Week Seven - planning for flexible teaching & learning

As I mentioned last week ,I intend to cover unit 13285 Knives with a flexible learning package based on my blog linked photostory, powerpoint, Utube & flickr media.
Im hoping to use this for existing students as not only a teaching tool but a comprehensive revision presentation.

Introduction

Project Name: Knives 13285

Date: 1st May 2008

Organisation: Otago Polytechnic -Cromwell campus


Project plan author contact details : csmith@tekotago.ac.nz

Executive summary:
This unit will be delivered as part of flexible cookery program to be undertaken by students prior to attending cookery workshops at Cromwell catering campus.
Is is envisaged that many of the core units will also be offered as a distance package so as only the practical component of the program requires attendance.

Aims, objectives, outcomes
Aim - To provide Internet & technology based information to enable students -To demonstrate knowledge of knives, knife safety, maintenance and usage.
List of objectives - To enable students off campus to enrol, study and achieve competency in the unit 13285 Knives
List of performance indicators (outcomes) - To demonstrate knowledge of knives, knife safety & handling.
Flexible learning analysis: To offer cookery theory units to people unable to attend classes due to work commitments or remote locations.

This package will enable the student to enrol, study via online videos, blogs, quizzes, photos, undertake assessment, receive feedback and technical support from tutor via email.
This program will be sustainable for many reasons as their is no need for costly printouts , no need to travel to attend classes and will save energy from heating and lighting classrooms.
This program could be translated into many languages to attract students abroad insuring unlimited access across the cultural spectrum.

References: NZQA

Budget: To be explored
List of potential funding agents: TEC
Time line for development: 2 months

Week six - Do you think open and networked education threatens or enhances formal education.?

As attractive as open learning can be to both institutions & students , I believe that it could both extend the life of our Central Otago campus & possibly cause its demise.
We are currently experiencing tough times with low student numbers & are searching for new markets & new ways to attract both foreign & domestic students.
With low unemployment, high living costs, high fuel costs & the prospects of dealing with high student loans, many people are choosing not to enrol in full time programmes & instead looking at part time options. We currently have 2 part time courses & although the student numbers are OK some students would really benefit from being on full time courses which in turn are struggling to fill.
At present our Level 3 program has 5 students who thankfully are very motivated & committed & are on course for high achievement which will be an asset for the 2nd year level 4 program & the National Toque dor if they choose to return next year.
Last year we had student retention of 30% between the level 3 & 4 programs and we could not persuade many to fork out more for fees & more importantly commitment for another year of study.
If we don't get enough enrolments this year then our level 4 course will not run & the profile & exposure of our campus will diminish.
So introducing flexible learning to both level 3 & 4 programs could be a solution.
With a huge amount of development we could offer online videos, blogs, learning sites such as wikipedia & blackboard do deliver our programs enabling distance learning with students attending assessment blocks of approx 1 week to show competency. We currently use a very similar model to this with modern apprentice schemes & although achievable the weeks are very long & stressful for the student & unless they have received training in the workplace we have found the skill level to be quite poor overall.
So yes we could be a more attractive training provider by offering more flexibility especially to people in surrounding rural areas but could also tarnish our reputation for the chefs we produce.

Looking ahead to my presentation , I am thinking of covering the knives unit 13285, using a combination of Photo story, PowerPoint software with utube video links to cover manufacturing, usage & maintenance and posting a link on my blog to an online student survey .

I will need to hone my experience on the software I'm using and will need to develop a survey using perhaps templates online.

