Sunday, 16 August 2015

Session 5 - Online Courses and Training Tips

Accredited Online courses

Open Universities Australia

Many Universities offer both Undergraduate and Postgraduate courses online. You can complete a whole degree without leaving home. The best place to find out what is on offer is via Open Universities Australia.

http://www.open.edu.au/

"Open Universities Australia is a national leader in online higher education for a reason: our passion for learning."

"For over seventeen years Open Universities Australia has opened the doors for students undertaking online higher education or professional development. We are proud and committed to helping students succeed on their study journeys. OUA recognises students' need for flexible learning schedules that fit into their lives, and our goal is to provide an education that fits your lifestyle."

Open Universities is owned by seven leading Australian Universities.
  • Curtin University
  • Griffith University
  • Macquarie University
  • Monash University
  • RMIT University
  • Swinburne University
  • University of South Australia
These Universities contribute Courses and Units to a range of qualifications. As well as the above seven, there are other Universities and TAFEs that provide courses, units or other content for Open Universities Australia. These include:
  • Australian Computer Society
  • Central Institute of Technology
  • Charles Darwin University
  • Central Gippsland Institute of TAFE
  • LaTrobe University
  • Learning Network of Queensland
  • Metropolitan South Institute of TAFE
  • Murdoch University
  • Polytechnic West
  • Sydney Institute of TAFE
  • TAFE SA
  • University of New England
  • University of Western Australia
  • Australian Catholic University (ACU)

 

Other Online or Off Campus providers

Many other Universities, TAFES and private providers have flexible study options including online and off campus. Here are a few that I have found.

http://deakin.edu.au/future-students/online-offcampus-studies/off-campus.php

http://www.monash.edu.au/offcampus/courses.html (also part of OUA)


http://www.ecu.edu.au/future-students/school-leavers/locations/online

http://www.opencolleges.edu.au/?gclid=CMvChYHzr7ICFZBUpgodkHEAmQ


Online Learning Tools Task 5

PART A

Assume that you have completed your Diploma of Library and Information Services, but you would like to continue studying.

Find 5 courses that you could undertake online that are at a Diploma level or higher (advanced Diploma or Degree) that would be relevant to a career in a school, public or special library. It does not have to be a library course - it could be something that is relevant to the industry or that would enhance the qualifications that you currently hold. For example, if you are looking at working in a school and taking that further, you may decide that a teaching qualification may be relevant.

Post your findings to your blog. Include the name of the course and the provider as well as a justification for your choice. You could also include a link if there is one available.


PART B

Your last task is to put together a Learning Plan. The learning plan should be in the format of:
  • Daily Learning Tasks - things that you should check on daily or at least more than once a week
  • Weekly Learning Tasks - things that are worth checking on a weekly basis
  • Monthly Learning Tasks - Some monthly learning objectives
  • Long Term Learning Goals - what learning/education/skills do you hope to achieve over the next 5 years or so
Your Learning Plan should cover things that you can use to keep up to date with the industry you are in (or hoping to go into) as well as any of the other online learning tools that you have discovered along the way.

TAEDEL401A

This week is all about preparing for your sessions. Things to consider, tools you can use etc.

Adult Learning Principles (Andragogy)

https://ala.asn.au/adult-learning/the-principles-of-adult-learning/

http://elearningindustry.com/the-adult-learning-theory-andragogy-of-malcolm-knowles

How do you use this in education/training? How will it effect the way you do your presentations?

Icebreakers

From Wikipedia:
"An icebreaker is a facilitation exercise intended to help a group to begin the process of forming themselves into a team. Icebreakers are commonly presented as a game to "warm up" the group by helping the members to get to know each other."

http://insight.typepad.co.uk/40_icebreakers_for_small_groups.pdf

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_76.htm

It is suggested that the person who goes first each week should attempt to do an icebreaker.

Presentation aids


Make sure that you have something visual for attendees to look at instead of just hearing your voice.
  • A presentation - Powerpoint or Prezi or even Blogs like some of your teachers use.
  • Video clips
  • Props
  • Tools or Equipment
PowerPoint
If you decide to use PowerPoint, take advantage of using notes and presentation view, and/or a tool such as Office Mix.

