Hi there,
These are my thoughts on some of the eLearning guidelines. Look forward to reading what everyone else thinks.
Cheers
Lesley
''SD1: Are students able to agree some or all of their learning goals in negotiation with teaching staff?'''
We currently have time limits in place for all of our training modules, however I do recognise that some degree of flexibility is important. Our courses are to be done over and above each learner’s work and therefore it is important that each of us involved in the process, including the learner, understands and factors in some negotiation of goals, and their timeliness. This is something I definitely need to improve on within our structure as some of our trainers can be quite inflexible and some of our trainees, if given too much flexibility, would never complete their modules.
ST10: Does the teacher provide advice to students on netiquette: how to communicate effectively and ethically for online discussions and email?
Believe it or not, we currently do not encourage our learners to communicate with each other via email or online discussion. We have had problems with abuse of emails in the past and have actively sought to avoid repeating that. However, I am looking at hosting our modules online via moodle or the like and where there would be a supervised chat room which would be closely monitored and learners would be provided with strict guidelines in order to avoid any abuse of the system. I feel this can be a really useful support tools for distance learning and would like to be able to confidently implement it.
SD8: Is there a mechanism in place to assess how students perceive the value of the course? We have an evaluation sheet that we send out at the end of each training module. This is a very traditional form asking for a rating between 1-5 for each training module, a rating for the feedback and marking comments and asking for suggestions for improvement. These sheets are to be emailed back to me, however I find that if learners have had any frustrations during the module they will have resolved them by the end and are so pleased to have completed it they don’t give feedback on it. There is also the fact that it is not anonymous and they don’t want to seem too critical. I definitely need to look at alternative methods of course assessment.
MT2: Are assessment and examination systems in place to ensure student identity, time limits and security? We currently use a very ad-hoc system which is open to human error (mainly mine!). Our trainers tend to do everything by email – learners are emailed their training exercises, completed exercises are returned to trainer by email, marked copies are returned with feedback, then the pass/fail result is emailed to me to update my spreadsheet. As I have said before I am currently investigating using moodle which would hopefully ensure better systems and also increased security. Currently, we do not ask learners to confirm their identity, other than an initial affidavit when they first start working for us. This is something which we do need to work on, particularly given that we are looking to obtain NZQA accreditation this year.
6 comments:
Hi lesley,
a couple of the guidelines and your response we have just discussed. When I was reading yours I thought that it is not all as easy as it seems. Like setting the timeframe to finish the course. In itself it seems logic and easy to offer room for negotiation but where do you stop. And some just need the deadline otherwise they will always push the finish line forward. So when you do it, I think you should have some "policies" in place, how bureaucratic it may seem.
Hi Helga,
It is a really tricky one and I will be definitely looking at rewriting our course guidelines in the very near future.
Good talking to you last night.
Hi Lesley
Are your trainees provided with an online site and email for their learning? A lot of institutions these days insist that students read, understand and sign quite stringent policies regarding computer use especially email and internet. But this might not apply in your situation.
Hilary
Hi Hilary,
They all have to sign an email policy which we have put in place due to some abuse in the past. We have an FTP site where they download the course materials etc... but everything else is done via email between the trainee and trainer only. Then at the very end the final results are emailed to me. Not very high tech I'm afraid! That's why the possibility of using something like Moodle is really exciting.
this is a great choice of guidelines lesley. You have provided some well thought out descriptions of why they are important.
You mention some issues in your descriptions - did they instigate you choosing those specific guidelines?
For example, SD1: "trainers can be quite inflexible and some of our trainees, if given too much flexibility, would never complete their modules."
Was timely completion of the modules an issue? Have you had complaints from trainees or people dropping out? was it the trainers complaining?
perhaps you could make this clearer for each guideline you have chosen - state the issues first then the reasons you chose the guideline. The issues will provide the background for your evaluation plan.
The following article may be useful for helping you with ST10 - the authors provide some rationale for why communication is not always necessary. I will put it in the Resources area on the wiki as well.
Rourke, L., Anderson, T., Garrison, R. & Archer, W. (2001). Assessing Social Presence In Asynchronous Text-based Computer Conferencing. ''Journal of Distance Education/Revue de l'enseignement à distance.'' Available at: http://cade.athabascau.ca/vol14.2/rourke_et_al.html
lesley
your description for SD8 certainly indicates the need for a formative evaluation process as your trainees do the modules. Perhaps you could find out if trainees prefer self-paced modules or interaction with the rest of the class to help them learn? If they seem to want the latter, they need to study in cohorts.
Perhaps they could be given the option as part of SD1 when they negotiate a Learning Contract and set their goals. The contract could also include agreed support mechanisms, level of interaction and resourcing.
MT2 is also important - I wonder have you had any problems with the skill level of people who have supposedly passed skills modules with "flying colours"? Maybe that would flag that "cheating" may have occurred.
You have some excellent guidelines and a range of issues - now you need to prioritize the most important areas where you have issues. Then choose two priority guidelines which will become part of your evaluation plan; otherwise the project will be too big and too wide-ranging.
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