Making the HR Toolbox More Flexible Using Learning Objects, Barry Reeves Chief Learning Design Officer, OTEN, David Drinkwater, XML Publishing Coordinator, OTEN and Kate Robinson, Kate Robinson Media
PowerPoint Presentation (2 MB)
Powerpoint presentation has 4 design questions and 6 answers with examples of how questions were answered - could be applied to lots of learning design.
W e b C T a t T r e n t : : S t u d e n t H o w D o I
How do I
contents
Viewing/printing PDF documents
Use an assignment dropbox
Create a student homepage
Course Content: Print all of the course content pages
Mail & Discussions: How do I use formatting options?
WebCT FAQ's
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Why%2
How to use the WebCT Discussion Tool
similar to Murdoch Uni - maybe we can also approach them for permission?
Reference material suppplied with permission from WebCT and Murdoch University
Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN)
The LTSN is a major network of 24 subject centres based in higher education institutions throughout the UK and a single Generic Centre.
It aims to promote high quality learning and teaching through the development and transfer of good practices in all subject disciplines, and to provide a 'one-stop shop' of learning and teaching resources and information for the HE community.
The Online Assessment Strategies and Models project will develop resources for VET practitioners. Toolbox developers and users will be consulted in order to identify the issues faced by practitioners when conducting assessment in online and blended environments. The project will provide useful strategies, advice and examples of assessment practice.
EdTechPost Resources - EdTechPost.ELearningGlossaries
"Argues for flexible learning and online learning as solutions to the current challenges facing higher education...and then provides a comprehensive discourse on change management. "
Paint Shop Pro Resizing Images Tutorial
Resizing Images
Resizing an image while retaining its quality is one of the most complicated tasks facing digital artists. Paint Shop Pro makes resizing images a quick and painless process.
Here we'll go through some easy ways to resize your images for both Web and print.
Paint Shop Pro Optimizing Images Tutorial
Optimizing Images
Leave your mark on the Web using your own digital images and graphics.
Using the JPEG and GIF optimizers in Paint Shop Pro, you can get your images Web-ready in no time at all. This tutorial explains the differences between the two most popular image formats on the Web and how to optimize your images using Paint Shop Pro.
PSPUG Tutorials - GIF vs. JPEG
GIF vs. JPEG
Created by: Doro Sensen
There's often confusion about when to save an image as a GIF and when as a JPEG for displaying in a web browser. But there are some points that make the decision easy.
Tom Bentley, DEMOS ThinkTank in UK powerpoint presentation here
Demand for learning comes from higher levels of knowledge and general education. General fuzzier changes in society with increasing diversity.
Whilst men were quicker to take up internet, women have overtaken, connectivity is becoming a utility like electricity, in the western world which will influence the way in which we think abut learning,
Shape of the new world economy - less FT permanent, huge leaps in ft and pt temp and self-employed. Permanent no substantial change in comparison.
Appetite for learning not driven totally by economic factors in their lives but also freedom and prosperity. Development process - post industrialist values. Also looking for fulfillment, polarises ethical outlook and quality of relationships, not shaped or controlled by social clubs as was 2 generations ago, changes driven as much by culture as much as other factors.
Declining confidence in institutions such as the army, police, legal system, parliament. Institutions have a huge role to play in people’s lives so what form of educational institutions do we need so that people have trust in them?
Two kinds of response - encourage higher general educational attainment by raising standards and participation also create new learning opportunities and markets in learning modelled around flexibility and individual choice.
No politician can afford to ignore education as in issue. Parents become lobby groups. Watchwords are flexibility and individual choice, trying to find ways of making this a reality.
Problem with universal schooling -schools and colleges are a particular kind of institution built for the industrial society that we are moving away from. Their productivity has some limits - can only run a machine so hard before it starts to break down. Under pressures of social fragmentation and diversity they do not do a good job of providing work-based learning and other forms of vocational learning despite being our most resilient form of educational institution.
The promise of flexible learning - these promises are still just a dream - what we have learnt from trying to embed this in our systems is they don't fulfill their promise and if we are not careful they create a greater distance between learner and teacher.
Struggling with the weight of education. How do we get over this?
Can’t count on the promise of technology driven learning, if we want to make tech count have to put learning first and educational tech follows afterwards. Learning needs to take place in a context.
The downside:
Reality can be fragmentation, isolation, non-completion, automation of mediocre learning resources.
Creative learners: find their own problems; can focus attention in pursuit of a goal, work through collaboration. In an era of flexibility a critical skill is transferability of learning. See learning as an ongoing incremental process, repeated instances of failure are what you set you up for success,
If we are serious about the point that it is social contexts that shape learning we need to think about creative learning organisation: high trust is a prerequisite, autonomy - people have to have real choice, variation of context, balance between skills and challenge - 'sufficient challenge'. Intensive exchange of information, focus on the real world and concrete outcomes - question in the air - what is the outcome?
We are not going to get there if all we are focused on is content or curricula to entice people into our organizations. Truth is that it is a slow process
Institutional adaptation - in many sectors delivery institutions have been structured around a set of principles that are difficult to unpack - they tend to be standardized frameworks, vertically integrated, hierarchically maintained, models of change gradual and slow moving control from above
Compared with: diverse, horizontally connected, interdependent network based
Fast moving, unpredictable and out of control.
Personalised learning - a new entitlement?
Personal profiles and curriculum planning, personalised and formative assessment, portfolio of portable information and evidence, active construction of pathways thorough modular cross agency collaboration, focus on the skills and habits of learning to learn. Parity of esteem between further (=VET) education and academic education - not through funding changes or restructuring but rather 11-14yrs stage of education should have a much more personalised structure - reality so far is just another form of chaos because it presents such a deep challenge to communication at a local level.
Networks -the key to mass personalisation?
Enable diversity and coordination as gateways for learner navigation.
Networks of suppliers and providers offering flexible pathways,
Employer networks providing demand led info about skills specifications and learning opportunities,
Community networks providing informal support for learning and participation.
This may mean that VET needs to act in different ways as coordinating those networking opportunities.
