I love a good rut. It’s not that I’m complacent. I just like things to be consistent. So that line in the Billy Joel song Just the Way You Are “don’t go changing…” really resonates with me.

But change is good sometimes and this year we’ve seen a lot of it here at Master Wellness Volunteer World Headquarters. And there’s more to come. In brief, here are some things we have in the works as we prepare for the 2020 program year:

• A single registration process. In previous years, MWV trainees needed to register twice: once with conference services, once with the online course system. Beginning Fall 2019, trainees will only register once via the new http://agrilifelearn.tamu.edu
• A new way to train online. Speaking of the new http://agrilifelearn.tamu.edu – now there is only ONE Master Wellness Volunteer online course that has all 16 or so modules embedded in it. So rather than a bunch of difference courses to complete in random fashion, the one new course has modules that open on completion of the previous, helpfully guiding you through the training process.
• The 3rd Annual Master Wellness Volunteer Statewide Training. Building on the success of previous years, we will begin a new training cohort 21 January, 2020, and run through 03 March, 2020. Registration should open on/about 14 November, 2019. The cohort will consist of two in-person days (21 Jan and 03 Mar) at your county Extension office and completion of the above referenced online course.
• Existing MWVs will be welcome to attend. In an effort to ease satisfying the annual continuing education requirement, we’ll open the first/final training days to current MWVs to brush up on their skills, learn new things, meet new people and get those sweet sweet required continuing education hours.
• But wait. There’s more! Including incentives for current MWVs to attend the in-person days. To be announced at a later date. Stay tuned.

Don’t go changing… Maybe it’s not so bad after all.

I chuckled when I looked at the post below, lining out the (ambitious?) timeline for the new learning management system (LMS). But, in the end, patience pays off and I’m pleased to report that the new and improved LMS with the new and improved Master Wellness Volunteer (MWV) Online Training is now up and running.

You can access the MWV training suite by clicking on the “Online Learning” tab above; or, to see the full compliment of courses offered on the new LMS, including MWV, go to https://agrilifelearn.tamu.edu

As with your patience during the transition, we’re asking for your patience as we get the new training suite up and running. Sure, it’s worked great with just me pretending to go through the courses but now we have to see how it works with real people doing it.

One of the first things you’ll notice is that the new training suite is made up of individual modules – so there’s only one “course,” not more than a dozen individual courses; and the modules build on one another, so you can’t go to two until you finish one, three is available when you finish two, and so on. I know this will make it challenging for episodic learning but it seemed like a smart way to organize the training. Some of our more popular modules we’ll (eventually) break out into stand alone courses again so that they’re easier to access.

Please let us know if you have questions or need additional information as we start using the new LMS. I’ll put together a guide on creating an account, enrolling in courses, accessing them and anything else I can think of in the coming weeks.

Three years ago we revolutionized the MWV training process by introducing the ability for trainees to get 60% of their training hours online. The Agency’s learning management system (LMS) provided an excellent home for us; but, we and all the other programs that use this LMS have grown so much we are bursting at the seams (literally – we’re breaking the LMS from so much use). A good problem to have, no?

So we here at Master Wellness Volunteer World Headquarters are pleased to announce the Agency is transitioning to a bright, shiny, new LMS – and we’re moving, too! The new LMS is going to provide a better training experience as well as a more reliable, stable platform, both for the trainees and course developers. The transition won’t be without its issues – getting everything moved, learning a new system, training everyone on its use, etc., etc., etc. – but certainly a net positive.

Now some bad news: there will be a brief gap between the current/old LMS shutting down and the new LMS coming online (see note above about literally breaking the current LMS). The current/old LMS will shut down 21 Mar (in fact, it is now closed to new enrollments), the new LMS will not come online for a few weeks.

We appreciate your patience with us as we work to re-revolutionize the MWV training experience. Onward!