Frequently Asked Questions about My eCoach

1. What is My eCoach?
2. This is my first time in My eCoach. What do I do first?
3. What are the benefits of becoming a member of My eCoach?
4. What is the difference between types of memberships?
5. What types of support can our mentors receive from My eCoach?
6. What is the cost of setting up teams and/or an individual membership?
7. What funding sources are available that might cover the cost of your services?
8. How does My eCoach help schools meet NCLB legislation?
9. I am a mentor and I work with four teachers. Is that too small for your program?
10. How long does a learning community in My eCoach typically last?
11. Can I use the images and the other files in the eLibrary?
12. What are the builders and what do they do?
13. What is the right builder for my project?
14. I would like to do a workshop or presentation at my school or district about My eCoach. Do you have resources available?
15. What are your future plans?

1. What is My eCoach?

My eCoach is an online learning community that allows you to learn, connect, and share with anyone at anytime from anywhere. My eCoach provides resources and tools to help you create any type of website and projects that you can publish to the Internet for anyone to view and use. There are communication and collaboration tools for you to share ideas and resources such as websites, images, audio files, and more with others. My eCoach provides unique coaching tools that allow for eCoaches to support the people on their team. Just imagine a virtual place with everything you need all in one place! We provide you the support you need to build your own learning community.

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2. I've never seen My eCoach. What do I do first?

My eCoach provides everything in one place so it might be a little overwhelming when you first arrive. There are thousands of resources in the eLibrary so go ahead and look for images, websites, handouts, presentations, and even videos that you can use. We just ask you to cite any of the resources you use with the MLA citation included. Sign up for a Free Membership and try making a Web Resource List. All memberships are for a lifetime even the free membership. Read through the tutorials. Ask the eCoach staff any questions.

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3. What are the benefits of joining as an individual member or of setting up a team in My eCoach?

My eCoach is a community of learners that could be anyone from anywhere or multiple learning communities set up as teams. As a Free member, you are not on a team so you do not have access to community and collaboration tools. Individual members are on the Free Agents team with an eCoach from our staff and have access to all of the features. See Comparison Chart

When you are on a team, you have an eCoach. We recommend eCoaches to go through certification training from the eCoach staff or from an eCoach Associate so they get the support they need in planning how to set up their teams and programs, and virtual coaching to provide ongoing support. Team tools include a team manager, team page with editing features, and reporting tools. Team tools provide a private area for the team members only with their own team blog, forum, chat, surveys, and calendar.

No matter how you join, your membership to the eCoach community is for a lifetime.

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4. What is the difference between types of memberships?

All members are lifetime members. This chart might help explain what each member has access to in eCoach:

5 . What types of support can our mentors receive from My eCoach?

Our learning community and coaching program is designed to assist mentors as they help the people on their team. Just think of us as your support team working behind the scenes to make your work more effective! We support the mentors or eCoaches face-to-face and virtually using all the tools in My eCoach. Our eCoach staff supports mentors over four main stages:

1. consult with program coordinator, lead mentor, or professional development team to determine needs and goals and to design a relevant and customized coaching program.
2. coach the mentors on adult learning strategies, best practices, curriculum and instructional design and effective coaching strategies for their online learning community.
3. design a customized program that fits the needs of the eCoaches and people on the team(s).
4. work with mentors and program coordinators to share outcomes and determine follow-up strategies and next steps to build capacity and encourage progress.

6 . What is the cost of setting up teams or individual memberships?

Organizations can set up any size learning community. The set up fee depends on the size of the learning community. There is an annual rental fee for teams to secure space in the eCoach community.

$35 for each new member added to your learning community (called League). If you want to join My eCoach as an individual member and are not part of any team, you can join for $35 through our store (http://my-ecoach.com/store). In either case, you become a lifetime member of the eCoach community. Individuals can join any team. Free memberss are not able to join teams but do have access to the Web Resource List, standards, much of the eLibrary, and more except team and collaboration tools.

