I believe that every participant in the PGE in VET course agrees that the e-Learning Module has helped us develop our e-skills in some way or another. We have blogged, contributed on the forum, created Wiki’s and cross-fertilized ideas and teaching methods amongst the teaching community at MCAST in a way that we can now provide better quality teaching to our students.
I believe that this benefits the students, the lecturing staff, MCAST as an institution, and the Maltese society at large.
But, at the end of this one month of e-Learning, the question that comes to mind is “What lies ahead for E-Learning at MCAST?”
First of all, I believe that it would really be a pity if all the contributions of the PGC in VET course attendants are lost, or put aside on some inaccessible server. I have read with interest various blogs and Wiki’s and found them to be extremely helpful and informative. Unfortunately, come July they will probably be inaccessible!
Secondly, a decision must be taken: if e-Learning is the way forward in Education, then we must set up a framework within MCAST that supports and promotes it within our teaching community. This should be supported by proper investment, the provision of resources, training and the allowance of time for e-Learning development.
Colleagues, I would like to hear your comments and suggestions on the matter. What next for E-Learning at MCAST?
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I think that the best way to go about it, is to have pilot projects which could analyze a number of issues in e-learning related to both students and teachers. Some of these issues would include student achievement in e-learning as opposed to face to face learning. Student’s attitude towards e-learning may also be observed. On the other hand, teachers may determine the time required to teach particular units online, rather than have them class based. If the time allotted is not sufficient to have the course online, then this would indicate that teachers having the same unit should be given more time for preparation, otherwise it would be best to opt for the traditional system, for learning to be effective. Feedback in online learning may also be analysed and studies may verify whether this is as effective as that given in traditional face to face classes.
ReplyDeleteShould such projects indicate that e-learning gives better overall results than face to face instruction, then this may be a good indication to implement such a system for certain courses at MCAST. Such pilot projects would not exclude the possibility of having a combination of online and face to face instruction. Should this be the case, a blended approach might be considered.
Personally I feel that this material will be hardly used by anyone in particular once that we will be ready, although I see no reason why this material shall be removed or made inaccessible. The material will still be available, but the question I ask is; who will be making use of such information? There is a lot of good material, but personally I think that it lacks a bit of structure. Unless there will be someone who is doing some research related to e-learning in general I do not know who will be making use of it.
ReplyDeleteI form part of the IICT Institute and although we do not have a full framework in place, we do use tools such as Moodle and our students have adapted quite well to such a system. All the presentations, worksheets, videos and material related to the subject are uploaded in Moodle and are accessible to all the students. I personally feel that this kind of system is working really well and with some fine tuning it can be made even better. There are a number of different things that one can introduce and with the appropriate training one could do far better work.
For instance we can introduce online test and assignments like CISCO and Microsoft which will help improve our assignment system in a way that we can test more for the knowledge of the student rather that the language skills.
ReplyDeleteI cannot really say whether all the material will still be made available for MCAST lecturers, but what I can suggest is that if you find something on Moodle which is of particular interest then you can just download it and have a better look at it or go through it in the future.
ReplyDeleteE learning and MCAST, an interesting subject but is it achievable?
ReplyDeleteMy colleague Louis has put forward an interesting questions with regards to our collage ability to integrate such systems in the various institutes.
I would like to reply to that question with another question. How can we combine the e-learning systems for the various institutes if we find it difficult to conform the same institutes with regards to much more straight forward things such as assignment approach and delivery?
I do not believe this is an insurmountable task but I do believe a pilot project (as mentioned by Victoria) would greatly increase the chances of the project being implemented.
Of course not all subjects could adopt this approach and not all at once but an initial push on the theoretical subjects could greatly increase the student's attention and collaboration.
For example I teach the theoretical mechanisms of welding and other fabrication techniques. Already for this subject, I use powerpoint presentations and short video tutorials during my class sessions. I find no difficulty in posting such material on such sites as moodle etc. At the same time, I wouldn't picture how the students would learn the practical side of welding and fabrication from their computers. In the end they would have to come in the workshop anyway.
