australian flexible learning framework news
National Monday Update Issue:
1. International Acclaim for Framework Projects
2. VET in Schools: How e-learning can help
3. New Framework paper: Verifying VET Learner Attainment Data
1. International Acclaim for Framework Projects
Two projects which received seed funding and support through the Australian Flexible Learning Framework’s (Framework) emerging technology trials have received international acclaim for their innovative contributions to education.
The 2010 international IMS GLC Learning Impact Awards, held on 19 May in Long Beach, California, named the Mobilae and QTImPlayer projects as outstanding applications of technology that address significant challenges facing education.
Against tough competition, the Mobilae project won a silver award in the New and Research & Development category, ahead of 12 other competitors including projects from prestigious American and European universities.
The QTImPlayer, repeating its success at last year’s awards where it was named the Best Mobile Learning Solution, was selected from a field of 13 competitors to win bronze in the Established category.
Both technologies are designed to facilitate and enhance hands-on learning outside traditional classroom environments, tapping into the immense potential of e-learning to deliver flexible, just-in-time learning – anywhere and anytime.
Framework spokesperson, Owen O’Neill, said the results provided a clear endorsement for the use of seed funding to help innovative projects get off the ground.
The IMS GLC Learning Impact Awards Australian Regional Finals will be held again in 2011 and VET representatives are encouraged to start thinking about their applications. The top three Australian finalists will receive support to attend and compete at the 2011 international awards.
For more information on the emerging technology trials, visit the E-standards for Training website: http://e-standards.flexiblelearning.net.au/emerging-tech-trials
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Regional and remote registered training organisations (RTOs) are using e-learning to deliver quality VET in Schools to learners who are disadvantaged by distance and lack of opportunity.
A recent report by the National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER) has highlighted how participation rates in VET in Schools decreases with geographic isolation and for particular learner groups.
The report found that the percentage of school students aged 15-19 years undertaking VET in schools Australia-wide was:
- 54.8% in major cities
- 24.3% in inner regional areas
- 15.7% in outer regional areas
- 2.8% in remote areas
- 1.7% in very remote areas.
Only 3.5% of all students in VET in Schools programs Australia-wide were Indigenous.
Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) Northern Territory E-learning Coordinator, Melanie Brenton, said that VET in Schools has great potential to help Indigenous learners and learners in outer regional and remote areas. For this reason, she said it is essential that participation be maximised with these learners.
“VET in Schools provides learners with exposure to the labour market and relevant and meaningful training that contextualises learning and facilitates the transition between school and work,” Ms Brenton said.
“This is particularly important for Indigenous and geographically isolated learners, who have relatively low participation rates in higher education.”
COAG’s (Council of Australian Government) recent call for a more flexible national training system which provides opportunities and increases access and engagement for equity groups places the Framework, as the national training system’s e-learning strategy, in a prime position to respond*.
In this agenda, e-learning is recognised as not an end in itself but a means to the greater flexibility, responsiveness and long-term sustainability now required of the national training system.
Since 2008 the Framework has provided E-learning Innovations funding and support to RTOs delivering VET in Schools.
In 2009, Taminmin College in the Northern Territory developed customised e-learning solutions to help overcome the barriers to remote and Indigenous students accessing to VET in Schools, including:
- low levels of literacy
- low levels of relevance and unfamiliar contexts and scenarios used in content
- limited and competitive funding for VET and VET infrastructure in remote locations.
In partnership with Alyangula Area School, Taminmin customised the Horticulture Flexible Learning Toolbox (Toolbox) to improve the participation and success rate of Indigenous school students studying the Certificate II in Horticulture on remote Groote Eylandt Island.
The customised resource adopted a bilingual approach and an audio component to overcome the literacy barrier and facilitate improved understanding. It also used interactive features (eg Flash games) and localised content (eg local plant species) to maximise learner engagement.
The project has been a tremendous success, with 75% of students reporting interest in and enthusiasm for the resource.
According to Ms Brenton, maximising VET in Schools participation rates with marginalised learner groups need not be a costly exercise.
