Plans for 2017

Looking forward to another fulfilling year after a good week plus of R & R up in Nelson. The weather cooperated, so lots of cycling and a good walk up to Mount Arthur to admire the Celmisia Dallii which only grows in the NW of the South Island and was in full flower. 

There will be several ‘projects’ on the go for 2017, all of which will require concerted effort!!

Firstly, there is the e-assessment project with NMIT, Te Tapuae o Rehua and Unitec. The project begins officially with a two day workshop at the end of January. During the workshop, there will be some team building along with ensuring all the participants understand the commitments required for the project. We will have short sessions on what ‘assessment for learning’ means, along with an introduction and overview of qualitative research through a variant of participatory action research - the spiral of inquiry. By the end of the two days, each sub-project team should, or be close to, confirming their research question and plan.

Secondly, the Batcher of Construction moves into ‘teaching and learning plan’ development. Although the degree is not officially approved, we begin working on year 1 and 2 courses which are currently part of NZ Diplomas in construction.

Thirdly, there is the ramp up of support for tutors in architecture and engineering as they plan towards move into a new, purpose-built facility – Kahukura. Most of the tutors have identified some ‘project’ they plan to put in place in the first semester, in anticipation for the move into Kahukura in the second semester. The learning spaces in the new building are set up to be flexible learning spaces. So the main objective is to assist tutors with shifting to a learning focus from a mainly content-focused teaching approach.

Fourthly, ongoing programme development work commences with the re-development of the Bachelor of Information Technology (BICT). This is a large programme and continues on from work accomplished through 2015 on programme design for level 3 to level 6 NZ Diplomas in computing. Some of the NZ diploma courses may require re-visiting to align with the move into graduate profile outcomes for the BICT. Last year, quite a bit of my time was taken with supporting the level 3 and level 4 programmes offered by Campus Connect. These courses are largely to prepare learners to become users of technology and courses are offered across campuses across Canterbury. ‘Blending’ the programmes have been a good learning experience for both myself and the Campus Connect staff.

Fifth item on the list, support of a smaller group of staff, still working through mobile learning projects from Project Tablet. Several are ready to shift up a notch and work intensively with embedding TEL into all their courses.

Lastly but by no means least important, my development as a scholar with articles to complete from previous projects. Hopefully several conferences (with papers) to present at and usual work to support tutors at Ara with educational research projects.

As per usual, I will share my learnings on this blog, of the continual journey to understand how people learn a trade, how to incorporate techonology enhanced learning into vocational education programmes and the maximise on the important contribution of sound programme development towards better learning experiences for students.