Posts Tagged ‘education’
Training & Assessment Glossary (for TAA40104 & TAA50104)
The following glossary is intended to be of assistance to TAA40104 (Certificate IV in Training & Assessment) & TAA50104 (Diploma in Training & Assessment) candidates:
AAC: Australian Apprenticeships Centres (AAC) are contracted by the Australian Government. Staff help complete and lodge the training contract. They also provide general information about apprenticeships and traineeships and process claims for employer incentive and apprentice or trainee allowances.
Accredited course: A group of modules established to meet an industry training need which is not covered by a qualification.
Appeal process: A process whereby the person being assessed, or other interested party, such as an employer, may dispute the outcome of an assessment and seek reassessment.
Apprenticeship: A structured employment based training program that leads to apprentices becoming qualified tradespersons and gaining a nationally recognised qualification. Apprenticeships are established by the Minister, through a Parliamentary process and may be full-time, part-time or school-based.
AQF: The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) is a unified system of national qualifications in schools, vocational education and training and the higher education sector
AQTF: The Australian Quality Training Framework (AQTF) is the national set of standards which assures nationally consistent, high quality training and assessment services for the clients of Australia’s vocational education and training system.
Assessment instruments: Course-specific materials used to conduct and record a particular assessment, including materials to be filled in by learners. Some of these can be customisable templates.
Attrition rate: The proportion of students starting who discontinue through withdrawal, dropping out, etc.
Audit: A systematic, independent and documented process for obtaining evidence to determine whether the activities and related outcomes of a training organisation comply with the Australian Quality Training Framework Standards for Registered Training Organisations.
Certificates I–IV: A set of qualifications awarded in the vocational education and training sector and recognised Read the rest of this entry »
Most popular incoming search terms for this page: Related postsWill a Business Services Qualification help for an MBA?
Students studying one of the Business Services Training Package (BSB07) certificate or diploma qualifications occasionally ask how useful the course will be towards attaining a place on a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program. Unfortunately there is no simple answer due to a number of factors:
Not All MBA Courses are EqualGood MBA schools are expensive to attend and provide an excellent education. The majority of MBA schools however are of a poor quality and are quite simply a waste of time (i.e. job advancement after attaining an MBA won’t be forthcoming and the course content will be inadequate). When selecting a MBA school to attend it is always a good idea to attend one of the best. There are two means of discovering the worth of an MBA school; rankings and accreditation;
- Rankings: Ranking of MBA schools and programs is a contentious issue as the means of ranking and interpretation of data is sometimes questionable. The most respected rankings are those by the Financial Times, The Economist and Businessweek. Choose a school or program ranked in the in the top 50 to be guaranteed of a good MBA program.
- Accreditation: There are three major MBA accreditation bodies; EQUIS, AMBA and AACSB. Accreditation by any of these three guarantees a reasonable standard of education (a few Schools such as Henley Business School are accredited by all three).
Unfortunately a Certificate IV in Business, Diploma of International Business or any other Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) qualification from the Read the rest of this entry »
Most popular incoming search terms for this page: Related postsNew Australian Training Website
For my regular Website visitors you may have noticed a few changes over the past two weeks; my URL has changed to http://eckstein.id.au, the ‘look and feel’ of the Site has changed and the content has had a refresh (the blog posts remain the same however).
The reasons for this are;
- The work I perform has changed since I originally set up my Website; I now perform far more custom training as well as deliver training for certificate and diploma courses (specifically in Management/Business and I.T.) in Sydney.
- For Search Engine Optimization (SEO) purposes, aligning my URL Top Level Domain (TLD) with the location of my target audience is the best thing to do (my target customers/clients are those in Australia therefore a .au TLD rather than a .com is most appropriate).
- I love training and want to keep increasing my exposure as a freelance/contract trainer and deliverer of custom courses. The new Website affords the opportunity to focus on my training and assessment interests.
I was very fortunate with my old URL (and the content) to have some significant highlights such as being listed on a Wikipedia Quality Management (specifically the Theory of Constraints) Wiki as recommended further reading. Reddit and Digg also helped to refer over 10,000 visitors a day for some time J. Having built up an Online reputation it takes serious consideration to change a successful URL however I firmly believe that, even although the number of visitors to http://eckstein.id.au will likely decrease, the quality of visitors will increase in proportion of the total number of visitors (SEO is about quality and quantity).
I am very excited about this new Website where I will be continuing to post technical and management articles to the Blog however will increasingly add further training, education and assessment related articles. I will be communicating more effectively on this site as to the services I offer which include working for Registered Training Organizations (RTOs) as a trainer and assessor as well as expanding the offering of custom courses where demand has far exceeded my expectations (e.g. ‘How to Create Simple and Effective Electronic Newsletters’ and ‘Create and Manage Your Own Professional Website’).
