Gaining recognition for helping others on the course

From November 2011 until May 2012 the openED course offers you the opportunity to gain recognition for helping your peers. You can provide 'peer support' by helping to facilitate discussions, by answering questions in the forums, or by mentoring others. This is your chance to gain experience in relevant skills and could be something to add to your CV!

At the end of the formal presentation of the third round of the course (Spring 2012) you can apply for a Letter of Recommendation for what you have achieved. You can choose between receiving a 'traditional' Letter of Recommendation in PDF format, or a public recommendation at a social media website of your choice (e.g. LinkedIn, Facebook, or your blog).

Please note: providing a Letter of Recommendation is an optional extra service that we want to offer as an incentive to encourage course participants to support each other. You can still participate as much as you like in forum discussions and support others without formally registering to provide peer support. If you want to provide formal teaching or take a lead in facilitating a module you should look at the Partner Programme section. 

How to provide peer support

Step 1

Once you register, just tick the box “I am available for peer support” as shown at the image below

If you have already registered, then just navigate to your profile (the box on the right hand side with the link “My Profile”) and update it as illustrated at the images below.

At the top of your profile hit the 'Edit' button, and then 'Update your Profile'

Then navigate to the 'Additional Info' tab and tick the box 'I am available for peer support'.

Step 2

Think about the ways you could provide support to your fellow course participants; read the instructions for facilitators so you understand what the formal facilitator provision is expected to be; browse through the forums and look for unanswered questions, or places where others may benefit from some help or encouragement; look at the assignments and activities that others have added to the site and review them providing some positive and some constructive critical comments. 

Keep a record of what help and support you provide and what you are learning from doing it.

How to obtain a Letter of Recommendation

At the end of the course you can request your Letter of Recommendation at the forum board named: Get a Letter of Recommendation.

We ask you to provide us with the following supportive documents:

1. A clear and precise description of the type of support that you have been providing to your peers AND how this has helped your peers
2. A draft recommendation text that you would like to have featured at your Letter of Recommendation

Please note: the openED course team will review the supportive documents provided by you, to evaluate if you have provided sufficient evidence for the peer support. The openED course team will also evaluate if such evidence corresponds to the draft recommendation text that has been provided by you. We can only guarantee to process requests that are handed in before May 2012.