Stakeholders!

International exams involve students sitting a 50 question externally provided MCQ closed book theory test and a % based practical assessment for each of the treatments they have studied. For example, the student's on the Certificate Programme will sit a total of 9 theory papers and 8 practical assessments – all of which are marked by external examiners - these exams are all optional - but - if students are seeking to work in the industry we highly recommend that they undertake them.

Employers in the industry place a strong focus on the international qualifications and therefore they really set the benchmark for the students and us as tutors.

Aoraki polytechnic has a strong focus on the industry expertise of the tutors: the following is a statement from the website

"We offer a wide range of courses and programmes at certificate and diploma level that can help you achieve your career goals and support you in becoming all that you can be. If you are entering tertiary education for the first time, returning to study, or simply wishing to up skill in a specific field, we can help.
We have excellent supportive tutors and small class sizes. Our qualifications have been developed in collaboration with experts in relevant industries, professions and trades. They are practical; student focused and have excellent employment outcomes"

As stakeholders - students will expect to be "work ready" at the end of their training.

Two of the aims stated in the polytechnic's charter are that:

To achieve our mission, we are committed to the values of:
Lifetime learning
• through the provision of learning opportunities relevant to all our students

Success
• by supporting students to succeed in their chosen pathway of learning

both of these statements are related to my new course - by encouraging students to undertake more practical, supervised and supported learning and by offering some new options to enhance their learning through the use of moodle - hopefully we will be able to achieve another one of the goals! that of retention!!

I am now going to try and work out how to work this .eXe thing! my learning outcome for tonight!!!

The importance of pronunciation!

Learning outcomes and activities

"This photo by D Sharon Pruitt"

So, a little more detail needed about how these Learning outcomes can be taught and delivered and assessed!

Our second year Diploma students currently run a clinic, with members of the public booking in for the full range of treatments that the students have studied over their 2 years with us.

The aim of the new course that I am planning is to give our 1^st year students an insight into the "real" world of work! Where they will not have 2 hours to do a facial and an hour to wax complete a manicure – with morning tea and lunch times too!!

Many of the students in our 2^nd year Diploma course are already working in industry and therefore have the experience of the "real" world, but for others they complete their training in the first year and then don't do anything at all with those skills for the 2^nd year and could end up being a little rusty and thrown in the deep end when they manage to gain employment at the end of the course. So, feedback from the students at the end of their second year in regard to their clinic days has been incredibly positive.

So there are number of teaching strategies that have worked with this group of students that should quite easily transfer to the first year students:

• The clinic is run by the students, one of the students is manager for the day and is responsible for the smooth running of the clinic for that session, each student is rostered onto clinic for one day, if for some reason they are absent that day it is their responsibility to organise a replacement staff member for the clinic manager - very much creating their own learning but with the support of tutor
  


• The salon manager organises the students duties for start of clinic and end of clinic ensuring that each therapist is available and has their work area prepared - again creating their own learning
  


• Each therapist is responsible for their client's welfare and care from the moment they arrive to the moment they leave, students are expected to seek clarification if they are unsure of any contra-indication that the client may present with – and a tutor is always in the room supervising the clinic and assisting students where needed.
  


• For the first few weeks of clinic practicum students maybe paired together to work on certain treatments to ensure that the client is not delayed – this also has proved good for students confidence when students who may struggle with some aspect of the practical are paired with a student who may be a bit stronger in that area.
  


• Students use their own consultation forms and write up a report of the treatment that they gave – this encourages self –reflection and gives them ideas for areas that they may need to work on to improve their treatments
  


• 
  
  Professional appearance and presentation are an International standard requirement for the Beauty therapy industry – our students undertake International exams at the end of their training – these are externally assessed and the appearance mark for these exams can be the difference between a pass and fail for them.
  
  
  

  Within this learning outcome we give the students strict guidelines on how they should be dressed and how they should appear this is detailed here on the http://www.itecworld.co.uk/ website on their marking crtieria page
  We would use these guidelines to mark the appearance part of learning outcome 2, I would support this learning with links to relevant information on the internet, I would get the students to research the standard requirements for appearance and get students to produce a case study/poster/model of required appearance - I could even use a pre-test on moodle to ensure students were up to speed prior to assessment. and they could be asked to find a relevant video such as this one



• 
  

  Role play is another option for this learning outcome - particularly in relation to the "behaviour" wording - I could set-up audio or video clips showing "professional" and "unprofessional" behaviour for students to view and comment on - this could be done individually or as a group as a class activity



• 
  

  Learning outcome 1 assessment would be completed as practical observation of the range of treatments – each treatment would be observed – this would be a competency based assessment with competency given to students who complete the treatments in the commercially acceptable time. Timing guidelines are again an International standard or are governed by the manufacturer of the product, these time frames would be pre-tested over the weeks leading up to this course - and much practise would be done on each of the treatments in the range - this could be done at home with video evidence taken - a sequencing test could be prepared for moodle to ensure students were ready for the assessment
  

Neomillenial learning and our students

Learning styles for the Neomillenial students
I have linked to this article on the WIKI that we have been collaborating on producing, but thought I would add the link here too!
Some interesting reading - I especially relate to the "napsterism-the recombining of other's designs to individual, personally tailored configurations" the orginal source of this idea is here about how we download music and create our own "albums" rather than buying the whole "L.P." (that's how old I am - I still remember buying my first record - !"