Centralised vs. decentralised vs. distributed networks {check out the powerpoint show} - distributed may not help you to find all the opportunities, recommends thinking about the decentralised model - think about the extent to which local learning providers can make links with other local means of learning support.
Networked Learning communities - small grants to encourage clusters of schools and colleges to engage in mutual learning and networked relationships seem to generate lots of enthusiasm and collaboration and curriculum change that would not have otherwise been possible.
NHS Collaborative - use to accelerate rates of learning on how to speed up processes such as coronary care or GP appointment processes. Crucial point is the lateral communication that really makes the difference.
Learndirect - sees as failure, just an attempt to provide a user friendly interface and brokerage and online interface to point them towards types of support they might be able get - Radio ads have a rather desperate air. Think they have found it difficult to identify further opportunities. Too diffuse not the backbone.
Ongoing challenge
Sees need for radical bureaucratic reform,
Learner potential is going to be met more and more through innovation, which is widely distributed across local settings and systems. We can find the local practices.
Have to make it work with the institutions being key mover in setting up network
What changes need to be made? Several strands
1. distributed model of leadership
2. strategy for pedagogical innovation- through collaboration
3. strong vision which sets out to engage wider community - build shared understanding
Thinking big starting small - repeated practice
Centralised control = centralised failure
In UK cutting out mid layers, and also giving responsibility to regional areas, for example looking for ways to improve quality of life or health rather than efficiency.
Janina Gawler, Chief Executive Officer, Australian National Training Authority
Environment shifting: Demographic changes, globalisation, outsourcing, technology, labour force change.
Baby boomers working longer, e.g. in mining industry - blue collar workers starting to work in information and project management, people change jobs more often, generic skills represent employability skills
The ways in which we engage with technology needs to be considered. We are already in the networked world - but how we act within it are still being worked out. Getting out and talking to people on the ground is very important. VET should be contextualised and customised in place and time, modeled as a lifelong learning service, client-centric rather than institution-centric, networked with industry and community. Working with learners for them to be capable to take advantage of opportunities,
Need for sharing to go outside the VET community - talk to government, industry and community about it.
Our message is not getting out to industry -we have to sell this concept of engagement with the system. Gap between public image and client experience, if it is measured people value it, education for a competitive workforce.
Rather than computer programming - drivers license, transferability of IT skills when systems change.
Industry Skills Councils replace the national ITABS - broader industry groupings.
Have to look at what we are offering mums and dads to talk to their children about - make it a first choice, qualification status is a perception problem to be addressed >> Branding of VET for the long-term.
System objectives include: industry will have a highly skilled workforce to supporting strong performance in the global economy. If you can run a first class mining operation in the middle of nowhere, you can provide learning anywhere [as long as you have their budget ;-)]
www.anta.gov.au/dapstrategy.asp
Challenges are capturing the attention of businesses, addressing gaps, dissolving barriers.
Things to consider - is there a finish line? NO but we do have to consolidate and do a better job of telling people about it, sell the excitement.
Who’s playing catch-up? Some of the colleagues.
Mechanisms vs. Philosophy.
Canberra Institute of Technology CIT Getting all subjects online
Moving a whole faculty online, 1.1 million ASCH, 20% through flexible centres.
The journey - started in 1999
2000 went to WebCT
2001 10% subjects in WebCT
2002 new Business Services Training Package and all subjects went into WebCT
2003 focus on staff skills in using WebCT, previously had been staff fiddling around and looking at it as a project based approach.
In 2002 put lots of material online but staff did not have the skills to use it. Skills are now a prerequisite before teaches going online.
Over 80% of business admin have gone online, have culture of get out there and do it
Minimum requirement for what goes online: subject handouts and resources that are provided in classes, then have a wide range of things that are then added on. Accounting are using a lot of revision and testing as a knowledge tool. IT are using for uploading assignments, wide range of response beyond the access to information base level requirement.
Strategies - set targets, marketing internally - explaining why we are doing it. Recognised diverse ways of using WebCT, create student demand, (had underestimated the need for internal marketing, needs to be repeated continually), technical support through the central CIT help desk, Student demand - in each area have at least one teacher who is using it so they ask why aren't all subjects done the same way? IT helpdesk is also available for the students - weekend coverage for support is still an issue. Have funded projects, used toolboxes, PD programs (in 2003 tend to emphasise more the mentoring support) did a case study of how the Learning Innovation Support Team (LIST) service works on the Flexible Learning Framework site, CIT staff information system - pushed to get intranet set up within WebCT to get people into the system, showcases, Community of Practice. Need to train teachers to present well in the showcases rather then focussing on the detail. Have both compulsory and optional sessions in the WebCT training. Have one-hour sessions for specific skills, Casual staff - paid to take part in the one hour sessions - is to teaching assistant level access and skills, mentoring is one of the key strategies is absolutely vital in CIT experience, Learning Innovation Support Team LIST
Structure is 2 teachers and some admin support - roles - short training program to get people onboard with WebCT, managed WebCT development projects by early adopters who were given time release and extensive support from LIST staff. Also in 2002 standardised lots of procedures for the flexible learning centres as well. Locating useful resources, in 2003 resource role for flexible delivery went back to delivery teams. More of an emphasis on relating to the delivery team needs rather than individual subjects for individual teachers, more department wide foci, across a range of competencies, provide both expertise and access to other expertise within the institute, finding resources - often teachers find it hard to make the time for this, sharing of best practice through showcases and involving communities of practice,
Set up a CoP - improvement network looking at WebCT issues, some who are enthusiasts in WebCT plus LIST staff, Domain: WebCT and online skills and tips
Community: WebCT champions from each dept
Practice: share examples of best practice in using WebCT, identify issues and ways of promoting WebCT, improve faculty use of WebCT. Have items in weekly staff newsletter to raise awareness.
Have a simple template to make it easy and also for consistency, layers of menus still available, standard content such as getting started, another template - not quite as many choices, Have orientation to WebCT as a separate course, teachers can add extra content such as checklists and links to other websites, use of discussion forums etc,
[Home pages can be html pages.] Advantages: consistency to look and feel. Disadvantage: teachers did not feel confident with it.
