Describes the results of a survey covering local government e-democracy/e-participation programs  The documents were thoughtfully designed to give solar instructors the right tools for the job of training a highly skilled, globally competitive solar energy workforce for the 21st Century. This suite of Best Practices documents builds on IREC’s earlier versions of Best Practices from 2008 and 2010.

This first installment of the Solar Energy Education & Training Best Practices: The Series focuses on two primary components of instructional systems design (ISD): the development phase and the implementation phase. These phases address teaching and learning strategies that promote effective instruction.When you design instruction using the ISD process, it is important to know a little about learning theory.

If you want to be a good teacher, you have to know how students learn. Here we examine the information processing theory of learning and how it impacts lesson design using an eight-step lesson design plan. We also brie?y discuss some adult-learning principles that you can incorporate into teaching and learning strategies. In addition, we provide a few tips for designing and using PowerPoint presentations effectively.