Principles

The knowplace Family of Sites provides opportunities for adults. You might work with children but, we work with you. Adults have busy lives.... We have families, friends, jobs and sometimes volunteer commitments. Your time (like ours) is limited. During your time with us we strive to ensure that your time is not wasted. We rely on you to:

• Tell us your learning goals (within the context of the course, your workplace, and your personal goals);
• Help us set direction for the course so that it meets your needs;
  

It is through relationship between you, your facilitators and the people behind the scenes in the knowplace Family of Sites that enables us to individualize your learning experience to meet your needs just a little bit.

We do our best to make you feel safe in our sites. We want you to feel free to tell us a bit about yourself, explain a bit about what you do, where you are from and to describe what your learning goals are. We want you to upload an image so that we can see what you look like!

Once you are engaged in your course, we know that your learning will be more meaningful. We can introduce you to information which might guide you more effectively along your path of discovery.

Principle #2: Mistakes Are Our Friends!

Strange to have a principle that states this... but, we believe that we learn through our mistakes. Adults keep trying until we get it right! Mistakes are our friends! Just remember to keep your sense of humour and don't become too frustrated!

Principle #3: Active Participation

The knowWAY of teaching and mentoring is to ensure that you participate actively. We use a team approach to help you learn and expect you to participate actively in our sessions. We believe that you are an equal partner in your learning and we both participate actively. Activities offered in the knowplace Family of Sites require you to participate and help to direct your learning. The more we work online, the more we realize that quality online and in-person is about the same. Strong andragogical principles must remain constant in both environments:

1. Learning requires active participation and engagement by the learner,
2. Participants learn in a variety of ways and at different rates, and
3. Learning is both an individual and a social process.

The following learning pyramid illustrates the emphasis of our philosophy. We think that you learn best, when you mentor and teach others. When you start a program with us, you'll begin by actively discussing various topics, next we encourage and support you to practice 'doing' (we call this.. learning with your fingers!) and push you gently towards mentoring and teaching others. As you progress through your learning with us, we'll open opportunities for you to practice and learn your skills. In other words, we remove the life-jacket slowly and carefully.

Principle #4: knowplace Team Approach

Knowplace Family of Sites approaches each course offering with a team of facilitators and moderators. It doesn't matter what the size of the group is, we always work in teams! This approach to online facilitation is a philosophical decision based on service to participants rather than on the number of participants. It is our commitment to timely responses from multiple perspectives.

We believe that this team approach helps us to become better online facilitators and provides a richer experience for our participants. This methodology sets apart from other institutions and keeps our standards and our quality high. The team approach:

• Moves students further, faster to make discoveries and investigations because there are different perspectives in the virtual room; and
• Ensures that students don't have to wait very long for a response.
  

We find that when people are new to the online environment, an hour can seem like a very long period of time. Their frustration builds and builds. The team approach reduces student frustration by ensuring that there is always someone close by. This team approach is our commitment to you:

• If we're online with you -- there are at least two of us at all times.
• If we work in person with you, we ask you to provide someone from your organization to work with us.

Principle #5: ePeers & eMentors

In knowplace facilitators and participants constantly exchange roles. This sounds strange, we know... but the technology changes so quickly that it is impossible for one person to be the expert in the classroom. In the online environment, we are consistently moving backwards and forward through different stages. We call this ePEER and eMENTOR stages.