Combating Myths About Distance Education

In his article Combating Myths About Distance Education, Todd Gilman explores the challenges that online and distance education programs, and instructors, face to show the merit of their programs. He contends that many "problems" noted in online programs can also exist within face-to-face or mixed mode delivery. In "any classroom, whether it's the face-to-face, online-only, or hybrid variety, is only as good as the people in it. If both teachers and students are prepared, responsive, and engaged, things run remarkably well."

For the full article see: http://chronicle.com/article/Combating-Myths-About-Distance/64299/

Culture-Infused Counselling

As our Understanding Diverse Clients course starts today, we'd like to share resource we've found quite helpful: Culture-Infused Counselling: Celebrating the Canadian Mosaic by Nancy Arthur and Sandra Collins (2005).

This book "attempt[s] to provide students and practitioners alike with a comprehensive resource that adds a Canadian perspective to a predominantly American body of literature." (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7482/is_200701/ai_n32220836/)

Bulletin Summer 2010 Issue Dedicated to Assessment

This edition of the Contact Point Bulletin focuses specially on assessment with articles focusing on selecting and interpreting assessments, as well as specific assessment models. For a full listing of articles see http://www.contactpoint.ca/index.php?view=category&id=99%3Asummer-2010&option=com_content&Itemid=37

PD Online

We're currently running our Personality Dimensions level I facilitator training and bridging workshop through our LearnOnline site. Although our participants work with the paper assessment, CLSR, the assessment publisher, offers an online version of the assessment (click here for more information). With this format, you can have participants take the assessment in advance and focus on the more experiential learning activities during the workshop.

From September 28th - October 4th, CLSR will be making upgrades the PD online software to improve functionality.

Theory and Practice of Group Counseling

As our Group Facilitation Strategies for Career Programs course begins today, we like to share an interesting resource on the topic:

Theory and Practice of Group Counseling by Dr. Gerald Corey.

Keep your eyes peeled for the new revision scheduled to come out January 31st 2011.

Blink

When gathering and analyzing information, it's important to consider the impact of your perceptions and judgements can have. In Gladwell's book Blink, readers learn how snap judgements impact conclusions.

Read more about Gladwell and Blink at http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/02/22/malcolm.gladwell/

Active Engagement: Enhancing the Career Counselling Process

With our Helping Skills course starting up again on September 8th, we'd like to share a recommended reading by Norm Amundson - Active Engagement: Enhancing the Career Counselling Process. This is an award-winning career interventions textbook has been translated into several different languages.

The second and third edition are both available in our Life Strategies Online Store

Best Practices in Employee Layoffs

See About.com for an informative article on Best Practices in Employee Layoffs at http://humanresources.about.com/b/2008/11/15/best-practices-in-employee-layoffs.htm. Highlighting legal/ethical standards and completing layoffs with dignity, this article builds on a reader question about standards for business facing slowdowns.

Mentors for New Immigrants

Here's a brief interview in HRVoice (the BC e-newsletter for HR professionals) co-authored by a new immigrant and her mentor.

Whether or not you specialize in working with immigrants, as a career management professional it's important to understand the immigrant experience. Articles like this can help to surface some of the typical issues that they face. Resources like the SEED toolkit help employers to prepare for welcoming and integrating new immigrants.

The CMP program has a course dedicated to this topic: The Immigrant Experience. This is generally a Directed Studies course, but it's much more interesting to discuss with a group. We currently have the course scheduled for September 1 - 14...will you join us online?

NEO™ Personality Inventory-3 Now Available

PAR is now distributing the newly revised NEO™ Personality Inventory-3 (NEO™-PI-3), the standard five factor model of personality assessment. Learn more at http://www4.parinc.com/Products/Product.aspx?ProductID=NEO-PI-3