My Plan

Hi all

After much reading of blogs ( and very little writing) and a lot of thinking I am now reasonably comfortable in the concept of my plan for FL.  I have  decided on attempting to develop a plan for an audience that we do not currently target or have much interaction with. This will be a new course aimed at new students who would not traditionallly engage with OP. I have decided not to look at existing courses and modify.
 There are two key drivers for me in making this decision. One is to support those learners ( who I know anectodeally) are keen to gain more skills and knowledge but who do not have the time or resources t ostudy in a traditional manner.
The second driver is to look at attracting new and different clientele into OP.
The plan I will be developing will be based on developing resources and learning material t osupport volunteer coaches.
The reason we need to increase flexibility of course design are two fold;
1) the vast majority of these people will never make a living ( career ) out of sports coaching, they need paid employment (or other income) to live.
2) regardless of extra qualifications and skills gained there is still  a very small percentage of paid coaches, therefore one could argue there is little incentive to invest more ( of their precious) time and money into gaining a qualification (or further quals).

Therefore we need to meet their needs by designing courses that are flexible and student centered. An interesting aspect I will be covering is the concept of    

Missing in Action

Haven't been blogging of late, but have just caught up on several discussions going around. Particulary like what Liz and Fred have been posting. generally agree with what they are saying and would like to add another element to flexibility and that is time taken to complete. The more I start thinking about this "whole" flexible learning I am more inclined to lead towards "open education" (is this one end of the flexible learning continum?)
Unfornuatley there are some government and institution constarints that (at this stage) will not allow this to happen.
My vision would be to have resources available for all (unlimited access, free) this would allow self teaching. When the student is confident/ comfortable with what they have achieved they then would apply for an assessment to get formal recognition of their learning. (this is where we could recoup some  of the costs of developing and maintaining "open materials".
There are obviously some constraints around this presently, I am more looking at the philosophy of this approach. The  practicalities would need some working through. This option would not suit all learners (and perhaps all subject matter?) however it could fill a gap in the market.

Access and equal opportunity would be one practicality that would need to be addressed. One of the issues facing flexible teaching is the use of technology. We are faced with a myriad  of software and hardware systems. How many of these can "talk to each other"? If we are serious about equal opportunity and access this is an area that needs to be addressed. For example how many different formats can a recording be saved as? Can they all be played through, laptop, DVD player, etc??
With my limited knowledge I understand that there is some  work around this and the one example I know of is Unitube. it is my understanding that there has been some code written that will allow you to post "video" in any format and it is then converted to be read and shown through the unitube medium. If this is correct this to me is a great example of helping some access issues.

why this course?

Within our industry (sport) there are very few paid coaching positions. One of the biggest barriers for people volunteering (in my opinion) is the perceived lack of time. Another issue is the lack of training and self belief that people can coach.
In a previous role I was responsible for delivering coach education and it was a real struggle to get people to attend the traditional weekend courses. I did experiment with a correspondence type situation and that worked moderately successful. If we wish to engage with a large volunteer population my belief is we need to be  able to deliver material in a time and manner that suits them. We cannot expect them to make even more sacrafices to upskill themselves.
In addition to this I teach a level 5 course on the Graduate Diploma in Physical Conditioning. I taught this course for the first time in 2010. It is a flexible delivered course with intensive blocks. The face to face was  not a problem however my first illuminate teaching session, was MY WORST session ever!!!!! Wow did I feel inadequate. A steep learning curve and I managed to bluff my way through the year. Hopefully I can gain a better understanding to enhance my teaching.....

Roger

First Class

Hi All

 My apologies for missing the the first face to face class yesterday. I think I will have a bit of catching up to do!!! Looking forward to joining in this afternoon.
I am a senior lecturer/ programme manager at the Otago Institute of Sport and Adventure. I have management repsonsibilities for the Certificate in High Performance and also for the Management and Coaching specialty within the Diploma of Applied Sport and Exercise Leadership.
I have been employed by OP since 2005. I have experienced a variety of work environements, including teaching, slaes rep, courier, CEO Regional Sporting Organisation.
I have this week been re-appointed a s nationa lsenior selector for Badminton New Zealand.

Roger