Online Teacher Training
Online Training Guide
Moderating Online Teacher Training
Who is this Guide for?
A moderator is a trainer who leads and manages a learning experience in an online course. This means
guiding participants towards particular self-access activities at particular times and setting up, managing and
assessing communicative online activities, such as forum discussions.
This Online Training Guide is for moderators who are delivering an online course based on the Online
Teacher Training modules in the Cambridge LMS. It contains advice on how to get your course started and
tips on how to run the course, support your trainee teachers and assess their performance. It also includes
guidance on collaborative activities that can be carried out using the class tools in the Cambridge LMS.
There are Moderator Notes for each module that include suggestions for specific activities in the forum, blog
or wiki. You can find these in the Resources Section of your class.
Getting Started
Setting up your class
Set up your class using the Online Teacher Training master course in the Cambridge LMS. If you are doing
this yourself, see the video entitled ‘Add Product’ in the Playlist below. If your institution has a Client
Administrator, they will do this for you.
Setting up your course
Look at the list of modules in the Contents section in the OTT course. There is a list of abstracts of available
modules at the end of this document. Not all of them will be relevant to your teachers. Consider the
programme your institution will roll out and choose the modules that will help teachers deliver that
programme. Once you have decided which modules are relevant to your teachers you can lock the content
of other modules in order to keep your teachers focused on the core materials. See how to do this in the
video called ‘How to assign activities’ in the playlist below.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-oYKB0D9-E3AhcZOLloAsIWc4ycsyUu5
If you want, you can lock all the content except the module you want everyone to see at a particular time.
This helps keep collaborative activities focussed on a single topic. You can then unlock further modules when
you are ready to start them. You can do this by following the instructions in the video above.
You will also need to decide how you will assess teachers’ performance – see below for information on how
you might do this.
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Student Support
Keep it simple
The teachers you are training are probably new to Blended Learning, or if not, they are new to this particular
platform or to the Course Book they are using so they have a lot to take on all at once. Set a good example
for them by not overcomplicating their training.
In the Moderator Notes to the individual modules you will find examples of a collaborative activity that you
can carry out using a blog, forum or wiki. Do the module called Class Tools in the LMS yourself first so you
have a clear idea of how to run these activities. You can also check the ‘CLMS: How to…’ videos to find out
how each tool works. The videos are found here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-oYKB0D9-E3AhcZOLloAsIWc4ycsyUu5
Choose one class tool and use the activities for that tool throughout the training. That way, the teachers will
only have to learn to use one tool at a time and so they can focus on the content and collaboration rather
than how each individual tool works. This is valid for their students too.
If you are fortunate enough to have all your trainee teachers together in one place, why not do a face to face
session instead of using the class tools? Any of the activities described in the Moderator Notes can be
adapted for face to face sessions. For example, you could use the topic to generate a group discussion from
the forum activities. Ask participants to reflect on blog topics and share their thoughts in groups. Wiki
activities could be turned into shared writing and review. Decide what your group needs and plan your
session appropriately.
Set your expectations
The self-access activities in each module take 60-90 minutes to complete. If you would like to do one of the
collaborative activities listed in the Moderator Notes, this can take teachers between 30 and 60 minutes,
depending on how you manage it.
Once you have decided which modules you are doing, and which collaborative activities you will do,
communicate this to your teachers along with the amount of time you are expecting them to study with you.
Set your deadlines and communicate them to your teachers. A good way to do this is to set deadlines in the
class calendar, as well as start and end dates of collaborative activities.
Communicate your assessment plans clearly from the start of the course.
Do an ice-breaker
If you are working with teachers from different campuses, or even institutions, who have never met each
other, or you, it would be a good idea to do an ice-breaker activity in the class tool you have chosen.
For example, you could ask students to write a short self-introduction in the forum or blog. To generate
discussion, ask them to find other people in the class they have something in common with and respond to
them to compare experiences. Alternatively, ask them find someone who has done something they have
never done (or been somewhere they have never visited, etc) and ask them about it.
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If you choose to use the wiki for your ice-breaker, you could create a table like the one below and ask
everyone to fill it in.
