Day 8 Del404B & BSCMN404A

Well we are on the home straight now, having finished cluster 3 and started on the Assessment section. It was great to have nearly all the class members in attendance yesterday and we have made a solid start in the area of assessing.

The designing of a knowledge assessment tool seemed to go down well - if the amount of laughter involved is to be used as a guide - and the criminal tendencies of class members were revealed as well!!

Although we tackled the subject in a light hearted way I believe that it effectively showed what works and what doesn't when designing different types of questions. The DVD also gave us a good over view of the assessment process and the steps necessary in that process, in Plain English. This contrasted starkly with some of the convoluted language we dealt with earlier in the day.

I have already put out a heartfelt plea for the class to print out and read through the assessment tasks for Cluster 4 during the next two weeks before our next session and I am doing so again because we will be doing a lot of assessment tasks in class and there are a lot of templates to be sorted through and attached to the various tasks. Being well prepared will make it a lot easier for you to get a large part of that folder done without using your valuable (and limited) free time outside of class, work and family committments.

Mark has as usual provided a record of proceedings and I hope everyone is checking out his blogg as there is some good stuff on it. I must say though that the video on ultra lights didn't persuade me to take up his offer of a ride in one!!!!

Gotta million things to do so will leave it here for the moment. I will update if there is any news to tell before the next session.

PS. This is some information I got together for Scott to help him get the most out of the delivery he is doing for his workplace project, It ocurred to me that others may be able to use this information as well.

Hope this makes sense and doesn’t look too overwhelming, but remember you are gathering evidence for nearly every unit in the course.

Cluster 2
You will need:

- delivery plan – include venue resources, learner records (enrolment forms), promotional information (anything announcing the course or publicizing it)

- Session plans (at least 2)

- Delivery (2 consecutive sessions, 1 for at least an hour and recorded)

- 3^rd party report from suitably qualified person

- Evaluations – student, observer and yours

- Journal – your reflections

Refer to checklist 5.1,5.2,5.3 (they are combined on one list) in work place project folder Cluster 2)

Cluster 3

5. Develop teams and individuals through a Workbased learning projecf.

If you can add a component of learning on the job – practicing a skill – as well as the two deliveries you can gather evidence for this project as well. Refer to checklist 5.2 in Workbased learning Project folder in Cluster 3.

I suggest you do the coaching project in cluster 3 as a separate project as it is only one on one and relatively easy to organize.

Cluster 4

11.3 Workplace Assessment Observation Report (all templates required are in the cluster 4 folder)

You will need to do:

- an assessment plan

- design tools/methods

- conduct at least one assessment (2 showing different methods would be better eg. A questionnaire and a direct observation) Don’t forget you must have a list of answers!!!!

- Conduct assessment with an observer to witness

- Validate – you can do this by writing a report showing how your assessment methods collect evidence to meet all the critical evidence requirements of this unit.

Refer to checklist 11 in Workplace Project folder Cluster 4.

Hope this is of assistance.

IMPORTANT DATES

Cluster 2 Hand in - 17/06/08
Cluster 3 Hand in - 24/06/08
Cluster 4 Hand in - 29/07/08

Graduation - 26th September, 2008

We have Started a Trend!

Last night at our staff meeting I showed the other trainers how to set up a blog and those who were not already familiar with blogger.com were amazed at how simple it was, so there will be a lot more blogging going on in other courses from now on.

DHRCA is also going to set up a moodle system with many more online resources for e-learning which is great news and will enable us to offer more effective support for absent students etc.

Mark is giving me some of his assessment material online - he has given me the link. This is an option that more of the group may wish to take up for future clusters and I am only too happy to accept assessment tasks in electronic version. I will still need class based tasks etc. in hard copy and the folders need to be signed in by administration for tracking purposes, but it cuts down the use of paper and reduces our class's carbon foot print, so consider it.

I am not exactly getting showered with cluster one assignments, but I'm sure I will be soon.

Day 7 - Facilitate Individual Learning DEL403B

Well, thanks to Venjie, we now have a lot of bloggs for this course. I hope to be able to use this one to share resources and allow those who have missed a class to see what they need to do to catch up.

Yesterday we concentrated on the differences between individual and group facilitation, both the advantageas and disadvantages. The main advantages we came up with were the flexibility in the pacing and delivery style which could be adapted to the learners specific needs. The main disadvantages were the lack of group interactions, the possibility of a personality clash and the restrictions on the type of activities possible in a one to one setting. I think the scales are evenly balanced.

In the afternoon we explored mind tools at the following sites;
www.inspiration.com
www.thebrain.com
http://www.mindtools.com/
Venjie also contributed the following site, where you can obtain a great mind mapping tool as a free download at http://freewareapp.com/

The class then did a work-based Learning scenario in groups. Those who missed class can find this in their cluster 3 folder. The groups analysed a scenario and the took turns role playing until they had all played the part of client, trainer and observer. They then presented a report to the class about the coaching methods they had come up with to suit their particular scenarios.
Those who missed this exercise may be able to set it up at home with family members or friends and write a little report to go in their cluster 3 folder.