Free Colorful Spring Blossoms in Pink on Blue Sky byD Sharon Pruitt

Spring is here and so is the updated course timetable for semester two. It is also on the course wiki.  It was a buzz to take part in the speed-chatting exercise, and lots of you have gone on to complete your assignments.

The timetable is a guide for helping you to finish by the end of the year. I am very happy to meet with people before the next workshop if you need help with planning for flexibility.  Next workshop - Thursday 28 October - 15:00 to 16:30 - Venue: H312.

Make sure you check out the information about planning, and the list of reference material.

You may wish to listen to this recording of Willie Campbell and others talking about the practice of assessing prior learning and how it is being used for more flexibility in the education process at Otago Polytechnic. Note that the recording is of an Elluminate web conference. Audio only will be available soon.

Week 7

As with any design, good planning is key to its success. In planning for flexible learning, obviously we start with an idea. To check that the idea is sound, we take it through a number of checks and balances. Is the idea based on a need? What resources will the idea need? How sustainable can the idea be?

To do

1. Identify a course or unit in your organisation where you think you could introduce flexible learning opportunities to do either or both of the following:

• reach potential students/clients;
• enhance learning experiences for existing students/clients.

2. On your blog note down some ideas and seek feedback from your colleagues, classmates and course facilitators; this is an initial investigation for preparing a presentation (assignment 2) and plan (assignment 3) for developing flexible learning in your own context.

• Include in your blog post some references to examples which you can use as a basis or model for your ideas.
• Don't forget to ask other participants and the course facilitators for some ideas and assistance.

3. Familiarise yourself with the guidelines for Assignment Two: Presentation of initial flexible learning plan, in particular the suggestions for methods you can use to present your plan.

• Jot down ideas on your blog about the method you may use for your presentation.
  

extra resources

• Flexible learning development plan template - use as a guide for developing your plan if your place of work does not already have something similar. NB. Link is to a template, please do not edit the template directly.
• Lockwood, Fred. (1998). The Design and Production of Self-Instructional Materials. The Open and Flexible Learning Series. London: Kogan Page. Note: this is a Google Book preview and some pages are missing.