Case Notes at AlphaPlus

At AlphaPlus, we use case notes to record our coaching experiences. Each AlphaPlus coach has developed his or her own system of keeping records. In general, we have not shared our case notes with other staff. Any sharing about what we were experiencing and learning happened at staff meetings. This has meant that we had no system to share promising practices that would advance the learning of all the coaches. It also means that, if we needed to hand off work to another coach, our current case notes might not help much with that transition.

In 2018 we decided that a guide on writing effective case notes for digital literacy training services would better support our work as coaches. We wanted to

• create a documentation system that would allow each coach to identify pertinent data to include and organize that information in a clear, concise manner
• record the collaborative process of problem identification, ideation, experimentation, evaluation and revision that leads to positive outcomes for programs and supports further technology integration planning

We hoped that our guide and our record of how we developed it might be useful to others working in LBS as they develop, enhance or extend their own system of sharing information through case notes.

The project participants are Tannis Atkinson, Guylaine Vinet, Maria Moriarty, Monika Jankowska-Pacyna and Tracey Mollins.

A PDF version of the report is here.