Southern Ontario Library Service

A. Background to the Advanced EXCEL Certificate Program

The development of the Advanced EXCEL program came out of a survey of training needs among staff in Ontario public libraries.  Some students who took EXCEL courses in the early years of the program from 1987 to 2000) felt that it was time for an update on some of the topic areas. Some students felt that there was a need for courses that would cover very specific topics that affect libraries today. 

The Advanced EXCEL program sets out to provide information to fill a gap in training needs among staff and volunteers in Ontario public libraries. 

B. Certificate requirements 

Taking courses in the Advanced EXCEL program can lead to an Advanced EXCEL Certificate. A total of thirteen courses will be been developed for the basic EXCEL program.

To receive the Advanced EXCEL certificate, students must have their basic EXCEL Certificate in Managing a Small Public Library and must complete six Advanced EXCEL courses within a four year period, including three mandatory courses - A31 or A32, A33 and A34.  Those with other library qualifications such as a Library Techniques diploma or MLS can also qualify for the Advanced EXCEL certificate provided they complete six Advanced EXCEL courses within a four year period, including three mandatory courses - A31 or A32, A33 and A34. 

Individuals not interested in pursuing the Advanced EXCEL certificate may take individual courses of interest to them. The various requirements for the certificate about the number of core and elective courses and the pre-/co-requisites do not apply in this case. The students are assigned a tutor and are required to complete the assignments and examination as any student would. The regular course fee also applies.

For those students wishing to pursue a certificate, the following chart lists the mandatory and optional courses for the Advanced EXCEL program.  A description of each of these courses is posted on the EXCEL website.  There is also a link to the descriptions through the left navigation bar under the heading “List of courses”.

Mandatory courses:

• Course A31 – Government Documents and Services  

• Course A32 – Electronic Databases in the Public Library
  Note: One of A31 or A32 is mandatory but the other can be taken as an optional course.

• Course A33 - Developing a Collection Plan
• Course A34 – Policy Writing

Optional courses:

• Course A35 – MARC Records: An Overview for Public Libraries
• Course A36 - Customer Service in the Public Library
• Course A37 – Services to Children
• Course A38 – Services to Young Adults
• Course A39 – Readers’ Advisory Service in the Public Library
• Course A40 – Collection Evaluation
• Course A41 – Community Outreach: The Library and its Community
• Course A42 – Budgets
• Course A43 – Space Planning
  
  

Not all courses are offered every year, or every semester. A chart showing the course offerings is posted on the main page for the Advanced EXCEL program. With this course cycle, you should be able to plan the courses you are going to take over a 4-year period.
 

C. Equivalencies 

There are no equivalencies within the Advanced EXCEL program.

D. Registration and Initial contact information

There are two semesters in the EXCEL program.  While the specific dates are set each year, the semesters run roughly Winter (February-March) and Fall (October-December).  A list of all of the important dates, such as when the registration for each semester opens and closes and the timeline for each semester is posted in the Advanced EXCEL section of the SOLS website under the heading ‘Important Dates’.

To take an EXCEL course, you must register for a specific course.  About six weeks before the semester begins, the registration form for that semester will be posted.  Each student must complete the form, indicating the courses that they wish to take.   Further information about the process and payment information is posted in the section of the EXCEL website called ‘Registration Information’.

About a week to 10 days after the registration deadline, you will receive an e-mail from the EXCEL Administrator.  This “welcome e-mail” will provide basic information on what to expect and some important timeframes for the specific semester in which you are registered.  The welcome e-mail will include the following topics:

• How to access your course materials
• Schedule of contact sessions
• Contact session preparation
• Contact session format
• Assignments and dates for submission
• Exams and dates for submission
• Course evaluations and assessment and location of the forms
• Receipts and how to obtain these
• Biographical and contact information for your assigned tutor
• Who to contact in case of problems with registration or receipt of materials.
• You should reply back to this e-mail so that we know you have received the welcome e-mail.

