Tony Bates seminar on elearning in training and education

I attended & presented usual spiel on mlearning @ CPIT at another CORE organised seminar. The seminar was pitched at both tertiary & workplace learning practitioners.

The guest speaker was Tony Bates who spoke on eLearning and vocational education and training, an International Perspective. Of interest to me was the British Columbia project on using elearning to improve completion rates in trade training. The project is still in its planning stages but the concepts behind it’s development are of interest to the NZ voc. Ed. context as well. Will need to keep an eye on how the project develops.

Besides Tony, there was also a presentation from John Clayton which provided a New Zealand overview of eLearning activities in industry in NZ. John provided a very good ‘back to reality’ presentation on how workplaces were basically focused on compliance, competence which had to be demonstratable and how elearning needed to be ‘just in time, just enough and just learn’.

Short presentations were also given by:-

• Andrew Preston representing Tobi Gefken, lead developer, HitLab on their project using virtual-reality technology for the teaching and assessment of clinical skills. Andrew presented various ‘learning objects’ to help students learn pharmacology & other medical content.
• Nick Ford for Dr. Tracy Kirkbride on the CPIT / University of Canterbury VIPER project which is a tool for formative assessments or revision of student learning using mainly images. The tool has been used mainly in the context of radiography so that student radiographers are able to learn how to practice reading xrays, MRI scans etc. but has wide uses in any other field.
• Phil Garing, Synapsys on mulit-modal company induction programmes provided examples of how to use simulations & other learning activities in ‘ different contexts, with different drivers & different results’. A reflection on John’s presentation from the point of view of an elearning development company.
  

The seminar concluded with a workshop that discussed the following questions ‘what are the benefits for and barriers to embedding eLearning in industry training? National and international perspectives’ & ‘what are the benefits for and barriers to embedding eLearning in industry training? '

Good discussion followed. The seminars provided me with an opportunity to view the world of elearning from a wider ‘non-educational’ perspective.