Home pages with links to resources for specific sessions, some introductory text guiding navigation on the homepage.
All students have a WebCT login
Have a Study Support Course available to all students
Also a means of creating student demand - also means that teachers do not need to show every one of their students how to use as they have used already.
WebCT as intranet - regular forms, using content modules.
Templates are getting plainer and slicker than earlier ones with icons etc.
Outline, resources and email are standard links on the homepage of template, using as a resource repository.
As well as funded projects there is a lot of richness being added to the WebCT courses online, embedding crosswords as self assessments,
Also student evaluation - easier to do - so more evaluation is encouraged.
One hour sessions - biggest problem for people is getting them started so one hour session is f2f.
Reasons for uptake or no action - lower IT skills or provision, also teachers who like the 'performance' role, cultural departments - same at other institutes, worried about needing a computer lab to use WebCT but CIT thinks focus should be about access away from classrooms.
Legacy issues to change to another LMS? Students are evaluating a possible transition to Moodle.
WebCT logins are 24hour turnaround
Teachers negotiate with managers re time
LIST is for the faculty team as opposed to being an institute wide approach
Mentoring- list staff spend vast majority of time one on one
Dreamweaver only for people with WebCT skills already
Hunter Institute of TAFE - ITALIC (Institute Teaching And Learning Innovation
Centre)
Working with teachers about wider learning products and integration into what teachers do. Stretching the boundaries with multimedia, resource development, eg when creating an interactive cd-rom it is not to replace a module but to work alongside the teacher in developing competency.
Using students to complete the video and sound work. Developing a showcase of the projects they have worked on.
Mentoring program - staff are given opportunities to develop online skills, alignment of the all projects with the necessary professional development.
How we work - started as an idea April 2000 out of a partnership with Microsoft about pedagogical issues of elearning. Then established a centre - March 2001. Momentum and expansion of the ideas moving into new areas.
Critical Mass - centre moves out and things grows around it, critical mass when Board agreed to support a steering group - high level support, $1mill
Refinement Phase - working with the Board - had to change from production work to focussing on teaching and learning,
Evaluation - OK to go ahead
Change invoked - had 30 projects to start with and 2 staff, very fast start,
Are at the point today where faculties are setting up their own innovation units - use ITALIC as a support for them.
Corporate world focus on improvement, which pulls us back from innovation.
Structure - 4 managers, 2 rooms, have about 750(?) people working on 120 projects, fairly good return on investment, what holds it together are the people with specialist staff - about 70 contractors drawn in on needs basis,
Product development cycle - concept paper - one page outline, have a philosophy of never rejecting an idea - guarantee to progress peoples ideas in some shape and form.
Idea capture - currently fairly passive. Using Knowledge Services Framework - (Sharepoint) rather than intranet.
Moving to a more active process where a range of themes are active and will ask for staff responses, automate the entry into the knowledge service framework, Question>email broadcast>response (to server)>review>reward.
Use Australian Business Excellence Framework as the structure for the information architecture. Have had this setup for 2 years and it is taking a long time for people to put their stuff in it.
Includes calendar, email, websites and documents from within the system. Treat it as the desktop.
Team playground - part of MS Sharepoint - communications and knowledge sharing environment, going down path of setting up one for each project involved with announcements what’s on, discussion areas, also includes ten RSS feeds coming into the area idea propagation, eg EDNA feed, (they worked on the Everyone Online access and equity project)
Use movable type for this model for some other projects, which means that it can sit outside of the firewall and outsiders can use and outsiders can view also worldwide.
KS - how is that indexed?
If putting things up then it is tagged and version controlled.
Concept papers - start to see trends in the ideas that come forward, eg student induction and orientation, ITALIC role is to put people together, have a matching budget for external funding, also support projects that are put forward that do not receive external funding, may be smaller or differently executed.
Boat Building had developed a model for their delivery that then ITALIC looked at potential for application to other settings > First step was to put paper-based guides onto the Internet - text based, also incorporated VC and email and telephone response, using fax for exams, put document camera at the other end and let students use it. Used LearnScope funding to support the training that was required, students can start to enrol and learn online, possibilities in China and NZ - who knows?
Learning model:
Mixture of model of live and self-paced and a range of materials is used, students travel a fair distance, VC, classroom, web based training, simulations, online mentoring, peer and workplace support. Some live, some self-paced, documents, CD-rom, diverse content sources, personalised learning, learning support - mentoring peers apprenticeship.
www.hunter.tafensw.edu.au/showcase/casestudies
Refer to summary handout or website.
Barrier Reef Institute of TAFE - The Netlearn community
Seven campuses each with a range of offerings - staff needed to work together to be able to broaden range of learning options on each site.
Netlearn is a learning community where the needs of the learners are at the forefront of practice and supported by distributed delivery strategies - had to be a whole staff approach - after 18 months have 27% of staff involved including admin staff.
"We want to make lots of mistakes so we can learn lots of different things"
John Bell
Netlearn enabler group - was established to keep Netlearn community on track - change management group and visioning as well as solving operational issues
Gravity and drag are powerful forces - needed to make sure plan could be understood - broken up in different pieces.
Had to be highly visible - large number of people involved in multiple projects, encouraged staff to take risks - Cremate, Embalm or Enshrine the outcomes.
LMS is an open source solution - iLearn.
Julie Woodlock FLL 2003
Facilitation - to ease a process but which process? Action learning supports a risk taking atmosphere.
Netlearn would appear to be a whole of organisation approach - 2 or 3 facilitators on the project team are mainly focussed on the technology skills.
Kerry Russo - a participant in the Netlearn project
Extensive consultation with industry and clients f2f as they were planning to gain acceptance - employed a local tutor in the regional areas, had coordinators in each area to keep track of the admin processes.
Use video conference, tutorials, chat and discussion, chat used as a social gathering tool, home study using learning guides, using video streaming - students use as a review tool or if can’t attend, also have phone and email contact also, industry placement for people who are not employed yet.
Find that for videoconferencing need to be fun loud energising, in your face presenters, and try to limit talking heads to 10 mins.
