Creating “Educational Guides” | Supporting academics through transitions

When changing student management systems there is always a significant amount of adjustment required, particularly when coupled with a rapid transition to online teaching. At La Trobe College we recently experienced a steep learning curve as we transitioned from Maze to Navigate. The working restrictions imposed by COVID-19 have made it impossible to rely on face-to-face demonstrations. Therefore, Educational Guides were designed, containing detailed, stepwise instructions and annotated screenshots of processes, to support academics through this transition remotely.

The Educational Guides proved to:

• Help preserve and clarify the instructions when shared between people, thereby eliminating much of the confusion surrounding the functionality of new platform.
• Encourage the learning of new functions and, if there was confusion at any point, readers could pick up mid-way through a process rather than beginning anew, thanks to the detail, and incorporation of both written and pictorial instructions.
• Make remote training possible and academics were able to follow written guides when needed. This was very well seen in producing the early guides on Navigate functions such as bulk emailing, module maintenance and advanced searches for student administration, as team members were able to follow these and successfully email without a prior demonstration.

If you have any questions about these Educational Guides, would like a sample, or wish to continue the conversation on this topic, contact David.Bower@latrobemelbourne.edu.au or learningandteaching@navitas.com.