Best practices for planning a training

Mapeo, like many applications, is best learned in with an emphasis on practice, so plan to include hands-on exercises and simulations.
Scale event goals and be transparent about expectations. Be selective and realistic about what can be covered.
Mapeo tools each have a lot of features and possible uses for individuals and communities. Having clear priorities will help in designing a Mapeo training plan that is relevant to learners. Get clear on participants' goals in order to incorporate these into the training plan.

All skill levels of participants can become Mapeo users in some way. Some tasks like collecting data are accessible to new users who are comfortable using their devices. Other tasks like setting up customizations, data synchronization, and generating data outputs may be tasks a user is ready to do after they are comfortable with the Mapeo interfaces, and understand what kind of information they are working with.
If community members who can’t read or write are important to the project (eg. elders sharing stories, leading walks, etc.), make sure that use demonstrations are tailored to engage them, so that they are also able to use Mapeo.
It is important to present information and instruction at a vocabulary and skill level that is accessible to participants.
Newly learned skills can be affirmed by asking participants to share with their peers what they were able to do using Mapeo. Even if they are unsure, it’s good to remind them that making mistakes or asking for help in the learning environment is much better than getting stuck when alone.
Be mindful of different abilities and disabilities in the group. Impaired vision, hearing, dexterity, and mobility, as well as diverse levels of literacy and language fluency can impact one's ability to learn new skills and be a confident Mapeo user. Mapeo trainers are encouraged to use accessible training techniques and support learners with their device's accessibility feature settings and where possible, access specialized equipment.

It is always better to use virtual platforms with whom participants are already familiar or to separate dedicated training time to train them on the use of new platforms.
Mapeo, like many applications, is best learned in with an emphasis on practice. You can promote this even in virtual events.
If you use Zoom, you can use breakout rooms, polls, and other tools to make the session more interactive.
Make sure to use visual materials to share the content in different formats (oral, visual, etc.). You can find some useful visual materials in Additional references
Use screen sharing software and connections to make demonstrations of Mapeo on your smartphone and computer
Pre-recorded videos of demos are recommended to have on hand in the case that live demos are not working well*
- Consider that it can be very demanding on your computer's video card to participate in a live video conference while doing a screen share and local screen mirroring. This can often affect the computer’s capacity to perform well. Also, most software will be slower and less responsive in this context and Mapeo is no exception.
- Any WiFi-based screen mirroring tool will prevent Mapeo from being able to use Mapeo’s synchronization via WiFi. It is highly recommended to prerecord this on both devices used.
We encourage you to sample content that can be seen, recorded or captured by attendees.

Last updated 3 years ago