YouTube Videos
If you think the Internet might be dodgy, download your YouTube videos to your USB and run then from there. There are lots of free apps that will allow you to download video from the Internet.

This is the one that I (Michele) use:
http://youtubedownloader.com/

Dealing with Difficult behaviours

http://www.smartclassroommanagement.com/2011/04/23/7-rules-of-handling-difficult-students/

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/school/principals/participation/Pages/respondingtobehaviour.aspx



Monday, 10 August 2015

Session 4 - MOOCS and Preparing Resources for Delivery

This week in the Online Learning Tools unit, it is about MOOCS.

What is a MOOC?

A MOOC is a Massive Open Online Course. A MOOC is free and anyone can join. There are no limits on the number of people who can join in. It is about being part of a learning community.

Here is the blurb from Wikipedia:

A massive open online course (MOOC; /muːk/) is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the web. In addition to traditional course materials such as videos, readings, and problem sets, MOOCs provide interactive user forums that help build a community for students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs). MOOCs are a recent development in distance education which began to emerge in 2012.

Although early MOOCs often emphasized open access features, such as connectivism and open licensing of content, structure and learning goals, to promote the reuse and remixing of resources, some notable newer MOOCs use closed licenses for their course materials while maintaining free access for students.

Learn More about MOOCs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eW3gMGqcZQc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8avYQ5ZqM0

Learn even More about MOOCs

http://www.educause.edu/library/massive-open-online-course-mooc

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7097.pdf


What can I learn from a MOOC?

Good question!! ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING is my answer.

Where do I sign up?

Here are some websites where you can find MOOCs - these are from a few different countries.

https://www.class-central.com/




http://www.mooc-list.com/

http://www.mooc-list.com/countrys/australia





http://www.openculture.com/free_certificate_courses



https://www.futurelearn.com/





http://www.mooc.ca/courses.htm


https://www.open2study.com/







If you would like to read a couple of articles for more information, here are a couple of links

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/life/weekend-australian-magazine/are-moocs-massive-open-online-courses-the-future-of-education/story-e6frg8h6-1226870108325

http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/futuretense/a-moocs-education-rhetoric-and-reality/5598962

Online Learning Tools Task 4


Find 5 MOOCs that would be of benefit to you as someone working within the library and information services industry.

Find 5 MOOCs that would help improve your knowledge of IT and Computing.

Find 5 MOOCs that would be of benefit outside of work - i.e. lifestyle, hobby, special interest etc.

For each of the courses you find, provide:
  • The link to the course
  • The current or next starting date
  • A short blurb about the course
  • Why you chose it
You do not actually have to enrol in and do any of the courses (unless you really want to and then leave it for the holidays).


TAEDEL401A

In the second part of today's class, we will talk about pre-delivery. This involves preparing the resources, organising equipment, and booking an appropriate training room.

3. Prepare resources for delivery
3.1.    Contextualise existing learning materials to meet the needs of the specific learner group
3.2.    Finalise learning materials and organise facility, technology and equipment needs in time for delivery of learning sessions
3.3.    Confirm overall delivery arrangements with relevant personnel


Preparing for Delivery

Contextualise

What does it mean when it refers to "Contextualise existing learning materials"

It means that you need to develop learning resources that have meaning for your learners. That could mean adjusting for cultural issues or targeting to a specific industry. The idea of contextualising the learning materials is to make it relevant for your learners, so they can understand it better.

Class Activity

The 3 units below are units that have been imported into the CUL11 Cultural Services training package. They are also imported into some other training packages and courses, an example of a few are listed below each unit (including CUL40111).

Divide into 3 groups and come up with a plan on how you might contextualise the subject matter and assessments for each of the courses listed within your given unit.

BSBSUS301A - Implement and monitor environmentally sustainable work practices
SIS40210 - Certificate IV in Fitness
SIF30213 - Certificate III in Gravedigging, Grounds and Maintenance
DEF30912 - Certificate III in Explosive Ordnance Operations

CPCCOHS1001A - Work safely in the construction industry
CUL40111 - Certificate IV in Library, Information and Cultural Services
CUS40209 - Certificate IV in Sound Production
CUV20313 - Certificate II in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Visual Arts Industry Wor

SIRXSLS001A - Sell products and services
SIT50307 - Diploma of Hospitality
SIB40110 - Certificate IV in Beauty Therapy
HLT43512 - Certificate IV in Optical Dispensing


If you need to find out more about each course, you can get details from http://training.gov.au/Home/Tga

Other Preparation


Make sure that the training facility is appropriate for what you will be delivering - do you need a classroom, IT lab, science lab or meeting room?

