Share your PD activities

Why don't you let us know about any great papers you have read or other PD learning activities you can recommend.

FOLIOz Infoskills Training Course

Earlier this year I completed the eight week FOLIOz (Facilitated Online Learning Interactive Opportunity) course Designing and delivering information skills training courses (InfoSkills). The course was commissioned by ALIA and run by the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) at the University of Sheffield in the UK. The course was excellent value (costing $165 for an ALIA member) and was worth 30 PD points. There were approximately 50 librarians across Australia that did the course with me.

Infoskills was delivered via e-mail exchanges (with the facilitator and two buddies) and was augmented by exercises, quizzes and online materials. The course was supported by the FOLIOz Infoskills wiki, which provided access to subject information resources. Each week I had to get through about one or two briefings and some readings. My learning was captured in a portfolio that I was required to update regularly. This portfolio formed part of the assessment for the course along with a major assignment. The course covered topics such as:

• Training needs analysis
• Course design
• Course delivery
• Promotion
• Evaluation
• Benchmarking.

The flexibility of online learning suits my needs as a full-time employee based in regional Australia. The Infoskills course was run very professionally and was great value for money, so I will definitely consider doing other FOLIOz courses in the future. Check out the main FOLIOz wiki and ALIA promotion of upcoming courses.