Distance Learning Content Development is a Teamwork Process

You can tell a great Christmas gift if it keeps on giving day-after-day. My wife, Alice, gave me such a gift this past Christmas in the form of a book written by Dr. Scout Cloud Lee who has become well known for her recent adventures on the CBS television series, “Survivor.” She was a competitor on Survivor – Vanuatu, and you might recall Scout had just an artificial orthopedic knee. She still managed to finish in the top three finalists and left memorable impressions on millions of viewers.

It's not Dr. Lee's appearance on Survivor that I'm impressed with or even want to continue about in any depth. The series and results speak for themselves and Scout’s success was fabulous.

We have known and worked with Scout Cloud Lee and her colleague Dr. Carol Anne Washburn for the past 15 years in working with our clients to develop as a team and to create distance learning programs. During these years, there have been hundreds of people who have been involved with this team building learning process.

One of the many successes that stand out in my mind is the Oklahoma State agency that is known as WIC Services -- Women, Infants and Children nutritional program. This agency is a federal program that operates in each state and normally is administered by the local state Department of Health.

We have had the opportunity to work with Oklahoma WIC Services under the leadership of Traci Lundy, Director of Nutrition Education and Training. Traci and her colleagues have been part of a distance learning training initiative the past 10 years. Her colleagues have invested significant amounts of time in understanding the content development process for programs that can be delivered throughout the state to nutritional consultants who can basically have information on demand.

You may wonder, what's this got to do with Scout Cloud Lee and Annie Washburn? As far as curriculum development, we feel it was very important to build in a process that emphasizes team building. Most of the WIC content specialists are not located in the same facilities. Consequently, if they are preparing informational materials that are to be shared using distance learning technologies, it is important for them to understand the dynamics of teams.

No better than demonstrating this team process is Scout Cloud Lee and Annie Washburn using various forms of challenges that are organized on a Ranch outside Stillwater, Oklahoma. The process was fun but more importanly it truly emphasized that to be successful individuals we must learn to work together no matter how difficult that might be.

This team-building challenge always ended with an activity called the “Pamper Pole” in which individuals, donned with protective gear and tethered with safety lines, climbed a 45 foot pole and stood on the top of it, only to jump and hold onto a trapeze. Without a doubt, this is an individual feat, however, it is also supported by all the team members making sure that the individual is successful in achieving the goal of climbing and jumping from a 45 foot pole!

I am not saying that climbing the 45 foot pole and participating in team building challenges are the only ingredients for success in preparing and delivering content for diverse clientele, but it certainly has helped. Oklahoma WIC has been very successful in using various distance learning technologies (from two-way video to asynchronous technologies) to deliver their nutrition information and training to case workers throughout Oklahoma. They keenly understand the role of a team in developing and delivering first-rate training materials.

Distance learning requires us to take advantage of building unique teams; developing content for distance delivery is not necessarily the work of one individual. That is why we have always incorporated Scout Cloud Lee’s group and team dynamics into our training for distance educators.

For further information on the overall process that was used for Oklahoma WIC Services, please take a look at our Learning Collaboration Suite.

Remember, great gifts continue on giving and I'm happy to share this wonderful gift that was given to me.

I'm looking forward to your comments and experiences in developing content for Distance Learning.

Call me

Lorne A. Parker PhD
Ph: 405-743-3463