To give a brief overview, the course was divided into the following sections:

1) Greetings
2) Introductions
3) About Yourself
4) Buying Drinks
5) Finding Your Way
6) Shopping
7) Booking a Room
Getting Around
9) Ordering a Meal
10) Summer

Overall, I found there to be some really good aspects of the course. For example, while there was no actual online technical support, there were many options to assist you along the way, such as a Pronounciation Guide and Useful Phrase section,as well as Accessibilty Help. You also had the option to translate it to English after hearing it in Protugese.

The layout and design was great, and the use of slideshows, audio and photos from Portugal/Brazil added a degree of reality and authenticity. The only downfall in the layout and design was when you got to the Quiz section of each module, it appeared in a new pop-up box, which allowed you to view the Summary answers on the actual web page. While some people may find this helpful, when you are trying to learn something I found it more off putting.

Unfortunately I found there to be another negative. As this course was designed to be an introductory language course and I am a beginner, I felt that it started off as just words in the Greetings section however it escalated to actually phrases and sentences straight after that. After only having completeod 5 minutes of the course I hardly felt ready for this! By the last module there was a whole conversation in Portugese that you were expected to follow and then replicate.

I’m not sure if my scepticism prior to the course added to my overall view of it or not. But while I did find some negatives to it I do think it is because I was looking at a quite critically and evaluating all the little parts. If you were doing this course as a tool to actually learning the language it may be alot different. While completing the course though, I do have to say it definitely kept me interested and alert, and a lack of support did not bother me as I enjoyed the autonomy of working through something on your own. It was also interesting hearing some words and phrases that I recognised, however I thought I might have remembered more than I did! I surprised myself with my marks (ranging from 50% to 100%) however I don’t think took away too much knowledge from the whole experience!

When I realised the ironing course was not going to eventuate, I searched a varied range of online course topics, ranging from cooking to sports skills to make up, however learning a language was always in the back of my mind as something I would love to do. I think it is one of those things that many people would love to do given the opportunity, so I thought well I have the opportunity so why not do it! And it would sure be a lot more interesting than learning how to iron!

I decided to learn Portugese via a short online course on the BBC website:(http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/other/portuguese/talk/). While foreign languages in general interest me, I chose to go with Portugese as after having a Portugese exchange student during high school I became very interested in the language. The course I am doing is only a Beginner course and is a short ten part introduction to the language covering such things as greetings, directions, travelling and shopping. The course will essentially assess my learning through quizzes and interactive activities.

Since not having learnt a language since the early years of high school I am looking forward to beginning this course!

Visual: 8
Aural: 8
Read/write: 4
Kinesthetic: 6

My results indicated I have a multimodal learning preference. This is definitely something I agree with as I tend to incorporate many different styles or options when learning something. In a work context, I feel as though I learn best if things are first explained to me then demonstrated and then I can ask questions. In a personal or social setting, I prefer a quick/brief explanation then try something myself. And then differently again, when teaching or instructing someone else, I like having many different tools or back-up’s to assist my explanation, such as examples, diagrams or activities.

The results of the questionnaire essentially reinforced what I already knew and assumed to be my learning styles. As my results did not vary too much (i.e. my scores ranged only from 4 – this suggests that I am able to adapt to the mode being used or requested. I tend to agree with this as I like to be flexible and feel comfortable knowing that I can and will use a variety of styles of tools to achieve the desired outcome.

 Watkins provides some helpful tips for e-learning instructors to best prepare students for online learning success. His tips included readiness surveys the learner completes prior to beginning an online course that aims to assist them in identifying their strengths and weaknesses in regards to the study skills they might need to complete their online study. Such surverys would be helpful I think to really make learners aware of areas in their learning that they may need assistance, especially within the e-learning environment where assistance is not always freely available.

 This is an interesting article for both e-learners and facilitators alike and which raises issues that will be ongoing within the e-learning context.

We decided to focus on the following questions:

• What is a ‘Learning Centre’?
• Key Benefits of Learning Centres
• Why establish a Learning Centre?
• The Success Factors of Learning Centres
• Case Studies
• The Future of Learning Centres

While our focus was on organisation learning centres and I found a good case study that related to a specific organisational learning centre and the British company SunLife, I also found an excellent community based Learning Centre toward the end of my research. After reading through this case study, I decided to also review it and put it on the Wiki, as while its fundamental reason for establishing the Learning Centre was similar to that of the Learning Centre established at SunLife, I thought it was a veyr interesting concept and a good piece to through into the mix!

