Teacher/Supervisor Guide to “Step into Marketing”

About “Step”:

"Step" has been designed to be as easy and user friendly as possible for both the Learner and the Teacher/Supervisor: experience has shown that the programme has proved to be very easy and intuitive to use.

Learners very quickly find themselves working away quite independently of technical or academic supervision.

About the Technology

Broadband internet access, a reasonably modern PC with – preferably - Internet Explorer is all that is required to take Step. Step is best taken with sound enabled on the Learner’s computer.

In case of difficulty, full technical support is available from the Marketing Institute’s ‘Step Tutor’ if required.

The Structure of “Step”

Step is broken down into eight Modules: each Module is broken down into three or four Training Units. The Training Units take about one hour to complete including Assignments.

Step is designed to be taken over the entire duration of the academic year - ideally in a one or two hour computer room session per week: however, Steppers have the option of working at home whenever they wish.

The Teacher/Supervisor’s Role:

The Teacher/Supervisor’s role is primarily the supervision of the Learner Group, usually a class in a particular school for which she or he is responsible as they work their way through “Step”.

The Teacher's/Supervisor's main responsibilities are:

1. To register the Learning Group in the programme

2. Ensure that every Learner has received a Username and Password

3. Supervise the group in the computer or class room during each session of Learning and encourage Learners to work off site if and when appropriate

4. Ensure that the Learner groups completes all Assignments are before the their closing dates
   
   
5. Inform the Marketing Institute “Step Tutor” of any problems or difficulties
   
   
6. Request the “Step into Marketing” Certificate from the Marketing Institute for all Learners who have completed the programme.

Experience has shown that the Teacher/Supervisor is required to take on little or no additional work as a result of a school deciding to add “Step into Marketing” to the curriculum.

Registering the Learner Group:

Registration is by means of a Registration Form available from the Registration section of the Marketing Institute website www.mii.ie/transitionyear

It is essential that the Teachers/Supervisors responsible for the group must also be listed on the Registration Form (there is no charge for Teachers or Supervisors).

Registration should be completed as early as possible in September.

Usernames and Passwords

Each Learner and each Teacher/Supervisor will receive a username and password as soon as registration has been completed.

Passwords can be changed at any time by individuals themselves.

Experience has shown that Learners have occasionally not received their usernames or passwords – usually because the wrong email address was given on the original Registration Form.

The Institute should be contacted if usernames and passwords have not been received within a day or two of the Registration Form having been emailed to the Institute or if any other problems have been encountered in getting a Group up and running.

Supervising the Learner Group:

Experience has shown that Learners have very few problems with their Learning: therefore quite a minimum of academic supervision is necessary.

The ‘Learner’s Guide’ on the Course Overview page will usually solve any problems that a Learner might encounter.

Learners should be encouraged to work in groups and free exchange of comment and ideas enhances the learning process. Many of the Assignments are best carried out in a group or team environment.

It is vital that groups be allowed to take the suggested ten minute break between Units in order to prevent “page clicking” and optimize the actual training and learning experience.

“Step” is readily available outside the actual classroom itself and Steppers should be encouraged to work at home if they wish. This is particularly useful if Learners are missing school for reasons of illness or incapacity of some sort.

Supervision of Assignments

Each Training Unit contains one or more assignments.

Assignments are designed to enable the Learner to assess their progress and to reinforce the Learning process itself.

The most important responsibility of the Teacher/Supervisor is to ensure that Steppers complete Assignments before their closing dates: the closing date of the Assignment is shown on the bottom of each Assignment page.

Steppers are encouraged to open an Assignment Folder in their word processing programme and store all assignment submissions in this folder: once a submission has been uploaded into Step it can only be accessed by the Teacher/Supervisor or the Step Tutor in the Marketing Institute.

Most assignments have a Recommended Answer against which Steppers can assess their own submissions.

Assessment of Individual Assignments

Teacher/Supervisors can if they wish assess the Assignment Submissions of the group but only from the point of view of reasonable care having been taken by the Learner in putting the submission together.

The nature of the programme is such that there is no specific standard against which submissions can be assessed or graded.

Logbooks

Each Stepper has a logbook which can be used for observations or comments on the course materials.

A very important use of the logbook is that, having completed a Training Unit, the Learner is required to paste the URL address of the Introduction Page of the next Training Unit into it.

When the Stepper returns for the next training session, he or she, having logged in, opens the log book, clicks on the most recently pasted URL address, and the appropriate Training Unit then opens.

Support for Problems:

Experience has shown that Learners encounter very few problems with “Step”.

They should be encouraged to refer to this Learner’s Guide on the Course Overview page as it should solve any problem that arises without need for intervention by the Teacher/Supervisor.

However, should Learners or Teacher/Supervisors encounter problems of any sort, full support is available by email from Steptutor@mii.ie

The “Step into Marketing Certificate”

Having completed all the Units in the programme and at least 75% of the Assignments, Steppers are entitled to the Marketing Institute’s “Step into Marketing Certificate”.

The Institute will check the Learner’s academic record and the record of their log-ons to the materials before issuing the Certificate.

Teacher/Supervisors can apply for Certificates for all members or individual members of the Learner group for which they are responsible at any time once training has been completed.