On the 23rd January, Janet McHardy, Sinead Murphy and I headed to Academy Xi to listen, learn and discuss, prompted by the question ‘how might learning design promote innovation?’ The session was facilitated by Zoe Fitzgerald and included presentations from Frank Guzman, General Manager of Academy Xi and Simon Kavanagh, International Manager of Kaos. After an entertaining warm-up activity, Guzman pointed to the learning design approach used at Academy Xi and his thoughts on learning design that promotes innovation. Guzman reminded us that tools and theory were only a small part of the equation. These are constantly changing. Rather, the focus should be on the mindset to understand why we use tools or processes. Understanding the ‘why’ behind the ‘doing’. Understanding why enables problem solving. We don’t always know what the solution will be but working through the problem is an important step. A key part of this is looking at how people navigate ambiguity. Some may be a little resistant and want to focus on technology and processes, however it is up to our educators to provide evidence to convince them that just learning the technological skills is not the driver. Kavanagh opened his presentation with the quote: “Life […]
What’s in store for 2020?
I love the beginning of a new year. Everything seems fresh. A feeling of relaxation and fun hangs in the air as everyone settles back into work after their summer break. Walking around campus, there is calm and quiet, mixed with signs of preparation for the year ahead. While our team was getting ready to face a new year, I asked for their predictions on the trends we are likely to see in 2020. Here is what they came up with. Personalised learning Personalisation of the learning journey is still on the agenda. At VEDT, we are looking at different streams of interactions and assessments. In 2020, we envisage that students will have more opportunity to choose their own learning pathways through content, and hopefully also through the assessment experience. 3P Learning predict that customised, student-centred and adaptive learning experiences will take centre stage. This involves students being able to select the mediums and lessons based on their interests and needs. The Digital Marketing Institute points out that new tools are deepening the capacity for personalised learning, with artificial intelligence and machine learning offering the ability for content to be responsive and to evolve with the learner. Learning analytics Of […]
EduTECH 2019
Early in June I attended the annual EduTECH conference in Sydney where I presented with my brilliant colleague Renee Costa. We showcased our award-winning project that focused on re-thinking the way we educate the next generation of workers within aged care. The project looked at putting students in the workplace and learning within the flow of normal work activities as they completed a Certificate III in Individual Support. This included: personalised, flexible, student-led learning experiences students placed in a work environment for all their studies intensive face-to-face training by an RMIT teacher delivered in the workplace an RMIT teacher on-site in the workplace guidance and support for workplace supervisors who were assisting students micro-credentials to recognise enterprise skills identified by industry digital content to guide and support students in their learning. You can see the slides from this presentation below. Future proofing the next generation of workers PP_EMcKenzie Only two presentations after us, we heard from Charles Jennings who was a co-founder of the 70:20:10 model. This model underpinned much of our thinking in designing our individual support project. Charles’ presentation highlighted the importance of integrating learning into the work flow. The model is underpinned by the premise that: 70 […]
Generic units of competency
The VEDT is developing a range of units of competency that are used across multiple programs, across colleges. These include assessment and rich digital content, in Canvas, that can be contextualised and used by Program Managers/Coordinators and teachers within any program area. In 2018, the VEDT worked with the School of Media and Communications to develop the unit BCMM401 Make a presentation. This unit of competency was identified to be used in numerous programs across the colleges, including: Graphic design Marketing and communication Laboratory technology Live production and technical services Fashion styling Training and assessment Strata community management Work health and safety The assessments developed were designed to be industry agnostic, with teachers or students being able to choose a presentation topic relevant to their cohorts. This approach means the assessments are easily contextualised to relevant topic areas or can easily be clustered with other units of competency. In developing the content, the VEDT wanted to give insight into each of these industries. As such, we interviewed industry representatives talking about how and why they make presentations. These representatives included: Narelle Tunstall – Centre Manager, The University of Melbourne David Corelli – Managing Director, Corelli Lighting Concepts Aimee Gonzalez – […]
Industry for Real!
In August, Elissa was a panellist at the Industry is Real session. It was a great opportunity to showcase the Media Comms short course and the great videos that we create and produce. […]
Good luck Michael!
The VE Design Team is very sad to say goodbye to one of our founding members. Michael joined the team for our first project, Certificate III in Individual Support in late August 2017. Michael’s work was instrumental in establishing our framework and templates that is now the basis of all of the team’s work. Michael has a passion for accessibility in design and worked hard to ensure our work is best practice in this area. It was Michael’s dedication and enthusiasm that lead us to winning a Platinum LearnX Award for Best Accessibility Project. Our loss is Federation University’s gain. We wish Michael all the best in his new role there. Although, at heart, we know Michael will always be part of our skunk team. […]
Think Tank Series #1 – AR / VR
The VE Design team is hosting a series of think tanks to explore the future of VET and ensure that our designing is based on current evidence and ideas. The first gathering in our series was held on 9 May and focused on the use of augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) in VET. The question we put forward was “How will VR/AR impact and be used in VET, industry and skills training in the future?” Six experts from various organisations joined us: Pauline Farrell – Pearson Brenden Carter – The Learning Hook Scott Wallace – Box Hill Institute Nathan Beattie – Virtualex Ben Loveridge – Melbourne University Cassie De Colling – A Common Thread Each panellist shared their experiences which included the use of AR in construction; the use of VR to bring people with spinal cord injuries together; VR film making; and the changing landscape of work and its effects on training. Lively discussion followed. We explored the potential to use AR/VR for assessment to simulate tasks that would otherwise be costly, high risk, or require additional participants to test. In the aged care sector, for instance, AR/VR could be used to assess a student’s skills and knowledge relating to […]
The Hero’s Journey
Attending the iDesignX conference in Sydney on Tuesday (27 March 2018), I listened to a range of interesting presentations from experts in the learning design field. Conversations included the usual topics: blended learning, gamification, virtual reality and mobile responsiveness. For me and (gauging by the standing room only in the packed conference room) many other delegates, one presentation stood out from the crowd – ‘Storytelling for Behavioural Change’ by Nick Petch, Lead eLearning Designer from Inspire Group. Petch aligned the narrative of the ‘hero’s journey’ with a behavioural change model to show how the power of the story can be harnessed for learning. Why is this relevant? Because, as Petch pointed out, stories are powerful learning tools as they stay alive and are remembered. We started with the concept of the hero’s journey based Joseph Campbell’s book ‘The Hero With a Thousand Faces’ (1949). Following on from earlier work, Campbell analysed a range of narratives such as myths and folk tales. He identified a pattern to the mythical hero’s journey that takes the hero through three identifiable stages: departure – occurring in the ordinary world initiation – occurring in the special world return – occurring back in the ordinary world. […]
