Become a Volunteer: Change the World One Course at a Time

During National Volunteer Week, April 21 – 27, 2013, we take time to celebrate volunteerism and focus our attention on the power and impact of those who give back to their communities and the world at large. If you’ve been looking for an opportunityto donate your time and talents while honing your instructional design or eLearning development skillset, here are a couple of ideas to get you started.

Help those who are doing good, do it better

LINGOs (Learning in NGOs) is a not-for-profit consortium of more than 75 international humanitarian relief and development organizations that enables those agencies to share their learning resources and experiences. LINGOs also engages partner organizations—companies and associations working in the field of technology assisted learning—to provide expert help and other support aimed atalleviating poverty around the world and effectively responding to emergencies.LINGOs member and partner organizations include some of the biggest names inthe nonprofit and technology sectors, including Habitat for Humanity, Save theChildren, Catholic Relief Services, World Vision, Care, The eLearning Guild, Articulate, Blackboard Collaborate, Cegos, eCornell, Insights, TELL ME MORE, and many more (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Maamohelang Hiaha receives HIV treatment in her ruralSouth African village from a program funded by USAID and run by a LINGOs memberagency – the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation. USAID photo.

Global Giveback

The LINGOs Global Giveback initiative takesthe charge to change the world a step further. Through Global Giveback, highlyskilled learning professionals volunteer their highest talent, creativity, andexperience to support anynot-for-profit organization working to improve lives in the developing world,whether the agency is a LINGOs member or not.

In the first four Global Giveback events, volunteer instructional designers and eLearning developerscreated more 100 eLearning courses for LINGOs and its 75 international NGOmember agencies. For NGOs working on the front lines of internationaldevelopment projects, effective use of volunteers allows the organizations todedicate their limited resources wisely.

If you’re an instructional designer,eLearning developer, trainer, or other learning professional interested involunteering with Global Giveback, you can join the Global Giveback LinkedIn group to express your interest and connect with an organization looking for help. Global Giveback projects can includedesigning learning and training resources that may be deployed in a variety ofways, including face-to-face, blended, and self-paced eLearning.

And if you’ve got a knack for contests, anoptional part of Global Giveback is a competition among the completed eLearningcourses. Judges will evaluate courses submitted by nonprofit global developmentagencies in two categories, based on whether individual developers or corporateteams developed them, using 10 criteria:

• Meets stated learning objectives
• Appearance
• Creativity
• Ease of use for the learner
• Interactivity
• Graphical content
• Ease of update (for the nonprofit sponsor)
• Holds the learner’s interest
• Ease of working with the developer (rated bythe nonprofit agency)
• Potential impact of the course (assessed bythe nonprofit agency based on topic and potential audience)

Recognition and awards will be announced at TheeLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions 2014 Conference & Expo in Orlando, FL.

Amanda Warner developed the 2012 award-winning course, Isoniazid Preventive Therapy (IPT) for the Prevention of Tuberculosis in People Living with HIV, for LINGOs member FHI 360 (Figure 2). About her participation as a Global Giveback volunteer, Warner says, “Theprocess itself of creating a course is so incredibly rewarding. You’re workingwith nonprofits that are striving for positive change in the world throughefforts ranging from global conservation to responsible microfinance tolifesaving emergency response; it’s so rewarding to be able to participate inthis, even in a small way.”

Figure 2: A scenario from the award-winning course developed for LINGOs member agency FHI 360

LINGOs announces Last Mile Learning is now live!

LINGOs is extremely excited to announce therelease of the Last Mile Learning website!

Thanks to the support of volunteers like the ones in the Global Giveback LinkedIn group, a library of professional development courses is available free of charge to anyone working to improve the lives of people in poor communities around the world.

Among the many accomplishments of the past 12 months, LINGOs has worked with more than 80 volunteers to accomplish the following:

• One website built
• Two Learning Paths completed
• Four Last Mile Learning curriculum guides published(self-led, face-to-face, blended synchronous, and blended asynchronous)
• Seven courses translated to Spanish, French,and Portuguese
• Thirteen face-to-face training packagescompleted
• Fifteen eLearning courses developed
• Twenty-one additional eLearning courses currentlyunder development

Furthermore, the Portuguese and Frenchversions of the website, and the project management curriculum, will belaunched very soon. These accomplishments are incredibly exhilarating and wouldnot have been possible without the dedication and great work of volunteers.

Find a match and make it happen

By no means is National VolunteerWeek, or your personal volunteerism, limited to Global Giveback or support ofLINGOs organizations! The key is to find a nonprofit organization you respectand volunteer your talents and skills. Think about causes near and dear to yourheart, and use your connections and contacts to find a match and give back.

Volunteering is a great way forstudents or those just getting started in the field to gain hands-onexperience, network with experienced colleagues, and build a portfolio of yourwork. Even experienced practitioners can find value in creating portfolioexamples, as many company proprietary issues make that a challenge for somepeople.

As you take the first steps on yourvolunteer journey, know that you might not find an instant match or connectwith a nonprofit organization right away. But keep hope alive! Be both persistent and consistent in your search to find the right fit. And know that withevery step you take, you are one step closer to changing the world one courseat a time.