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Getting the Most Out of LE 2010

Tips for Camp Directors

Your annual subscription to Leadership Essentials, allows you to customize the presentation of material to fit your staff's training needs. But how can camp directors enhance their staff's learning? Here are some terrific ways to use your Director Dashboard to maximize the effectiveness of Leadership Essentials.

  • Upload photos and documents to teach your staff specifics about your camp. Go to Administration > Manage Your Uploaded Documents and Links from your Director Dashboard. Your uploaded documents are private and accessible only to your staff. You can upload documents (like PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, etc.) but not videos. For videos you can upload them to a video website and simply link to them, instructing your staff to view them. You can even create quizzes to test staff on your own content.
  • Send all your staff an e-mail to notify them of important deadlines, to praise them for their progress on Leadership Essentials, to point out policy differences, or to tell them you've uploaded the new staff training manual and some photos from last summer to their Leadership Essentials page.
  • Attach an incentive to their successful completion of their Leadership Essentials assignment. Some camp directors offer a $50 or $100 bonus for completion. Other camp directors offer a free camp sweatshirt, gift certificates to the local ice cream shop, or an extra night off for completion.
  • Write some essay questions to extend your staff's thinking about key concepts such as social skills development, supervision, or conflict resolution. Expound a bit on your camp's philosophy and send your essay question(s) and commentary out in a mass e-mail. Invite staff to e-mail their replies to you by a certain date. This is a great way to assess creativity and depth of understanding.
  • Roll out a "video of the week." Although most directors assign a bundle of modules to each of their staff groups all at once, some directors like to roll out videos one at a time. This kind of incremental presentation is perfect when followed by a conference call, chat room session, or blog to discuss the module's content and it's application to your camp.
  • Evaluate your staff's strengths and weaknesses by clicking on View Statistics from your Director Dashboard. Drill down a bit to see which quizzes have the highest pass rates and which have the lowest. You'll learn which groups or individuals on your staff need additional training in key areas. Armed with this knowledge, you can then design a more effective in-person staff training.
  • Download a few modules to your laptop PC and plan to show them during staff training week. Your subscription allows you to download any videos you'd like to your hard drive. You can then hook your laptop up to an LCD projector and speakers and design advanced training modules around key videos.
  • Educate your staff on any differences between your camp's policies and philosophy and the way things are portrayed in the videos. Every camp has different dress codes, lingo, and safety rules. Any differences between your camp and what you find in Leadership Essentials are great opportunities to teach staff.

And remember, if you ever get stuck, there is a great FAQ that will answer most of your questions. You can also call our toll-free customer support number (877) 237-3931. At ExpertOnlineTraining.com, our twin goals are superior online education and total customer satisfaction.