Did not work for students on Palm Island - did not meet their (cultural?) needs,
Also needed to participate in VC, rather than treating it as watching TV
Why does it work? Captured imaginations, responded to student needs and suggestions - never had so much feedback before.
Debbie Abbott
Literacy in Yr10
Created an online module - previously offered via f2f and home study and phone support
Teachers learning new skills was the biggest part of our process, also had to work out of normal hours. Learnt we could work independently, learnt to trust each other and resourcefulness, also had to adapt to LMS,
Screens - left hand contents list organised in a file management look-alike, then content in body of screen 2/3 width
CoP Theory Overview
cute diagrams etc that pull COP theory apart. Good base level intro
52 page pdf file
Michael Angeles
Today I’m going to talk about weblogs inside my company, their use in knowledge management, and how my organization is hoping to make them
usable for enterprise knowledge work if the number of blogs in the company increases significantly.
I’ll talk briefly about our company and the types of people involved in various forms of web publishing on the intranet. Then I’ll look more closely at what we might develop information systems
Michael Coghlan - Finding your voice online Workshop session
Demonstrated a range of tools for VOIP and simultaneous text chat, interactive whiteboards etc.
Yahoo messenger webcam and chat service- free of charge but has some advertising. Both chat and audio are active at the same time.
Workshop had some initial difficulties to start with - working between dialup & broadband is not normally a problem with quality.
In written text start to form an impression - hearing the voice changes this to a more accurate picture
Yahoo does not require huge amounts of tech or broadband.
Learning Times
Wimba voice board
Also have voice chat tool need to join community to get free access. Community of voices
Elluminate virtual classroom vClass
Instant messaging
Whiteboard
Can throw up prepared pages here.
Audio
-Better quality of audio than the yahoo group but that may have just been the link
Some students felt uncomfortable speaking into the microphone. Although high use of technology in Denmark there are still barriers to be overcome with familiarity
Within the virtual classroom there is a facility to raise your hands to indicate that you wanted to speak.
Who would use the telephone if the answering machine was the technology?
Jonathon Finklestein in New York involved in the setting up of the Learning Times
Whiteboard - can insert pictures as well as text or diagrams
Also has application sharing utility.
Voice is not just about verbal and hearing but also personality- uploading 'mugshots'
Steve Keirl - Ethics and Technology
Ethics and technology have an intimate relationship to the human being, cannot reference ourselves without reference to our technologies, ethics are a human construct - dependant on the existence of others.
However current people like Singer at Princeton are thinking that ethics are not ethical if they are not applied to the real world - need to be usable to guide our real lives.
Exercise - think about the first 5 minutes of your day - think of the technology that you engage with in that first 5 mins. - Has become invisible to us.
Tools and machines are nothing without their users - power potential capability speed etc
Issue raised from last night - get technologies presented as a fait accompli - not finished but as a track that we are on. Too late to consider the values and ethics once the tech has been presented to us - need to ask the question beforehand about what we would like to design our future to be - ask kids across the world of things that they want - they want peace and environment.
Every person can get into an ethical debate. We are creating an environment in which debate is stifled and critical debate is stifled and ethical concerns are not able to be discussed as a voice of dissent.
4 phases of tech
First step is the intent to design - what is it you are planning to do, 2nd design, 3rd creation or manifestation 4th - use. Think about ethical strengths at each stage.
Four philosophical challenges for us
1st ontological - what is existence?
2nd ethical challenge - know how we want to live and accept or create technologies that serve that.
3rd determinist challenge - determinist would argue there is no such thing as free will. If we want to exercise our free will we have a determinist challenge
4th we can choose to design anything we put our minds to.
Living with the technology we have today is like living with a temperamental elephant.
Thomas Jefferson - knowledge as a lit candle - light one candle from another’s and we have both gained
Jonas Salk - invented of vaccine - when asked whom does the patent belong to he replied the people.
Singer - must use we rather than me.
Barbara Pitman talked about "A bit about Babies, Bathwater and Democracy" link here
Background in nursing in the territory.
Technology to be underlined by skilled people who understand the basic principles - thinking what is it that we are here to do, including enabling the end user - has to accommodate the needs of individuals in communities - a means to an end, it is what happens at the point of delivery that we can make a difference,
DIVERSITY - all communities are made of individuals - diversity operates on a range of different levels, with a collective culture shared nature of ownership that one has by belonging to a group as opposed to an individual culture where each individual is valued for their individual contribution.
The cultural model that is the growing up experience forms the first worldview, which is also a powerful factor in teaching and learning and technology. ATSIC very relaxed with tech, capacity to exploit new things. Sometimes purpose of meetings can be lost to the wonder of the tech from western peoples.
Democracy - knowledge sharing within aboriginal communities using community radio - broadcast throughout a community, radio telephone restricted ability to hear and use communication - as opposed to loud speakers so everyone could hear and also free. Tech advances at expense of democratic processes.
Client needs to be at the centre of the thought. Describing the client as the end user promotes a linear approach to providing services as opposed to placing the learner at the centre.
Approaching learning from a story telling perspective relevant to many cultures not just indigenous. Think of a learning package as a squishy bag with lots of pockets rather than a structured suitcase, lots of zips where things can be changed without dislodging the main packet.
Can’t afford to generalise using terms such as mainstream - that will mean that others are excluded.
Music and sport are message mediums that work well for ATSIC and youth sectors.
Using interactive games for reinforcing the AQTF - Standard 7.2
website with games for previewing - here or here
timed games that test a variety of knowledge about the AQTF for VET RTO staff. Final versions will be available in December, from the presentation it was unclear whether the templates be publically available on the FL site. Wait and see...
Fishing Industry New Practices Project
wanted to test the ideas in the fishing industry as that was seen to be a hard place to make something like this work.
context was narrowband, infrequent internet access.
Industry was being pushed to develop their own compliance regulations, and also starting to export so needed to comply with European union Regulations.
Used Janison software called satellite.
As well as initial training, workers also require re-training when AQIS inspections are failed.
LMS is loaded onto a laptop and course materials provided by cd-rom. no download speed concerns in this set up so are able to make use of large file sizes etc - make the resources as good as possible rather than being constrained by bandwidth issues.
