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The Flow of a Pathways Project

District News

By Sean F. Forrester, DTM

Chief Pathways Guide, District 48

Members who have been working within their chosen Pathways path for a while may have noticed a familiar pattern or flow to their projects. In fact, there are 9 standard steps that you must follow, from initiating to completion, for each project within the Pathways Learning Experience.

When you wish to initiate a project within Base Camp, you first need to Activate it. This is the signal, or trigger, that informs Base Camp that you intend to engage with a particular piece of education. If there is no burgundy button beside a project, this tells you it can’t be worked on at that time, probably because some pre-requisite has not yet been met.

You will know that a project has been activated if you see the burgundy button with the word Launch. This is the second step in the flow of a project. Any time you wish to go into a project, you must Launch it, which opens another window within your browser. I recommend you maximize this window to the full size of your computer screen to avoid any confusion.

Once inside the project itself, the next two steps are simple and straightforward. First there is an Introduction page to help orient you on what the project is about, and then there is a Your Assignment page which describes specifically what you will learn about and what you need to do to complete the project.

The fifth step is taking the Pre-Assessment survey. This simple, 4-to-6 question survey helps you to gauge what you might already know about the subject being taught, and how important it might be to you. Note that no one else will see the results of this survey.

The next step is unique to each project — Learning. Depending on what you are being educated about, Base Camp utilizes video, audio, attachments and multiple pages of text to help you understand the subject matter.

The seventh step is called Your Evaluation and is perhaps the most important step. I recommend you pause on this page and don’t move forward until you have completed the requirements as outlined. This might be one or more speeches delivered in your club, and/or the execution of a role within a club meeting. Or, it might be an exercise or activity that is part of demonstrating your proficiency. Regardless, complete the assignment first before moving any further forward within your project.

The final two steps in our 9-step project flow are also easy and straightforward. Once you have completed all your project tasks, take the Post-Assessment survey, identical to the Pre-Assessment, which allows you to see how much you have learned from the education you received. Again, this is private and no one else will see the results. The last step is to arrive at the Congratulations! page. This is the second signal, or trigger, that informs Base Camp that you have completed the project and need this reflected on your transcript.

I have personally completed many Pathways projects within Base Camp this past year, and I have yet to find a project that doesn’t flow using these 9 standard steps. If you run across one that does not, I would love to hear about it. When you have questions about Pathways,  feel free to email me at [email protected].

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