Jack is the newest participant of Towards Sustainable Practice, a unique online course to support individual’s understanding of sustainable practice and its ability to become embedded in a business or organisation. Although Jack has only just signed up, he is already concerned that it could be difficult to find time to complete the assignments.
Towards Sustainable Practice is a course that has been designed for flexible learning particularly that that the course is already completely online. The course has been designed to give the participant a solid understanding of why a business or organisation should move towards sustainable practice, how to use and apply the Framework for Sustainable Practice (FSP), how FSP differs to others as a strategic decision-making tool and how other well-known tools support the framework.
Requires a framework
Jack is passionate about supporting his organisation’s move towards sustainability. He works for a multi-national engineering firm, Engin-eer, which has its head office in Christchurch. As with many multi-nationals Engin-eer have some environmental standards but lack a broad understanding of sustainable practice. Jack has a lot of information about sustainability but lacks the framework to practically apply his learning. The course uses a fictional case study to apply the participant’s learning as they work through the course. Unfortunately it requires using your imagination to develop this case study. Jack has limited imagination. The second assignment allows participants to research their a case study of their choice which fits Jack’s lack of imagination better.
Over-committed
As a practitioner jack has a long list of previous qualifications from a degree in engineering to management courses and workshops. Therefore jack is a highly sort after individual within Engin-eer because of his varied background and therefore finds himself over-committed. He requires a course that will give him the understanding he requires whilst being short and succinct.
Course timeline
Jack signed up almost 5 months ago and has only just completed the second assignment. There is no deadline for the course to allow flexibility, however this also means there are few motivators to get things done. A possible way to get around this is to have participants create their own timeline so they can reach their own expectations. In addition, the course facilitator can encourage late assignments by reminding Jack of his own expectations.
Slow-download connection
The course uses the technology platform Blackboard and various multi-media functions for providing the information and experience to the participants. This includes powerpoint presentations with voice-overs, interviews on TED TV and YouTube, printable readings, interactive games and reflection diaries. These are great for people who have access to broadband however Jack tries to work through the course from home where he does not have a strong web connection. This becomes very frustrating when he has to start downloading a leave the computer for 15 minutes before he can complete the next part of the course.
Lack of experience in online environment
Although Jack has had plenty of education and training he has not done this type of online learning before. He seems to be finding this extremely difficult. For one the technology is unlike anything he has used before. He has followed the instructions carefully but gets frustrated again because of the slowness of the machine and his lack of experience. Jack does not have time to go to a community learning centre to get support this way. He needs it on his own time schedule. More interactive training would be appreciated.
Secondly, Jack is not used to working alone. He often works in teams and finds it hard to motivate himself. He gets a little bored by the readings although the interviews and videos are good. He thinks he would benefit from using the communication tools available on Blackboard, however so far none of the other participants have used it. He does not want to be the first to put himself out there!! Jack would like to see the facilitator add some comments to the communication page so he does not feel so exposed.
Happy and excited
Other than that Jack is excited about the course. He is in touch with the facilitator to work on how they can both work to overcome some of these issues.
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Great work here Ella, this blog entry was very imaginative yet clear and concise making it a joy to read. The ‘day in the life’ scenario was very well implemented in that it facilitated your exploration into many of the needs of a flexible learner. In the process you demonstrated a thorough understanding of many key issues in flexible learning. You identified several potential problems such as student self-motivation and technological access. You also recognised some key benefits such as multi-modal learning resources and self-paced learning exercises. It would be interesting to see how you might address each of Jack’s concerns in terms of facilitating success in the course. I look forward to seeing where you go from here!
ReplyDeleteJennifer
Poor Jack "whirling like a lonely cinder" in cyberspace. Don't I know that feeling. It looks like some form of online learning is the only option for Jack due to his geographical needs and also his professional role. Or is it? Jennifer quite a bit of substance in Ella's post as you say in your summary. Some of the issues definitely come under the umbrella of access and equity. I love the bit about flexibility with assignments and how this could be demotivating. :)
ReplyDeleteIt seems that setting some boundaries could be a good thing but this would come as part of adequate scaffolding. Perhaps negotiating timelines with students could address this in part. I too am looking forward to seeing how this story unfolds. Well put together Ella with lots of "food for thought".
Interesting that you say "Jack has limited imagination". Possibly he has untapped potential so with the right approach this could be unlocked which could be very motivating. How could you do this I wonder?
Also as Jennifer mentions you could investigate some multimodal resources as a way to offset the online access issues. What are your initial thoughts about this?
Hey Ella,
ReplyDeleteFinally found your blog!
Intersting to read about Jack. I think this scenario highlights to fit FL options to the readiness & motivaiton of the learner and be cautious about offering options that only serve to increase your work.
Another thought is the need to make sure what we do is operational - I had an e-mail about sustanability from a colleague that included all the buzz words and challenged us to report back on sustainability actions we have implemented but offered no practicable actions to get the ball rolling.
This exploration of FL has really centred me to focus on choices and actions that propel a student toward being a professional but to do this within the preparedness of the stduent, teacher, and organisation. I do like your idea of flexible assessments but think to offer a desired time-line that yuo can negotiate around as required will help keep Jack on track.
Great post.