The development of (at least) one piece of personal work or project from all
participants
The development of (at least) one piece of group work
One or two conferences where all participants are present. If the group is too large, then various conferences will be organized so that groups of 10 participants are present at each time
Portfolios: participants presenting a record of their activities throughout the
course and in each of the modules
Closing questions for each module, or other type of feedback
A section for participants to “meet”
A library of suggested documents and links
Room for questions (content and technical service
Participants completing a course evaluation, giving feedback on the course
quality and level of learning.
Online tutorials
These present an innovative tool for sharing knowledge which is always available online (figure 3). Different from virtual courses, tutorials are permanently online and users do not need to register or wait for a specific date when the course begins.
A tutorial is designed for self use, and users follow and advance through the contents in their own time and according to their interest. Going through a com- plete tutorial will normally take a couple of hours.
Tutorials are an excellent way to present subjects and leave directions to fol- low or deepen knowledge for those interested. Users will normally find a tuto- rial organized in chapters or sections and contents are completed with diagrams, pictures, messages, facts and “read more” boxes for specific contents. A list of relevant web links and recommended readings completes a typical online tutorial.
Tutorials may also be shared as CD-ROMs or USB pen drives, although with the increasing level of connectivity it is more common to use them directly online. They can be presented in a variety of languages, and since they are online they are fully open for anyone who wants to participate.
Interactive sections may be incorporated. This way feedback from users will be available showing which types of user are benefiting from the tool and also pro- viding suggestions for improvements or for working together in a more profound capacity-building process. Other tools such as online self-evaluations are also com- mon, so that users can measure their understanding of the contents seen.
In addition, the server where the tutorials are hosted also provides valuable information on the number of times the tutorial has been consulted, which pages are visited the most and the country of origin of the users.