Flexible learning/Assessment

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To assess your learning outcomes for this course you will need to provide evidence. To assist with the generation of evidence for the learning outcomes in this course, you are asked to post to a personal blog your responses to weekly topics and readings, and to prepare a presentation and finally a plan for developing flexible learning in your practice.

The set weekly topics in this course are designed to expose participants to information that is relevant to the course learning objectives. If you have followed the course schedule and posted responses to your blog, then you will have a collected a body of evidence that is useful for assessing learning outcomes.

You are welcome to gather other forms of evidence - especially if you have prior experience to refer to. Either way, please consider the learning outcomes and the following assessment criteria carefully.

Are you ready?

Conduct a self assessment. Go back through your blog, presentation and plan (or other forms of evidence) and produce a summary that directly addresses the learning objectives for this course:

1. Discuss principles and processes of flexible teaching and learning to facilitate culture sensitive adult learning;
2. Critique the design and application of existing flexible teaching and learning options in relation to the literature;
3. Explore and justify the strategies for the development of flexible learning environments;
4. Analyse and evaluate challenges that arise in the design of flexible learning environments;

To ensure that your evidence represents learning experiences at the level required for this course (NZQA Level 7), your blog posts, presentation and plan (or other evidence) will need to include the following:

Weekly blog (or other form of similar documentation)

• Analysis and synthesis of the range of topics in this course which includes critiques, reasoning, connections and reflection.
• Original thoughts about flexible learning, relevant topics, and ideas for your own practice
• References, hyper links and attributions that illustrate a connection with other ideas and flexible learning designers and practitioners. It is not enough to simply mention other works, it must be in a form so that others can see your reference, and determine your engagement with that reference.
• You do not have to blog on time every week, but you do need to post something on every weekly topic - each post does not have to meet each of the criteria every time.
• A regular post will help stimulate discussion in the group, and keep you connected to the group and your head in the topic.
• You do need to demonstrate evidence overall of the items in the table.
• Evidence ratings: You can use these to rate your own blog posts to determine if you need to write more indepth. What do they mean? 1 - very little evidence; 2 - some evidence; 3 - average; 4 - very good; 5 - excellent.

Here is an example which may help. It uses the weekly topic: Examples of Flexible Learning - distance, correspondence, online

• 1 - very little evidence - superficially mentions online learning but not distance or correspondence;
• 2 - some evidence - refers to an example of online learning and one of distance but does not discuss them or critique them or make comparisons with own area/context - one reference;
• 3 - average - provides examples of online learning and distance learning, mentions correspondence - discusses some features and references some readings;
• 4 - very good - several examples of this type of learning mentioned with reference to several readings and discussion of ideas from the readings and relevance to their practice;
• 5 - excellent - discusses several examples of this type of learning and refers to several readings with references, and critiques several ideas and how they could be applied in context.

Topic Range	Evidence ratings from 1-5			Comments_______________________________
	Analysis and synthesis	Original thoughts	References, hyperlinks, attributions
Orientation and introductions
What is flexible learning?
Why we need flexible learning
Examples of Flexible Learning - distance, correspondence, online
Examples of Flexible Learning - part time, block, blended
Examples of Flexible Learning - open, networked, RPL
Planning for flexible teaching and learning
Issues with flexible learning - The modern Internet
Issues with flexible learning - Sustainability
Issues with flexible learning - access and equity
Issues with flexible learning - Cultural diversity
Flexible learning in educational organisations
National and International support for flexible learning development
Self assessment of Learning Outcomes

Presentation

• 15 minute presentation that is made openly available online;
• Captures initial ideas and considerations for a design for flexible learning in your practice;
• Includes a range of relevant topics from the course schedule;
• Includes information about the context in which the plan is to be implemented, such as:

• Organisational priorities
• Subject area/s
• Stakeholders needs (learners, teachers, industry/profession)
• Issues (work loads, sustainability, cultural diversity, access and equity)

• The presentation should be fit for purpose in terms of quality, scope and intended audience.
• A process for gathering feedback is available and encouraged

Comments	Presentation
	15 minutes and openly available online	Captures initial ideas and considerations	Context for implementation	Fit for purpose	Method to gather feedback
(Yes/No)	(Yes/No)	(Yes/No)	(Yes/No)	(Yes/No)
Comments	Topic Range (Please note what topics where included)
*