There is a web server installed on the laptop. Students can therefore participate in discussions and use of Learning Objects, on a regular basis student then dials up through a satellite phone services which synchronises with the teacher. These short bursts of connectivity mean that students still can have interaction with the teachers out at sea.
This is a good pattern as much recruitment for the fleets happens at the wharf - there is not necessarily time for people to take training before they go to sea.
Not sure if there was any student-student interaction built into the model, it was not mentioned so this is unlikely.
This technical solution can work for other industries and contexts - eg training of government officials in remote areas
By Ann Montague and Linda Hopkins
published by NCVER 2002
full pdf paper
p 7
Learners in VET and enterprises believe that support services have an important impact on their success in training and in enabling them to overvome obstacles to learning
Teachers at VET institutions interviewed felt increased retention rates and completion rates were the direct result of the provision of appropriate support to learners.
P 19
1995 survey found that 1 in 5 students ( and 1 in 3 special needs students) felt they may have dropped out their courses without the help of student services
p 20 learner support should be integrated within training provision.
p23 suggests 'workplace learning guide' in place of 'mentor'
p25-6 Van Staveren, Beverley and Bloch suggested that RTO should provide to learners:
-ensure information on course delivery modes is adequate and widely available. This includes
teaching sections with apprentices and trainees … ensuring that employers of these students
understand …the implications [of the course delivery mode] for their trainee.
-provide sufficient information for students to assess their own readiness for learning
-provide new students with a comprehensive orientation to flexible learning
-provide full information to students and teachers on the full range of student support services
-provide coordinated learning support to assist students to become more independent learners.
(Van Staveren, Beverley & Bloch 1999, p.2)
Page 30 is table showing the types of learner support provided by VET institutions and enterprises
Page 31 is table showing differences in way these two provide support.
Objectives
"The objective of this case study is to examine how successfully NMIT’s ICT training strategy has been in enhancing flexible delivery within the Institute, to examine barriers to the uptake of flexible delivery options and to explore ways of customising the existing course (VBM112) so that the training will translate into more effective online flexible delivery for NMIT students.
The study was undertaken between December 2002 and June 2003. The program continues to be evaluated and developed in response to learners' needs and feedback."
"Lessons Learnt
A number of important lessons have been reinforced by this project.
The need to value and capitalise on teachers' existing skills
The need to ensure a whole Department approach
The need to provide solutions for staff - not add to their challenges
The need to ensure the training is offered as flexibly as possible
The need to provide staff with skills which they can use immediately
The need to provide on going support for staff as they implement what they have learnt"
Introduction
"For the past three years the Central Western Region of Adult, Community and Further Education (CWMR of ACFE) has been conducting a professional development (PD) program to enhance the use of information and communication technology (ICT) by its 70+ registered Providers. The program has primarily addressed the application of ICT to teaching and learning, but has also provided an opportunity for administrative and clerical staff to improve their knowledge of applications such as word processors, spreadsheets and presentation software, by qualifying for the International Computer Drivers License (ICDL).
This is a case study of a flexible learning program to enable staff of the Region's Providers to study and be assessed for the ICDL."
Knowledge is paradoxical, the more we seek it, the more escapes us, the more we contain it the more it evaporates, the more we render it sophisticated, the more it simplifies itself. It's study returns us to the question of our own awareness. Baumard, 2000 (p111)
Questions to ask!
What hinders knowledge flows?
* What constraints are placed on experimentation, investigation, diffusion and reception within the group, firm and industry?.
* How do topics and discourses become sanctioned, constructed, regulated, supervised or subverted?.
* What models, stories, company paradigms, perspectives and viewpoints dominate around here?
* Who exactly is in the core group and what is out, who are the bad guys and what are the bogeymen?
* Is it easy and acceptible to question established processes, decisions and leaders?
* Can you experiment and 'play' with language or is the terminology (and meaning?) set and rigid?
* What type of knowledge is favoured explicit, well-documented, internally validated, marketable material or team spirt, second guessing, and informal stories?. Is it practice or process!
At the individual level:
* How do you manage your knowledge?
* How do you interact with your environment and workplace?
* Where and what form do you draw your important knowledge?
* Which knowledge sources do you value most & why?
* What helps you to know things others do not know?
Flexible Learning in a Digital World:Experiences and Expectations - $68.95
Series: Open and Distance Learning Series
Betty Collis ;Jef Moonen
In our digital age of the Internet and World Wide Web the opportunities to enable truly flexible learning in most educational situations are exciting, challenging and widespread. This book is about learning, teaching and education, and the role that technology plays in bringing about improvements for students, educators and institutions alike. Betty Collis and Jef Moonen present a series of proven and practical guidelines, based on their balanced experience of using technology in education. Together, these give readers an overview of how technological applications in education can be developed and harnessed. The authors are leading innovators and practitioners in the field. In their work they have developed a series of 18 key lessons which are detailed in the book. These can be applied by those working with educational technology at a number of different levels: those taking an institutional or managerial perspective; those responsible for implementing new approaches to learning; those concerned with issues of pedagogy and effective teaching; and those dealing with flexible learning technology.
Successful engagement: [pdf file] guidance for colleges and providers on effective
employer engagement in post-16 learning.
"This guide provides ideas on how to engage employers effectively in post-16 learning. It gives examples of how colleges and providers are
currently responding to the needs of employers and their employees, with suggestions for extending this practice. It should be of interest to
LSC-funded colleges and providers and local Learning and Skills Councils when considering and agreeing headline improvement targets for
employer engagement in response to Success for all.
The guide has three sections:
Section 1 considers the rationale for securing effective employer engagement and the role of the FE sector in bringing this about
Section 2 discusses the implications of increased employer engagement
Section 3 suggests how headline improvement targets for employer engagement could be interpreted by providing examples of what achieving these might mean in practice."
"New ways of motivating adults to become active learners are needed if the goal of getting more
people involved in education or training is to be achieved, says a new report from the Learning
and Skills Development Agency (LSDA). The report, which draws together work by LSDA on
widening adult participation over the past six years, sets out to identify the key factors that
motivate people to learn, the barriers that prevent them from doing so and strategies that
organisations can adopt to attract the reluctant, the disengaged and the disenchanted."
