The BA Childhood Studies is a new part-time course for non-traditional entrants. The universities of Scotland are keen to promote access to achievement for non-traditional entrants (see www.universities-scotland.ac.uk/Publications/A2A.pdf - PDF file).
This part of our web-essay will concentrate on the BA Childhood Studies (BACS) provision for IT support (specifically on a CD-ROM/workplace related course entitled Community Education work based learning 1 CEWBL1) and on issues of monitoring and evaluation. General IT support is provided to students, however, the BACS specifically employed the CEWBL1 course to enable us to develop the students' IT skills (download CEWBL1 handbook in Word format). The students attended a computer lab for two hours a weeks and worked on 4 exercises a semester. Each exercise had hyperlinks to key texts and websites. Some exercises were carried out in groups and others individually. In semester two (next semester) the students will learn how to incorporate this work into an eportfolio. This is important, as a key aim of this course is to provide training that along with student's other experiences will enable them to apply for registration at manager/lead practitioner level with the Scottish Social Services Council. On completion of their course students will require to show the SSSC the body of work they have carried out. They will also have to demonstrate in future years evidence of continued professional development.
Conclusion:
It is important to make the aims and outcomes of courses clear to students in a way that highlights their importance and relevance. Many students require face to face social opportunities to voice their concerns about courses and to have their concerns addressed. My own experience of non-face to face learning made me particularly sympathetic to these student concerns. I have come to the conclusion that no one single approach to teaching and learning will work for all students and that particularly those who come from more oral backgrounds require explanations by word of mouth and face to face. I think that a totally on-line course does not provide sufficient social opportunities where students have different timetables and work full-time. This is particularly the case when students have children. This suggests that advice on how to increase the numbers of non-traditional students in HE should not simply consider parent's needs to centre around provision of day time child care to attend classes. They should also consider how having children influences their ability to take time out in the evenings and out of class time to use net based resources.