STA+ TEAM LEADER/FACILITATOR TRAINING GUIDE

I. FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT TLT GROUP WORKSHOPS

Who should attend the Team Leader/Facilitator Training? Why?

• All Team Leaders and Guest Facilitators attend the Team Leader/Facilitator Training Session. In this session you will be given more detailed explanations of the STA+ Program and learn how to help teams get the most from the TLT Group events.

What will not happen at STA+ Workshops?

• The Workshop will not be a demonstration of "best practices" or the latest technical gadgets and gizmos for the classroom. The workshop will focus first on teaching and learning, and second on technology.

What is a "Steering Group" for a local STA+ Program?

• Most local STA+ Programs cannot begin full-grown. Many begin through the participation of a team of 3 to 10 people in a TLT Group introductory workshop. It is often useful to identify a small group that is willing and able to function as a kind of "steering group" until the Program is well launched. If the entire time overseeing the STA+ Program is much larger than 15 people (quite common), the steering group may be useful well beyond the start-up phase. A steering group of 4 to 8 people can be useful in planning and managing some of the Program’s regular agendas and the more distributed work of sub-groups or "action teams." Often the team that attends the STA+ workshop serves as the nucleus for the STA+ Steering Group once back on campus.

What does a team need to do before the members arrive at the STA+ Workshop?

• HAVE YOUR TEAM LEADER CONTACT THE TLT GROUP IF YOU HAVE PRELIMINARY QUESTIONS. It is suggested that the team bring a copy of the institution’s campus educational technology plan (if available), and assemble any available background information about students occupying technical support roles at your institution.
• Try to identify the "champion" for your local STA+ program -- the high-level administrator or group (usually the chief academic officer or president’s cabinet) who has agreed to support the work of your program.

What is a Team Leader/Facilitator and what are his/her responsibilities?

• Each institution must designate a Team Leader who will serve as the primary contact person between your institutional team and the TLT Group before and after the Workshop, and who will help lead the effort back on campus to extend what is begun at the workshop.

What is a "Guest Facilitator" and what are his/her responsibilities?

• A "Guest Facilitator" gets training at the event site and is assigned to be the primary facilitator for a team from an institution other than his/her own. Ideally, the Guest Facilitator from institution A is assigned to facilitate the team from institution B, and the facilitator from B is assigned to the team from A. Ideally, each institutional team has its own Guest Facilitator.

• We encourage every institution to send someone to be trained and assigned to serve as the "Guest Facilitator" for a team from a different institution. Guest Facilitators gain valuable insight and perspective from their work with another institution and often forge links with their "guest" team that last long past the workshop itself. Every institution that provides a Guest Facilitator will in turn be assigned a Guest Facilitator (Often, two institutions exchange Guest Facilitators - laying a foundation for a stronger inter-institutional connection). However, for institutions sending smaller teams it may not be possible to provide a guest facilitator. In this case, designate someone from within your institution (usually your Team Leader) to be your team’s facilitator.

What are the benefits of using/being a Guest Facilitator?

• The old saying that "the best way to learn something is to teach it" applies to the STA+ Program. Serving as a STA+ Guest Facilitator is one of the best ways of preparing to be an effective leader or co-leader of a local STA+ Program.

• Guest facilitators are unencumbered by preconceptions about the institutions with which they work. They have received pre-conference training in group facilitation, and can provide a valuable external perspective to guide the work of their assigned institutional team

• Participation in the STA+ program is also enriched when connections among peer institutions are developed through STA+ Guest Facilitators. Useful STA+ follow-up activities -- ranging from on-campus consultations to regional conferences -- for institutions that send teams to our events are also available through the growing cadre of experienced STA+ facilitators and leaders.

• Sometimes when an institutional team is small, it is not feasible to designate both a Team Leader and a Guest Facilitator. In such case, we recommend that the Team Leader serve as facilitator for her/his own team. (No Guest Facilitator would be designated.)

What happens during Institutional Team Time at the Workshop?

• Institutional Team Time is allocated during the Workshop for working on STA+ Workbook tasks -- discussion and planning activities in preparation for the Team’s return to the home campus.

2. INSTITUTIONAL TEAM WORKING SESSIONS (BREAKOUTS)

FIRST SESSION

1. Introductory Exercise

Unless everyone on the team with which you are working already knows each other well, conduct an "ice-breaking" introductory exercise as demonstrated or explained in the training session. Participate in the exercise yourself so that you can be introduced to your team by one of its members. After the introductory exercise, you might add to your introduction any information you feel will enhance your role as facilitator with this team.

(Before conducting the ice-breaking exercise, determine whether your team is too large for a single icebreaker. If you have a team that approaches twenty participants or more, you should divide the group and conduct two separate icebreakers. If you have an Assistant Facilitator, have him/her conduct one while you conduct the other. NOTE: An Assistant Facilitator is usually someone from the institution itself who has been through the STA+ facilitator training (most likely, the Team Leader) -- and whom you invite to accept that role.)

2. Introduce the STA+ Workbook -- Tasks & Process

Explain the purpose of the STA+ Workbook and introduce the concept of STA+ Tasks to the participants.

Purpose:

The STA+ Workbook is a resource for planning, launching, and advancing the work of a campus STA+ Program. It is also a valuable reference for active STA+ institutions. It provides basic information designed to help participants use other TLT Group resources most effectively.

