Citation
(2006), "Workplace learning “turned on its head” by new digital centre", Education + Training, Vol. 48 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/et.2006.00448fab.004
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2006, Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Workplace learning “turned on its head” by new digital centre
A £1.64m centre that proposes to turn the traditional higher education approach to employment-related learning on its head has opened at the Institute of Education. The Centre for Excellence in Work-based Learning for Education Professionals (WLE Centre) aims to enhance the learning experience by developing innovative approaches to teaching, learning and assessment. Targeted at public and private-sector employees who are learning while working, it will develop better understandings of the ways in which people learn through everyday work practices. Co-director Professor Karen Evans said:
Rather than starting with subject knowledge and seeing how it can be applied to work environments, we acknowledge that work-based learning starts in the workplace with everyday practice and is enhanced by intellectual resources from outside.
The centre will enhance work-based learning through digital technologies, allowing people to develop multimodal portfolios, such as video diaries and podcasts. “Students will be able to enrich printed materials with digital video resources. We're challenging the idea of the 5,000-word essay as coursework,” says co-director Dr Norbert Pachler. The WLE Centre contains a broadcast-quality digital TV studio with easy-to-operate cameras which allow even the most inexperienced to produce usable footage that can be video streamed, podcast or transmitted over the internet, making it ideal for e-learners. “It bridges the gap between learning in the workplace and in a university,” says Dr Pachler, “and will provide learning opportunities for professionals from all walks of life, including businesses, NGOs and the health service as well as teachers, governors and classroom assistants.”
The WLE Centre is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England.