DISEÑO METODOLÓGICO
FIESTA DE ADONIS
Telephone, fax and email are the major means of communication between learners and the lecturer, and are all used extensively. Learners can email assessments, although faxing assignments is
preferred (to avoid viruses in attachments).
Distance learners often experience a higher degree of concern about their assignment arriving on time. Notification of receipt is given through a fax-back sheet. Individual attention is also given over the telephone: ‘… we spend a lot more time with individual learners on the phone or by fax than you would in a classroom situation for some learners’.
Issues for assessment in flexible delivery
Some of the issues relating to assessment which are highlighted in a flexible delivery mode include the provision of feedback, the costs associated with assessment, authenticity and security of assessments, as well as flexibility of assessment timing.
Timely and effective feedback is a challenge for all distance-mode deliverers. In the face-to-face mode, learners can usually follow up questions about assessment with their lecturer after a session. In this program the lecturer, tutors and learners make considerable use of the telephone, which is not always satisfactory due to issues of time and cost.
Learners need to have access to crime scenes, so to maintain course credibility and quality assurance, assessments are conducted during residential periods. For final written assignments, written verification by a senior sergeant is required. These procedures are time consuming and resource intensive because of the varying locations of the learners. Security of assessment is maintained via stringent procedures, including setting times with the senior police officer to receive the assessment by fax.
While the assessment plan indicates due dates for tasks, the nature of the learner’s work, where they may be called out on a large police operation, requires there to be some flexibility in these arrangements.
Strengths of the assessment approach
Strengths of the assessment approach include:² the use of formative assessment
² reliability of the assessment process, including the use of residential sessions for assessment ² the assessment method remains constant but the content of the experiment, the way the case
study is structured etc., varies from course to course
² the high level of support offered to learners.
Case study 13: Assessing in remote regions
Site Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE Qualification Certificate IV Office Administration (Indigenous)
Course context or background
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Indigenous Studies Faculty of the Tropical North Queensland Institute of TAFE has designed a Community Management Program for Indigenous students whose goal is to manage an Indigenous or non-Indigenous community organisation. The program has been designed drawing on the competencies from the national training package BSA 1997 and is delivered to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in the area around Cairns, as well as to students in remote areas and other parts of Queensland.
Delivery arrangements
The learning mode is best described as a mixed-mode delivery pattern comprising options from:
² distance learning guides and resources ² residential workshops
² on-the-job learning.
Learning resources are provided through learning guides incorporating culturally appropriate resources. Students can use these resources at home and at their workplace. They include self- assessment quizzes at the end of each unit or module.
The residential component of the program allows the teachers and learners to achieve a range of objectives, including the early identification of any literacy or numeracy difficulties that need to be addressed. This component of the delivery mode also provides an opportunity to conduct study plan interviews with all the participants, arrange and provide study support, and conduct equipment and resource-based modules of the program (that is, computer-based and financial modules). Students are also encouraged to attempt assessments during the residential sessions where support is often more available.
Residential sessions are also conducted ‘on demand’ on site (community organisation or island) where there are sufficient students in one location.
Learners
The students enrolled in this program are of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent, both full- time and part-time students, many of whom are already working in community-based
organisations.
Assessment design and methods
Assessment approach
The training package assessment guidelines (BSA 97) specify that a range of assessment tools be used for assessment. They do not specify workplace assessment; however, they recommend that simulated workplace tasks may be designed.
According to the training provider, the assessment guidelines for this training package are
necessarily generic because of the diversity of contexts for assessment in this training package: ‘You can’t make them test-specific’.
In general, faculty staff purchase learning guides for these programs and these tend to include assessment guides and assessment tools. Some learning resources have been developed by the faculty, and so assessment resources have been developed at the same time or by the Product Development Unit of the institute, although other suitable resources are sourced from other Australian providers.
Students nominate when they are ready for their assessment and a number of options are available including:
² workplace assessment ² written theory assessment ² practical assessment.
Conducting assessment
Assessment methods include:² practical tests ² project ² written questions ² oral questions ² observation ² workplace assessment.
Workplace-based assessment is generally undertaken by faculty staff who are qualified certificate IV workplace assessors. When students in remote areas indicate they are ready for assessment, the institute’s assessors make arrangements to conduct on-the-job, on-site assessments, travelling to the student’s workplace or region.
Adjustments are made in both learning and assessment strategies to meet the particular needs of the learners.
A faculty staff member indicated that adapting to the needs of the learners was an important aspect of the assessment process:
Indigenous people have different ways of learning and performing and we are sensitive to this. They are very visual and practical people and we respond to that.
Learner needs and support
On first contact with the students, teachers devise a study plan, giving guidelines and indications of the approximate hours for each of the courses and the expected timeframes for assessment. This is usually conducted during a face-to-face enrolment interview. At the orientation to the course session, the course introduction booklet and the learning guides are explained. At this session, information about assessment requirements is given.
New students are invited to attend a one-week residential program at the next scheduled session. These residential sessions are held once a month at the various institute campuses or on demand when suitable numbers of students are available. During these sessions small tutorial groups are conducted and assessment opportunities offered.
The college recognises the need and importance of constant and frequent contact with students— to monitor learning and assessment progress. To manage this essential contact with students, a teacher in the faculty is responsible for contact roles within a particular catchment area. Generally the teachers use telephone and fax to maintain this contact.
We use as many tactics as possible to keep in touch with students.
The residential sessions are also conducted during the course, particularly to allow learners to access the computer equipment and software. While serving a number of purposes for supporting assessment, the residential sessions are also an important motivational aspect of the course, allowing learners to meet with others in the program, conduct visits to the main campuses of the institute and have face-to-face contact with the teaching staff.