After one year, your organization may want to keep the teams active with the same people on the team. Then all you pay for the next year is $100. If you as eCoach would like to archive your teams, you can have access to the team information, discourse, and view the people that were on your team for $50. The members of the team will not have access to the team, but they will be members of the larger eCoach community.

To effectively manage your comunity as an eCoach, schedule training and ongoing coaching. Use the table below as a guide to set up different size learning communities and choose from the options for eCoach training and virtual coaching. We recommend one eCoach for no more than 15 members. eCoaches that have participated in eCoach certification training are much more successful in managing their learning community than those that teach themselves.

Contact us if you would like to customize the number of teams and options you will need including adding standards or creating new features. After the initial year, the costs for teams are only for reserving space (renewing or archiving teams), setting up new teams, new members added to league, and additional training or coaching. For example, a small team could renew their team for only $100 and add new members for $35/each.

League eCoaches and eCoach Associates go through a certification process to be able to set up and manage their own teams and leagues. Contact us for more information (800.633.2248) or email us info@my-ecoach.com.

We are developing an online eCoaching Certfication Course, a five week online course that includes learning adult learning principles, community building strategies, and online facilitation skills. The course will be offered for $199 (with optional CEUs). For an additional week and cost of setting up one team and adding members to this team, you can get eCoach Certification and have a team of your own.

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7. What funding sources are available that might cover the cost of your services?

General funding is available from various sources:

• Parcel and Bond Money
• Categorical Funds
• Federal Teacher Training Grants
• New Teacher and New Principal Programs
• Under-Performing Schools Funds
• General Funds
• State Technology Grants
• Curriculum and Department Monies
• Private Foundations and Donations
• Parent Groups
• Library Funds
• E-Rate

NCLB funding initiatives support coaching and mentoring programs and ongoing professional development:


• Title I – Part A (Basic)
• Title I – Part F (Comprehensive School Reform)
• Title II – Part A (Teacher & Principal Training, Improving Teacher Quality)
• Title III English Language Acquisition
• Title II- Part D - Enhancing Education Through Technology (EETT)
• Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA)
• Title IV- Part (21st Century Community Learning Centers)
• Title V (Innovative Programs)
• Title V – Part B (Charter Schools)

8. How does My eCoach help schools meet NCLB legislation, Title I, and other categorical funds?

Schools today face challenges in responding to No Child Left Behind's (NCLB) requirements to use professional development that improves teaching practice and increases student achievement. Our coaching model meets the requirements of NCLB. We work closely with our clients to integrate technology and inquiry-based activities that enhance the existing curriculum and adopted textbooks. Students, especially those at-risk, need strategies that motivate them to want to learn.

We believe that all children are gifted and can learn. We have worked with public and private schools and know that students, rich and poor alike, need to connect what they are learning to the real world. We have the expertise and resources to support you so you do not leave any student or teacher behind. For research that supports My eCoach, visit our NCLB-EETT page.

9. I am a mentor and I work with four teachers. Is that too small for your program?

My eCoach is flexible to work with programs of any size. We support small coaching programs such as yours and larger programs such as university classes, large districts, regional agencies, and even statewide programs. Contact us at 800.633.2248 and we will negotiate something that will work for you.

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10. How long does a learning community in My eCoach typically last?

We pride ourselves with delivering ongoing coaching, providing personalized support and developing sustainable learning communities that build capacity. Our program is built around the train-the-trainer model where we basically coach the eCoaches to support their teams. Many teams that started with us years ago are continuing and adding more members. We have many programs that are in their third, fourth, and fifth year. Many of these eCoaches are expanding programs in their regions or districts on their own. We have new eCoach management tools so eCoaches have even more control how their teams work and grow. Anyone who joins My eCoach is a lifetime member. Any member can become an eCoach. So more and more members are building learning communities.

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11. Can I use the images and the other files in the eLibrary?

The community eLibrary has thousands of royalty-free resources that My eCoach members and our partners have contributed for you to use. There are photos, clipart, original art, video clips, audio files, templates, documents, handouts, presentations, and links to websites and books. We ask that you and your students credit the author when you use these resources. We have a group of curriculum specialists adding summaries, keywords, standards, and in some cases, questions, vocabulary words, and extension activities. You can use the directory to browse the categories and subcategories or use the search box or advanced search below to find a resource.

