The world of business is rapidly evolving. Technology and work practices are driving demand for people with higher level skills associated with qualifications at diploma level and above. This trend has been observed in the Australian and broader global labour markets. To address the skills gap in the Australian labour market the government are piloting apprenticeship like models of training at higher qualification levels. In May 2019 the Victorian Government announced an initiative to pilot a higher apprenticeship training model in the social service sector. RMIT and the Future Social Services Institute (FSSI) were selected to lead development of the pilot project in collaboration with industry. Higher Apprenticeship Program for the Social Service Sector The pilot program kicked off in April 2020 with 25 higher apprentices from seven industry partners enrolled in the Advanced Diploma of Community Sector Management at RMIT. All participants currently work in management roles in the social service sector and have been handpicked by their employers for their leadership potential. The program provides the participants with the opportunity to upskill on-the-job and potentially take on more senior management roles in the future. The apprenticeship program is fully funded by the Victorian Government, which means participants do […]
Using Narratives in VE
Gabrielle Dolan is the author of six books and a global expert on storytelling in business. I recently attended an online seminar to see how we can apply her narrative techniques in VE learning design to grab the students’ attention and help them remember information. VE teachers and trainers often use stories from their experience to provide context for learning material and to demonstrate real world applications, so it makes sense to examine the best storytelling methods and apply them in our education setting. What makes a story a story? It would seem a simple enough question to answer but in her extensive research into narratives, Gabrielle has found that many people call things stories, but they are not, instead they are timelines, case studies or simply a collection of facts. Stories need to describe a specific event which has happened, and they also must use the sequence or structure which Aristotle outlined over 2000 years ago, a beginning, middle and an end. So, if you think you are telling a story and it has no beginning, middle or end and no specific event, you are aren’t telling a story, you are probably just boring your audience. Stories in education […]
National infection control skills set: Training workers online to help stop the spread of COVID-19
The VE design team were given an important task recently; to create 3 stand-alone skill sets to train industry workers. People working in retail, food handling and transport & logistics, can be trained on compliance policies and procedures to help stop the spread of COVID-19. An existing Basecomp unit (HLTINF001 – Comply with infection control policies and procedures) was used as a foundation. Basecomps were created by the VE design team as courses that can be contextualised and edited to be used across multiple programs. I’m going to recap how the team used this foundation and turned it into 3 stand-alone online and contextualised skill sets. Scope for the project: Skill sets must be contextualised to the industry Skill sets must be assessed online and in the workplace Skills sets contain the unit of competency HLTINFCOV001 and must include relevant information on COVID-19 and how to play an active-roll in decreasing the spread of the coronavirus Must be completed within 3 weeks. Assessment lead design As always, we started with assessment lead design. The assessments within the existing Basecomp unit called for ‘in-class activities’ with infection control procedures that would not be required for these industry workers. The practical assessments […]
Improving the quality and compliance of assessment tools
As part of our work supporting VE, the Vocational Educational Design Team work closely with identified programs to develop assessment tools which are authentic and practice based for student and industry needs. They are also Canvas friendly, flexible for assessor use and meet the compliance requirements of the regulatory body. The process to produce quality assessment tools has been refined over several months and is validated by favourable feedback from external quality assurance. There is now a streamlined process requiring only minimal reviews or reworking. This is a wider RMIT effort. Assessment writers in the team work closely with schools and program managers to refine existing materials and assessments, and strong relationships with Subject Matter Experts facilitate timely review of materials. The collaborative relationship with a SME allows us to find out how the assessment can be specifically tailored to that cohort or teaching staff and what resources, or tools are available. The team will often create a narrative thread with a real-world approach that ties the assessment together, such as a practical task that has task specifications, a role play scenario and appendices i.e. filling out an incident form for a role-played injury. This approach can apply to multiple […]
Learning design in lockdown
Since the advent of Covid-19 restrictions and the closure of RMIT campuses in March, the VE Design Team has had to quickly refocus and adapt what we do in response to the major changes in the learning and teaching environment at the university. Reflecting with the Senior Learning Designers (LDs) on the team, it has been a hectic period of challenges but also opportunities to expand our roles and practices. Broadening tasks and responsibilities Our team had previously been project and product development based, working predominantly with product owners and subject matter experts (SMEs). Interacting with teachers and students were limited and we rarely had to provide support after completion. Projects ended with handover notes to the product owners and some basic training to give an overview of the final product and how to navigate, use, and make updates. With the introduction of physical distancing measures and the need to rapidly move courses online, our usual planning of support extended to the delivery of it. As the lead of the Plumbing Rectification project, Rebecca Summits’ role suddenly encompassed “… quickly creating and populating (Canvas) shells to meet the 14 elements and to get at least the first three weeks’ worth […]
Semester 2 course uplift: Getting support for the transformation of VE courses to flexible delivery
With the closure of RMIT campuses due to Covid-19 restrictions in March, there was a massive push to quickly move courses online for remote delivery to students situated overseas, interstate, and locally. This was a huge undertaking for teachers and program managers to merge synchronous (e.g., real-time online lectures) and asynchronous (e.g., activities students could complete on their own time) learning and teaching methods in a very short amount of time. As part of this rapid transition, the VE design team worked in coordination with Studios and other departments to support teachers by providing them with the information they needed to get their content and assessments up on Canvas. This included helping teachers to set–up and host online lectures/tutorials, uploading a variety of learning materials, and devise work-around solutions for previously taught face-to-face learning activities, demos, and labs. The VE Essentials and Flexible Delivery websites were created as starting reference points for teachers looking for teaching, tech, and tool resources. Additionally, training and PD sessions were offered, and teachers were encouraged to ask questions and share their experiences through Yammer, online chats, emails, one-on-one phone/video calls, and online drop-in sessions. With the closure of campuses extending from weeks to months to possibly the rest of 2020, a QC Framework review of all VE Semester 1 courses was conducted at the end of April. Courses were evaluated across seven dimensions: clarity of instructions given to students in Canvas presentation and accessibility to the course content (e.g., online lectures, recordings, and PowerPoint slides) type of learning materials available (e.g., embedded or link-outs to library or external resources) use of learning activities for students to practice developing skills and knowledge teacher contact and availability details student engagement and collaboration through regular […]
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 […]
How might learning design promote innovation?
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 […]
Interior Design Course Uplift
Several lifetimes ago, when working in a fine wine store surrounded by the great marques of beautiful vineyards, I found it difficult to avoid an attachment to the bottles on the shelves. Labels would take me to 17th century family run vineyards in tiny pockets of France and Italy. “They’re shoes, Jack,” my manager would reinforce to clarify my relationship to them. They were units with a sales margin, and we had to move them to keep the shop running. So, when the VEDT began work on six new units in interior design, I couldn’t help but think of the interiors I had visited – Robin Boyd houses, Marion Mahony Griffin interiors, and afternoons in antique furniture auction houses. Beautiful things, sumptuous and austere. But with the shoes analogy in my head, our team got to work unpicking the units of competency so they’d meet the required VE standards for a compliant delivery. American ‘Shaker’ style interior The VEDT normal approach is assessment-led design, which allows us to inform our content from the assessments, ensuring students don’t miss any content when they’re being assessed. The white-knuckle fear of getting to an assessment question that you have no recollection of covering […]
