On 29/10/21 9:27 am, Roger Clarke wrote:
Another article in the same paper reported on a flotilla of no-longer-used TAFE premises being quietly sold off. ...
Universities are also selling off, demolishing or re-purposing obsolete classrooms. These are being replaced with multipurpose teaching rooms, integrated with entertainment and recreational facilities, accommodation, and commercial offices:
https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2020/08/higher-education-after-covid-19-webinar.html#mall
Some courses *do* lend themselves to primarily remote learning. (There are loads of fill-in-the-paperwork 'qualifications' ...
Fill-in-the-paperwork qualifications are one of the good features of Vocational Education and Training. If you can show you already know how to do something, TAFE doesn't make you waste time going through a whole course. I obtained 80% of a Certificate IV in Training and Assessment this way.
But the trades? And especially the high-tech trades ...
Yes. The old TAFE infrastructure is of no use for high-tech trades. Where new facilities are needed, they can be much more compact. An example is the Canberra Institute of Technology's building for renewable energy students at Bruce campus.
Remote, and virtually hands-on?? Haptics isn't at that level, and may never catch up with the sci-fi and marketers' visions. ...
Yes, I am helping with a systematic research study of how VR is being used in learning.
But you don't need VR for most hands on training. The apprentice learns most skills on the job, under supervision of a master. The teacher then checks this was done.
This is the approach used by universities for hands on skills in areas such as medicine, engineering and IT. Students don't learn much sitting in a classroom just listening to a teacher, they need to be doing things, first in a teaching workshop, then in the real world. Teaching and assessing this way takes time to learn.
More on this in my "Keeping the best bits of online learning after COVID-19" webinar next week from Canada: https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2021/10/keep-calm-and-carry-online-webinar.html
-- Tom Worthington http://www.tomw.net.au _______________________________________________ Link mailing list [email protected] https://mailman.anu.edu.au/mailman/listinfo/link