Paving the way to excellence in e-learning has been produced by the NLN Materials Team at Becta, to share the procedures that are followed to ensure the e-learning materials commissioned for the NLN are of the highest quality possible.
Adult Learning Inspectorate - quality assurance in the UK.
Successful Learning at work - Good Practice in on-the-job learning and assessment. Executive summary... This report seeks to identify and illustrate the key features which make for successful training in the workplace. It groups examples and case studies of good practice into seven areas.
Pauline De Vries
Integrated learning options - aim to build a bridge between a practice firm and entrepreneurial small business
'Work studios'
Resources included Douglas Mawson IT support team and also Port Adelaide Business Incubator was the business partner.
Students were put into a physical place in the incubator - offsite to TAFE. Business Manager of Incubator was also a mentor for the new Practices Project
Stepping back from students is not necessarily desertion.
Within the project mapping between 3 TP's - business tourism and marketing. Mapping matrix between the packages.
<b>YOLA - your online learning assistant </b>
Just in time learning assistant
- numeracy assistance for building trades especially for prevocational and early apprenticeships
Question was "How can we support the B&C toolbox and students can work more self paced - so to give help when the teachers are not available, first port of call?"
Want learners to focus on what they are doing in the toolbox - not replacing the content that already exists. Another concern was more shelf life and reusability of learning assets to support learners.
<a href="http://www.holmesglen.vic.edu.au">Holmesglen </a>worked in partnership with Nine Lanterns.
Model for what can be achieved through use of standards - can deliver other learning objects, can support other online content - transportability, considered metadata to be able to leverage assets in different ways and contexts.
- Enough support to sustain learner interaction with the resource, self-assessment, interactive, browsable, expandable and portable.
Were working with a toolbox that was developed by the same institute: Have not altered the toolbox but rather have added new files to add in extra functionality. Uses a different look and feel to highlight the separation.
<i>YOLA checks the page</i> to see whether there can be support offered for a page - Have tagged files in the toolbox with metadata about items on those pages that can have support offered - e.g. keywords that YOLA then responds to by offering help.
YOLA is meant to be able to be used as numeracy support outside of any toolbox - standalone as well.
In the window of YOLA then there is a small self assessment task offered and more assistance is also offered - takes learner into a separate learning session - toolbox still there in the background - self assessment tasks are interactive. These self-assessment tasks are then interlinked with cross-referencing to other numeracy concepts.
<i>Layout of the screen</i> is main content with a left hand side bar - not sure how this would work where left-hand navigation bars are used in other toolboxes. Question - is there a way that a toolbox can easily have the metadata added to it?
Uses a flash engine that can serve other objects with the correct metadata available. (Links back to idea of automation that Dr Evans Arthur raised this morning)
Tech - mapped to IMS standards and a custom thesaurus, IEEE learning object metadata.
George Lewin, inventor of the<a href="http://www.triton.net.au/front.shtml"> Triton workbench </a>and also founder of the <a href="http://www.tritonfoundation.org.au/user/">Triton Foundation</a>
Captivating speaker who attributes part of reason for success to the result of a lack of education so not fettered by rules and frameworks - part of innovation and invention
- No family background of woodwork or do it yourself.
Teacher had faith in him - could see his potential as a 13 year old - learnt a smattering of mechanical engineering as a motorbike enthusiast, one year of architecture at university of Melbourne - enough design to be dangerous
Then worked as a journalist after short stint as a mechanic.
Knew about the processes of invention due to some work and research that he did in setting up a business focusing on invention - so had the background he needed 3 yrs later.
Circumstances were - a tool was available - had been coming down in price and the necessity was there for a slightly different tool to complete the task.
Original design plan for the table had relied on specific tools being available; this led to the consideration of turning the problem its head to come up with another solution.
After the fact then came realization that it was an invention, he had just set out to solve a problem rather than creating an invention - but after had come up with the solution then focused on it as an invention that could be of value to others.
<i>The world is not full of people trying to rip you off and steal your idea, but they are trying to ignore you.</i>
Concept has not changed but the execution has thousands of times.
Although the idea was brilliant people prefer to cling to the familiar especially people who have arrived already.
Need to seize the opportunity - don't wait for people to do it for you.
<b> Keep the customer in mind - knock their socks off and the universe will look after you.</b>
<b>Dr Evan Arthur How education drives innovation </b><a href="http://flexiblelearning.net.au/nw2003/presentations/Evan%20Arthur.ppt">link to ppt slideshow </a>
Information economy
Understanding how things work and using that understanding to improve production of goods and services' has always been an important part of economic development
Industries are being created and or transformed by innovations in understanding and application of those innovations to our world.
Development of an information and communication technology industry has been directly dependent on fundamental research - requires a highly educated flexible and self-directing workforce for it effective implementation. Also requires a sophisticated citizenry to take advantage of those innovations.
- Fundamental innovation e.g. USA vs. fast adoption - Japan.
- Ingredients for success = access to innovations, ability to understand the implications of innovations - ability to utilise innovations in production processes - ability to take advantage of innovation in the delivery of services.
Both access and application of innovation are needed to take full advantage.
- Societal success - society that is capable of agile change - high quality education and research sectors
Innovation in daily lives - comes from high quality education and research sectors
<b><i>Education spending should be seen as a vital investment in national competitiveness</i></b>- As a key enables of all other businesses in a knowledge economy
- Social imperative also continues in this context
- Sector will be an essential provider of employees with the skills and mental attitudes needed to create and sustain agile forward-looking action
- FL illustrates two crucial aspects of innovation - both directed towards the type of learners you need in an innovation society as well as FL itself is innovative. Both innovative in product and process
<i>ICT in education</i>- is moving from the periphery to being central to the system - e.g. move from HR systems and payroll to where it is becoming a central part of the production process. A central part of the production of research.
ICT has the potential to become central to the process and also deliver learning outcomes.
<b>Education is fundamentally concerned with information </b>- how to transfer it and how to manipulate and transform it. ICT is a set of tools to better manipulate information - more quickly, more benefits of scale.
