💡Mapeo trainings

A key piece of a successful Mapeo project is ensuring that participants have the skills they need in Mapeo and a clear understanding of the workflows they are expected to perform. It will often be necessary to run one or more training sessions to cover these aspects.

Training sessions generally take place at the beginning of a Mapeo project or when a new participant joins a project. Trainings can cover different types of content, ranging from a general introduction to the Mapeo tools and main features, to explaining how Mapeo is used in a specific project and the workflows that need to be followed when participating in it. In this sense, trainings can be tool-centered, or context-centered. Sessions can be virtual or in-person, periodical or punctual. These aspects of format and focus will depend on the details of each case.

Mapeo is designed with a focus on being easy to use to help communities spend less time learning technical skills, and reduce their need to have budget and access to outside trainers to get started using Mapeo. The aim is to increase user and community autonomy.

Digital Democracy has been delivering many types of information and training events based on the needs of different groups and communities. We have documented the content in this section because we believe that access to good information and training should not be limited to the relatively small number of training and support requests we are able to accommodate. With a diversely skilled and motivated team, we hope the contents shared here will help you deliver a Mapeo training event that will work well for your community or audience.

Remember that everyone can learn and train Mapeo and all skill levels of participants can become Mapeo users in some way. Those who can’t read and write may be an important part of the project and can also learn to use Mapeo if demonstrations are tailored to engage them (eg. elders sharing stories, leading walks, etc.). You will find some tips on this in the subsections that follow.

In the subsections below, you’ll find useful resources and information on how to plan, prepare and deliver training sessions based on your goals, participants, training etc.

• Defining goals and format

  • What are the goals of the training?

  • Who will be involved?

  • What will be the format of the session(s)?

• Structuring a training

  • Best practices for planning a training

    • General training tips when planning a training

    • Tips for engaging with participants with various skill levels

    • Tips for virtual events

  • Structuring the agenda, content and activities

    • Suggestions for different sections of a training event

    • Tips on how to train different important features and workflows in Mapeo

    • Available materials and resources for the training event

• Preparing equipment and supplies for a training

  • Recommended equipment and supplies

    • In-person events

    • Virtual events

  • Tech preparation before doing in-person training

    • Participants devices

    • Trainer devices

    • Tech support devices