How do you select appropriate information sources – where do you start?

I started my research by searching in Google. I did this to get a broad idea of the concept and see what sort of information was out there before I started to search for my case studies.

After getting a very brief and not really a very comprehensive background on learning centres, I began my search of case studies. Websites I visited included Learning Circuits, the Australian Flexible Learning Framework, Adbobe, IBM and the Australian Training Magazine. I also then searched on the UTS databases.

What key words helped you narrow your search?

I used words such as ‘learning centres’, ‘learning environments’, ‘organisational learning centres’, ‘corporate learning centres’ and ‘community learning centres’.

What UTS Library databases or journals might be useful?

I searched in both Education and Business databases including EBSCO and ERIC.

How do you distinguish points of view from facts?

After determining the credibility of an article, either by viewing its origin (e.g. a recognised educational institution, a government body, or a peer reviewed piece) I then read through the article or case study and look out for any ‘facts’ or references. If the piece has a link to a reference, I might go and check that out too. If the article does contain facts I may research those further to gain a better idea of the concept and to further determine its accuracy and credibility.

Are your resources reliable, credible and authentic?

The case study I selected was a recognised and long established community initiative. I had also found reference to it in other web sites. Due to this, I was comfortable in the knowledge that it was reliable, credible and authentic.

Are your resources bias in any way?

As the topic of my case study, the Queensland Open Learning Network, is a government initiative, I do not believe it is bias. The case study presents many facts and information about the Network, it does not go in to great detail on feedback of the program or personal recounts and experiences with it. After finding some case studies from the IBM and Adobe websites that were based on their products and were very bias, I believe my case study was not at all biased.

• Can the organisation justify the cost?
• Will the technology infrastructure be adequate to support the new initiative or must a new infrastruce be developed?
• What support networks will be created?
• Are all staff, learners and trainers alike, ready for and able to handle this new initiative?
• How will all content and data be checked and verified prior to implementation?
• What measures will be used to determine outcomes and effectives? How will feedback be integrated?

In the second block class we discussed some factors associated with the implementation of eLearning programs. Some of them included:

• Cost
• Technology infrastructure
• Learner and trainer readiness
• Support staff
• Venues or learning centres
• Buying or building courses
• Measuring outcomes and effectivess

Support

I believe one of the critical factors organisations must address prior to the implementation of an eLearning program is support. What level of support will they provide prior to and after the implementation of such a system? Will a support network be created? Will ‘topic champions’ exist within the business or within the organisations? When eLearning initiatives are introduced on a large scale, support is absolutely critical. Support networks can field queries and problems prior to and post implementation, and can out-source or redirect queries to appropriate people. Creating a support network that is communicated to employees will remind them that they are not alone and they do have people they can turn to for support. As is the nature of eLearning, technology issues and problems are sometimes unavoidable. The introduction of a new eLearning initiative may also be daunting for employees. It is for such reasons that support is a critical factor that must be addressed by organisations when thinking about eLearning programs.

Maintaing records

There is no use introducing a new eLearning program if training records cannot be tracked or saved. Tying into to concept of support, a system such as a LMS should be addressed prior to the creation of an eLearning program, a system that can support training records and accurately reflect what training each person has undertaken. Within many large organisations today online training is compulosory. It is for such reasons that it is necessary that any education or training courses be accurately tracked and available to all employees.

Technology infrastructure

Before introducing a new eLearning program, an adequate level of technological infrastructure must exist to support it. As a new eLearning initiative is a big enough change for most, the introduction of a new technology infrastructure just to support it may result in an unsuccessful and erroneous attempt at introducing too much information at once. The technology that will support an eLearning system must already be established, tried and tested so that its ability to support the new program is never in doubt.

Content

The content of all eLearning programs must be correct. While the implementation of new systems can be difficult, it is absolutely imperitve that all data and information that is going to be made available by the eLearning program be checked and any problems or mistakes be reported prior to implementation. There is nothing worse than a new system being launched that is riddled with erros and mistakes, and often once an eLearning program has been introduced it is very difficult to go back and change content. When being made available on a large scale it is critical that all data and information stored in an eLearning program be correct.

While many other issues must be addressed prior to implementation of an eLearning program, the above few are very important and critical to ongoing success within an organisation.