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Notes of Tutor Seminars:
 Tutor Seminar - 15.03.00:
These are the Notes from the WAACIS Freelance Tutor Meeting held on 15 March 2000 at 16, Porchester Terrace, W2.
1. Tutor Recruitment Process:
This was generally thought to be satisfactory. It was suggested and agreed that the WAACIS address should be added to the Application Form. In addition there should be a section that would enable tutors to outline any special experience that might be relevant and useful. These would include ability to cope with panic/anxiety attacks and epilepsy. Other skills including languages for example would also be appropriate.
It was suggested and agreed that some form of technical test should be given during the interview process. Gillian will confer with Chris Baker to devise a suitable format.
2. Student Recruitment:
Some tutors felt initially that the process was a little cumbersome. However once the form was examined it was agreed that the questions were relevant and necessary. It was suggested and agreed that the WAACIS address should be added to the Application Form and also to the doctor check form. We would include a stamped addressed envelope when applying to the doctor to ensure that the form comes back to WAACIS and not to the potential student.
It was recognised that it was unfair to propose that students should have a police check due to the cost and lack of continuing relevance for them. However a question would be included on the student application form asking whether the potential student had ever been prosecuted for any offence including violent, anti-social or drunken behaviour. This question would also be included on the form sent to referees.
It was suggested and agreed that the wording of the section on student income should be revised so that there was no assumption that the student was in receipt of any state benefits. The first question would be, Are you in full time employment? with a box stating salary and the second question would be, Are you in receipt of state benefits? and give the list.
The question "Does your computer have a CD-ROM/Disk drive?" would be added to the form.
3. Courses delivered so far:
The general feeling was extremely positive. All tutors had enjoyed the courses they had given and feedback they had received was that the courses were very beneficial and extremely good value.
A further discussion took place about he security element of the visits so far as tutors were concerned. It was agreed that if tutors were at all worried, and certainly for the first assessment session, they should either ring the WAACIS office or some friend or relative to let them know the exact time that the assessment was taking place and would ring them again when the assessment was satisfactorily concluded.
It was suggested that various courses were available on how to deal with difficult situations and violence and was decided that this would be further looked into by WAACIS. It was agreed that a copy of the student application form would be made available at the WAACIS office for tutors but since the information was confidential a copy would not be made and taken from the WAACIS office.
A particular point was raised concerning the problem of various friends etc. messing about with the student's computer once the assessment had taken place and the installations had been satisfactorily made. It was decided to add an undertaking in the terms and conditions accepted by the student that in no circumstances would the computer be interfered with during the course. (an addition to this would be for the tutor to go through the student terms and conditions with the student as part of the assessment process and explain fully any undertakings in the conditions, which needed to be emphasised).
Some tutors were concerned that their students would complete the course before the ten sessions had been delivered. It was decided that the course would continue and more advanced work could be given. However in general WAACIS policy was to confine tuition to the Internet itself and not to branch out into other aspects of computer skills such as Word or Excel etc.
Perhaps a more important problem was the possible failure of a student to complete the course satisfactorily within the time. It was agreed that if a tutor recommended a further 2 or 3 lessons the course could be extended but this was to be seen as an extremely rare event and only applicable if a particular student was disabled in such a way as to make accessing the internet extremely slow. It was pointed out that part of the assessment process was to decide if a student was capable of benefiting from the course. It was not fair to a particular student to accept them for the course if for example they had learning difficulties and would not be able to enjoy the net easily.
(A further point not made at the meeting but which is important concerns holidays. In general it is important for the course to be delivered within a 4 - 5 week period otherwise knowledge obtained slips away. Would tutors therefore please make sure that their own holidays and the holidays of potential students do not interrupt the course.)
4. Syllabus:
The idea of giving technical training to students was considered. It was agreed that this would be a good idea in certain cases where time permitted. Some students did not know how to turn the computer on and off. A lot depended on the individual student. Some were already considerably advanced.
The idea of obtaining a definite qualification, possibly an NVQ was considered. There were pros and cons about this. It was felt that no pressure should be place on the student to achieve a particular goal. WAACIS would in any case give a certificate to the effect that the course had been completed. However it was generally felt that where a student would be able to gain a qualification the opportunity to do so should be given by WAACIS and this could be explored. This could also be important from a fundraising point of view. It was pointed out that many local authorities were give special allowances to train disabled people that were often not spent. Sometimes they were desperate at the end of the year to find a project to take up the amount budgeted.
As far as the syllabus itself was concerned it was agreed that initially WAACIS would produce a checklist of the ground to be covered. Tutors were invited to submit a checklist and these would be collated by WAACIS and redistributed for comment.
The idea of handouts for students on various aspects of the course, relating to e-mail, surfing the web, chat rooms and newsgroups was also discussed. Again tutors are invited to submit their ideas and WAACIS will redistribute these to all tutors.
5. Reporting Structure and Format:
This was discussed in some detail. It was important was the reports to have a certain formality. They were very useful for describing the work of WAACIS to third parties particularly trusts and companies from whom we hope to raise money or indeed Social Service departments. In principle the report should be one side of one Sheet of paper and describe the lesson that took place.
6. Choice of ISP:
A long discussion took place about this. In the end it was decided that the whole industry was in such a state of flux that no firm recommendation could be given. This would be discussed again at the next meeting.
7. 8. Assessments/Other technical ideas to aid tuition
Already covered in previous agenda..
9. Hardware for students:
This subject was discussed. It was much more difficult to obtain computers than was generally realised. WAACIS does not have the staff available to cope with this problem.
The best thing we could do was to put the student in touch with other organisations such as Ability Net, Aidis or Recycle it.
It is not possible for WAACIS to pass on second hand computers unless they have been properly serviced and declared safe from electrical faults.
10. WAACIS Web site:
This could not be discussed in detail as the web site is not yet online. However tutors were very keen to have a channel of communication between themselves. It was agreed that an email forwarding service would be set up which would enable tutors to email each other and exchange information.
It was important to get the format of the site right. There is a special organisation called
Bobby.com which would vet the web site to make sure that is was disability friendly. It was agreed that all tutors could make suggestions about the site and that it was to be developed in the coming months. 11. Any other business:
Tutors were told about the forthcoming training from Ability Net who assess and make recommendations regarding hardware for disabled computer users. Ability Net has suggested the following dates in June for this 2 hour training session to take place - 13th, 20th or 22nd. This would take place in the evening. WAACIS needs to know tutors preferred date as soon as possible.
The meeting ended at approximately 8 o'clock. A photograph was taken of all the tutors. Refreshments were served.
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