What equipment do you need - make sure that everything is included on the session plan. Check that everything is available. Book any extra things that you may need or make sure that you bring them in with you.

What resources will you be providing? DO you need printing done? DO the students need to complete some preparation? DO the students need to bring something with them?

Feedback

What information do you need to know to perform better?

Activity

Design a Form that will be used for peer assessments and feedback to your classmates after they have completed each of their sessions. There is an example of the one that the students designed last year on Moodle

YOU will all be providing constructive feedback for each of the sessions that you attend using the form created/edited/selected above. This does not mean writing Yes/No answers on the sheet. Feedback from these forms will be discussed with each student after their presentation with the aim of highlighting areas where they can improve for the next time.

Monday, 3 August 2015

Session 3 - Learning Websites and Session Plans

Last week we looked at the amazing variety of websites that contain educational videos. This week we will look at the many websites that are designed specifically for you to learn new skills from - these are not accredited courses, although some may offer a certificate or badge.

Websites you can learn from

If you want to know about anything to do with programming on the Web, you would go to the W3Schools website or Codecademy,

http://w3schools.com/

http://www.codecademy.com/

If you wanted to learn some basic Mathematics concepts you might try a website like this:

http://www.math.com/

Or Math Planet

http://www.mathplanet.com/home

or Khan Academy

https://www.khanacademy.org/

or Cool Math 4 kids

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/

or you may want to learn a new musical instrument

http://www.justinguitar.com/

http://www.411drums.com/

http://www.pianonanny.com/


This is not really a learning website, but I am including it here just because I thought it was fun!!

http://www.virtualmusicalinstruments.com/

or learn a language

https://www.duolingo.com/

http://www.babbel.com/

Anyway - I think you get the gist of what I'm getting at!!

Online Learning Tools Task 3


Find 5 website that offer free online lessons or courses that are not official or accredited courses. Choose topics that you may be interested in.

For each one that you find, try one or two lessons and rate the site using a star rating from 1 (*) being poor to 5 (*****) being great using the following criteria:


  • Website layout easy to find lessons and progress through (* to *****) 
  • Engaging and interesting lessons  (* to *****)
  • Coverage of the topic (* to *****)
  • Level (beginner, intermediate, Advanced)
  • Would you recommend it to a friend or colleague (* no to ***** definitely)

Put your response in a new post on your Moodle Blog.

Week 3 - TAEDEL401A

 In today's class, we will look at how to create a session plan. We will be covering these elements:

2.1.    Refine existing learning objectives according to program requirements and specific needs of individual learners
2.2.    Develop session plans and document these for each segment of the learning program
2.3.    Use knowledge of learning principles and theories to generate ideas for managing session delivery

Session Plans

So what is a session/lesson plan?

The session plan sets out the objectives of the session, any prerequisite skills or knowledge, the content and any resources that the trainer may need for the session, any materials that the student may need to complete the session, and any assessment tasks that will follow from the session. The session plan will include how much time has been allocated to each topic and to any class activities.

The session plan ensures that the trainer does not lose track of what is to be covered in the session and helps maintain the order or flow of the session. It is very easy to get side tracked when you take a class and the session plan can be used to make sure that questions and discussions do not run over time. If there are special resources required or equipment, listing them on the session plan will (read should or might) ensure that you don't forget to bring something and that the room is prepared adequately.

See Sample session plan Moodle link.

Activity

Either on your own or with a partner, complete a session plan document for one of the following topics:

Making paper airplanes
Dog grooming basics
Baking a cake
Changing a tyre and other essential car owner skills
CPR

Discuss your session plans as a group

Monday, 27 July 2015

Session 2 - Online educational websites and Planning your training program

Educational Video Resources

There are lots of different online educational video resources available. Some specifically designed for education and some that have both educational and entertainment value. Here are just a few of the Education Specific Video sites.

