The rise of remote learning
What a difference a month makes. For all of us the world has become a very different place, with so many of us at home, working when we can and trying to keep occupied in other ways when we cannot. Out of this recent change there have been some amazing stories of individuals and people getting done what needs to be done in new and sometimes challenging situations. The way in which my colleagues at Seafish changed from office based to home based in a few hours while maintaining our support for the industry was heartening to see.
Over the last few weeks we have seen the rise of video conferencing, of home schooling, and remote learning. To meet these needs we have started to develop new ways of working with our training providers. We already had open learning, online learning and distance learning programmes in place, but these relied on traditional face to face exams and assessments.
Our first remote learning course will take place later this month. The Bivalve Purification Operations course will see our trainers deliver what should have been a one-day standard face to face course, over two shorter, half day sessions via video conferencing to trainees on the south coast and in Jersey. It will include for the first time a remotely invigilated multiple-choice exam.
Remote invigilation of exams is also something we have made great strides with in the last three weeks. We are now able to offer invigilated multiple-choice exams online, as well as traditional short answer or even essay style exams marked by an external examiner. We have trialled both types and are ready to offer them to potential students across the UK. Some of our hygiene open learning programme students will sit their remote exams over the next few weeks.
Remote, robust invigilation of exams is the key difference between courses and qualifications that are regulated and accredited and those that are not. The extra effort taken to ensure that the candidate is who they say they are and that the work they put into their exam is their own, and only their own is vital if they and their employers are to have trust in the resulting qualifications.
Our trainers will welcome these new innovations as they need to continue to deliver a service to employers, and I hope our employers will embrace these changes as both a short-term solution and a long-term improvement.
If you have any good examples of remote learning in action or training need, then please get in touch using onshore@seafish.co.uk
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