IT Sligo broadcast the first of a series of ten ‘webinar’ lectures on Wednesday 14 January. A flexible, convenient way of learning, the interactive online lecture was shared by participants from three continents.
The event was launched by Professor Terri Scott, President, IT Sligo. Larry Ragan, Penn State University, U.S.A. delivered a lecture on Learning to Thrive: Strategies for Saving Time Online. This was followed by Brian Coll, IT Sligo who spoke on Technology for effective and timely feedback. The lunchtime learning session was followed by lively discussion. The lectures and discussion are available on – www.itsligo.ie/online.
Brian Mulligan, Open Learning Coordinator at IT Sligo and organiser of the webinar series comments: ‘Webinars will play a major role in the continuing professional development of educators and others. This series will expose many educators to teaching techniques that they have not used before. Although many of the techniques presented will not be based on technology the medium itself will illustrate the power of the Internet and reflects the need to develop these educators in using new technologies.
Online learning and webinars have the capacity to massively increase access to learning by reaching more people and reducing unit costs. This is a prime example of innovation in the public service – innovation that reduces costs and improves the service to the public.
The internet potentially provides easy access for all to education and online learning is a clear way of increasing this access. Webinars can be used in many areas including professional associations. Live online events are cost efficient and have the capacity to reach huge audiences both during and after an event. They can reduce training development times dispensing with the need to travel to a central venue. Not only can the people participating in the webinar be from anywhere in the world, the speakers can be brought in from anywhere at very reasonable cost. Environmentally too, this mode of delivery has minimum impact.’
Delivering courses in this mode has become a standard procedure in IT Sligo. A leader in the use of this technology, IT Sligo delivers over thirty hours of live classes a week. Programmes are delivered to a range of audiences from the Polymer Industry, Engineering professionals and the Irish Prison Services. This is an economical and widely accessible form of education. Experts at IT Sligo anticipate that the recession will accelerate the rate of change in education delivery. ‘This is just the start of what will be commonplace in the future’ concludes Mulligan. ‘These techniques could be used by any professional association and we are willing to assist any group that approaches us with their informal or formal training requirements. For more information on the free webinar series or to register for a lecture, just log on to www.itsligo.ie/online.