E. Course materials 

This course is a distance education course offered by the Ontario Library Service. The difference between this course and most of the other basic/regular EXCEL courses is primarily the format in which the course material is presented.  While the texts for the other courses are provided on printed paper, the text of the modules in this course are only published electronically on the Internet, without a paper counterpart. You are, of course, free to print it out if it is more convenient for you. 

With the ‘welcome e-mail’, you will be provided with instructions on how to access your course materials.  In taking this course, you are required to work through the materials presented in the three modules, do the on-line activities suggested, discuss each module with your tutor, and complete the three assignments and the final examination.

The opening screen within the course is the table of contents.  You will quickly see that there are three modules per course.

Navigating in the Table of Contents - From that page with the table of contents, you will be able to make your way through the course section by section, and also have access to any of the supplementary appendixes You can also go back to the introductory instructions from the Table of Contents page. You may want to bookmark this page and put the link on your browser's links bar.

Navigating within the modules - When you are working within a module, you will notice that there are links at the bottom of the page to allow you to move to the "Previous page" or the "Next page". If you press "Next page", you will put yourself into the next section of the module. There are usually 4 or 5 sections (or pages) per module. You can also go back to the Table of Contents by using the link at the top of each section in which you are working.

Navigating through the "live links" - As you view the course material, you may want to click on the live links to other Internet sites that are integrated into the text of this course. Note that when you click on any of these links, a second browser window will appear. The second window is overlaid on to your original screen. This way you will not  lose the original browser window currently displaying the module you are working on. When you have finished viewing the information on this second browser, remember to close the second browser window.

To close the window, click on the X in the corner of the screen and the screen that you are currently viewing will disappear. You will then be back on the text of the EXCEL module in which you were working prior to selecting the live link.

Working with your course materials  

Readings - All readings are compulsory. Your tutor may want to discuss the issues addressed in these articles. All of the readings will be on-line.  These are included in the Appendixes or will be live links to the relevant websites.

Live links - Throughout the text, you will find a large number of live links to websites “outside” of the course materials. Instructions for navigating back and forth from these links are provided above. The writers of this course are aware that no one can realistically examine, in depth, every single link provided within the text of individual modules. However, to help you learn as much as possible about Internet resources, try to examine as many of these links as you can manage.

Activities - Most of the activities in this course will involve looking at examples of Internet web sites that have been integrated within the text of each module. These links have been selected to illustrate the course materials in order to help you understand the theory presented. Most activities are a required part of this course. All of these activities are included to illustrate and expand on the course material, however, we encourage you to take the time to do as many as you can. Your exploration of these sites will serve as food for discussion with your tutor. 

F. Contact sessions 

a) Timing of contact sessions 

The week for each contact session is outlined in the Schedule of contact sessions and assignments which was included with the ‘welcome e-mail’ from the EXCEL Administrator. The purpose of the contact sessions is to review the materials within the module, and to address any concerns, clarifications or questions relating to this module.

The specific timing of your contact sessions is arranged individually with your tutor during the introductory telephone call.

Your first contact with your tutor will be approximately one week prior to the commencement of the semester, or about the same time as you receive your course materials. This first telephone call is a time to find out about your tutor and for the tutor to find out about you.  It should not be a long call but you will need to agree on a specific time for the bi-weekly contact sessions (e.g. every other Tuesday at 8:00 p.m.)

Each of the next contact sessions should take place at the time established during your initial telephone call, and during the week prescribed in the Schedule of contact sessions and assignments. Each call for a contact session will take approximately 10 minutes, and should not be longer than 15 minutes.  For telephone contact sessions, please try to ensure that you are available at the prearranged time. At any point in the semester, if it is impossible to be available at the pre-arranged time, you should notify your tutor.

Your final contact session with the tutor may be during the examination week.  This is an optional call depending upon whether you and your tutor feel that it is required.  It will likely come just after you receive the examination to discuss potential problems, and to ensure that you received the examination paper.  

b) Preparing for contact sessions 

During the contact sessions, you and your tutor will discuss course activities, assignments and any problems you are encountering.  Before talking with your tutor, be sure that you have done the work for that session.  This work involves studying the appropriate module before the session, including the readings, and doing the various activities.  

