WBL Shots

Is the WBL Process:

• A portfolio process?
• A course process?
• …or is it a postbox process?

When we lived in a paper-based world, we seemed to reach the conclusion that WBL was best delivered via a Portfolio-Based Approach.  Now the world has gone digital, however, we seem to have lost track of that reality?

In the paper-based world, we seemed to have concluded that:

1. A candidate-led experience was better than a tutor-dominated course (i.e. Mahara is better than Moodle for WBL) and that
2. We should seek to assess a learner’s portfolio rather than get a learner to submit to our institutionalised assessment requirements (ie an ePortfolio tool is better than an eAssessment tool)

To give full disclosure, TDM  http://tdm.info are (for all the right reasons) an official Mahara Partner:  http://mahara.org/

In this audio clip, Derrin – a passionate advocate of Work-Based Learning – expresses his frustration with the state of play in digital WBL today and puts the case that Portfolio-Based Learning should still be the preferred approach, even in a digital world, for the delivery of Work-Based Learning…

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Has WBL become too Assessor-Led?

Work-Based Learning in the UK ain’t what it used to be. Many people who are working in our sector today complain that work-based learning has lost its essence as a candidate-led, portfolio-based learning/skills development approach. Our sector has sadly, some people feel, become a little more than an assessor-led, qualification-based “tracking system” – where the emphasis is more oriented towards simply awarding qualifications as quickly as possible.

In this episode, Derrin talks to two anonymous assessors, based somewhere in the UK’s West Midlands. The assessors have interesting comments to make about how / why the assessor-led dominance may have come about…

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This WBL-Shots Ricochet episode features extracts from a conversation Derrin had last week with Mike Askew, Chief Executive of the Staffordshire Providers’ Association (SPA) after they had both attended a Functional Skills briefing event somewhere in the West Midlands.

Important – If you haven’t already listened to the WBL-Shot 01 on Functional Skills… you should scroll down the page to listen to that audio-clip first. These WBL-Shot Ricochet episodes serve as extensions of the original WBL-Shot episode.  Not all WBL-Shots will have a Ricochet episode.

In this WBL-Shot Ricochet, Derrin was still making the case that the new Functional Skills approach  just might be a backwards step in Work-Based Learning androgogy.   While he believes that it is more important than ever (!) for the UK to deal with really useful Functional Skills development for those in the workplace, Derrin also believes that candidate-led and portfolio-based learning is the essence of Work-Based Learning.  He is wondering aloud whether or not the de-personalised approach of task/simulation-based learning is actually the best way to approach Functional Skills Development for people on vocational learning programmes.

Mike Askew suggested that the root of the functional skills problem, and the responsibility for it lies elsewhere.  Mike also raised some very real concerns about the practicalities of Functional Skills roll-out within the work-Based Learning sector.  Mike and Derrin also briefly discussed a real business opportunity for those interested in functional skills and in learning technologies…

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To comment, please scroll down for the “Leave a Reply” circle for WBL-Shot 01…

Is it all getting too "Teachery"?

From September 2010, it is mandatory for all Apprenticeships providers to include Functional Skills as an element of their delivery – replacing Key Skills.

Practical support is available from regional FS co-ordinators and via:  http://www.fssupport.org/

In this audio clip, we talk about some of the feedback we have been hearing from people running the Functional skills pilots… and we wonder if all is going to be easy-going in this national implementation…

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Hello, and welcome to the WBL Shots online radio show and discussion space. This is the place to come for regular, short blasts of Work-Based Learning news and debate. We will be shooting off about some of the biggest issues related to WBL and WBL e-Learning. We look forward to seeing you getting involved and making your views heard!

Keep a look out for the first WBL Shot – coming March 1st..

WBL Shots is delivered as a part of the WMSPN WBL Online Project