Members of many professions seek continuing educationcourses to sharpen or update their skills. But in a profession like editing,where contract or freelance work is very common, and where employers havedrastically cut training budgets, attending conferences or in-person seminarsis not always possible. What’s an education-hungry professional editor to do?
Turn to eLearning, of course.
Editing is an applied skill; the learning must go beyondpresentation of concepts and facts. Learners must practice, get feedback, andapply that feedback to new editing assignments. It’s the only way to improve,whether that practice occurs in class or on the job. Thus asynchronouseLearning and offline exercises, while essential, could be only a partialsolution. Live lectures and discussions held in a virtual classroom, as well asindividualized instructor feedback on editing projects, complete the eLearning picture.
This case study presents a blended solution—the product of aveteran institution dedicated to educating journalism and media professionals,The Poynter Institute, and a professional organization for copy editors, ACES—thatcan assist others in developing similar solutions for a variety of professions.
Poynter’s NewsU
The Poynter Institute, in St. Petersburg, Florida, was long renownedfor its in-person training seminars for journalism and media professionals. Agorgeous location right on Tampa Bay; top-notch instructors, both permanentfaculty and guest instructors flown in for the seminars; sumptuous meals;networking opportunities … then came the early 2000s. As the age of legacymedia—newspapers and television—gave way to the digital era, mediaorganizations no longer had training budgets that supported sending staff toweek-long seminars in Florida. Poynter had to change gears; it began to offerseminars within newsrooms, and it created training models that combined onlineor independent study with short on-site seminars.
And Poynter moved into eLearning in a big way.
News University, or NewsU,was born in 2005. The eLearning division of The Poynter Institute, NewsU is apioneer among professional development organizations, notable for the depth andbreadth of its offerings. NewsU produces dozens of webinars each year as wellas offering replays of previous webinars; it offers hundreds of asynchronouseLearning courses, many available free of charge, and several certificateprograms. And, increasingly, NewsU and Poynter pool their considerable expertiseto offer what they call OGSs, or online group seminars.
An OGS is a blended solution that includes synchronous andasynchronous elements. The synchronous elements are often live lectures andchats; sometimes a webinar or two is added to the mix. An OGS might lastanywhere from three to six weeks; some feature a short (two- or three-day)in-person session at the end or one-on-one coaching from instructors.
An additional element of NewsU’s success strategy ispartnerships. This is where ACES, theAmerican Copy Editors Society, enters the picture.
ACES
ACES is a professional development and networkingorganization for copy editors. Its annual conference and regional workshopsprovide education and problem-solving, space to discuss issues of concern toediting and writing professionals, and advocacy for editors of all stripes.
ACES and NewsU worked hard to put together a roster ofasynchronous eLearning courses to teach and drill participants on variousediting skills. In 2013, they launched the Poynter ACES Certificate in Editing, aimed at professional editors, freelance writers and editors,and journalism students who are looking to polish their editing skills. Theemphasis is on foundational editing skills: grammar, punctuation, and clear,concise writing.
When working editors, including many members of ACES,expressed a desire for advanced training, ACES and NewsU created a secondcertificate, the Poynter ACES Certificate in Accurate, Audience-Focused Editing, in 2016. But ACES boardmembers Merrill Perlman and Sue Burzynski Bullard wanted more depth andsubstance than they thought a purely asynchronous certificate would provide.They also wanted to serve a growing membership of editors who were notjournalists—academic authors, technical editors, and marketing writers, forexample.
“Our goal was to provide advanced training for editors whowanted to hone their skills or move to a new level. We wanted to focus onsubstantive editing and critical thinking skills across multiple platforms anddisciplines,” Burzynski Bullard said in an email interview.
Simply teaching skills and concepts in asynchronous onlinecourses was insufficient; substantive editing is a tough subject to teachonline. The advanced study program had to include the applied practice that isso essential to editing—and projects had to go beyond mechanical skills,teaching editors to look at longer pieces of writing more holistically. In-personseminars are costly and can be hard to find, but this type of editing andfeedback is not possible with an asynchronous eLearning course. A blended eLearningseminar was the ideal solution.
OGSs take editing training to a new level
NewsU and ACES decided to build a training package foradvanced editing professionals. It would include the new certificate and add anOGS where substantive editing projects would be assigned. The capstone coursein the Advanced Editing Certificate Training Package is the In-Depth Editing OGS, afour-week blended eLearning solution that teaches in-depth structural andsubstantive editing.
“The key goals were to advance the attendees’ editing skillswith a focus not on grammar, spelling, or the usual subjects taught in editingcourses, but on a broader-based and more advanced level, focusing on criticalthinking skills, organization (of pieces and work), editing for multipleplatforms, and working with tools and writers,” Perlman said, also in an emailinterview.
The OGS challenges participants to think about editing in abigger-picture way and share their experience. “We encourage students to lookat one another’s work and our comments, not to critique but to see differentapproaches,” Perlman said.
The content encompasses disparate skills that editors need:technical skills, like editing for SEO and tailoring content for differentdigital and non-digital platforms; guidance for editors who coach and providefeedback to writers; and a deep dive into structural editing—making sure that apiece of writing is complete, logically organized, well-sourced, and clear. Thefirst OGS was held in August 2016; the second seminar starts on January 20, 2017.
