Context: I’m pursuing a WSQ Diploma in Adult and Continuing Education (DACE). As part of my first module, CM1: Develop Practice Through Reflection (RP), I’m keeping an online journal of my reflections with artifacts (pictures). Hope it works out!
I have always advocated the use of technology in learning – I think that’s the future of learning and young learners are always excited when lessons incorporate media and technology. Why would it be a stumbling block to anyone? But it can be – especially when it’s poorly implemented.
The other day I was waiting for my DACE receipt to be printed out, so I was doing some work at the pantry area on level 7 of IAL. A stranger, D (D is not one of my classmates), was also doing some work. Long story short, we struck up a conversation and I learnt that D was doing WSQ Advanced Certificate in Learning and Performance (ACLP) and he learnt that I was doing DACE.
Some background here – I took WSQ Advanced Certificate in Training and Assessment (ACTA) earlier in 2019, and I was in one of the last few batches to do so. We were told it would be replaced with WSQ Advanced Certificate in Learning and Performance (ACLP) later in 2019, but it was effectively the same qualification (ie, with an ACTA or ACLP, you are certified to deliver WSQ courses).
So back to D.
He asked me about my ACTA experience. At that time I had the impression that ACLP was just another iteration of ACTA so I shared what I knew, and talked to him about the learners guides, which are basically pdf “textbooks” for each module. He looked lost, and didn’t seem to understand what I meant by the learners guides. I thought it was just a matter of looking for the PDFs and downloading them, so I offered to show him where it was on Canvas (our learning management system). It wouldn’t take more than two minutes right?
Wrong.
I couldn’t find it. As far as I could tell, there was no easily printable form of the notes. As I redoubled my search efforts, he also told me that his classmate said that there was no way to download the materials on Canvas (the e-learning platform they used; it’s the equivalent of Blackboard, if you’re from NTU) – which was shocking, because I thought everyone would be taught about the Export Course Content button (it’s currently missing on my DACE programme due to a multitude of technical errors, process lapses and sheer sloppiness, but that’s another entry for another day) (it was available for my ACTA programme).
I helped him to export his course content, and that’s when I learnt that his whole class didn’t know how to use Canvas. They didn’t know they could export content, the various functions, and there was literally nobody they could ask (try looking for technical support on the IAL website).
That’s when I realised that if you didn’t already have the digital skills and experience to learn how to use Canvas by yourself, you definitely wouldn’t have the skills to look for online support. That was the issue with IAL’s administration of DACE, and also a learning point for me – if I had created an online course by myself, I would similarly assume that it was easy to look for online assistance in the event of any problems.
It’s a vicious cycle – if you don’t have the digital skills to master a new learning management system, you’re going to come away with an aversion to technology. This aversion means that you’re going to try even less the next time you encounter a problem, leading to more failures and a further shift towards being averse to technology. Without any intervention or easily accessible help, you’re going to hate e-learning.
So I ended up being late for my next appointment. I helped him to export course content, showed him how to access it locally on his computer. I forgot that adults benefit greatly from experiential learning so I didn’t ask him to do it himself and show me, but he showed me how he ran through the process anyway. I think it was empowering for him to do it himself, and he learnt he could put it in a thumb drive and access it anywhere else (theoretically).
It was a good reminder of the need for experiential learning.
More importantly, it was a reminder that e-learning needs to be carefully implemented in an intentional and structured way. The way ACLP has implemented e-learning has probably done a disservice to many learners, especially if this is their first experience with e-learning and they are not as IT savvy as the course creators. I guess this is an example of what happens when e-courses are implemented for the sake of having an e-course.
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Yup! I totally agree with your assessment.
But I guess they will make it simpler in the future, as of right now it’s more like a test-tube season where they gather all the feedback of the first few cohorts and fine-tune as they go along.
The attrition rate is quite high for ACLP-takers and I reckon is a way to weed out too many trainers who are interested in this path, unfortunately. My feeling? I felt they implement for the sake of implementing. No clear directives, just because the top says go digital, everybody has to.
I don’t really see the practicality of implementing digital. Let’s be honest, are your learners IT-savvy enough? Are the infrastructure ready (Laptops/mobile-devices/applications)? I felt it’s the mindset that needs to change for both the learners and facilitators more so than just going through the motion of learning these new parameters.
A simple question posed to any Singaporean, would you prefer to attend a F2F session or an e-learning session?
Nuff’ said.
Thanks Johnny! You’re absolutely right – it is just implementation for the sake of implementation. You won’t believe the number of errors in the DACE online materials. If you compare their e-learning system to any for-profit ones, you’ll realise how low the bar is set. Worst of all, their management team seems to find it funny and they don’t seem to think it is a problem. Pretty worrying when they are teaching learners about e-learning too…