Hybrid Trick – Use Skills Coordinator

Using a skills coordinator for your hybrid courses will help improve the communications and flow of your on site session.  A Skills Coordinator (SC) is responsible for communicating with the lead instructor several days/weeks in advance of the skills session.  The SC needs to find out exactly what skills are going to be covered. 

At that point the SC will formulate a plan to determine how many students will be there, the number of assistant instructors and equipment necessary and on hand.  This plan will include how much time needs to be spent on each station, what material will be covered at each station, and what equipment should be present at the station.  Once all of the plans have been finalized for each station, the SC will then determine what instructor to assign to each station.

Several days in advance of the skills session, the SC should forward DETAILED information to each skills instructor.  The details of this information should include information such as:  What the instructor is responsible for covering, step by step guides if available, how much time the instructor has to cover the material per group, and how many students to expect per group.  This gives the instructor a heads up with time to prepare for the session.  One of the worst things to do is to bring in instructors unprepared.

The last responsibility of the SC is to be the time keeper on the actual day.  The SC should have a detailed schedule built for the day and must adhere to it.  He/she should monitor the day’s activities and make sure everyone remains on task.  The SC should come prepared to say things like: “hey guys, it’s 10:15, you have 5 more minutes before we have to switch.”  This will help everyone stay on task and keep the day’s skills flowing.

By using a Skills Coordinator in your hybrid course, you can organize your days and help provide well prepared instructors.  Your instructors will appreciate the advance notice and study time, while your students will appreciate the organization and quality of the sessions!