Below are some interesting comments from : http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0012/001253/125396e.pdf


Open and distance learning.
The essence of it is that it enables students to learn without
attending an institution. That has made it attractive for students who, for practical, economic,
social and geographical reasons cannot get to college. It also makes it particularly
appropriate for audiences that are scattered, and audiences that cannot leave their jobs to
attend full-time courses. The world’s sixty million teachers are like that.
2.2 Is it legitimate?
Open and distance learning is often seen as barely legitimate. Its history is marked by the work
of institutions that accepted student fees, gave them poor service, and kept their costs down
by encouraging students to drop out once they had paid all their money. Learning at a distance,
particularly from printed materials, lends itself to rote learning. If teaching material gives
all the answers then there is no room for an individual response while if it fails to do so the student may feel challenged but frustrated. Distance learning can be a soulless and isolated activity so that dropping out is more attractive than going on. Most parents and probably most
educational planners would encourage their own children to study at a conventional university
rather than an open university. Few would argue that open and distance learning matches
the best of conventional education as sometimes practised in rich universities in industrialised
countries or in a golden age we think our grandparents might have been able to remember.
But there is a threefold case to be made for its legitimacy. First, the evidence of public-sector
open universities, and dual-mode universities that teach both conventionally and at a distance,
is that students can achieve examination results that match those of conventional universities.
A significant proportion of students give up along the way and do not complete their courses.
But this is true of all students working part-time and not a distinguishing mark of students
learning at a distance.
Second, distance education has been powerfully effective in reaching audiences who could not
meet their educational needs from conventional institutions. In Colombia, a radio-based school
was, in the 1970s, reaching over 100,000 rural peasant students every year.

Week five - How does flexible learning exist today and where I see it heading in the future.

Ok Im starting to open my mind to this flexible learning lark.
I guess the major problem with anything new is being prepared to change.
After reading the article "Australasian Journal of Educational Technology" I can see the only major stumbling blocks to my perceptions of flexible learning are those which are covered in the following paragraphs.
There are many reasons why new technologies may not be fully integrated into the design of a course: the teacher may have little time, resources, knowledge or inclination to attend to the integration sufficiently, the infrastructure of the university may not be ready to support the technologies needed, or the culture of the discipline, either in disciplinary practice or in pedagogy, may not yet embrace the affordances of technology.
How teachers teach successfully in such contexts, and how approaches to design for such contexts are related to approaches to teaching.
I most certainly have the inclination to alter and enhance my program but find the time and resources available very limited.
In this respect one tends to rely on the historical context of flexible learning to cover course material, that being research & homework based , and now the Internet via our computer suite or at home.
After some thought, and tooing and froing I can see that the future of some tertiary institutions will rely heavily on distance or part time learning. One of my earlier arguments is that course outcomes will suffer and the quality of programs will be compromised producing in my case poor chefs. But in actual fact the standards could and should remain the same as now as the standard still has to be met by the student regardless of how the course is delivered but perhaps the level of commitment might be greater in flexible delivery.
I would have no problem in posting a cookery demo on Utube for students to observe & as long as they had supporting performance criteria then there is no reason why the same result cannot be achieved. An added benefit would be that the student could watch the demo several times before attempting the task. Obviously this would not enable the student to receive live feedback but then again some students would prefer this medium.
Currently at our campus we offer 1 fulltime course, 2 day release programs and a modern apprentice scheme. We find the standards of fulltime students to be far superior than the part timers due to the day in day out repetition of tasks but that will eventually develop in the industry anyway so all is not lost.

Week Four - How can distance, correspondence and/or online learning create flexible learning opportunities in your context?

