2020 has been a year unlike any other, words like unprecedented have been worn out. Just like the rest of the world the VEDT have had to adapt to working from home, home-schooling, lockdowns and the fear of uncertainty around what a global pandemic would mean for us on a personal level and for our loved ones. Luckily this close-knit team banded together to tackle not only the personal hurdles but the professional ones as well. The education sector has been hit hard by the pandemic and subsequent restrictions. With the necessary hasty move to online learning for as many courses as would allow, a change generally years in the making happened in days and weeks. Stepping into a more active support role this year the VEDT has delivered guidance to VE teachers throughout RMIT so that they can continue to deliver quality education programs to their students through flexible or online delivery. All while continuing to produce quality work on already committed projects. You can read more about the other projects the VEDT worked on this year including the Higher Apprenticeship Program for the Social Service Sector and National Infection Control courses here. The VEDT team successfully ran 120 […]
POSTPONED: Think Tank Series – Overcoming barriers to learning in the digital age
Due to changing priorities as part of RMIT’s Coronavirus response initiatives, we have decided to postpone this Expert Panel Series event until later this year. Thanks for your interest and resharing across your networks. As soon as we have a date for the next panel event we’ll let you know. —- The focus for this session is on overcoming barriers to learning in the digital age and we will be asking our panellists: “How can we overcome barriers to learning in the digital age in VET, industry and skills training?” Our panellists include: Campbell Craig, Digital Learning Solutions Consultant Julie Day, Instructional Designer at TAFE Gippsland Karen Manwaring, Teacher, Learning Skills Unit at Melbourne Polytechnic This event will be facilitated by Haley Gunn in the VE Design team. You can view the live stream and interactive panel session by clicking here. Note: If the video doesn’t work after pressing the play button, click on the link to ‘watch this video on YouTube and a new tab will open. […]
Lessons Learned in Assessment Design
On the 30th January the Vocational Education Design Team’s VE Assessment Lead Haley Gunn and Assessment Writer Janet McHardy travelled to RMIT’s Bundoora campus to attend a meeting held by the Learning and Teaching Community of Practice group. Speakers Dr Jess Danaher from the School of Science and Associate Professor Sophia Xenos from the School of Health and Biomedical Sciences discussed the innovative ways that they are approaching assessment in their courses. Dr Jess Danaher spoke about allowing choice for students when it comes to assessments. This could include negotiating the modality or format of the assessment used to collect evidence of the student’s competency. Examples include a presentation; the student choosing to frame it as a pitch meeting to a brand sponsor or a how-to demonstration. Or a student creating a set of blog posts rather than undertaking a traditional literature review. Other examples include students helping to develop questions that may be included in the end of semester exam, narrowing that down to five appropriate options and drafting an appropriate answer. This approach helps to develop student problem-solving skills as well as helping them to prepare for the exam. Dr Danaher’s talk of embracing creativity in assessments and […]
Joining the VEDT as an RMIT student: Jaydene
Jaydene has recently graduated from a Bachelor of Media and Communications from Swinburne University and is in her first semester of an Associate Degree in Professional Writing and Editing with RMIT University. I worked in corporate roles before returning to study, so it has been a refreshing experience joining the VEDT team and RMIT more broadly. It has been a learning curve, but the team has been so welcoming and always manage to have a laugh and a bit of fun. I’ve had the opportunity to edit some units for the Plumbing project we are working on, getting the chance to flex my developing editing muscles – which is perfect for my study! Lifting the veil on Canvas has been eye opening. I have been using the system for the last couple of years but had never given much thought to how much work goes into creating content for the units. Not only to comply with all the necessary regulations, but also to look impressive and be user friendly for the diverse cohort of students who will be using them. It has been especially interesting learning about the online accessibility requirements that the VEDT team takes pride in, ensuring that […]
