Toastmasters club meetings, whether
online or in person, provide an opportunity for members
to learn and practice communication and leadership
skills by assuming a variety of roles. Each meeting role
has a unique set of responsibilities and skills for you
to explore.
If you spend some time reading through this tutorial,
you will have a much clearer understanding of the
Pathways program. Keep in mind that just because you may
know most of what is contained in these pages, it
doesn't mean other do. So share this link.
Also, you may be the only person in your club to view
this page. Again, please share it with
others.
Talking about this page might make a good speech
topic!
I'll introduce information a little
at a time and provide you the resources for further
study. Let's get started.
Welcome to Pathways
Welcome to the Toastmasters
Pathways learning experience, an exciting, flexible and
interactive way to develop your skills and help others
in your club develop theirs. Pathways helps you learn
communication and leadership skills that you need to
succeed. It gives you:
The opportunity to build up to
300 unique competencies
11 specialized learning paths
to choose from
Online content, so that you can
learn anytime, anywhere
Real-world, transferable skills
Content available in Arabic,
English, French, German, Japanese, Portuguese,
Simplified Chinese, Spanish, and Traditional
Chinese, with select paths available in Korean and
Tamil
Terminology
Before diving into Pathways, let's
get familiar with some terminology that is used
constantly.
Assessment:
To find the right path, begin by taking the
assessment. This helps you identify the path that
best meets your needs, interests and goals. After
responding to a series of questions, you will be
presented with the path that best fits you and your
current experience. The Pathways Assessment
helps to point you in the best possible direction.
Base Camp:
Your online gateway to the Pathways learning
experience, where you access your educational
materials, your education transcript, interactive
projects and other useful tips, tools and resources.
It also tracks your progress, connects you with
members of your club, lets you view badges and
certificates you’ll earn along the way, features
resources to help guide you, including videos,
quizzes, interactive activities and more. You might
say, base camp is where it's at.
Base Camp Manager:
For most clubs, the vice president education (VPE)
will assume the role of Base Camp manager. The Base
Camp manager helps facilitate your progress by
verifying your education, approving requests and
more. In the event a VPE isn’t able to perform these
duties, or if a club does not have a VPE, the Base
Camp manager responsibilities will be fulfilled by
the club president or club secretary. The central
responsibilities of the Base Camp manager include:
Approving speeches outside
the club
Verifying level completion
Tracking member progress
Verifying project completion
for members using printed materials
The Navigator:
An online tool filled with essential information
about the Toastmasters journey. Use it to help you
begin your journey and support your progress.
Whether you are just embarking on your journey or
are a seasoned Toastmaster, The Navigator can answer
your questions and guide you along the way
Paths:
Each path provides a unique journey. There are
eleven unique learning paths and each is divided
into five levels that build in complexity. The
levels help you build on and apply what you have
learned.
Levels:
Each path is made up of five levels that increase in
complexity. The program is designed this way so
you’re always building on what you learned in the
previous level. All learning paths contain the
following levels:
1: Mastering Fundamentals Level
2: Learning Your Style Level
3: Increasing Knowledge Level
4: Building Skills Level
5: Demonstrating Expertise
Core Competencies:
It is important to note that each member using Base
Camp will have the opportunity to select from many
electives to extend their learning. With the
addition of electives, members have the flexibility
to cover all core competencies within each path. The
five core competencies are: Public Speaking,
Interpersonal Communication, Strategic Leadership,
Management and Confidence. Confidence is unique
because it cannot be taught, but is gained in every
path.
Projects:
Projects are the building blocks for each path. Each
path has a set of 14 projects across all 5 levels (a
combination of 10 required projects and 4 elective
projects).
A project is NOT necessarily a speech. It
can be any of the following, usually accompanied by
a speech at the end. Projects can be:
A speech
A number of speeches and an
evaluation
Table Topics Master (Active
Listening)
Creating a blog
Creating a podcast
Moderating a
panel discussion
*NOTE: For each path you pursue, you
are required to serve in the following three roles at
least once before your Level 3 is marked
complete:
- Evaluator - fulfilled by
item #2 above, or when you perform any evaluation.
- Toastmaster - fulfilled
when you act as Toastmaster.
- Table Topicsmaster -
fulfilled by project #3 above, or just by performing the
Table Topicsmaster role.
You may choose to fulfill a role at
each level or complete multiple roles within a level.
You determine when you serve in these roles. Remember,
you fulfill the requirement of evaluator in the
“Evaluation and Feedback” project at Level 1. Some paths
require you to serve in other meeting roles, such as
Topicsmaster in the “Active Listening” project. Serving
in a role as part of a project assignment counts toward
the requirement described above.