I would like to point out another problem. Already mentioned above is that teachers must be equipped with proper resources. It’s already a lot that we’re doing all these staff like presentation and clips etc from our own resources. What about our students? Are all of them provided with a pc and an internet connection? I would suggest that prior stating a pilot survey or something similar, a survey is made to check how equipped are our students. Nevertheless, I also believe that in the near future, MCAST must invest in electronic learning.
ReplyDeleteIt is a good approach to look at the e-Learning module and try to find ways in which we can implement what we learned at MCAST. I think that online courses are not particularly necessary for our students. In fact as David said the practical side of vocational courses still needs to be carried out in labs or workshops. However I believe that there is a lot that can be done in order to start implementing technologically enhanced teaching and learning.
ReplyDeleteIt is true that lack of resources will always be a problem but in the 2 years that I have been at MCAST I have already seen an improvement. In fact one of the latest acquisitions at our institute is an interactive whiteboard while we now have dataloggers in our lab. What I would like however is training on how to use such equipment or at least time to get used to them. Very often we don’t have enough time to get used to them and thus are unable to use them to their fullest potential. Moreover with regards to Moodle I ask myself why cannot all Institutes have such a platform to be used for the benefits of both the lecturers and students like at ICT?
A final suggestion I want to make is that it would be a good idea if each MCAST student had a personalised online account that is accessible from everywhere on campus. When I was studying abroad back in 1999 each student had such an account which was very useful. This account included all relevant student matters such as courses being followed, books on library loan, books ordered through inter-library loan, University and Faculty notices, exam results and any other postings related to the particular student. I remember that I used to use it very often to renew books for instance or to check my grades. It could be that some institutes already have something similar but ideally this should be the case for all MCAST students.
Mildred
I am dedicating my final Blog on this topic. How about instead of putting this information and experiences aside utilize them in a different way. Why not MCAST organize tutorials to the rest of the lecturers and let them participate in Wiki postings? Once you get used to this system everyone will start to participate. Imagine every lecturer will post technical articles and personal experiences. MCAST will own a huge source of information available online and continuously updated by the lecturers themselves. All it needs is someone who can monitor and manage it. Every lecturer will have the right to upload notes, scenarios and even videos that are related to the topics that we teach.
ReplyDeleteApart from that just for entertainment purposes another Wiki or Blog can be introduced discussing hobbies. Every lecturer can post photos, recorded lessons, comments and even forums for questions and answers assisting each other as one big family.
Finally I must say that most of MCAST lecturers come from different industries and sectors so why not take the opportunity and let us share these experiences with each other using this relatively new communication system.
Nice final blog Chris... so what's next? Everything down the drain? All this bla bla for nothing? What’s the use of writing and expressing our thoughts and opinions if these fall on deaf ears or blind persons? I'm still trying to understand how MCAST works about these issues and would like the opinion of experienced staff on this matter.
ReplyDeleteI cannot help to note the sense of pessimism which permeates through the string of posts above. I also hope that our effort (not only in this module but also in the others) is not "All bla bla for nothing" as Ken put it.
ReplyDeleteI am confident that the administrative/executive body at MCAST is aware of the many difficulties lecturers are facing and struggling with at MCAST.
I have been at MCAST for almost two years now and my feeling is that the college is still in its formative years which is, to a certain extent, a positive thing in itself as it still allows us (administration and lecturing staff) room to make adjustments and any necessary corrective changes to improve our service to students.
My only hope is that measures are taken so that the implementation of such changes is effective particularly in terms of providing a healthier learning environment.
The current educational trend in EU countries to achieve ever larger numbers of students seems to contradict this.
'Equal opportunities' or 'education for all' seem to be the buzz words most conveniently used to justify this but the experience of the people on the ground seems to be that in due process we are suffering from a decline in quality.
Only time will tell if the country(ies) have benefitted from this or not ... we cannot and should not try to predict the future ... all we can do for the time being is discuss honestly and with responsibility the issues concerning us, share these experiences and hope for the best.
I agree with what Christopher is proposing about the strategies mentioned to continue advancing within this e-Learning spectrum created. However, I tend to disagree with his statement that ‘everybody will start to participate’. This is because for this to happen there has to be the right motivational atmosphere created, which is hard to feel at times.
