Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK): Building Electronic Communities and Networks
Full Review

Reviewed by: Albert Dean Atkinson, Ed.D., Records Management Specialist, ADB; prior to June 2004:Training & Courseware Specialist, IRRI
Review posted 26 September 2006
Review No. 87

CD-ROM Information

Content: This is a computer-based course for capacity building in agencies, institutions, and networks worldwide. It covers the various steps and procedures for developing and facilitating electronic communities and how to stimulate active participation within them.
Publication Date: 9 March 2006
Audience: This module is designed for people with a shared interest in agriculture, natural resource management, and rural development. It is especially useful to those working in resource poor locations, where the latest hardware and software may not be available, affordable, or even appropriate to the users.
Producer: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), Association for Progressive Communications (APC)
Size: 236MB
Price: Free
Manual needed: A print version of the manual is included within the CD-ROM under the "Help and Support" section. However, given the consistency with past IMARK modules in terms of the module’s intuitive navigation and use, a manual is not required. A complete explanation of the technical requirements (software, hardware, plug-ins, and operating system) is given with sufficient detail to get a user started.
How to order:

Order online.*

View CD-ROM content online (registration required).*

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Full Review

Content

"Building Electronic Communities and Networks" is the fourth in a series of e-learning modules developed as part of the Information Management Resource Kit (IMARK). It overviews the opportunities and challenges of using information communication technologies (ICTs) to enhance existing methods of collaboration and information sharing. It teaches users about the methods, and tools used to build and facilitate electronic communities and stimulate active participation.

Each lesson achieves a specific set of learning objectives using interactive step-by-step materials. Further, each lesson includes a list of job aids, online resources with additional reading, a module-specific glossary, and a search feature within the course materials for specific terms. A series of non-proprietary methodological guides are also provided.

The module is grouped into five units:

Unit 1: Online communities – new opportunities examines the benefits and opportunities offered by online communities to facilitate knowledge and information exchange, and describes key factors for a successful online community.

Unit 2: Understanding needs and assessing opportunities explains how to conduct a needs analysis for an online community, how to develop a team and define goals, and looks at the technical, financial, institutional, and social issues involved in designing an online community.

Unit 3: Options, choices, tools, and applications illustrates a wide range of interactive tools and applications for building an online community, their strengths and weaknesses, and how they affect the nature of the community.

Unit 4: Designing an online community provides guidelines for the design of an online community including introducing online communication in your organization, the professional roles required, the technical choices to be made, and how to plan for marketing, training, and evaluation activities.

Unit 5: Online facilitation explains how to facilitate an online community and introduces the basic concepts of facilitation. It also compares traditional and online facilitation, and illustrates a wide range of facilitation techniques.

The five units are segregated into 29 lessons, each ranging from approximately 15 to 90 minutes, totaling approximately 16-22 hours of self-paced instruction. An interesting feature of this CD-ROM is the use of mini-lessons which users may choose to extend their understanding.

Given the volume of content, users will benefit from using the Personal Learning Path (PLP) functionality built into the CD-ROM. To build the PLP, users are asked to respond to a series of "yes" or "no" queries that are formulated to assess their level of understanding. Upon completion, users are presented with a tailored list of lessons that will support their understanding of the subject matter.

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User-friendliness and Navigability

This course accomplishes what all successful learning interventions strive to achieve: it tells a story. This is made possible by the exact sequencing of the content in a way that spirals the learner’s understanding from simple to abstract concepts. Amazingly, the story is not lost if users choose to rely on the PLP functionality to tailor the course to their specific needs. Whatever their mode of engagement, either from a comprehensive linear approach that includes all lessons, or by using the PLP, users will find that—in the end—they have received a package of ideas through what is essentially a classic case of good story telling.

As with the other three courses in the IMARK series, module four is evidence of the producer’s commitment to excellence in delivering concepts associated with information management. The entire suite, thus far, has maintained strict branding and the module’s "look and feel" in terms of navigation, tools, content presentation, and relevance to the needs of the development community. Having said this, it is noteworthy that while such strict adherence to the look and feel across the courses has been maintained, learners are not likely to be bored with the interface because the designers introduce variety with each offering.

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Interactivity

As with previous IMARK modules, learners can

• customize the content to meet their specific needs prior to engaging the course,
• build their knowledge through an interactive, intuitive, and aesthetically pleasing user interface,
• benefit from well-designed learning content, and
• join other learners studying similar content through the IMARK Online Community that is accessible from the IMARK website, or through e-mail, fax, or postal mail.

Much of the content within this course is delivered using scenarios and case studies. By using this technique, the learner’s context is centered in the world of the development professional, whether from a director’s viewpoint of having to think in terms of return of investment and benefits, a webmaster who must consider technical requirements, a coordinator who wants to monitor and evaluate a program, or an editor who wants to generate a newsletter for those without online access.

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Distribution

The CD-ROM is available free through the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Please refer to the "How to Order" section above. For those with an internet connection, the course is identically delivered through the web, using bandwidth-friendly graphics and interactivity.

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