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case study: evaluation of a CD-ROM supported computer lab-based course |
The CEWBL1 course involved an evaluation of students' views - students were asked a number of open questions (Excel file). The findings were far from complimentary and raised a number of issues: Relevance of Course:A third of students found the content of the course irrelevant to their jobs - further discussion indicated that many of the students do not see their core role as adult education. Yet a number of policy documents indicate that this role will be considered as important in the future. This role is already a core skill of early excellence centre staff in England. Excellence Centres Pilot Programme:www.surestart.gov.uk/_doc/0-C26AF3.pdf (PDF file) This evaluation gathered evidence on the functioning, impact, and costs and funding of the pilot EECs. The evaluation included both quantitative and qualitative evidence collected in the twenty-nine pilot EECs during 2000-2001. This suggests the course may be a little ahead of its time in Scotland but also that there is a need to balance student and lecturer expectation in order to reduce student resistance. Increasing The Effectiveness Of The Course:Slightly less than half of those who responded to this question (6/15) felt that using Macs was a problem. Two students specifically wanted the teaching to be done on PCs. Further discussions suggested that some students who were new to PCs did not have sufficient IT skills to work their way through the CD-ROM files. This resulted in all students being provided with Word versions and paper versions of the CD-ROM. Sessions Dull Or Irrelevant:11 students found sessions dull or irrelevant, one student wanted smaller class sizes, 3 wanted the learning outcomes to be clarified and four wanted the course related to childhood studies/theory. This suggested that greater effort needed to be made to relate the course to their core job skills and to other courses within their programme of study. The decision was made to halve the number of computer sessions and supplement these with taught sessions with the lecturer. This meant that the lecturer could deal with issues of content and boredom by separating the classes into section and employing a diverse variety of teaching styles - e.g. group work, problem solving, set lecture. |