-ICT offers prospect of: tools to automate standard processes, use of specialised expertise to produce the various elements of a learning sequence.
Combination of the expertise of the team with the insight of the individual teacher in the actual delivery of teaching, Cottage industry of education - teacher responsible for all parts of the process.
Teachers create unique experiences using the preserved range of skills of a team of people.
<b>So what could we do if we got it right?</b>Strong belief in reusable learning objects - automatic searching of databases of learning objects to meet individual learning needs.
Personalized selection of learning objects and access to a range of other students and mentors across the world. My issue with this is the self-directed learning skills that a learner needs to be an active participant in this process to maximize their success and effectiveness of the process. End Kirsty comment.
- Automation of course creation and communication strategies - templates for learning design within a course management
Moving into the <i>smooth curve of enlightenment and productivity </i>post the crash of elearning confidence in 2000-2
High level understanding that innovation in the delivery of education is a key national objective, identify impediments and act to fix
<b>What are impediments?</b>
Prerequisites for success - ubiquitous connection to each other and the world
Skilled confident staff
Interoperability systems
IP management regimes that can be implemented
Content which is high quality easy to find and easy to integrate into pedagogy
<b>What done?</b>
MINCO agreement - all sectors are revising their plans
Learning for the Knowledge society - 1999 ICT action plan for the education and training sector.
Bandwidth issue
-UNI sector has funding from Government for gigabit network between all campuses and major research centres
- $142 million for the national bandwidth strategy with a particular focus on the health and education sectors (what will this mean for remote areas of Tasmania- will the OAC or schools in rural areas have the high bandwidth that is needed for web video conferencing - what about flash/Mac new tech?)
VET interoperability Project as well as he COLIS project.
Interoperability within the higher ed sector also to include issues of authentication and authorization problems.
- IP - cross sectoral approach to a solution -ICT in education committee
Has been hindered in the past through a state focus rather than lobbying. Legislation created as a national approach.
-Use of ICT in education and training does not have the policy prominence it has in key comparison countries - not as much as we ought to have in terms of high-level absolute commitment to its importance and criticalness.
- Innovation is on the commonwealth agenda $3billion
<b>Jim Davidson</b> OTTE Vic <a href="http://flexiblelearning.net.au/nw2003/presentations/Jim%20Davidson.ppt">talked </a>about the FLAG objectives:
1. More learner centered
2. How can technology achieve this?
<i>Achievement over 4 years </i>
Teacher’s capability in flexible learning
Pool of resources
Collaboration within community- dialogue
Through Networking conferences have shifted the paradigm
Launched the Flexible Learning Futures discussion paper <a href="http://flexiblelearning.net.au/aboutus/futures.pdf">link to paper here</a>
Overall Impressions: Hey, We're doing a great job and have some really interesting ideas about flexibility in TAFE Tas and have lots of pockets of innovation....
AND...
Opportunties out there: more of an organisation wide approach to flexible learning, not shying away from the challenges of online learning to enrich the learning experience, be prepared to take and support risky activity without recrimination if it doesn't work, plan strategically - know where we're going.
Postcards from the conference to follow....
Web-based game shells - the AQTF can be FUN!
Here are examples of five of Thiagi’s web-based game shells designed to engage people with fairly dull content.
martymoodle: The more things change ........Promises and pitfalls of technologies in learning
Marty Cielens
A brief look at the promises of technologies in learning, and how speed humps and moonlight can help us share the forest with the technobabbling wild things.
Complete CSS Guide: Why use CSS?
Why should I use CSS?
Style sheets exist, above all, to enable the following principle to be put into practice.
Web pages should separate content from appearance.
As a developer this means that the information in your web site should go into your HTML files, but HTML files should not contain information about how that information is displayed. And you've probably guessed by now that information about how the pages should appear goes into CSS files.
You might wonder what advantages this conveys. Why go to all of this trouble? Just a couple of advantages might give you an idea about why this approach has long been considered beneficial in areas of document management that have been around a lot longer than the world wide web.
Voice Direct
Wimba Voice Direct is vocal communication in real-time. It's like a conference call through a computer, without fear of firewalls. Voice Direct can be used for interactive discussions or
link
Overview of the Pan-Commonwealth Forum on
Open Learning
Building Learning Communities for Our Millennium: Reaching Wider Audiences through Innovative Approaches.
The Third Pan Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning is to be held from 4 July to 8 July 2004 in Dunedin, New Zealand. It will address the following themes:
Education: The development and delivery of technology mediated learning and teaching using open and distance learning strategies in the sectors of pre-school, primary, secondary, post-secondary, adult and tertiary education.
Health: the use of open and distance learning and technology mediated strategies for the provision of training in the health, agriculture and allied professions.
Local Government: the use of open and distance and technology mediated learning strategies to enhance practical knowledge and skills for the development of local government and public infrastructure.
Australian Copyright Council -- Copyright Information Sheets
IRRODL: Getting the Mix Right Again: An Updated and Theoretical Rationale for Interaction
Terry Anderson
Athabasca University – Canada’s Open University
"No topic raises more contentious debate among educators than the role of interaction as a crucial component of the education process. This debate is fueled by surface problems of definition and vested interests of professional educators, but is more deeply marked by epistemological assumptions relative to the role of humans and human interaction in education and learning. The seminal article by Daniel and Marquis (1979) challenged distance educators to get the mixture right between independent study and interactive learning strategies and activities. They quite rightly pointed out that these two primary forms of education have differing economic, pedagogical, and social characteristics, and that we are unlikely to find a “perfect” mix that meets all learner and institutional needs across all curricula and content. Nonetheless, hard decisions have to be made."
Getting connected: Professional development of contract and casual staff providing flexible learning - Volume 1
Solid literature review that covers lot of ground.
link
by Roger Clarke about EM Rogers Diffusion of Innovation Theory.
"A broad social psychological / sociological theory called Diffusion of Innovations (DoI) Theory purports to describe the patterns of adoption, explain the mechanism, and assist in predicting whether and how a new invention will be successful. It is expressed in Rogers E.M. 'Diffusion of Innovations' The Free Press, New York, originally published in 1962, 3rd Edition 1983.