Teacher Tube:

http://www.teachertube.com/




Ted and TedED

If you haven't visited and watched a TED talk yet, now is a great time to do it. Many hours can be lost here that's for sure.

http://www.ted.com/


Lots of playlists that you can choose from


And my choice:


http://ed.ted.com/


TEDEd allows you to build lessons around a TED Talk or YouTube video.

MIT Video


http://video.mit.edu/ 



and my choice was:

http://video.mit.edu/watch/letterlocking-triangle-shaped-paper-lock-with-vertical-stab-or-slit-italy-and-england-1580s-1700s-28525/




Open Yale

Similar to MIT

http://oyc.yale.edu/


National Geographic Video


http://video.nationalgeographic.com/


And HEAPS of others


http://videolectures.net/

http://academicearth.org/

http://aso.gov.au/  Not really educational, but I love this site

http://cosmolearning.org/

http://www.mathtv.com/

http://www.abc.net.au/tv/documentaries/online/

This is just few of the websites that give you access to free online educational content.

Online Learning Tools Assessment Task 2

Choose 5 of the above Video Websites and using the criteria below, evaluate and write up results in your Blog - create a new post in previously used blog.. If necessary, choose a topic that you would like to learn about.
  • details about the learning site, tool or tutorial
  • A rank of how easy it was to find (either stars or rank of between 1 and 5)
  • A rank of how easy it was to use
  • A rank about how well it covered the topic
  • An overall rank about how you felt about the learning experience.

TAEDEL401A - Planning a course and sharing the load


Planning your course (and lessons)


This is the beginning of your assessment tasks for this unit. The preparation, discussions and planning will done in groups - your training colleagues.

In today's session, we will address these 2 areas:

1.3.    Identify and assess constraints and risks to delivery
1.4.    Confirm personal role and responsibilities in planning and delivering training with relevant personnel


Each group has been given a unit from the CUL11 training package (or an imported unit).

I have purposely selected units that are at a certificate III level or lower.

The documents that you have been provided with can be found at the training.gov.au website. They will provide you with all of the information you need to plan, create resources and deliver your unit.

The documents are broken into:

The Elements and Performance Criteria


This outlines the competencies that need to be covered in the lessons for the unit. What students should be able to do at the end of the unit

The required Skills and Knowledge

The Skills and Knowledge that will be used by the students to meet the performance criteria and the evidence requirements.

The evidence guide

Provides assessment guidelines - what the students need to be able to prove that they can do and be assessed on.

The Range Statement

This area defines some of the terminology within the elements and performance criteria (bold italic type) and the variety of tasks that could be undertaken as part of the assessment.

Activity 1 - PLANNING your program


Take into account the number of hours allocated to the unit
Take into account that each member of the group will be delivering 2 half hour sessions

As a group, plan and document how you will deliver your unit. Your plan should include:
  • The number of lessons (using above criteria)
  • Who will be delivering each lesson
  • The learning outcomes of each lesson - i.e. the Elements and performance criteria and the required skills and knowledge.
  • How you will assess the unit
Each individual student will then be required to complete a session plan for their 2 sessions. We will look at the template for this next week. This week is about planning the subject, bot about individual sessions.

Please keep this document - it will form part of your assessment once the session plans are added and MUST be submitted to be graded. DO NOT LOSE IT. Make sure that someone responsible is in charge of saving and maintaining the file and collecting the session plans when complete.

Although this is a group task, each student will be accountable for their own session plans and delivery.

http://www.education.vic.gov.au/training/providers/rto/Pages/purchasingguides.aspx









Monday, 20 July 2015

Session 1 - Introduction to online Learning Tools and Training

What cool things do you want to learn?

Before you embark on a new learning adventure, you need to work out what it is you need or want to learn. It could be a change of career, enhancing your knowledge for your career or personal interest, learning a new technology, equipping yourself for industry change or just a thirst for life long learning.

Once you make a decision about what you might want to learn, the Internet offers many different methods that you can use to develop the skills that you need. From YouTube videos on just about anything, to blogs and forums, facebook groups and organisations, online universities, iTunesU, informative websites, corporate or vendor technical support websites etc.

