The Internet for Social Scientists workshops provide a brief overview of Internet tools and facilities, but concentrate firmly on using SOSIG and other UK-based national services as starting points for Internet access to valuable and relevant networked resources worldwide. The training for end users is partly tailored at each workshop to the audience’s subject-specialisms and level of knowledge and participants are encouraged to substitute their own interests for those given in the exercises. Workshops are provided for small groups of 12 or less participants at their own institutions (although up to 18 participants can be accommodated with two trainers). This has the benefit of introducing new information in a familiar environment where participants can use machines and configurations similar to those they will find on their desktops, most often with a group of colleagues with similar teaching and research interests. The downside is that some feel obliged to return to their offices between sessions and are caught up in local crises, particularly in termtime, which occasionally prevent them from returning. Lesly and Tracey are therefore heavily dependent on the goodwill, organisational skills and tact of their contacts at host sites who are equally responsible for ensuring that each training event is a success.
During the course of each workshop extensive documentation in the form of a workbook is provided. The full-day beginners’ workshops see SOSIG supplied 'on a plate' for the less-experienced with step-by-step exercises and hints and tips on using WWW browsers. Quick quizzes throughout provide more challenges and an opportunity to test what has been learnt. Quiz sheets along the lines of 'twenty questions' emphasise for the more advanced how SOSIG can be used to answer a variety of research questions and how the national UK services can be used singly or in combination for a variety of enquiries. The use of SOSIG and other subject-based gateways is placed in context alongside the use of Internet and WWW search engines and other electronic - and paper - sources of information such as Library Catalogues and Citation Indices. The beginners’ half-day session has step-by-step and quick quiz exercises only and the half-day session for the more experienced has quiz exercises only.
Trainers and on-site organisers can sometimes have a difficult time preparing for workshops. Problems can
arise because sessions are organised at a distance and often booked 6 months or more in advance.
Organisers at host sites face difficulties when prime movers for a workshop leave or go on sabbaticals,
leaving behind colleagues who are less enthusiastic about networked information.
Other priorities may also intervene, especially when workshops are booked during termtime, when there
may be a high drop-out rate or last-minute substitutions. Although the trainers are very specific about
facilities and information required and what they can offer there can occasionally be a mis-match between
participants’ and organisers’ expectations and what the trainers have committed to deliver. As an organiser
within an institution it is extremely important to identify the potential participants’ needs and abilities
before booking a workshop. These needs can then be discussed with a trainer and the course can be tailored
to the group. Good planning and communication with the institution beforehand generally produces
satisfied customers at the end of the workshop and feedback is usually appreciative both of the on-site
organisation and the session content. The trainers themselves are particularly appreciative of a warm
welcome, where overnight accommodation and an 'evening event' such as a pub supper have been organised
in advance. It can be disconcerting to find that the guest house or hotel is some way from the host site or
the centre of town and that 'safe' areas to dine alone are difficult to find: trainers do not always travel in
pairs (but when they do, details of late-night shopping hours are also appreciated!).
The size, layout and temperature of rooms used for sessions feature largely in the ‘least-liked’ comments and lead us to question the resources and support given generally to IT training within UK HE institutions. Many institutions are equipping computing labs for students, often with 24-hour access, which are suited to open and computer-aided learning. They are less suitable for workshops where the trainers need to be able to monitor participants’ progress unobtrusively yet still have easy access to participants and their machines to respond to queries and provide one-to-one help. A ‘horse-shoe’ layout has proved the most ideal. Awkward layouts, with pillars or odd angles resulting from adaptations of rooms from other uses, mean that some participants cannot see or hear demonstrations or presentations. The need to cram as many machines as possible into a room often makes it difficult for trainers to negotiate the narrow space between rows of desks to provide one-to-one assistance. Noise from air-conditioning or heating equipment, or the need for complete blackout during presentations because of low-powered projection equipment is a general problem and can seriously hinder the provision of training to the deaf or hearing-impaired.
All end user workshops are run under the Internet for Social Scientists banner:
Material on this page is copyright Ariadne/original authors. This page last updated on November 20th 1996