flexible learning in ACE
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defining
flexible learning |
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Flexible = achievable: accredited programs in Community Services
Who
we are Campaspe
College of Adult Education
Loddon Campaspe Mallee
Campaspe
College of Adult Education is situated in Echuca. Our building was the
original primary school so is governed by heritage regulations. We are
a well equipped and resourced organisation and have two computer labs
for the students to access. We are in the main street of Echuca and placed
at the edge of the CBD area.
Echuca/Moama has a combined population of over 15,000. The main industries
that support the town are farming, tourism and food processing and we
have a relatively low level of unemployment. Because our town is popular
with retirees we have a significant amount of aged people living here
however the amount of younger people moving into the area is also on the
rise.
We
have gained quite a reputation for our delivery of a variety of Certificate
III and Certificate IV Community Service courses in the last three years
and for the past 18 months we have been delivering these by flexible learning
and in particular in an off campus mode.
The off campus students communicate with the tutor by mail, phone, email
and are invited to come in for a face to face meeting once a term.
Tool boxes are used to support the hard texts and internet access is encouraged.
Where possible the tutor visits the student on site during their work
placement or gathers third party evidence from their work place supervisor.
The off campus learning has been very well accepted by the community and
its flexibility allows students to be self paced to enter and exit the
courses at a time suitable to them.
We are a rural community and therefore the physical distance from the
College had become a deterrent to individuals who were trying to access
adult learning. We also needed to be flexible to allow students who were
already working in the Community Service industry but required a formal
qualification to be able to gain that without loss of work time. We saw
this as a means of opening up our Community Service courses to a much
broader audience and thereby benefiting the Community as a whole by providing
the industry with well trained and qualified workers.
One of the main
challenges was the time needed to administer the program as well as having
the tutor delivering the regular face to face teaching of the classes
scheduled at the College. This was overcome by employing a part time administrator
to deal with photocopying, mail outs etc. Also a second tutor was employed
to assist with the assessing of the work as it came in.
Another challenge was keeping up the motivation of the students who lived
in really isolated areas. We resolved this by asking the students if they
were happy to attach their phone number to a phone tree. This enabled
them to contact each other for support and many of them set up their own
study groups that met approximately once a month.
Having computer access is a really important component of this form of
delivery and the students are told this when they enquire about off campus
learning. With so many people having their own PC’s this didn’t
prove to be the difficulty we thought it may have been. Now that broadband
is more available most students said they had internet access.
- Tutors must be totally committed to the program and flexible with their time availability.
- Budget restraints need to be addressed so the courses are costed accurately – especially allowing for extra staffing to run the courses.
- Progam requires excellent organisational skills from all involved.
- Student support must be a high priority.
- The students enjoy the opportunity to come and meet their colleagues and tutor face to face every now and then.
- This is a great way to reach out to students in outlying areas.
The College will continue to offer Community Service courses in this flexible
off campus model and we will now look at other suitable courses which
can be offered in this format. Further down the track (finances permitting)
we will endeavour to be able to set up courses that are completely on
line for students to access. This concept has definitely
been well received by the students.
Jan
Morrison
Campaspe College of Adult Education