Name Where I Where I’m My hobby Best holiday Weirdest ETC
teach from food
Encourage them to ask each other questions using the comments function to find out more.
You can also ask the participants to write a short description of the group, e.g. ‘We’re very adventurous.
Some of us are creative but two of us much prefer analytical activities. We’ll do well at activities where we
can apply our own knowledge…’ Once the description is there, ask everyone to view and change it to reflect
the ‘true’ character of the group. This exercise shouldn’t be taken too seriously so you will need to
participate to keep it light and fun.
Assessment
At the beginning of your course you will need to decide how you will judge whether the participants have
completed the training successfully or not. Will you pass or fail them? Will you give them a grade? What will
be included in that grade? Will all activities count equally towards it?
The self-access modules contain 2 different activity types:
1. Automatically marked activities
2. Free writing that is collated in the portfolio
In addition to this, you can award grades for participation and achievement in collaborative activities.
The scores for these activities are found in the Gradebook. For free writing and collaborative activities you
will have to view these and enter a grade in the Gradebook separately.
To see how this information is presented and set the pass grade, watch the videos about the Gradebook
here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-oYKB0D9-E3AhcZOLloAsIWc4ycsyUu5
You can mark collaborative activities based on quantity or quality of contributions and how well they show
the trainee’s deeper understanding and ability to apply what they learned in the module and from their
peers to their own context.
Whatever you decide you should communicate this clearly to the participants from the start.
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Moderating Each Module
Before you begin
Do the module yourself first!
Do the module on Class Tools to help you decide which tool is most appropriate for the communicative
activities for your group. If you and your group are new to using online collaboration tools then keep it
simple and work with the same tool for the duration of the training.
Look at the ‘How To…’ videos on YouTube to see how to access the tool you’ve chosen.
Check your participants’ responses to the Try This! Activity in the module they are currently taking and
their scores in the gradebook to see if there are issues you need to address. Remember, the Try This
activity comes towards the end of each online module so try to time this so that the participants
complete this first and then have enough time to complete the communicative activities before you
move on.
Setting up an Activity
To make sure everyone looks at the same module at the same time, try locking the modules you don’t
want the participants to focus on (see ‘Setting up your course’ above). Otherwise it will be difficult to
generate meaningful discussion within the group on any topic.
Give clear instructions including: a time frame, a level of expected participation, the learning outcome,
what support the participants can expect from you and how they will be assessed.
Monitoring the Activity
A typical online collaborative activity should require no more than a total of 1 hour of work for each
participant but should take place over a week so that trainees can log in multiple times to participate in
the discussions as they develop.
Check in regularly to make sure that everyone has contributed at least once (see Statistics for each tool
for a quick way to check this). A brief check in once a day should be enough.
Give a personal response to participants’ contributions, and invite further comments, especially from
less active participants.
Guide the conversation to keep it on task and then, at the appropriate time, summarise and close the
activity and give generalised feedback and praise.
Assessing the Activity
Actual percentages are up to you but you should award credit for any contribution, as well as
contributions that respond to others and invite further comment, level of understanding of topic and
level of self-awareness shown in responses. Most important, participants should be able to apply what
they are learning to their own context.
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Abstracts
Teacher Development
This module covers various ways teachers can engage in their own professional development and how they
can do this using a combination of online tools, data about their students' performance and in-class action
research. It also provides guidance on how to manage the experience of using the Online Teacher Training
modules overall, so would work well as an introductory module.
Blended Learning
This module covers the main principles of combining face to face and online learning to create a single
learning experience for your students, which works towards clear learning objectives and uses both modes
of delivery to best advantage.
Data
This module looks at how we can use data to assess what is important to focus on in the classroom, while
maintaining a communicative focus in face to face work. We will also look at a step-by -step of how the
reporting tools work.
Class Tools
This module covers the basics of how to use each of the tools, as well as how to manage an online class,
design engaging tasks, and monitor and evaluate communicative or writing skills focussed activities.
Online Workbook
This module reviews the potential for using online workbooks for consolidation and extension work and how
this can help teachers deal more effectively with multi-ability classes.
Teaching with…
These modules explore the main principles underlining the course you have chosen to do with your students
and how to incorporate their online components to create a meaningful learning experience both in and out
of class
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