The theory has potential application to information technology ideas, artefacts and techniques, and has been used as the theoretical basis for a number of IS research projects. This document provides a brief overview of the elements of the theory, intended as preparation for a reading of the relevant IS literature. "
Techlearning > > This is Your Brain on the Internet > November 1, 2003
By Barbara Bray
"Some of my colleagues E-mailed back to say that online forums provided them opportunities to meet others with the same focus and questions. Physical place did not matter. The power of virtual meetings is how easy it becomes to exchange dialogue and digital files. Not only is this true for our own discourse with other professional developers, it is an effective vehicle for the teachers with whom we work.
The research about what is the best method for learning really does not matter when online forums are used for professional education. What matters is whether participants perceive the forum as a valued process. If they do, they will be more likely to adopt it as a platform for continuing professional development (Rogers, 1995). "
Rogers, E. M. Diffusion of Innovations. (4th Edition). 1995. New York: The Free Press.
elearnspace. everything elearning.
by George Siemens
"The benefits and negatives of elearning are very much personal. What I define as a negative, someone else may see as positive. "
Learning Circuits -- ASTD's Online Magazine All About E-Learning
Creating Collaboration
By Jennifer Hofmann
This article is Part 3 in a series outlining factors that influence the success of online learners.
How do you make online learning a collaborative experience? The answer sounds simple: find ways to bring participants together for social interaction or to solve a problem. Unfortunately, building collaborative exercises remains a major stumbling block for online instructional designers. The third article in this series outlines techniques to ensure that your online programs, both asynchronous and synchronous, are interactive.
Learning Circuits -- ASTD's Online Magazine All About E-Learning
Managing the Synchronous Blend
By Jennifer Hofmann
This article is Part 4 in a series outlining factors that influence the success of online learners.
Legal Issues in Flexible Learning - Q and A
If we have a page on our website, containing relevant active links - some to homepages and some deep linking - is it necessary to obtain written permission from the owners of these websites?
!What the lawyers say...
By way of background, linking technology allows users to be automatically transported to another website or webpage. Deep-linking is a particular form of linking that permits users to bypass a site's home page and going directly to an internal webpage. Concerns about deep-linking have been raised by some website operators because it allows users' to skip past any advertising or important notices contained on the home page.
There is currently no Australian law regulating linking on the Internet and no strict legal requirement to obtain written permission form the owners of linked-to websites. However, obtaining such a written permission will help protect your organisation against any claim that links on your site infringe the rights of another website operator.
Educational institutions should be aware that:
it is not clear whether linking will breach the copyright in the linked website under Australian law - obtaining permission to link to a site will reduce the risk of possible copyright infringement;
the link should not confuse the viewer of the linked site about the origin of the material on that site - providing a clear
Legal Issues in Flexible Learning - Q and A
Under copyright laws relting to educational use, we are able to copy 10% of a text or an article from a journal. Can a teacher post an article or extract copied under these provisions on to a web site which could then allow as many as 300 students to download/print off the article/extract?
!What the lawyers say...
You are right in saying that the statutory licence in the Copyright Act permits educational institutions to reproduce copyright material for educational purposes. You may reproduce:
an article in an issue of a journal (or more than one if on the same subject matter); and
the greater of 10% of the number of pages or one chapter of a hardcopy text of more than 10 pages in length.
Reproduction can include scanning a text or article into electronic form.
Note that if a work is already in electronic form the 10% test is a little different and allows you to reproduce up to 10% of the number of words or one chapter of a text.
A teacher can communicate an article or extract copied under the statutory licence, by posting it onto a website, providing the following conditions are complied with:
the communication must be solely for the educational purposes of the institution;
you must take reasonable steps to ensure the material can only be accessed by authorised people (eg staff and stud
Legal Issues in Flexible Learning - Q and A
I am a TAFE Librarian and we have created our own index of information from magazines we suscribe to that is available on our website for online students. The index contains only descriptive information including magazine title, article title, author, and a short abstract (either taken from the publication or written by librarians - in either case it would be about 200 words maximum). It does not contain the actual articles. We would like to know if we are allowed to make this information available on our website under copyright law. Also - should we include a copyright notice of some kind on the site?
Thankyou.
!What the lawyers say...
The index
One of the basic principles of copyright law is that before you can commit an infringement, you must have copied a 'substantial part' of a copyright work. If you are copying for the educational purposes of your institution, a 'substantial part' is defined as up to 2 pages of a work (or, if the work is more than 200 pages, up to 1% of the number of pages in the work). Preparing a brief index with biographical information and a brief extract as you describe is therefore unlikely to involve the copying of a substantial part of a work.
Placing material on a website
Educational institutions are allowed to communicate material (ie, electronically transmit it or mak
Legal Issues in Flexible Learning - Q and A
When developing online material I was asked to obtain copyright clearance on 500 links. The task proved to be impossible because 1) most webmasters did not reply 2) Some were openly hostile arguing that there is no copyright in the link itself (we are not talking about content or the use of frames)and that to try to gain a clearance is undermining the freedom of the Internet 3)there was no way of knowing if the person who replied had any authority to give permission. Where can I get a clear statement of the legal position on copyright in links to persuade the funding bodies that this is unnecessary.
!What the lawyers say...
Unfortunately the legal position in Australia in relation to hyperlinks is unclear at this stage. However based on a review of international cases (there are no Australian legal decisions yet), we can only suggest some sensible strategies to manage this issue.
In general, the risks to organisations from linking do not involve the risk of infringing copyright in the link itself. Rather, any risk is more likely to arise from copyright infringement committed by users on the linked site, any risk that consumers would be mislead or deceived by the linking process, or if it could be argued that your website endorsed the linked site. The following may assist you to navigate these issues:
Copyright will
Where Technology and Course Development Meet
by Gail Weatherly and Randy McDonald
"This article outlines the various activities of the WCD Workshop Series and demonstrates how those activities are supported by comprehensive instructional design theory. Though it is oriented toward the use of a particular course management system (CMS), this workshop series may provide a readily adaptable model for other institutions that are developing training programs to prepare faculty members for online instruction."