So, how does this relate to my students and the course I am designing?

Obviously it's looking increasingly important to cater for the students that come into this "neomillenial" group, and if I look at the age of the majority of students enrolled on the full time programme they are all born after 1982!! The latest enquiries have students born in 1993!
when this was number one!


and this age group have grown up with multimedia and digital media from the day they were born almost!
So how can I get this integrated into the course, and do I want to focus solely on these students,
as some of our students are certainly in the more mature age group to whom the thought of typing a document on the computer scares the life out of them.

So options for use of flexible learning - as I said in the previous post - I have come up with the rough ideas for the learning outcomes - now I need to think about the students and how I'm going to deliver any necessary learning and how I am going to be able to assess the learning.

We talked about this at the workshop last week -

Some options for delivering material -

• Moodle - with quizzes, video tutorials, sequencing activities that we were shown the other day e.g. checking we are doing things in the right order


• Workshops


• Printed notes if necessary - not sure that they will be for this course


• Forums


• Videos of techniques


• Audio for role plays of reception - ? recording the students as they participate in the activity - maynbe this could form part of assessment???


• Video of students undertaking activities required - again ? assessment

Assessment activities will have to be approved by academic board and ensure they meet the quality criteria for course delivery through the Polytechnic, pre-assessment moderation would be carried out prior to the assessment tasks to ensure learning outcomes and assessment tasks are suitable and at the required level.

Industry liason would be sought at Advisory committee level to source feedback on the activities that industry requires students to be more competent in.

Our ITEC our international examing body expect all students to complete a number of case studies, and have a portfolio of work for their final examination, a practical clinic course would give students a further opportunity to enhance their skills on "real" people.

Much more to think about still - but now need to have a play with the .eXe thing! apparently it's the easy way of producing HTML according to our Web design tutor!

Constructing courses to enhance learning

OK - so I need to discuss my planning for the course I am designing as part of the CCEL requirement.
I have been scribbling lots of notes on various bits of paper during moments of quiet in a very busy work day - assessment and International exam preparation time at the moment - and lots of stressed students needing lots of attention and coaching!

So the plan - (as the plan I made for the flexible learning course does not meet all of the criteria for this course - but - I have put the idea into practise already and all my students are making use of it - http://www.aorakibeautycert.blogspot.com/ if you want to check it out)

To develop a 5 credit course titled
"Clinical practice in the Beauty Therapy Salon"
The course would be delivered with 32 hours face to face over an 8 week period - as the focus is on performing treatments in a simulated salon environment and 18 hours delivered flexibly as self-directed learning.

The purpose of the course would be to enhance the students practical experience and make them more work ready. Constructivism theory is discussed here in more detail .
It would give the students the opportunity to use the skills that they have learned and build on their skills in a "simulated" real life working situation, and give them an idea of what they could experience at work - maybe even somewhere gorgoeous like this:



It will give students an opportunity to build on their knowledge and encourage some self-direction.
Students on the course would be part of the full-time Certificate in Beauty Therapy - the learning outcomes are quite broad at the moment and I made need to focus these to ensure that they can be assessed.
The majority of the students are school leavers, some are young mothers and several more mature ladies returning to study or seeking a change of career.
The learning style of the students tends to be a visual or kinsathetic learning style (see posting for more discussion on this)

I have organised a meeting in Timaru during the school holidays to discuss the feasability of using Moodle for the course -
The learning outcomes I am proposing :
L.O.1 - Perform a range of Beauty therapy treatments in a commercially acceptable time under salon conditions.
L.O.2 - Show professional standards of behaviour, grooming and hygiene in the salon environment


















L.O.3 - Review and reflect on all treatments performed in the salon.
L.O.4 - Describe and discuss the role of the receptionist and undertake reception duties as reuired.

I would expect to use moodle as the discussion board to assess learning outcomes 3 and 4 - possibly in the forum pages
I would use moodle as a repository for learning materials to support the students learning - I will also be trying to post short video clips and audio clips to cover LO's 3 and 4
L.O.'s 1 and 2 would need to be assessed in the salon setting - these learning outcomes may need a bit more refining .

I will add another post about how industry, and other stakeholders may need to be taken into account