With my Level 3 cookery program I would be reluctant to incorporate too much distance learning in the course at this point in time.
I believe its very important at the beginning of a course whilst the students are still coming to terms with new jargon and developing new practical skills that they have pertinent and precise feedback at that particular time.
I agree with Annand,D.(2007) Audio , that students in a class room environment can learn through social interaction rather than through self discovery. In my opinion that can be a good thing for kitchens as this fosters confidence, can settle nerves but also develop team work, communication and co-operation.
As the course progresses however and the student confidence levels increases, a more flexible course content with perhaps less directed learning & more self paced learning could ease pressure and promote deeper learning.
With my particular course I would only view the theory side of the program as being able to have more flexibility, the use of blogs such as this to initiate discussion, E-based learning sites such as Blackboard & Wikipedia would be great to post course content and resources on as well as links to sites such as Youtube.com & Flickr.com to provide visual stimuli.
Distance learning would not be suited to my particular course due to the constant monitoring required for practical sessions however if the practicals were taught as a block course onsite with theory delivered as a distance package of E based learning, it would be a workable alternative.
I believe however that the quality of the program & the ability of the graduating students would be inferior as currently theory lessons are structured to be delivered with in days of the practical taking place therefore the students have a greater understanding of the work to be done.
Looking at the "www.Designing.flexiblelearning.net.au " website which shows designing problem based learning , I can see that perhaps my way of thinking needs to be more flexible to the idea about distance learning and practical sessions.

Problem Based Learning Tasks
Problem based learning assists learners to solve "authentic" problems by the process of continually encountering the type of ill-structured problems typically confronted by workers and practicing professionals
Why include problem based learning?
Problem-based learning is based on typical scenarios that learners would encounter, working in real life situations. The process of finding the solutions to the problems is more important than the solutions themselves. Often the activities require learners to work in groups thereby developing valuable communication and team work skills.
Features

Problems are presented which are similar to those in real life contexts.

• The problems can be ill-structured - they are not neat and clearly defined in much the same way as they are in real life.


• Learners are presented with a problem and they begin by organizing any previous knowledge on the subject, posing any additional questions, and identifying areas they need more information.


• Learners devise a plan for gathering more information, then undertake the necessary research.


• Learners collaborate to share and summarize their new knowledge. Online communication tools are important in the problem solving process and the structure of the problem solving activities will often require learners to engage with each other using a number of communication tools.


• There is no one 'correct' solution to the problem.


• As new information is gathered the problem may be redifined.


• Learners solve the problems - teachers are coaches and facilitators.

So I will concede rather begrudgingly that with the correct design and management maybe my programs could be undertaken partly as a distance package.Although with support services and tutor monitoring Im not sure costs will be reduced for either the training provider or the student and that for every student that would succeed there will be others that do not.

Week three - Why we need flexible learning.

I believe we need flexible learning to survive.
I found reading Leigh Blackall's articles "NZ student debt impossible to live with " and the chapters on " Flexible learning in New Zealand " as great reasons to adopt more flexible learning opportunities in my current environment teaching cookery.
Being based in Cromwell we tend to draw our students from satellite towns such as Alexandra, Queenstown, Te Anau, Wanaka & Oamaru. Students from these areas usually find accommodation locally, but due to the size of Cromwell part time employment can be difficult to procure so living costs during the course are usually not subsidised.
We tend to find some students that do not have support from parents or partners can struggle to survive with the higher living costs associated with Central Otago. This has effected both dropout rates, outcomes & in my opinion has prevented many students from enrolling.
Locally school leavers have been known to receive between $15 - $20 per hour as building labours which is very tempting when one is looking at at the alternatives ,$12,000 student loan debt & starting rates at $12 per hour with long hours, weekends etc.
We also have to contend with low unemployment & competing with an industry suffering worker shortages and as a result their employing of unskilled foreign labour. We find approx half of the enquiries we receive about courses are from foreign workers looking to fulfil immigration requirements to gain residency but are put off by the high fees.
Recessions of the past have seen more students return to tertiary education to upskill and enhance employment prospects yet times of prosperity have tended to hurt us.
We need to reconfigure our practice to benefit both students and industry by meeting their needs on a local level. If we can attract, retain & place more students in industry by flexible delivery then I believe we are fulfilling our purpose.
I think too much choice is a bad idea as far offering different courses to achieve the same result ie day release course opposed to a full time course, which as far as resources go are unsustainable. Packaging quality courses that have students taking responsibility for their learning which is self paced yet ensure they have the practical based tutorials and monitoring and is affordable is our future in Central Otago.