Education Initiatives
Effective teaching and learning require three relationships to be present in the process (in a classroom, in print-based distance education or technology-based programs) and in any educational context (school, college, university, professional development).
It is critical that the process of teaching and learning be viewed in terms of relationships because it involves key elements in direct interaction – each impacting the other as the process unfolds. The relationships being: teacher-student; student-content and student-student.
Dr Peter Jamieson, who was instrumental in designing the teaching spaces within Marcus Oldham’s new Learning Centre, is working with the Lecturing Team as it adjusts to online teaching.
The Lecturing Team are meeting regularly through ZOOM as part of a professional development program. The aim is to promote increased sharing of effective remote teaching methods within the Marcus lecturer team. The focus is to encourage lecturers to reflect on what is working well and on those issues which are problematic. These findings will lay the foundation for the continual improvement of the College’s approach to distance education.
To assist with the delivery of online teaching, the College continues to utilise the functions of the Learning Management System called D2L – Desire to Learn, which is cloud based software comprising a number of integrated platforms. The two main platforms being utilised are the learning environment and the learning repository.
The lecturing team are discovering the most applicable use and features of these tools through a combination of professional development sessions and first-hand experience. In addition to email and phone contact, this includes services such as: D2L (LMS for curriculum content & assessment); Custom timetable app (class scheduling); Zoom (face to face video calls, instant messaging, casual support); Microsoft Teams (group-based activities, file sharing/collaboration) and Studiosity (student study support).
D2L is a critical component to servicing and educating our students from a distance.