• Readings - Many module topic sections have one or more readings.  After reading the assigned pages, reread them and either highlight/underline the important points or summarize the important concepts in point form in your own notes.
• Activities - The discussion and activity subsections are discussed in telephone-tutor sessions.  This doesn’t mean that your tutor is going to supply the answers.  Think about the topics and prepare notes for the discussion.  The work in the activity is optional and will not affect your final standing.  We believe, however, that completing the activities will help you understand the course material and topics under discussion.
• Review questions - Finally, the review questions are designed to let you assess what you learned from the readings and commentary.  The answers are in the blue answer book at the end of each course package.  After checking your answers with those in the answer book, be sure to work through the questions you missed so that you understand each question and its answer.

As you work through the readings, commentaries, activities and review questions, keep a list of the concepts and answers that you need clarified.  Your tutor can review the topics during the scheduled session.

G. Evaluation of the student

a) Assignments 

For each module there are assignments that must be submitted to your tutor by the deadlines listed on the Schedule of Contact Sessions and Assignments.  Assignments are based on practical applications to test the principles of the course in students’ own work situations.

All assignments must be sent to your tutor no later than the date given in the schedule. This will enable tutors to evaluate the assignments and return them by the next contact session.  All assignments are mandatory.  That means that you must do all the assignments satisfactorily in order to complete the course.  Students are strongly advised to keep copies of all assignments and exams.  Items go astray in transit from time to time and students are responsible for resubmitting anything not received by their tutor. 

Assignments are graded either Fail, Pass, or Pass with Distinction.  This is a change from the basic EXCEL stream which uses a PASS/FAIL designation.  The grade is noted on assignments and examination papers along with comments. The emphasis is on constructive criticism and you should take careful note of any comments included. 

Failed assignments may be rewritten but all assignments must be successfully completed before writing the final exam. If an assignment is not completed, the final exam will be deemed to have been failed. 

To help our tutors in their work, all assignments and the final exam should be received by the tutor no later than 2 weeks after the end of the semester. After this date, the tutor will mark the student with an ‘incomplete’ notation for that course.  The specific date can be found on the list of ‘Important dates’ in the Advanced EXCEL section of our website.
 

b) Examinations 

EXCEL examinations can all take-home exams in that they can be completed in the same manner as regular assignments.  They are very similar to assignments, although they generally cover two or three topics from the course.  On the Schedule of Contact Sessions and Assignments, there is a week marked for the Exam Week.  In the past, students would expect to receive a copy of the exam from their course tutor.  The tutors are not mailing or e-mailing the exams directly to the students any longer.  Approximately three weeks before the official exam week, exams will be posted on the EXCEL website under the heading ‘Exams”.  Once the examination has been taken off from the website, the student has seven days to return the completed exam to their tutor. The tutor will mark the exam and return it to the student with any comments.

c) Withdrawing 

Students who wish to drop out of a course must do so in writing to their tutor for that course. To receive a partial refund of the registration fee the student must: 

1.       submit notification postmarked on or before the due date of the second assignment

2.       course material

For further clarification of the procedure for withdrawals, please telephone the EXCEL Administrator.

H. Evaluation of the EXCEL program

Feedback from our students is very important to us. We read and every one of the evaluation forms to see how we can improve our program. The form asks you questions about the course materials, the delivery method, and the tutor.  The evaluation form is a two-part form. 

The information in the tutor section of the form is passed on to the tutors, so they can see also have an evaluation of their work as tutors.

CComments regarding the course material (and the program in general) are immediately forwarded to the Course Writer.  Your comments are taken VERY seriously and are used to improve the course materials, and anything else that can be improved. Please note that it is not useful to comment that "there are a number of typos in the course materials. Instead, cite page and paragraph numbers so that corrections can be made. 

An online evaluation form link has been posted in this section of the EXCEL web site.  You can find this link in the left navigation bar under the heading ‘Evaluation Form’.

Please take the time to complete this evaluation form immediately after completing each course. There is an online version which is submitted electronically directly to the EXCEL Administrator and there is a print form which can be printed, completed and mailed to the EXCEL Administrator using the address provided on the actual form.