Training Principles

Training Principles Train the Trainers Montreal February 2010

Agenda • Why training principles? • What are the principles? • Are they still relevant?

Why training principles? • They guide us with the decisions and choices we have to make about training and help us set our priorities. • The demands for training around data are many and varied. Our principles have helped us stay focused.

Principle 1* • Training under this program is being conducted specifically for • DLI contacts at participating universities; • The staff who will provide services for DLI data at these institutions; • Statistics Canada staff directly involved in the support of providing access to data for the academic sector.

Principle 1 Explained • Principle 1 describes explicitly the target groups of DLI training. • Others may benefit from DLI workshops, but these groups remain the focus in the design and delivery of DLI training. • Where contentions may arise, preference will be given to meeting the needs of the groups specified in this principle.

Principle 2* • Training will be provided to all of those eligible under the first principle through a variety of formats, including subsidized workshops that are delivered regionally.

Principle 2 Explained • There are three ways that DLI training will try to minimize the impact of certain challenges or impediments to learning. DLI training will: • Accommodate different learning styles; • Increase access to workshops; • Provide some financial assistance.

A Variety of Formats • This principle acknowledges the variety of learning styles through which people acquire new skills. We strive to incorporate in DLI workshops formats that touch upon the predominant styles rooted in hearing, seeing, and doing things. • In today’s educational vocabulary, this involves “active learning” methods.

Regional & Subsidized • Delivery will be kept as close to home as possible with regional workshops. In some regions, this will entail hosting a DLI workshop occasionally. • To encourage participation in DLI workshops, funds will be made available to subsidize one DLI representative from each DLI member institution for each regional workshop.

Principle 3* • The first training priority is to establish a basic level of data service skills for new DLI Contacts. This training shall be considered the entry level required to work with DLI data. More advanced training will build upon previous levels. Priorities for advanced levels will be determined by the needs of those supporting data services and by the evolution of DLI.

Principle 3 Explained • The first priority has been to establish a baseline of skill competencies in working with DLI resources. • This priority expresses the desire to provide a level playing field for access to DLI resources across all types of institutions and patrons.

Principle 3 Explained • Teaching skills that go beyond the baseline competencies will also be provided through DLI workshops. • These skills will build upon the basics. • The “advanced” skills will reflect both the needs of those providing data services support and new skills required to support changes in DLI products.

Principle 4 • Training priorities for Phase II will address varying levels of expertise and service within the DLI community. Special attention will be given to strengthening expertise in regions undergoing changes due to retirement or turnover among experienced DLI Contacts. (continued)

Principle 4 • Special attention will be given to regions without a prior tradition or culture of data use or without a previous foundation in data services. This will entail strategies that identify the training and support of key individuals who will become recognized experts in their region.

Principle 4 Explained • The focus for training involves an explicit goal to strengthen and equalize the data culture in each region by building a foundation of expertise and by establishing strong data service traditions. • The Train the Trainers Workshops help us plan the development, training, and support for experts in all regions.

Principle 5* • All training will be conducted from a service perspective, that is, from a point of view that focuses on the clientele of DLI data. The purpose of this training is to prepare data services staff to assist post-secondary patrons with their use of DLI data.

Principle 5 Explained • DLI training is intended to transfer the skills needed by those individuals who will be providing end-users with DLI resources. • DLI is about providing access to data and statistical information within ones local institution. • A service perspective is important because it focuses our training on what we need to know to support DLI resources.

Principle 5 Explained • We will teach some statistical and research skills to enhance understanding for providing data services. But we aren’t training people to become statisticians nor are we making social researchers out of trainees. • On the other hand we don’t want to discourage data service providers from acquiring statistical and research skills, which may allow them to provide another level of service to their patrons.

Principle 6* • A global curriculum plan will guide the course content that is offered through this program. The DLI External Advisory Committee will be ultimately responsible for maintaining this plan and, in conjunction with the Regional Training Coordinators and the Education committee, periodically reviewing its content and direction.

Principle 6 Explained • Training will take place within the context of a nationally agreed curriculum that should assist Regional Training Coordinators in organizing regional workshops. • DLI has an on-going, regionally represented Education Committee to recommend changes to the curriculum and to present other training policies and procedures for consideration and approval. • The DLI External Advisory Committee (EAC) takes ultimate responsibility for reviewing and approving this curriculum, in consultation with the DLI membership.

Principle 7* • Training will address concerns appropriate both to small and large institutions.

Principle 7 Explained • DLI was established to provide affordable and equitable access to Statistics Canada’s standard data products to all member institutions regardless of the size of institution, geographic location, or the instructional or research mandate of the institution. • Therefore, training must be relevant to all institutional sizes, locations, and mandates.

Principle 8 • Training will be regionally based with regular national and international exposure when the opportunities arise.

Principle 8 Explained • The strength of DLI training will remain with the regional delivery of its workshops. There are good reasons to meet occasionally at a national training event (possibly every four years in conjunction with the IASSIST conference in Canada). • Workshops provide an opportunity to network with colleagues in data services. They help create community among those providing support for DLI products. We wish this community to develop nationally as well as regionally.

Principle 9* • Whenever possible, trainers will be recruited from the existing Canadian data library community with the expectation that those who are trained may some day be called upon to train others. This perspective operates on the principle that as one learns, one will teach.

Principle 9 Explained • DLI training is based on peer-to-peer instruction. We believe that the most helpful training comes from someone who understands what it is that you do on your job. • A peer not only is more likely to know what you face in your work, but will also be able to communicate more clearly the information and skills needed for your job.

Principle 9 Explained • As providers of data service, we are in a specialized field that draws upon data collection methods, computing technologies, research methods, quantitative analysis, information management, and library reference methods. • How these related fields come together in data services is what makes us specialists.

Principle 9 Explained • Our training must draw from across these fields. Consequently, we believe the most relevant instruction will come from a peer. • One result of this position is that, for the most part, we have done our own teaching in DLI, which has meant that we have taken turns instructing. As we have learned, we have agreed to teach others in data services.

Principle 10 • Outreach will be organized for Library directors, the user community, STC survey managers, and other general public to communicate the importance of statistical and data literacy.

Principle 10 Explained • The prospect of a healthy data culture in Canada is dependent on us taking our message about DLI and data services to sectors related to our work. • This includes the powers that fund and support our local data services, such as library directors, and the powers who create data in Statistics Canada and who determine its levels of access.

Principle 10 Explained • Our message must also be more widely disseminated among the potential end-users on our campuses, and the importance of data and statistical literacy needs to be communicated to the general public. • A society that practices evidence-based decision-making requires access to the data that constitutes the evidence.

Principle 10 Explained • This will require a nationally-coordinated action plan that will: • Use local resources to address local constituencies; • Put DLI on the agenda of national groups such as CARL, SSHRC, etc.; • Use Statistics Canada personnel to spread the message throughout the Agency; and • Continue to build evidence in the efficacy of the program.

Training Principles