with a phone number they can call or text in case of an emergency. One way to improve communication in remote settings is to consider generational differences in communication preferences. There is a lot written about this, but this site sums it up pretty well: 
       
       

      ■ What other staff will I need for remote instruction?   

      Staff, teachers, and students may need help navigating the platforms they have. You can provide trainings and have links to helpful videos, FAQs, and the helpdesk for the platforms that they use. But it is also helpful to have someone who can help with specific problems.   
       
      • You will want to learn as much as you can about the platforms that teachers are using. Since the program manager is usually monitoring classes, it would be helpful for you to be able to answer questions or address problems as they arise.  Keep up to date with changes to the platforms and make notes as you learn of new problems and solutions that students and teachers come up with.   
      • Your teachers may know a lot about these platforms both from your program and other contexts in their lives. You can have a “Master Tech Teacher” who can help people who are having trouble as well as updates to the platforms. 
      • Volunteers in your program may also have this experience, or you can actively look for someone who can provide support.   
       
      Because the nature of Breakout Rooms in remote settings means that students are left alone while the instructor visits other rooms, you may want more teaching assistants so that they can be there to provide assistance in each room. You might also have those teaching assistants take students individually into Breakout Rooms if you have students who need particular help, such as help with building up their literacy skills. Since there is so much on the web that can be used for remote instruction, you might consider having staff assigned to either going out and finding things that will be useful, or designing and facilitating sharing sessions where instructors can talk about what they have found helpful.   

      Managing personnel online

      ♦ Practice Example

      Seneca Creek Community Church – Tech assistants 

      Why did you decide to use tech assistants for your classes?   

      The population that we served were mostly in the older age group and struggled with using technology, which we recognized when we had implemented the self-help computer lab years ago prior to going to online classes. We recognized that many of the learners would not be familiar with Zoom and we needed to level the playing field to give equal opportunity for learning. 

      What do they do?  

      The Outreach/Tech Assistants are used in the lower-level classes or with students who are not comfortable with technology to assist and instruct the learners on how to use Zoom. Many of the tech assistants spoke either Spanish or French so they could help students in their own languages. In our registration form, we asked students if they were comfortable with computers and Zoom. Before the first day of class, the tech assistants called the students who indicated they needed help and walked them through how to get set up and use the basic Zoom functions. The tech assistants also helped to train the instructors on how to use Zoom and continued to advise and assist as well as set up all the classes in Zoom. They would also participate in the first class, helping as needed by encouraging other students to help each other and sometimes taking students into breakout rooms for individual help. They then followed up with students who dropped classes to reach out to see how they could help to help with what they needed and coordinate distribution of hotspots and donated Chromebooks.  

      Is there any advice you have for programs that are thinking about implementing tech assistants?  

      Suggest expanding their roles beyond being a Tech Assistant as we have done so that they will provide useful service to the program throughout the year, including staying in touch with students and facilitating breakout rooms and other teaching assistant tasks.