Keep track of your meeting role
fulfillments on Base Camp to make it easy for your vice
president education to approve that you completed Level
3. Other members can also view your profile to see which
roles you completed. You can record only one date per
meeting role on your Base Camp profile. Make sure to
update all your meeting roles each time you serve. To
record the day you fulfilled a role: 1. Hover over the
gear icon at the top right of your screen [
], then select My Account and 2. find the appropriate
role - check it - and enter the date and 3. don't forget
to hit SAVE near the bottom.
NOTE:
this information can be found by going to Base Camp,
then click Tutorials and Resources,
then in the search window in the top right, type:
'Meeting Role Requirements' and then view the .pdf. (or
click here).
Paths, Levels and Projects:
Every path is comprised of these three elements. So
let's take a look at how they interact. Your chosen path will consist of
the following five levels.
Once you open the curriculum you
will see that Level 1 consists of 3 projects: the
Icebreaker, Evaluation and Feedback, and Researching and
Presenting.
As you advance through your chosen
path, the levels and projects will reveal themselves,
like so:
NOTE: You do not have to finish one
level before moving to any other level, but it is
recommended that you go in sequence.
So here's an overview showing all eleven
paths:
Let's have a deeper look. Once you
login, go to Base Camp.
Base Camp is your gateway to the Toastmasters Pathways
learning experience. Base Camp is where you access your
educational materials, your education transcript,
interactive projects and other useful tips, tools and
resources. If you are new to Base Camp, select the blue
Navigating Base Camp tile to learn more.
Exploring the Blue Tiles:
Get to know Base Camp:this area contains dozens of tutorial
relating to: 'working in your projects';
'completing assignments'; 'saving your
documents'; "requesting or responding to -
feedback"; "accessing certificates"; "viewing
badges"; "completing levels"; and "accessing the
Pathways Mentor Program." And even more!
Access your path
and track your progress here. Here you
can view your curriculum. Open the curriculum to
view all the projects that you are working on or
have worked on. You may also archive projects
and view resources and tutorials of interest.
Training modules are stored as 'Active';
Complete"; or "Archived."
Request and share
feedback with members of your home club here.
Request feedback from your club members by
typing in the text box. To share feedback or
award a badge, search for members by name in the
search box at the top of the page. Select a name
to visit their Base Camp profile and choose
their Feedback tab. To learn more, view the
following tutorials: Requesting Feedback,
Responding to Feedback Requests, and Providing
Feedback and Awarding Badges.
View Your Badges:
View the badges you have earned through Level
completions or through Path completions (Called
Learning Badges). In addition, you may view
badges (Called Feedback Badges) that members
have sent you.
Speech Evaluations in Pathways.
An essential part of the Toastmasters experience
is learning how to give and receive constructive
feedback. Evaluations are vital to your growth
and help you improve and reflect. To practice
completing a Pathways evaluation, review the
How to Evaluate tutorial. Base Camp stores
all of your evaluations in one place for easy
access. Evaluation forms for all projects are
found here.
Want to explore Pathways? Below
you'll find an interactive map of the program.
Click any
name for details. Always use the
'Arrow Back' icon [
] on your computer to come back to this page (top left
corner of your computer).
Additional Information:
My website tutorial goes into more depth on all the
above topics. The following links should prove useful to
both new and not-so-new Toastmasters. Click any text in
Red to go to that page. (Don't forget to click the
back-arrow icon [
] at the the top left of your computer to get back to
this page.
Home Page: is not
only the entry point for the tutorial, but it also
includes shortcuts to the most frequently visited
pages.
Overview:
this is where the Pathways tutorial begins. Read the
first 12-pages or so to get the whole picture. At
the bottom right on each page is a link that
advances you to the next page.
All Projects: This
page shows an alphabetical listing of all
63-projects.
All Paths: This
page lists all of the current paths. Click any path
and it expands for more details.
Pathways Basics:
this page contains many useful links for new
members, e.g., Meeting Role descriptions, a timing
signal, timing cards, thought-of-the-day link,
word-of-the-day link,
Online Meetings:
technically not a Pathways related page - but it
tells new members how to get a free Zoom account,
and contains many links related to perfecting their
online meeting experience, with a number of
tutorials.
Site Map: a new
member can be overwhelmed with all the new
terminology. This page lists over 500 Pathways
related terms to help them understand the program,
including links to every project and every
evaluation form.
The Educational Minute:
Every club should continually 'educate' its members.
This page provides links to dozens of topics that
would serve to educate members. New members will
find the
Preparing an Icebreaker
especially useful.