How to Make Effective Use of E-Democracy.Org Issues Forums

For a long time, E-Democracy.org has been trying to put in place something to better educate and prepare forum participants on how to effectively make use of our forums, both in terms of managing their time and effectively communicating their ideas and opinions. We finally have a FREE online class in place designed to do just that.

Issues Forums 101: Making Effective Use of Your Local or Neighborhood Issues Forum will help Local or Neighborhood Issues Forum members to:

  • Better understand the history and ideas behind Local Issues Forums
  • Better understand the strengths and corresponding limitations of Local Issues Forums
  • Better understand the kinds of local culture that can develop in a Local Issues Forum and how to navigate it
  • Better manage their time when using Local Issues Forums
  • More effectively communicate their ideas within a Local Issues Forum
  • Understand the key rules and guidelines for participating in a Local Issues Forum and why they were put in place
  • This class is great for newcomers to Issues Forums, but will also serve as a great refresher course to some of the veterans who have been posting in our forums for many years. Those veterans will also have an opportunity to share some of their own ideas and suggestions during the class.

    We also recommend the class to anyone interested in possibly starting a Local Issues Forum in their neighborhood or city or anyone just interested in Issues Forums in general. In short, the class is open to the public.

    We’re currently working with Cool Tools (a new company led by long-time E-Democracy volunteer Tim Erickson) to host and manage the classes, who in turn are using Adobe Acrobat Connect as their classroom. The instructor will be able to transmit his voice and image, display presentation slides, and share his screen when necessary. Participants in the class will be able to ask questions via chat, chat with other participants, and possibly use their computer microphone to speak during the class (as needed). To test your computers compatibility with the Flash based online classroom Visit Here.

    We currently have classes scheduled at various times of the day, in a hope to make the class accessible to users in the UK, New Zealand, as well as the USA. We currently have three sessions of the class scheduled over the next few weeks (use drop down menu to find the time zone closest to your own):

  • Option 1:
  • Option 2:
  • Option 3:
  • See registration page for addition dates and times as they become available.