To Roll Out An Online Education Program

Q: We are beginning to roll out an online education program at my place of employment. I am wondering if there are any tips / tools on how to administer, manage and gather feedback from an online program. Any information would be helpful. I want to try to come up with a plan on how we are going to manage this so that it nets tangible results and also falls within our budgetary constraints.

A:If you've been in school long enough to earn two degrees and still don't feel competent, what makes you think that more education is going to help? I'm sorry, I don't mean to seem rude, but I just don't follow the logic. Go out and do a real project from start to finish. Find something in the open source community that interests you, volunteer to write a procedures manual for the local animal shelter. You get the idea. Put all that education to work in the real world. Or find a technical writing internship. Internships

give you real-world, corporate experience with lots of hand- holding from someone who has experience in the field and who gives a damn. (You have to give a damn to run an internship program, trust me) Whatever you choose, make sure it's real work that has you interacting with real people and projects. You need to prove -- both to yourself and to your first hiring manager -- that you can function in the real world and produce real work, not just intellectual exercise. As a now-and-then hiring manager, I would see no benefit to you from more education. Real-world experience is what you need in order to make your resume look good enough to get you hired in a real job.