As an aside, for those wondering, yes I am still an avid WordPress fan. Just as the Site before, this Site is powered by WordPress.
Related postsGuide to Learning Management Systems
Learning Management Systems (also termed Course Management Systems (CMS) learning content management systems (LCMSs) and sometimes Corporate Learning Systems (CLS)) have significantly enhanced learning capabilities within educational institutions (universities, schools, training providers etc.) as well as within individual organizations (government departments, businesses etc.). LMS solutions are becoming more attractive to organizations through enhanced features and reliability as well as reducing costs, in particular as a result of significant improvements in Open Source LMS products.
LMS Categories and ConsiderationsLearning Management Systems (LMS) are available in two broad categories; Open Source (and free) and paid-for (propriety). LMS could be categorised in a number of other ways such as by the market they serve (universities, private colleges etc.), by capability or any other means. Implementing a LMS takes considerable effort therefore it is essential to clearly identify the ‘business’ needs of the organization prior to selecting a LMS to implement i.e. what educational and/or training needs is the organization wanting to address by implementing a LMS?
It has already been mentioned that implementing a LMS is a significant task. The needs analysis, configuration (and possibly customization), training and ongoing support (among other tasks) all take time and effort and subsequently money. In general LMS are very powerful and competent Tools capable of fulfilling way more needs than the average organization will require. The time and effort required in configuring the software to meet the needs of the organization as well as the training in, and administering of, the software should not be underestimated. The effort (and related expense) in implementing and using a LMS however offers significant competitive and economic advantages to organizations and the Return on Investment (ROI) on a well implemented LMS is generally very favourable. LMS are not implement and forget solutions (such as Microsoft Word) however a well implemented, configured and managed solution generally proves hugely beneficial to organizations providing and managing learning and training (including large corporate, government departments, Registered Training Organizations (RTO), individual trainers, Online training providers and so on).
LMS ProductsSo what are the choices in relation to Learning Management Systems (the below are not LMS reviews but rather some information about a few of the LMS solutions available)?
Free (all Open Source)Most of the Open Source Systems are based on Apache, PHP and MYSQL making installation simple and inexpensive (or free). The software for each LMS is free to download, install, use and update and all have comprehensive free documentation and forums.
LMS Some Users Other aTutor Radiochemistry Society, Los Rios Community College- Standards compliance is a strong point.
- Acknowledged as the best LMS in terms of accessibility features.
- Developed by the Adaptive Technology Resource Centre (ATRC) at the University of Toronto
- The Claroline Consortium non-profit manages the advancement of Clarion.
- Claroline has a strong university focus.
- Extensive documentation Online and forums.
- Strong focus on useability
(China), Aerospace Consulting & Services Ltd (U.K.), Novell Deutschland GmbH (Germany)
- Extensive Add-ons, Plugins, Online documentation and forums.
- Particularly popular in Europe.
- Strong focus on Business use.
- Used at over 40,000 sites with most sites having less than 5,000 users.
- Enjoys significant free Online resources such as forums, documentation and user groups.
- Equally adept for small, medium and large organizations.
- Free for Educational Use. Based on Java Platform.
- Created and developed by an alliance of mostly educational institutions.
Most of the ‘paid-for’ LMS solutions are based on Microsoft .NET and/or Java technologies. Some of the more widely used paid-for LMS Solutions are:
LMS Some Users Other Blackboard Mayo Clinic, Lockheed Martin Corporation, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services- Large number of implementations
- Integration with the Open Source Joomla Content Management System.
- Based on PHP and MYSQL
- Widely used and well known
- Focus on large organizations
- Strong marketing of product
- For large and medium size organizations.
- Tight integration with SAP ERP HCM.
- Relative newcomer with version 1 being released in 2008.
- Integrated with Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 platform and Microsoft Office Communication Server 2007.
There are valid reasons for organizations to use paid-for LMS Solutions such as licensing agreements with related products, specific integration requirements and so on. For most organizations however the free solutions will offer everything the paid-for alternatives offer (and often more) with all the benefits at a lower cost. The days of limited support, usability and functionality of Open Source software is over in terms of the good Open Source alternatives (the University of Canterbury published an interesting LMS review based on their trial of Moodle and Blackboard LMS solutions).
Which particular Learning Management System to implement and use however is dependent on each organizations requirements matched to the solutions capabilities and constraints. My current favourites are Moodle and ILIAS for their extensive capabilities, reliability, Online documentation and resources and generally lower Total Cost of Ownership (TOC).
Most popular incoming search terms for this page: Related postsFive Best MBA Books
Thinking of enrolling on an MBA program? Then these five books are essential reads (in no specific order):
1. Michael Porter – Competitive Strategy