Standard STA+ Task Process:

If time and other conditions permit, we suggest the following sequence for each of the STA+ Tasks:

Appoint a recorder/reporter for the team -- possibly the Team Leader. If you have a team of more than 6 members, consider appointing a timekeeper.

• (5-15 minutes) Individuals write answers to questions -- to focus their own thinking and prepare for discussion. No one will be required to show the written responses to anyone else.

• (10-20 minutes) Individuals join together in sub-groups of 2-4 participants each to compare and discuss their answers. In each sub-group, the participants should be from different parts of the institution.

• (15-45 minutes) All individuals from the same institution join together -- one team for each institution -- to compare their answers and try to reach consensus or identify and understand important differences.

3. Select a Sequence of Tasks

Based on your findings, identify the tasks that your team will work on during the Institutional Team Working Sessions (breakouts). As facilitator, you should make certain that the teams do not attempt to complete too many tasks during the workshop. It is best for each team to think through, sample some, and carefully complete a few selected tasks. Defer the remainder for use after the team returns to its home institution. Doing STA+ Tasks during the workshop is practice and preparation for doing more Tasks more thoroughly (and engaging more campus participants) "back home." The work your Team does back home will be the most important of all. Help your Team use the Workbook materials and your time together at the Institute to shape and define those later efforts.

NO TEAM CAN COMPLETE MORE THAN A FEW OF THE TASKS DURING ANY STA+ EVENT. Facilitators and participants both should always be aware that the real work central to these tasks can only be done by those who are involved directly with the institution itself and its efforts to develop and advance a local Student Technology Assistant Program.

III. ADDITIONAL OPTIONS FOR WORKING ON TLT GROUP

WORKBOOK TASKS

See above the description of the 3-stage "Standard STA+ Task Process" (individual writing, sub-group discussion, full team consensus).

Try to make certain that all team members are participating; if there is one person dominating the discussion, tactfully get the other members more involved.

[NOTE: We urge that leaders and participants try to avoid using the term "committee" to refer to any aspect of the work or structure of a local STA+ Program. "Committee" has so many negative connotations for those who work in academic institutions that much is to be gained from distinguishing the Program’s effort from those of "committees." Beyond avoiding the term, try to avoid the stereotypical faults of committees -- aimless discussion, lack of deadlines, lack of authority or influence or results, lack of focus, long meetings.]

At each stage of this process, a Team Leader/ Facilitator may suggest variations -- especially with respect to the time appropriate for each activity. For lengthier Tasks, the Facilitator may suggest going through the 3-stage process (individual writing, small group discussion, full team discussion) for a few questions at a time. This avoids the problems associated with some participants finishing their individual work much more quickly or slowly than most others. The Facilitator may also suggest subdividing the questions among your team members for the sub-group discussions. This approach substantially reduces the amount of time needed for small group discussion (by sacrificing the opportunity of having EVERY participant discuss EVERY question in a small group -- THIS TRADE-OFF DECISION SHOULD BE MADE BY THE FACILITATOR IN RESPONSE TO THE NEEDS AND PREFERENCES OF THE TEAM).

Here is another simple technique for accelerating the full team discussion. Provide ample publicly accessible writing space (e.g., post flip-chart sheets around the room) and assign specific areas to specific Task questions. Ask each sub-group to have a representative write in the appropriate public spaces a few summarizing statements emerging from their discussions. This should result in, for example, a list of all the sample responses to Question # 2 in one place where everyone can easily read and compare them. When every sub-group has finished posting their results, the full team should read and consider what was done. Subsequent full group discussion can begin with the assumption that everyone already has a good sense of the variety or convergence of the subgroup responses to each question. [If you use wall-mounted flip-chart sheets or comparably large writing surfaces, you will be providing an opportunity for people to move about and chat while they are writing and reading. You may begin the full group discussion with everyone standing near the first question -- and move the group around the room as the conversation moves from question to question.]

Facilitators may also add substantive suggestions or re-direct the conversation in more productive directions. However, facilitators and participants both should always be aware that the real work central to these Tasks can only be done by those who are involved directly with the institution itself and its efforts to develop and advance a local Student Technology Assistant Program.

Finally, there is no prize for speed or for completing the greatest number of Tasks. Work carefully on some. Sample others. Defer the remainder for your return to your home institution. The work you do back home will be the most important of all. Use these materials to shape and define those later efforts.

IV. WHAT CAN GO WRONG FOR STA+ FACILITATORS

• Your team doesn’t know why they are participating. A high-ranking administrator told them a few days ago that they had been selected to attend this nearby technology workshop. They are expecting technical training that they can pass along to their student assistants.

• One or more members of the team is compulsive about finishing tasks. The team expects to complete all the tasks during this event!

• One individual dominates the conversations. When it is time to talk in small groups, this individual urges that everyone skip that step and join together immediately for full group discussion. "We don’t need to separate."

• The team is so pre-occupied with some recent (but, to you, unidentified) event that the members cannot focus effectively on any of the assigned tasks.

• The team is composed almost entirely of faculty and middle-level administrators. They are convinced that none of the senior leaders at the institution will support more effective educational uses of information technology.

• The team doesn’t seem to need you!

During institutional team working sessions (breakouts), facilitate but do not dominate the team’s discussions. Let the team do the work. Add substantive comments only if you can offer additional information or a new perspective. Don’t be disappointed if your team appears to be able to function quite well without any intervention from you! You are still needed, and your presence is helpful in keeping them focused and on track.