Capstone+Article+Beatrice+Caulson

Capstone Article: Beatrice Caulson, IHM Queen of Peace Catholic Church 10900 SW 24th Avenue Gainesville, Florida 32607 352-332-6279 bcaulson@yahoo.com

As Director of Adult Faith Formation for our parish, I am directly responsible for the Certification of the Catechists. Each year we offer classes that will enable these volunteers to comply with the Diocesan Regulations for the certification of Catechists. I have been leading these classes for fourteen years and have tried to find ways that will enable all of these catechists to complete certification. We have offered classes on Sundays, weekends and during the summer. Despite the many options offered in a face-to-face format, many catechists complete their time of volunteering without completing the certification requirements. This year, we have twenty two catechists who need to complete the course on Prayer: Personal and Sacramental. Of these twenty two, there were ten who could not attend. I decided to attempt to meet the needs of the ten by offering an on-line course.
 * Serving Busy Catechists through Web tools for Catechist Certification**

I am exploring how online tools like GoToMeeting.com may be used to engage catechists in a learning experience. There were many steps which were taken to complete this process. First, it was important to find out what technical skills and knowledge the Catechists possess. Thus, I composed a questionnaire. (See Appendix 1). I found that many had little knowledge of the processes I intended to use. A pre-meeting (face-to-face) was held to introduce the catechists to the tools. Once completed, the course was developed using Microsoft Powerpoint. A practice session was utilized to enable all participants to experience the GoToMeeting process before the class began. The presentations took place on three Thursdays for a one hour presentation.

In order to use GoToMeeting, I read an article on the use of GoToMeeting and listened to a number of You Tube presentations on this tool. They were excellent tutorials for me. I learned how to do enhanced power point for on line presentations, how to vary the presentation with pauses for questions, responses, and interaction with the audience. A listing of these resources may be found in the appendix. Some of the You Tube presentations were strictly presented form a business point of view; but, I was able to extract information that would be useful to me. The GoToMeeting presentation was recorded and uploaded onto Vimeo after the classes so that the catechists could review the material at a later date. For best results, it is good to have a second person who will take care of the technical problems, respond to questions posted, and keep the presenter updated on the progress. I was fortunate to have a co-worker who was very happy to take this on. I am indebted to her.

As a result of this project, I can say that I personally learned a great deal and am encouraged to continue to present catechist courses in an on-line format. We now have seven additional catechists enrolled in our Certification classes who would not have done so before. One step that I would like to investigate is a method to record these presentations, include the discussions, and retain them for future groups. This will enable me to have time to develop other classes for both Level I and Level II Certification.

During the preparation and classes, I prepared the slides that I used. Several You Tube Videos were used to reinforce the learning. This project did present some challenges. One of the participants did not have a good connection, we had some static problems, and I needed to enhance my headset to one with a USB connection. The first class finished; and, the next day my computer was hit with a virus that wiped out my hard drive. When all was up and running, I forgot to reset the settings for GoToMeeting which caused an inability to upload to Vimeo. However, I had a recording which was available to the participants.

Other web tools that I brought into the learning process were a WordPress blog titled "Catechist Class-Prayer" which I used to do some additional instruction and refer the Catechists to some You Tube Videos I wanted them to watch. Catechists were asked to go to a Wikispace titled "QOP Catechists" to respond to questions concerning the course material. Each catechist was also asked to go to Wordle.com and do a page on Prayer. Additionally, each catechist located pictures that corresponded to assigned verses from Josh Groban's song: "The Prayer". Once completed, a video was made using Windows Live Movie Maker. This completed project was sent to each of the participants. Dropbox was used to transport the Wordle project and the pictures for the Video.

I used Zoomerang to create a questionaire to evaluate the online learning experience for the catechists. (Appendix 2) I learned that I should not ask the Catechists to use as many other technologies during a given course. Three of the prospective participants did not do the class for this reason. However, the plus side is that all of the catechists commented on learning about Wordle and will be utilizing it in their classes.

Some of the responses that will help me in building the next class are:
 * One person neither agreed nor disagreed that the webinar was easy and convenient.
 * One person disagreed that the combination of the webinar, blog, and wiki was a good way to learn this information.

Other comments included:
 * The convenience of an online class is very important to me. I felt I participated even more with this format than in a class setting because I could type in a comment to share with everyone during the session.
 * I truly appreciate the flexibility to work at my own pace. It has actually taken more time as I stop and consider what I have just heard and how I will respond. I tend to mull things over for a time before I have an answer. The introvert in me loves this approach.
 * Being at home but still felling connected just as if we were all in the same room.
 * I liked the convenience of the webinar.
 * I really enjoyed the presentation ... and I almost hate to say it... I like the homework assignments. It's nice to have some creativity brought in.

All in all, I am glad that a ten-year goal of mine has begun to be met. I am richer for this effort. The catechists are richer and thus, I hope, the children will be richer. I came to realize that the catechists are generally mothers who do not have out-of-the-home employment. There was need for more one-on-one work than I anticipated. I applaud these ladies for their endeavors to learn the technologies. I believe that part of their perseverance was due to the fact that as parents, their freedom to do an on line course was more probable than any other method.


 * Appendix 1**


 * Pre-Class Assessment**

You may view the published form here: []


 * Appendix 2: Catechist Prayer Workshop Questionaire**

You may view the published form here: []

__**Appendix 3:**__ __**References**__

A Webinar Organizer's Checklist__ by Ken Molay – A Webinar Success White Paper 2010- [|www.wsuccess.com] **Y****ou Tube Videos:**
 * GoToMeeting Web Presentation Tips: Web Conferencing as a Pro - []
 * GoToMeeting On Line Training and elearning: Basics of GoToMeeting - []
 * GoToMeetingTutorial - []
 * How to Create Great Webinars - Slide Development - []
 * How to Create Webinar Presentations with Powerpoint - []
 * How to use GoToMeeting Tutorial by Web Conference Trial.com - []
 * [|__Ten steps to Running a Knockout Webinar: Koichi C. and Brad K.__] [|ttp://youtu.be/IFEr5_5YVDY]