We also ask you to cite all resources you use so everyone is sharing and learning from each other and honors the work they do.

12. What are the builders and different tools in eCoach and what do they do?

We created a set of builders for our members to use and publish to the Internet. If they create and publish a website or lesson, they can give the URL to their students. Students do not need to login to eCoach. Each builder allows members to invite co-authors, receive eCoach comments and feedback, align to standards, upload resources. Individual and team members have access to multiple levels of blogs (personal, team, shared, and public) where they can upload any type of file including podcasts. Forums are great for teams to discuss controversial or private issues. Chat is available for instant messaging where the internal message center allows members to send messages to one or multiple members in an instant. All messages can be archived in a folder system. Members can opt to receive an email notification when they receive any message or RSS Feed if anyone comments or posts changes to their blog or Universal builder. Surveys can be co-authored, cloned, shared, public, and the results can be disaggregated. Quizzes can be co-authored or cloned by the authors with the link can be embedded in any project. There is more, so come on in and check out the tutorials or try the features yourself.

13. What is the right builder for my project?

There are several builders in My eCoach. Each builder except the WRL provides tips, handouts, links, and templates. After you learn the WRL, we recommend using the new Universal builder.

The new Universal Builder includes the new text editor to allow for more flexibility. You can upload any type of file and include the images right in the activity. This builder is like a blog and builder combined: add as many pages with tabs as you need, choose from a variety of templates, use RSS feeds, comments pages, allow cloning, and much more. Several teams have used this builder as a collaborative planning tool tool, for ePortfolios, classroom website. You can even ask for your own domain name for a small fee. With all of the builders, you can add co-authors.

Our older builders do not use the text editor and are not as flexible. Many of our members still like to use these builders and check out the tips and examples embedded in these builders.

• The Web Resource List (WRL) is for compiling a list of websites, curriculum information and standards, and uploading a picture.
• The Universal Builder is our latest and most flexible builder that allows uploading any type of resource including podcasts, embedded video streaming, RSS feeds, customized templates, allowing comments, and much more.
• The Activity Builder lets you write numbered directions and allows you to upload most types of files and links to websites including a WRL.
• The Custom Builder v1.2 lets you add as many pages within a structured template using the new text editor.
• The Inquiry Leading to Understanding Builder (ILU) is a structured unit builder with nine activities following the Inquiry Leading to Understanding model. This builder provides pedagogy, tips, and strategies for an inquiry unit that asks students to present and defend their findings. The ILU takes time to create and implement.
• The Unit of Practice Builder (UoP) created for Apple to follow their professional development model allows for multiple activities.
• The older Custom Builder allows you to create as many activities as you want for your project.

The ILU, UoP, and Custom Builders create a teacher guide and separate student guide.

14. I would like to do a workshop or presentation at my school or district about My eCoach. Do you have resources available?

Contact us (800.633.22480) as soon as you know the date of your presentation. We will help you by providing you talking points, brochures, promotional material, and any handouts you might need depending on your presentation. You can also put your event on the calendar and use the evite system to invite participants who are members of My eCoach.

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15. What are your future plans?

Our online learning community is growing exponentially. We have members from 36 states in the U.S. and 15 other countries.. We have partnerships with districts, universities, regional centers, state departments, curriculum department, and third parties to help with our expansion and research and development. We are also finding our members are wanting to set up teams for other groups: cancer support groups, book clubs, non-profit organizations, families at a distance.

We continually seek grants and other sources of funding including seed money from George Foreman to launch our free eLibrary. You will now see a donate form on every page. We have already received donations from individuals and organizations. It is our hope to compile research and best practices to demonstrate how online communities impact student learning and teaching practice. Our goal is to keep eCoach advertisement free and the cost affordable. That's why we only ask for a one time fee for lifetime memberships.

We cannot do this alone. The power of eCoach comes from contributions from our membership. We are looking for development partners and groups to co-author grants to help our community grow. Interested? Please contact us 800.633.2248 or use the Contact Form.