Jacquie Flexible Learning

September 19, 2007

Learning Outcomes

Filed under: Constructing Course,Weblog — by jacquiehayes @ 3:55 am

On reflection to the outcomes that I put in my course I have taken into account

Being Specific:  I need to spell out exactly what students will be able to do after taking part in this course.

Measurable:  I need to have students learning to reflect and action their learning after their training, and be able use in their own situations.

Achievable:  I need to have the learning outcomes to be practical and realistic within the timespan and scope of the training course, and also the context to be at the correct level for the students compentency.

Timeline:   I need to specify which intended outcomes will be achievable, during the timespan of course, and which will need to be done in their own time.

September 18, 2007

Aim and Learning Outcomes

Filed under: Constructing Course — by jacquiehayes @ 8:12 am

AIM:  To assist students to recognise and navigate the toolbar ribbon and Dialog boxes in Excel 2007

OUTCOME: At the completion of this course, students will be able to:

Open Basic Worksheets in Excel 2007

Edit Worksheets in Excel 2007

Perform Calculations in Excel 2007

Work with Multiple Worksheets in Excel 2007

Create and Modify Charts in Excel 2007

Set Page Display in Excel 2007

Recognise Printing Options in Excel 2007

Name and Rename Charts in Excel 2007

Freeze Panes in Excel 2007

Set Margins in Excel 2007

Add Header and Footers in Excel 2007

Add Page Breaks in Excel 2007

Wiki Page

Filed under: Constructing Course,Teaching Resource — by jacquiehayes @ 4:16 am

Well I finally did it and I had it right all the time, I was just putting my thoughts in the wrong category, so I am now off and running.  I have added an external link to the Wiki and also an internal link to Dave Mcquilliam page  on the Wiki (thanks Leigh).

My next project now is working on my outcomes of my course.

September 17, 2007

Enhance and Design

Filed under: Constructing Course,Weblog — by jacquiehayes @ 5:10 am

I have been trying very hard to put my thoughts on the learning styles of my students, that I am constructing my course for, and with not much success, so I am going in tommorrow to get leigh to help me and show me what i am doing wrong.  I have tried also to put a link to a web site that i found most useful and that still wont work so fingers crossed.

I am going to continue on this blog about what kind of learning styles will be used in my course.  I believe that there are many styles of learning and below are some examples.

Behavourism

Demonstrator model

Action Learning

Cognitive Learning.

As my course is computer based I looked at Kolb Learning Styles and what training techniques are used best for optimal learning in computer related training.  Many training situations are designed for structure, task oriented proceedures and this is how behavour modelling methodolgy is working best. This technique can show new ways to provide students with conceptional and proceedual information, with less fustrating and higher satisfaction. 

Abstract, Using multimedia with easy flowing techniques and topics and interactivity, with pictorial and sound utilization, with the help of using text and sound and video as well as graphics can be a great learning instruction.  Using also vocal and visual explanations with multimedia can be used in independent learning, and also collaborative learning. Convergers think about things and then try out their ideas to see if they work in practice. They like to ask ‘how’ about a situation, understanding how things work in practice. They like facts and will seek to make things efficient by making small and careful changes. They prefer to work by themselves, thinking carefully and acting independently. They learn through interaction and computer-based learning is more effective with them than other methods. This is mostly how my students will learn.

September 9, 2007

Adult Learning

Filed under: Constructing Course,Weblog,wiki — by jacquiehayes @ 9:46 am

This is a follow on from my previous blog.

While continuing with my readings I came across Malcolm Knowles (1978, 1990)

 this i found great to read, as he is the one who brought the concept of adult education to us today. He taught that adult learning was special in a number of ways. for example:

Adult learners bring a lot of experience to their learning environment in which educators can use as a resource.

Adult expect to have a high degree of infuence on what they are to be educated for

Adults need to be able to see applications for new learning

Adult learners expect to have a high degree of infuence on how learning will be evaluated.

Adults expect their responses to be acted upon when asked for feedback on a course

Burns (1995) is quoted as saying

By adulthood people are self-directing. This is the concept that lies at the heart of andragogy, this is therefor student-centred, experienced based, problem soving and collabrorative very much in the spitit of the humanist approach to learning and education, the whole educational activity turns on the student.

So with all these thoughts my next blog will be about what are the learning outcomes for my course i am going to construct.

Design Overview

Filed under: Constructing Course,Reference List,Weblog — by jacquiehayes @ 9:06 am

I went to my first face to face with Terry on Thursday, and that clarified a lot of questions i had about this course,  thanks Terry, so here i go.

Leigh also came and talked to us and showed us briefly how to add content onto the Wiki that Rachel had set up, as every time i tried to put something on it, it wouldnt show up.  So hopefully i will now be able to give it a go and be away racing.

Willie was great as per usual and challenged us on quite a few ideas, and it brought me back to remembering what Heather Day and Willie had taught me while doing some units in Level 5 Adult Education, and also my Moderators cause, so thank you for recharging my memory. 

Thats the great thing about learning and how valueable this course has been for me, as I thought i had forgotten some of that stuff until you start to put it into practice again and the mind is jump started into using that learning.

I have finally decided to construct my course on Excel 2007.

As earlier in my blog in my design course, I was looking at all 2007 but as this was going to be such a big project, I have decide to condense it to just new features that are available in Microsoft Office 2007 Excel.  The reason behind this is we have students who have purchased new computers and they have Microsoft Office 2007 Excel on these and as the features have changed from the 2003 version, they are asking us how to use these new features, thus bringing me to constructing  a course to help them.

My other course i learnt how to develop my plan, but now i am taking it a bit further and want to reflect on who my learners are, and how they are going to learn, and what kind of learners are they. (this will go on the wiki as well)

There are many theories of learning, and so i have decided to read up on a few, and here is how I have perceived some of these readings. 

People learn from many varieties, and i feel that it comes down to the way the course is designed and contructed, and how you teach in educational programs, and to recognise that every person has a different way of digesting information and learn in different ways. such as thinking, emotions, attitudes, motivation.

www.brookes.ac.uk/services/ocsd/2_learntch/theories.html

Above is a link to a website to go to, to give you some ideas on where i got my referencing from.

Burns mentions that behavioural learning as a relevant permanent change including both observational activity and internal processes, such as thinking, and attitudes examples being.

  • Experimental learning
  • Cognitive approach
  • Action learning
  • plus many more.

Expermential learning is thought by Kolb that there are four stages of learning and that this learning can begin at any one stage and that it is continuous (there is no limit to the number of cycles you can make in a learning situation.)  People learn in four ways they are:

  • concrete experience
  • through observation
  • through abstract conceptuation
  • through active experimentation

Kolb who has been exploring over the last few decades educational research and found that indivuals begin with their own style of experimental learning cycle.

Honey and Mumford http://www.ruby3.dircon.co.uk/Training%20Files/Theory%20Pages/learning%20styles.htm also identify four learning styles:

They are:

  • Activist (enjoys the experience)
  • Reflector (reflects a great deal)
  • Theorist (connects and abstract ideas from experience)
  • Pragmatist (enjoys the planning stage)

Action Learning is another approach which can be linked with the world of action through a reflective process of learning groups or Action Learning Groups (McGill & Beaty 1995) http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=author:%22McGill%22+intitle:%22Action+Learning:+a+guide+for+professional,+management+%26+…%22+&hl=en&rlz=1T4ADBF_enNZ226NZ227&um=1&oi=scholarr is the aim from learning with and from each other, and said that there can be no learning without action and no action without learning.

Blog at WordPress.com.