flexible learning in ACE

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A day at the desk

This scenario illustrates how you can incorporate e-learning into your course delivery by using TAFE VC courseware with little or no customisation and meet a need in your community as well as demonstrate employment outcomes.

Dingley Village Neighbourhood Centre
Southern Western Port region

E: dnvc@ satlink.com.au

Dingley Village Neighbourhood Centre a modern well equipped facility with adequate public parking and is on a bus route. There is disabled access to both the Centre and Harold Box Hall and we are also within easy walking distance of Dingley Village Shopping Centre.

Dingley Village is a residential suburb in the City of Kingston which is located in the South of Melbourne. It covers 7.9 square kilometres with a population of 10,010 which remains relatively stable. Whilst the population slowly increases in older age brackets, Dingley Village’s age structure remains relatively young in relation to the rest of Kingston. Family groups living in separate housing predominate and the number of primary & secondary school aged children are evenly balanced. There is very low unemployment; a large component of the workforce is employed in professional and managerial occupations both full & part-time.

Incorporated into our Medical Receptionist course are five online modules from the Business Services training package. DVNC’s non-accredited short course focuses specifically on the medical stream and office skills. The online modules are TAFE Virtual Campus courseware. Students have a mix of face to face and online learning.
The online components are designed in an appointment book scenario with tasks, activities & resources. They have colourful graphics and logical navigation, which makes it a particularly engaging online learning experience.

Women in our community are looking to return to the workforce in part-time employment. The flexibility of work hours in the health sector suits their family needs. Many have prior clerical experience, but require retraining in ICT and job related skills. We therefore started a Medical Receptionist course to meet the needs of these women. I had been to a flexible delivery event where I viewed the Day at the Desk program and felt that this was a great resource for our students & tutor.

The tutor was hesitant at first using materials that she had not developed. She was unfamiliar with, and also not convinced of, the benefits of online/ blended delivery.
The tutor was given both a hardcopy of all resources and the teacher’s manual. She was also enrolled as a student in the Day at the Desk prior to conducting the course. Unfortunately this tutor gained so many skills that she left. Our current tutor is very accepting of e-learning and enthusiastic about using the program to complement her course delivery.

Students expected to use computers during the course but they were unfamiliar with online learning.
The first sessions online were given in a face to face environment, with tutor and technical support. A student help line and step by step instructions on access was set up. A notable feature has been the way the students continued to access the course well after the official completion date.

We can use accredited resources to support non-accredited community courses.
Tutor acceptance is vital for success.
For our students a blended delivery of face to face and online is preferred.
Student support and induction mechanisms need to be in place on course commencement.
Once the initial hesitancy was overcome tutor & students quickly became aware of the benefits the program offered.
The online component allows students to access resources beyond the life of the actual course.

We will continue to deliver using the online courseware as its content provides a well rounded course covering all the areas needed in an easy-to-use format. The resources in the package are well thought out and provide a great deal of learning.
The concept of packaging a few modules into a non- accredited short course for specific skills development has proved ideal for us and our learners.