Do we need an ODR training program

The questions below are suggested, please feel free to add or modify questions.

1. To what needs would the ODR Training Program respond?

1.1 Why offer ODR training?

Very few DR providers presently have the knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs ) to effectively use technology tools to provide high quality DR services. Certifying or credentialing ODR providers would not mean much unless aspiring providers can acquire the KSAs necessary to become certified or credentialed.

1.2 What type of competencies should be developed?

All prospective ODR practitioners should first develop an expertise (knowledge plus experience) in one or more traditional forms of ADR. There needs to be some basic foundation upon which the trainee can develop ODR knowledge, skills and abilities.

ODR training should be differentiated for various types of ADR practitioners and possibly different methodologies under the large umbrella of ODR. For example, someone who uses a relatively simple asynchronous text-only blog to facilitate 2-party pre-F2F information collection needs a very different ODR skill set than someone who uses a multitude of on line tools including audio, video, text, ideation software, persistent workspaces, etc., to manage large, complex, synchronous and async, multi-cultural, multi-language, multi-party matters.

There should be a distinction between basic competency and receiving a credential or certification. A relatively short, targeted course can help a practitioner develop basic competency using a specific set of ODR tools. Such course should not be t he basis upon which someone receives a more generalized credential or certification in ODR. To be truly meaningful, the generalized credential or certification program should require the student to expend a minimum of 75 course hours, half of which can be self-directed or engaged with other students, followed by an assessment mechanism that has a reasonably high degree of reliability distinguishing those who are capable from those who are not.

All ODR training that results in a credential or generalized certification should include the following subject matter (at a minimum):

• Overview of ADR to establish a foundation for the program
• ODR fundamentals
• Sample of existing ODR applications and programs;
• Jurisdictional issues in ODR;
• Various ODR media and applications;
• Persistent spaces for ODR
• Ideation tools for ODR
• Use of ODR in negotiations, labor and employment matters
• Use of ODR in arbitration matters
• Cultural and international issues concerning ODR
• Use of ODR in e-commerce and business matters
• Use of ODR in court-connected matters
• When to use (and not use) ODR tools (i.e., how and when ODR can benefit various dispute resolution processes);
• Security and technology issues in ODR;
• ODR skills compared to ADR skills (what works the same or differently in an on line environment);
• Ethics for ODR practice (e.g. any issues that are different or supplementary to ADR ethics generally); and
• Business issues in ODR (e.g. betting cases and making ODR financially viable).

1.3 What would be the aimed learning level ?

1.4 What are the actual resources to support the ODR Training Program? (human, technologies, literature,...)?

The answer to this question depends on how much of the program is F2F, how much is self-directed and how much is offered on-line . Programs can be entirely F2F and can be entirely on line , but the best programs probably are a hybrid mix of both plus a healthy dose of self-directed learning time and engagement with other students. There is a large list of ODR studies in the literature, as well as a growing body of ODR providers with experience to be instructors or resources for trainees. Within these broad parameters, each instructor should be permitted to design a course requiring a different mix of resources based on personal preference. It would be very helpful to establish a repository of ODR syllabi from which instructors could draw as they design upcoming courses.

2. To whom would these ODR Training Programs be addressed?

There are three natural groups for this training:

• ADR program administrators
• ADR neutrals
• ADR representatives (e.g. lawyers AND OTHERS) who want to become professionally competent representing clients in ODR forums

This third group is too often overlooked in ADR and ODR cases. Just as representatives can not be expected to engage professionally in more traditional DR environments without expert training and experience, so must they receive such training and experience to engage professionally in ADR and ODR forums.

There is little value training 1-time users because few such users would take that much time to learn how to use a tool they will likely not use with enough frequently to justify the time spent in training.

2.1 Who would be the learners of this ODR Training Program?

2.2 What are their principal characteristics?

2.3 What are their needs, the gap between their actual competencies and the competencies they would developed with the ODR Training Program?

2.4 What would be the prerequisites to access the ODR Training Program?

Prerequisites depend on course content and what might be conferred on students at course completion.

One person's view is that trainees need to have been trained at least 30 hours in mediation or other ADR processes and have significant case experience (5+ cases?). In some ways these are arbitrary choices.... is 30 hours enough or should it 40 hours or 100 hours? Should it be 5 cases or 500 cases? Also, at some point there should be some training designed specifically for those practitioners who are already using ODR in their work. This advanced training could be more specifically tailored to some of the questions, challenges or issues that have arisen through their experiences.

An alternate yet maybe not competing view is that a 75-hour advanced practitioner skills course with a credential or generalized certificate at the end must presume substantial ADR KSAs prior to entry into the course. This view of "substantial" would require hundreds of hours of ADR training and practiioner experience as a prerequisite to entry.

Possibly a way to mesh these views is to establish an "ODR Practitioner" course level and an "Advanced ODR Practitioner" course level. A third variation might be for ODR program administrators, which then should be accompanied by a separate set of prerequisites and different course content.

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