Faculty: Eva Shaderowfsky and Sue Boettcher of Web Crossing

Dates: TBA

Time Commitment: Four scheduled 90-minute sessions plus asynchronous discussion board time at student's convenience, approximately one hour per weekday.

Cost: $650/student, (minimum 10, maximum 15)

Chats and chat events have come of age for online communities and business team applications. Explore the tools and techniques to make real-time events work for you. Week one will start with two live, real-time, 90-minute chat sessions of the basics. These will be supported by interactions on the class discussion boards.. Find out what types of chats work best in which situations. Then in weeks two and three, hone your skills to manage in this fast-paced, responsive environment with two live 90-minute practice chat sessions. Debrief, get personal feedback, and review chat logs in the discussion space.

The course includes didactic materials and readings, and a series of four synchronous, real-time chat workshops where you will see masters in action and actually practice and receive feedback on your chat hosting skills. An open chat room will be available throughout the course for students to practice with each other.

• The Big Picture: The uses of chat (live events, social chats, meetings, etc.)
• Behind the Scenes: using software tools and moderator techniques
• Expressing Yourself: emoticons, macros and other communications tools
• Specific Application Tips: events, meetings, etc.
• Dealing with Problems

• Online community chat hosts and moderators
• Virtual team leaders
• Consultants using chat as a communication tool with their clients
• Content experts and public figures who are presenting in a chat environment

Delivery Format

This is an online course presented in a live chat room complemented with a web-conference asynchronous environment on message boards, allowing participants to engage at their own convenience from home or office. Please note: since so much of this course is contained in the scheduled live events, a commitment to attend is critical for this course! Live session times will depend on the worldwide geographic makeup of each class group. An effort will be made to schedule the live sessions during "waking hours" for all participants, but this can't be absolutely guaranteed. Users accessing from behind firewalls may encounter difficulties and need to find another point of access.

A CD of the course is also made available for future reference.

The class workspace will remain open for 30 days after the course for individuals to review materials.

Additional small group personalized 90-minute "sim" (simulation) sessions are available at $100/person.

Class Requirements

To get the most out of this course, participation in all four live events and a suggested 1 hour/day in the web discussion space, depending on your learning style. Some students, especially those unfamiliar with a range of online community tools, report that more time is needed. It is strongly recommended that this time be scheduled and set aside away from other daily activities, to ensure focused and uninterrupted attention. The class space will be open a few days prior to start of course with reading material and space for experimentation with the tools. Participants are encouraged to visit the site during this time to familiarize themselves with the environment.

The latest browser versions are recommended for this course (Netscape Navigator 4.7 / Internet Explorer 4.0, or higher versions)

Eva Shaderowfsky

Eva got online in May of 1991 and has been hosting chats since shortly thereafter in a variety of venues on AOL and the web. Recognized as a top-notch, expert moderator, Eva has hosted hundreds of social issues chats in AOL's People Connection, the Interactive Educational Service, Women's WIRE, CNN online, support group chats, large events for NABCO, a national breast-cancer organization, and more. In addition, she has trained and interviewed hundreds of guest experts for her long running and popular Evenings with Eva women's issues live event series. Eva has trained many chat hosts in various situations and was the online coordinator for Women's Network, AOL's first women's forum. Eva currently works with Web Crossing, Inc.'s Community Management Service as a live events moderator, mentor, and trainer.

Sue Boettcher

Sue came online in 1993 and helped Eva build AOL's Women's Network as Assistant Online Coordinator, where she ran chat-based management meetings. After that, she supervised hosts at Cybergrrl Village and acted as Chat Coordinator for Durand Communications, which included chat host training and meeting facilitation. She taught an online course in Virtual Community Building for Digital University and presented chat hosting material at Host University, connected with Electric Minds. Sue assisted weekly with the Evenings with Eva series for over 5 years and trained numerous guests with Eva. Currently Sue is Director of Community Development for Web Crossing, Inc.