[Baynet] Infopeople's new online course "Supervision 101: What All New Supervisors Need to Know"

[Linda Rodenspiel]

Since some people who may be interested in 
participating might not receive this notice 
directly, we would appreciate it if you would 
print and post or route this announcement to staff and colleagues. Thanks!

Title:  Supervision 101:  What All New 
Supervisors Need to Know (online learning course)

Date:  July 24, 2007 - August 20, 2007

To register for this workshop:  Use the online registration form at
http://infopeople.org/workshop/341

Fee: $75 for those in the California library 
community and $150 for those out-of-state.


"Congratulations, you've been promoted and you're now a supervisor!"

If you came to the job of supervisor without much 
formal training, you're not alone. Most 
supervisors develop their skills through 
experience—and sometimes, that's painful. The 
good news is that you don't have to suffer, and 
neither do your employees. Once you learn some 
practical techniques based on time-tested 
supervisory principles, you'll not only survive 
as a supervisor, but you and your staff will 
thrive. This course is for you if you want to:

--Give your staff the kind of support they need to stay motivated
--Coach and communicate with your staff effectively every day
--Feel more confident in dealing with common performance problems
--Handle challenging performance problems more easily

At the conclusion of this course you will have 
tools you can use immediately to be a proactive 
supervisor, and the confidence to handle supervisory problems that arise.



Workshop Description: This four-week online 
learning course will provide practical resources, 
tools, and methods that can be used by 
supervisors in any library setting. You will 
explore useful techniques for interviewing, 
hiring, and coaching staff. You will learn to 
diagnose common performance problems, and develop 
a set of best practices for handling the 
supervisory issues that challenge you most. The 
instructor will provide sample orientation 
checklists, coaching and counseling tools, 
behavior-based job descriptions and a 
webliography, as well as practical, useful tips 
that can be applied immediately.

During the course, you will be doing exercises 
and taking quizzes. You will also participate in 
online discussion forums and take part in one or 
two live chat sessions with your instructor and 
classmates as part of the online learning process

Preliminary Course Outline: Using your web 
browser and your Internet connection, you will 
log in to the Infopeople online learning site and 
complete the following learning modules:

Module One: Building a Framework for Supervision
--Recognizing and appreciating a diversity of skills and approaches
--Supervisory style and how it influences employee motivation
--Basic legal framework within which all supervisors operate

Module Two: Basic Tools to Keep Things Running Smoothly
--Using behavior-based job descriptions for 
recruiting, interviewing, and setting expectations
--Mentoring and coaching for development
--Creating and running work teams

Module Three: Correcting Performance
--Handling common performance problems
--Counseling and progressive discipline

Module Four: Performance Reviews
--What, how, and when to document performance
--Involving employees in documenting their own performance
--Goal-setting, development planning, and performance planning

Instructor:  Gail Griffith.  Gail is the Deputy 
Director of the Carroll County (MD) Public 
Library, responsible for public services and 
staff development. She also provides consulting 
services to a variety of public library, local 
government, and nonprofit agencies in the 
northeastern U.S. Most often, she has designed 
and delivered team building and supervisory 
training, or facilitated strategic planning processes for her clients.

Online Learning Details:
This four-week course will be taught online using 
the web. When you register, you will receive a 
registration confirmation that will include the 
URL to get to the course, as well as a username and password.

Every student proceeds through the online 
learning modules at his or her own pace. Students 
should expect to commit to spending a minimum of 
2 to 2½ hours per week on this course in order to 
be successful. You can work on each module at 
your own pace, at any hour of the day or night. 
However, you will be expected to log in to the 
course each week to do that week's assignment. We 
ask that you log in sometime during the first 
week of the course to begin the course work.

Your instructor will be available for limited 
consultation support for two weeks after the 
official end date of a course, and the course 
material will stay up for an additional two weeks 
after that, to give those who have fallen behind 
time to work independently on the course. 
However, you will be expected to accomplish the 
majority of the course in synchronization with 
your peers during the first four weeks.

Who Should Take This Course: Any supervisor from 
the library community. This course is most suited 
to new supervisors and those with less than three 
years of supervisory experience.

Prerequisites:
This course is taught over the web. You must:

--Have an Internet connection and Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.
--Be able to save Microsoft Word .doc or Adobe 
.pdf files to your computer and print them out. 
(For .doc files, a free Word Viewer is available 
at 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/search.aspx?displaylang=en. 
Search for "Word Viewer." For .pdf files, a free 
Adobe Acrobat Reader is available at 
http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/main.html).
--Be comfortable navigating on the web and 
navigating back and forward on a website that uses frames.

To be most successful in this course you should 
be willing to share information with your 
colleagues and be willing to spend time reading 
and participating in the weekly discussion boards.

System Requirements: The online learning product 
that Infopeople uses is called Angel. The 
following are minimum system requirements for 
using Angel. You will need access to a computer 
that has at least these specifications to participate in an online course:

Windows:
--Internet Explorer 6.0 and above, Netscape 7.1 
and above, or Firefox 1.5 and above

Macintosh:
--Mozilla 1.4 and above (which is the same engine 
as Netscape 7.1), Safari 2.0 and above, or Firefox 1.5 and above
--OS X and above (OS 9 will NOT work with our online learning product)

If you are not comfortable with any of the above, 
please consider taking this course with a 
colleague who does meet these requirements.


To view a complete list of Infopeople workshops 
and for general information about Infopeople 
training opportunities, go to the main Infopeople 
Workshops page at http://infopeople.org/workshop

If you have questions about registration or 
scheduling of workshops, please contact Linda 
Rodenspiel, the Infopeople Project Assistant, at 
assist at infopeople.org or by phone at 650-578-9685.