1. CROWDSOURCING Gallery, the Wiki, and You

2. What is crowdsourcing? Exactly what we’re doing right now. Experts, specialists, and people who want to learn more about a particular topic solicit the crowd, or a group of people with similar interests, to answer a question and help develop a network based on a shared idea or particular topic. In this case, the Midwest Solar Training Network is sourcing valuable information about instructor training from each other as they develop best practices for the instructor institutes. The Wiki and Gallery are great tools for virtual crowdsourcing.

3. How do you use the wiki and gallery? If the wiki is our book, then the gallery is our resource library. The wiki is all of our resources, coherently organized, for our instructors and training partners to publish their resources and ideas and start discussions on the topics they share. The gallery is a place to host all of your resources, organized in different folders of images, workshops, and resources. You can upload any image, document, or Powerpoint that you feel would be helpful, and our instructors and partners can download them and use them for the materials on the wiki or for other purposes, like curriculum development.

4. How do you crowdsource on the wiki and the resource library? Sharing information with Midwest training partners, local partners, staff members, etc. Sharing and peer reviewing course materials and teaching modules Sharing models of program development and delivery Using the wiki as an evaluation and metrics tool for the instructor institutes and the Midwest Solar Training Network mechanisms as a whole Gallery: sharing images and Powerpoints of successful instruction materials to use on the wiki

5. Quick Wiki and Gallery Basics About the MREA Wiki Help Section: Video tutorials, Help basics Resource Library – Gallery help Take the 20 video tutorials of the gallery and wiki if you’d like to get more comfortable using it. We’ll also have a webinar in early April that will take you step by step through using these resources. You can also schedule a Skype call with me and I can give you personalized tutorials.

6. Training Network Resources We have outlined your state’s training programs, renewable energy-focused businesses and nonprofits, incentives, site assessors, MREA business members, etc. We need you to flesh these resources out and feel free to add more categories and things you find would be helpful for the network to know about your individual RE landscapes. These could eventually be published as a resource for jobs, incentives, training programs, etc. in the Midwest.

7. Training Network Resources -> Network Planning Pages This will be your home on the wiki. You’ll write your training needs assessment here and can expect to host your ideas, what’s going on in your programs, and evaluation processes here. We’ll host agendas, meeting notes, webinars, presentations, and photos from our meetings in this section. We will also have a calendar with DOE reporting deadlines and upcoming events.

8. Discussing on the Wiki Every wiki page has a discussion tab. If you’d like to make a comment or start a discussion on a particular topic, go to the page of your interest’s discussion tab and start writing. Sign your name and get the discussion going! And if you don’t see a topic that you’d like to discuss on the wiki, feel free to add it under Training Network Planning Pages. Forum (beta) is at the bottom of the navigation toolbar. Go to Midwest Solar Instructor Training Network and start a discussion on a particular topic (e.g., starting a site assessment program). Site support on the wiki navigation toolbar is a good way to point out a wiki suggestion or issue as long as it’s not time-sensitive. (Otherwise, e-mail is better).

9. Training Network Resources-> Network Planning Pages -> Training Needs Assessment

10. Wiki and Gallery Next Steps For Wiki and Gallery questions, feel free to contact me at any time. 715-592-6595 x 106 katrina@the-mrea.org Skype: MREAkat Discussion tab for user kshankland on the wiki for wiki discussions Site support on the wiki for wiki-related questions or suggestions that are not time-sensitive. Please send me your Powerpoint presentations and any other resources you’d like me to share with everyone, and I’ll e-mail them out on Monday. Also feel free to post them on the wiki! Let me know if you need help, and also check out the video tutorial on how to upload a file to get started.