ReplyDeleteOn the contrary though, if this is the case, I think it would be of great benefit to extend the invitation to other college as well as University lecturers, both local and foreign, who lecture within the same subject area to be involved in sharing knowledge and information through such blogs. This will give all lecturers the opportunity to become aware of certain differences, in culture, teaching methods and also in sharing of necessary knowledge and information.
I appreciate the concern and points of all of you regarding the need to preserve this big source of information and discussions that we have created on the blogs, forums and wiki.
ReplyDeleteI am afraid that once that June is over, all this information will be removed from our access and yes it will be down the drain. In my opinion this should stay and we should build on it. We should have someone appointed from us or from central IT to sustain it, the same way as Ms Vanessa is doing as at present. This coordinator could be the person starting a forum discussion etc. I think that if all this information is removed, we are simply archiving work as we do with exams, assignments etc. And what is normally the end result? They are never accessed anymore and are lost. BUT, if we keep sustaining such blogs, forums and especially wikis, we could say in a few years’ time that we are the proud initiators of such VLE and I am quite sure that this will evolve exponentially and the sharing of information, will keep us lecturers united together towards achieving a more sustainable VLE. opefully this VLE eventually replaces most of the paperwork and provides more learning opportunities for our students to study online in a more effective way.
In some way or another we all agree that using e-learning to teach certain subjects would simply add value to our approach in teaching at the College. E-learning makes subjects much more interesting to learn and to follow. Keeping a balance, we should see that we gradually build up an e-learning framework in every department. All teachers must be encouraged to use some sort of e learning in their teaching. This should be coupled by added IT resources at the college. Lecturers should find the necessary technical support to produce new e-learning programmes. All lecturers should use their expertise to think and create e-learning methods that compliment well the demand of their students, thus developing e-learning resources that really fill in the existing gap between the students and the teachers. On the other hand teachers and lecturers should find all the support they need for them to be able to develop their ideas into reality and produce the necessary e-learning methods. Therefore I see a centralised solution where developers and producers are organised in one department, offering backend support to all lecturers in different departments, offering them the possibility of producing at least one e learning initiative each year. Once this e-learning support system proves successful, it would be the time for MCAST to invest heavily further in providing the necessary resources and production facilities. We should strive to be leaders in the creative industry.
ReplyDeleteGilbert in an earlier blog mentioned 'I cannot help to note the sense of pessimism which permeates through the string of posts above'.
ReplyDeleteWhy is this I ask? is it because most of the staff at MCAST are demotivated? some of us are only at MCAST for the holidays and because the private industry is doing so badly that the only place to work is with the government? and we are doing this course only to get a wage increase? I know I'm being controversial in my last few blogs, but lets face the facts guys!
During my one and a half years at MCAST I experienced a slow, outdated, very poorly governed and bureaucratic institution where to do something it has to be approved from the top and I don't mean the director of the institute, but the principal himself. And,many a time this is not approved even if it's a good idea.
Yes,we are pessimistic because we don't see a bright future, because we are threatened all the time by are superiors, because the institution is governed like a dictatorship and because we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
Finally, to say something on the subject, I'm afraid that after the course is finished all this hype of e-learning (blogging, WIKI, forum etc)will fade away. Already, some of the correspondents have stated 'this is my last blog' that shows that they are counting the number to satisfy the requirements set by the course lecturer, and who is now going to volunteer to replace Vanessa and keep tracking and everything going? Do you know that the last time the IICT website was updated was in 2006?
If we want to include, implement and start using e-learning tools in our classrooms and between us we need a change of mentality and you need to start from the top!
Ken, if MCAST is to venture seriously into elearning it must equip all the teachers with the necessary tools. This may include a pc/laptop and an internet connection. As regards to students, I think that in todays world most of the students have access to a pc and to internet. In my opinion few are those who do not have any. It wouls be useless if MCAST were to offer elarning access in libraries for example, because the concept of elearning would be lost. Lets not forget that the idea behind elearning is to be able to study from home at your own pace.
ReplyDeleteI think we should be careful on this issue. In my opinion eLearning should aid teachers, not replace the traditional teaching methods. Using elearning to replace traditional teaching methods will eliminate the student teacher relationship. This is vital for our job.
ReplyDelete