ENGAGE STUDENT SUPPORT TEAM

The student support team, which had begun in the preparation phase of the model, continued their work in the implementation phase.

*Peer Mentor

One aspect of the Master of Education Cross-Disciplinary Study of Children and Families Program was to invite a student who had already completed a particular course in the master's program to be a peer mentor when the course was offered again. This seemed particularly necessary when the course was going to be adapted for use in Distance Education. Voula Heffernan, the peer mentor, has many years of experience as a social worker, in both community and school settings. She is skilled in facilitating group interaction which is a necessary part of ECh 5602 when students work in home and critique groups creating case studies based on their own experiences.

Voula attended most of the ITV class sessions assisting in group dialogue. One of her primary responsibilities, along with the faculty members, was to facilitate the synchronous chats. For this, group facilitation via print chats, was to be a new challenge. Here is Voula in Library Lab, ready to facilitate the on-line chats.

*Student Tech Support Assistants

Bob Pearson, one of the faculty tech support assistants, developed a demonstration of how the chat would actually worked. A guidesheet was prepared, the demonstration was rehearsed in the ITV room, and Bob handled questions with patience, clarity, and good-will. Here is an excerpt from the guidesheet used to help students access the chats. Demonstrations of chats between Miranda (at another computer lab on campus) and Bob (in the ITV room) helped students get a sense of how the chat looked and how pacing occurred.

PC OR MAC
NETSCAPE 3.0 or above or Explorer 3.0 and above

1. Find the Netscape icon.

2. Open Netscape.

3. Type in the http address for the on-line course syllabus and enter. Scroll down until you see:

discuss through Telnet (for Mac or PC 2.0 or earlier) discuss for PC (PC above 2.0)

Click and open.

4. On Jungle MOO screen at prompt type

CO (Chat name) (Chat password)

School

Then enter. You are into the discussion.

5. When complete, @quit.

Miranda Pollock, who had worked on the development of the chat room, now assumed responsibility for answering specific questions (by e-mail or telephone) the first day that students began their chats. Although not without problems and delays, her expertise and patience were the reasons that everyone was able to log into the chat. This was a major accomplishment.

Miranda ready to help students with their questions....and there were many that first day of chats. Miranda was always there "in the mist" available to lend a hand.

*Student Assistant for the Cross-Disciplinary Study of Children and Families Master of Education Program

Kristi Chupurdia serves as a general assistant for several Master of Education Programs in the College of Education at the University of Minnesota, Duluth.

She helped fax the case studies and facilitated cases getting from home group to critique group.

Kristi collapses after sending a flurry of case faxes to critique group members. She faxed 10-20 page papers from home group members to critique group members. For example, she faxed Robin's case to Van in Crookston and to Melissa at Southwest State University Campus.

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