Assessment Task 1 (a)

Your assessment will be in the form of Blog Posts - there will be 5 in total, each worth 20% of your grade. You may use Blogger, Wordpress, Tumblr or if you already have an existing Blog, you may use that. Your Blog URL is to be provided on the Assessment task upload button that is in week 1. Your Blog must be set to public OR you must add me as a reader or share with me so that I can see your posts.

Before we go to the first task, think of a skill (or skills) that you would like to learn or something that you would like to know more about. INCLUDE THIS AT THE BEGINNING OF YOUR FIRST POST.

Online Resources - YouTube

YouTube is an infinite resource on just about anything you can think of. Just to prove this, I started to put in "Using a " in the search box. I was going to put in "Using a slow cooker" as I have just bought a cheap one to try and see whether I would get some use out of it before I invested in a decent one. This is what showed up.




 As I said - you can find a video on pretty much anything you want to.

Once I completed the slow cooker search, I came up with a variety of YouTube videos that I can view to see whether they are of any use.



YouTube also has Channels - Channels are people, groups or organisations that you can subscribe to and view all of their videos.













Assessment Task 1 (b)


Using the skill that you thought of earlier, find 5 YouTube videos that you think cover the topic adequately and post the results in your blog.

For each video you find you are to include:

  • a brief description of the content 
  • quality of the production
  • whether it was what you expected based on description
  • a star rating out of 5



iTunesU


If you are a fan of iTunes, then you will love iTunesU. iTunesU is Apple's education precinct. It allows educators to set up whole courses for students to access with many major universities offering resources via iTunesU for free. There is also "an app for that". If you have an iOS device such as an iPad, iPhone or iPod touch you can download the iTunesU app. It is optimised for use with an iPad, but there are still heaps of sites that you can access from your browser/iTunes app.







Here are some examples of some of the well known colleges/universities that have offerings on iTunes U

http://itunes.stanford.edu/



http://www.latrobe.edu.au/teaching-learning/innovation/la-trobe-on-itunesu





If you need to download iTunes, you can download it from here
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/


Assessment Task 1 (c)


Locate 5 Australian Universities or TAFE colleges that are on iTunes U and post the links to your BLOG

Locate 5 lessons, articles or courses on iTunes U that have piqued your interest and that you think you can learn something interesting from. Provide details of the course such as the Title and Institution. What is it that made you select these particular items?

Post the responses to the above on your Blog.


TAEDEL401A - Learning Theories

Learning Theories and styles


There are a number of Learning Theories that have been developed over time and that address various aspects of how people learn. Before we start to design our training sessions, it is important to know that there are different types of learners, with each type responding better to a particular teaching method.

http://www.learning-theories.com/

http://www.aussieeducator.org.au/education/other/theories.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Learning_styles

http://learningfordummies.wikispaces.com/home


Bloom

From Wikipedia:
"Bloom's taxonomy refers to a classification of the different objectives that educators set for students (learning objectives). It divides educational objectives into three "domains": cognitive, affective, and psychomotor (sometimes loosely described as "knowing/head", "feeling/heart" and "doing/hands" respectively). Within the domains, learning at the higher levels is dependent on having attained prerequisite knowledge and skills at lower levels. A goal of Bloom's taxonomy is to motivate educators to focus on all three domains, creating a more holistic form of education.




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qfp3x_qx5IM


Social Cognitive Theory


One of the core concepts of SCT is that learning occurs through observation. Teachers, parents and peers can all act as models for the students to observe and learn behaviour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d4gmdl3zNQ&list=PL5F92C6475BA0298F


Kolb


In the early 1970s, Kolb and Ron Fry (now both at the Weatherhead School of Management) developed the Experiential Learning Model (ELM) composed of four elements:


  •     concrete experience,
  •     observation of and reflection on that experience,
  •     formation of abstract concepts based upon the reflection,
  •     testing the new concepts



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A30NnrkwFmQ


Fleming


VARK Model

http://vark-learn.com/introduction-to-vark/



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRWnz7tppWk

Class Activity


How do you learn? Take the test to find out how you learn best using the VARK model

http://www.vark-learn.com/english/page.asp?p=questionnaire

OR

http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-assessments/learning-styles-quiz.shtml

Share your results and whether you think it is accurate or not