“The Framework’s E-learning Innovations business activity encourages participating RTOs to develop solutions that can be replicated to suit other RTOs and customised to cater for the unique learning needs of a number of underrepresented learner groups,” she said.
“The Framework’s E-learning Innovations business activity encourages participating RTOs to develop solutions that can be replicated to suit other RTOs and customised to cater for the unique learning needs of a number of underrepresented learner groups,” she said.
Taminmin College, for instance, produced a customisation guide with its project. The guide, which is publicly available through the Framework’s Toolbox Repository, is designed to help other RTOs customise the resource to suit their own linguistic and cultural environment.
River Murray Training (RMT) in regional South Australia is another RTO that has used E-learning Innovations funding and support to overcome the challenges in delivering successful VET in Schools programs to marginalised learner groups.
RMT had encountered a number of difficulties in delivering its school-based apprenticeship in agriculture to geographically isolated students.
According to Project Manager Gillian Ireland, the main difficulty centered around providing learning opportunities that reflected a broad industry perspective – that is, extending learning beyond the confines of the small, family orientated work placements that remote students are often limited to.
RMT used e-learning and social networking tools such as virtual classrooms, blogs, forums and online repositories to facilitate collaboration, provide valuable networking opportunities and open up the learning experience for students completing a Certificate III in Agriculture.
Ms Ireland said that the project was a prime example of how e-learning is being used to increase access to nationally recognised training for geographically and socially isolated learners.
Ms Ireland said that the project was a prime example of how e-learning is being used to increase access to nationally recognised training for geographically and socially isolated learners.
This year, states and territories are sharing in $5.3 million in E-learning Innovations funding to support innovative e-learning solutions in the VET system. To see the full range of E-learning Innovations projects, visit: http://flexiblelearning.net.au/innovations/teamprofiles
* This is highlighted in the 2010 Framework Business Plan
For more information about the Framework, its products, resources and support networks, contact: (07) 3307 4700, enquiries [at] flexiblelearning [dot] net [dot] au (email) or visit: http://flexiblelearning.net.au
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Being able to electronically verify learner information, such as educational qualifications, has the potential to help streamline employment applications, course admissions and RPL (recognition of prior learning) processes.
Taking a lead role in gaining national agreement on the development of portable learner information, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (Framework) has released the Verifying VET Learner Attainment Data paper.
This paper, based on widespread consultation with employer groups, industry groups, unions, recruitment agencies, tertiary admission centres and professional associations, found that electronic access to learner information would support learner transitions and produce significant efficiency gains for the vocational education and training (VET) sector.
It presents findings around:
- the benefits and limitations of existing learner information verification systems and their relevance to the Australian VET sector
- the verification needs of ‘information consumers’ (eg employers, recruiters and education and training admissions centres)
- key issues surrounding the introduction of electronic access of VET learner information.
The research found that existing learner verification services are limited in scope or immature in development, and so the paper makes recommendations regarding the continued development of learner record systems which allow learners to electronically access and share their VET learner records.
It stresses that any implementation of electronic learner record systems would need to proceed alongside an education program and address issues of privacy, governance and access protocols.
The paper highlights the need to cater for the diversity in information consumers’ verification requirements and to address a number of concerns, including:
- verified learner data being directly associated with an individual’s e-portfolio, which may lead to fraudulent assertions
- the need to have third party learner record systems to support aggregated lifelong, electronic learner records.
The paper builds on a previous Framework investigation into managing learner information and supports the verification goal from the Framework’s VET E-portfolio Roadmap, a national strategy designed to support the introduction and use of e-portfolios to support lifelong learning in the VET sector.
Continued work into electronically accessing VET learner information will continue in 2010 with an investigation of registered training organisations' willingness and ability to offer electronic learner data as well as the attitude of learners to such services.
The paper forms part of the E-portfolios Resource Bank – a comprehensive and central online resource including reports, articles, news, blogs and events dedicated to e-portfolios and their application in VET.
For more information, email allison [dot] miller [at] flexiblelearning [dot] net [dot] au (Allison Miller), or visit: http://flexiblelearning.net.au/e-portfolios
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