Do you ever wish you had a clone at the other end of your distance learning class? Someone who could read your mind and do what you wanted exactly when you wanted? I have quickly learned that support personnel or a facilitator can make or break a class. Effective training is the key. That effectiveness starts with a philosophy of active learning. I firmly believe that distance learning should be interactive and participatory. Infuse this underlining premise throughout your facilitator training. Develop a training that simulates experiences the facilitator will face. The training should incorporate information about working with materials, tests, the teacher of record, and the students. Remember, your motto should be "actions speak louder than words."

Additionally, give your facilitators a notebook containing helpful hints and a place to capture the information they are discovering through the training activities. Model organizational techniques and the verbal and non-verbal ways to communicate that your instructors will be using in class. Experiences with the modifications an instructor makes for the distance learning setting will create an effective link between instructor and facilitator. Because most facilitators have never experienced a distance learning class, consider doing your training on line with the facilitator both receiving and presenting information. In terms of the content, the major areas of training that I have identified for our facilitator's here at the Northwest Indiana Distance Learning Cooperative are: technology/equipment; the facilitator's role; logistics; communication; instructional support and equity.

Technology/Equipment. Paraphrasing Kevin Costner in "Field of Dreams," my philosophy of equipment training can best be expressed by saying, "If they touch it, they will succeed." Conquer the fear of the technology by asking your support staff to practice, practice, practice. Design activities such as relay races, "Button, button, where is that button!" and scavenger hunts that involve practicing on the technology. This will create confident and knowledgeable users who won't interrupt the learning atmosphere with the cry, "How do I do that?" And don't forget to cover troubleshooting technological problems. Role playing the nightmare of lost video, lost audio, missing equipment, where to find technical assistance, etc. can mean the difference between a 5 to 10 minute disruption and a lost class period.

Facilitator Role. Your facilitators may be another teacher, paraprofessional, community member, graduate student or any combination of the above. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you assist the facilitator in understanding that the instructor of the class is captain of the ship. The facilitator is a person of support. The teacher is in charge of the curriculum and students. The facilitator is there to assist the teacher as asked. Try generating a list of tasks and ask your facilitator to identify which is the responsibility of the teacher of record and which is the province of the facilitator. This provides a great foundation for discussion about how to support without being intrusive.

Logistics. When it comes to distance learning, it's all small stuff and you really do have to sweat it! Your facilitator needs to know what to do with assignments, tests, class attendance, student questions, texts, how and where to gather materials for activities and registration/payment/enrollment questions. Some of these issues will be campus wide, some will be instructor specific. Training can cover campus wide policies and suggestions for the handling of assignments, tests and other instructor specific requests. It's a good idea when covering the logistical portion of your training to invite instructors to meet with their specific facilitator for a brief time to discuss their specific needs and wants. Meeting over lunch or during a break in the training where there is food is often a great incentive for otherwise busy faculty to participate.

Communication. Incredibly important!! While your faculty member and facilitators are chatting, ask them to set a weekly time to talk about what is happening in class, future lessons, special instructions or concerns. Also ask everyone to exchange phone numbers, addresses and email addresses. Create a form! The information needed may seem obvious, but I cannot count how many times I have received a call asking for an instructor or facilitator's address and phone number. Encourage everyone to use e-mail to communicate questions and information.

Before your faculty leave, discuss with everyone the importance of their commitment to their weekly meeting via telephone or in person. The facilitator is the eyes and ears of the teacher in the distance learning class's extended sites. A good facilitator will let the teacher know when a student is struggling with material, asking questions outside of class or having some other type of problem or success. Video flattens the non-verbal cues instructors rely on to check whether their message is being received. The facilitator can read those non-verbal cues and pass them on to the instructor. Finally, identify who the facilitator's supervisor is while both the faculty member and facilitator are present. Supervision may involve both the instructor and another person at the extended site. If a problem arises at a location with the instructor or the facilitator, everyone needs to know who to talk to immediately.

Instructional Support. Practice instructional support techniques! During the training, you must include and simulate all of the following: the giving of instructions, classroom management problems, material distribution, collection of assignments, testing and taking of attendance. Demonstrate techniques a facilitator can use for each of these areas. Show your facilitator how to quickly communicate what is happening in the classroom by using a non-verbal signal. Model the behavior you want a facilitator to use in each situation. Remember that each site's physical and cultural setting is unique so you may have to modify.

Equity. Last, but probably most important, is the issue of equity. In order to create an effective learning atmosphere, there needs to be a feeling that each site is an integral part of the instructor's classroom. Therefore, each distance learning site must be treated the same by both the facilitator and instructor. I learned this lesson the hard way when one of our facilitators had a candy jar on her desk. Students at that site helped themselves to the candy while the other sites had none. Sounds like a simple problem, right? Maybe so, but in our case the problem escalated even though the candy jar was removed. The sites split into factions and competed among themselves. It took a lot of work to recreate that whole classroom atmosphere and partnership among the sites. In your training, split your facilitators into "haves" and "have nots." Give one group a candy bar and have the other group watch from the other side of the room while the facilitators eat the candy. Discuss how each group felt and what could happen. Also talk about visual actions that can cause a rift such as using a document camera to make comments to each other. The rule of thumb for both the instructor and facilitator is if you can't do it for everyone at all the distance learning sites, don't do it!

Conclusion. How do you end your training? You don't! Instead, set up your own strategies for communicating with the facilitators throughout their tenure. Peek in, if you have time, on the classes. Sometimes you can do this in a broadcast mode on-line without anyone knowing you are there. Send out an e-mail survey during the semester asking for feedback. Encourage the facilitator to e-mail you with questions and moments they would like to celebrate. Create a listserv so facilitators can communicate with each other. Meet half way through the semester for a lunch with everyone you have trained both experienced and new. Creating these types of connections among your facilitators and yourself will assist you in identifying new concepts/situations that need to be covered in training. And your facilitators will feel they have your continued support. Facilitator's training? You bet! You may not create the perfect clone, but your instructors will thank you for the competent support person at the other distance learning sites. Go train 'em!