Admissions

Site-based Coordinators

The Site-based Coordinator ("SBC") is our primary point of contact within a school, and is appointed by the school administration. The SBC role is to facilitate communication between the online teacher, the student and (when necessary) the student's parents or guardian. An SBC may be a teacher (in any subject), a school administrator, a guidance counsellor, librarian, technology specialist, or another person able to provide the necessary support and guidance.

Ordinarily, the SBC will check in on a student´s participation and performance once a week. SBCs can do this by conversation with the student but are also able to monitor students' online activity directly using web-based tools. There may also be occasional situations in which an online teacher asks for the SBC´s support. This might be the case when a student isn't logging in to the course regularly, or is logging in but performing poorly, and the online teacher is uncertain about the reasons. Similarly, there may be situations where a student feels overwhelmed or in some way dissatisfied with his or her course or course performance. In such cases, the SBC's assistance is crucial in helping us to get things back on track.

Pamoja provides SBCs with comprehensive online training, using many of the same tools students will be using in their coursework. Our Course Managers would be happy to discuss SBC qualifications and training with you in more detail.

The key responsibilities of a SBC are:

• The SBC should meet with each online IB student at least once each week to monitor student performance and provide advice on grades, attendance, and general learning matters.
• The SBC facilitates communication between the online student and teacher. The SBC also liaises with Pamoja Education School Services on various matters and relays information to their own school administration.
• The SBC should communicate with parents when necessary.
• The SBC may be the Diploma Coordinator, a teacher (in any subject), a school administrator, a guidance councillor, a librarian, a technology specialist or any other full time staff member, who is capable of (or qualified to) provide the necessary support and guidance to online IB students.
• The SBC will complete a short, self-paced online training course, which focuses on supporting online students and also includes the management and technical requirements needed to monitor and mentor online students.
• The SBC should be technically proficient at performing basic tasks in an online environment.