Challenges and opportunities
The blended eLearning format offers both benefits andchallenges when compared with either a face-to-face course or completelyasynchronous eLearning.
“The online format does pose different challenges. I thinkit’s important to reinforce the learning goal in different ways,” BurzynskiBullard said. “As an example, in addition to reading lessons in text, weprovide short videos to make points. I think when you’re teaching online youhave to really think about how a student receives the material—you need tochunk it in digestible pieces. You can’t expect someone to sit through a45-minute video lecture. But you might reinforce a point you’ve made in textwith a two-minute video.”
Besides presenting learning in different ways, teachingonline requires a different type of commitment from both learners andinstructors. “Blended online formats are useful and can be effective whendealing with disparate, scattered group of students. By moving the learning to‘on your own time,’ students must commit themselves, since only one hour a weekis group time,” Perlman said. “The downside [for instructors] is that it’s moreimperative to keep an eye out for students who might be struggling or notattending any of the sessions.”
Perlman also said that the “sense of isolation when you’renot seeing students” is a hazard of eLearning. “Having other means ofdiscussion can help that: a discussion board, a Facebook group, or some otherways that the members of the group can interact among themselves and with theinstructor can make for a much more coherent class and engaging content.”
Advance preparation is an important element of any eLearning.Burzynski Bullard said that being well-organized is essential, especially for afast-paced course like this one, and instructors have to “invest time beforethe course starts in its organization and planning.” The OGS is four weekslong, with one live session per week, along with online readings andassignments. The instructors have to respond quickly to assignments so that learnerscan use the feedback to improve their next assignment.
Along with the challenges, blended eLearning offers opportunities.Among them: It makes live training available to far more people than couldattend an in-person seminar or multisession synchronous eLearning course. “Theidea is to create a sense of community with the live sessions and reinforce thelessons, but recognize that the attendees are mostly full-time workers, and sodon’t have the luxury of a lot of specifically timed in-person sessions,”Perlman said.
Burzynski Bullard noted that it’s easier to deliver lessonsin a variety of formats in a blended course, which better serves learners whohave different learning preferences. The blended format, she said, “serves asalmost a check on the messages that have been delivered asynchronously. Thelive sessions allow us to check in and say, ‘Do you understand this? Is thismurky? Does this live explanation help?’”
Getting learners to engage—with the material, with theinstructor, and with one another—is a challenge in any class, but more soonline. “My gut feeling is that I can always get better engagementface-to-face. But I do think the live sessions really helped increase engagementin this course,” Burzynski Bullard said. “Students were overwhelmingly positiveabout the live sessions. … Students were not only responding to the instructorsbut also to each other. I do think students were feeling like a learningnetwork, particularly in the live sessions. That’s one more reason to keep ablended format.”
“We had a lot of engagement from this initial course,” Perlmansaid. “To me, the live sessions are always the most valuable. Besidesreinforcing the lessons, they advance them, and give attendees the chance toask questions and express opinions and frustrations. In this initial session, alot of the attendees offered their own advice and resources, which enhancedeveryone’s experience.”
Improving the course
As the instructors head into the second OGS, they areplanning some changes, Burzynski Bullard said. Despite their planning thecourse for editors who work in a variety of settings and industries, most ofthe examples and assignments in the first seminar were from journalism. “We aretweaking the second round of the course to ensure that we really are looking atediting across disciplines,” she said. Participants might have fewerassignments, but those will be more targeted to editors with different areas offocus.
“In the second version, students will be able to choosewhich kind of story they want to edit depending on their area of interest. Ifyou’re an academic editor, you can edit a piece of a research paper. If you’rein marketing or public relations, your assignment might focus on a pressrelease,” Burzynski Bullard said.
Another change will be to offer more ways for learners tointeract with one another. The instructors added a discussion board to thefirst OGS, but, Burzynski Bullard said, it didn’t get much of a response,possibly because it was added on as the course progressed. They’re consideringadding a Facebook group or some other social networking area.
The group encountered some minor technical issues, and theinstructors decided not to use timed assignments for the second OGS afterexperiencing glitches with that feature. The instructors used the Adobe Connectvirtual classroom platform, which NewsU uses for all of its OGSs and webinars.
A final, and important, area of improvement has to do with communication.“I think in an asynchronous course, you have to have detailed and clearinstructions on everything. We found some areas that were problematic,”Burzynski Bullard said.
Takeaways
As an experienced educator, Burzynski Bullard is always onthe lookout for ways to improve her teaching. She provided this advice forinstructors preparing blended eLearning:
- Be absolutely clear in directions and in the organizationof your course. It’s important to establish a rhythm and to spell outexpectations clearly.
- Be involved in discussions so the students knowyou’re present. Students have to see you and get to know you (e.g., use anintroductory video). Bring the best of what you do in a face-to-face courseinto the online environment.
- Deliver lessons in multiple ways. Use differentformats. Think about how you would like to receive the material if you were astudent (you’ll quickly decide that “long videos” is not an answer).
- Provide feedback in multiple ways, too. Considershort videos to provide one-on-one feedback.
- Think about what your objectives for the courseare. Make sure all of the material you’re delivering aligns with yourobjectives.
