09-12

=**Sustainable Business**= toc

**RTO**
Byron Region Community College

**Contact**
Richard Vinycomb

**Category**
Empowering learners

Executive summary
Exploring, developing, trialling and evaluating e-learning methods and tools as a case study in innovative delivery of the new sustainability business units

Final report
= Background = Adult Community Education (ACE) belongs to the Byron community, through the presence of a vibrant, dynamic and responsive Community College which offers a large and popular range of vocational and lifestyle programs.

There are Community Colleges throughout the State, each reflecting the composition and skills base of its own community. They are the heart of the ACE sector, which is the continuation of a long history of adult education in places such as the Byron Shire, a history which started 100 years ago with the Literary Institute. Organisations like ACE have worked to give ordinary people access to post-secondary education, vocational qualifications and locally accessible life enrichment courses throughout their lives.

Governments at all 3 levels in Australia are now giving major priority to climate change. The response to the climate change agenda is of vital importance to Government, Business and the Community. The Northern Rivers Region of NSW, in particular Byron Region Community College, has capacity, interest and motivation to lead some of the education required to achieve targets and create it from an empowering grass roots perspective

This project addressed a compelling need to provide flexible training tools for business in sustainable work practices and the development of sustainable workplace policy and procedures. This project offered the opportunity to develop examples of flexible learning materials and educational process to support the implementation of three new key green skills business units. (BSBSUS: 201A, 301A and 501A) = Project implementation and sustainability = Activities that assisted the sustainability of our project included:

Byron Region Community College will continue to measure and champion the success of the project over the next 3 years. We will be frequently checking on industry needs via the local business network (Byron United), the relevant regional body (Northern Rivers Development Board) and national associations (ITAB and CC Australia) = The solution = The project, through action research, involved small and medium business people at each stage of the project to ensure those new to e-learning methodology and resources needs were met. A trial group was invited to share their experiences and evaluate both process and learning resources.
 * The benefits can flow on and be communicated to all ACE VET staff via our regular e-newsletter.
 * Attendance at the e-learning 09 ensured that the wider VET communication was provided with up to date information on project outcomes and outputs.
 * The changes will be implemented on our website in our promotion for enrolments in 2010 courses and available for anyone interested to see or inquire further.
 * The content and IT experts ran initial tests and checks on the look and feel of the learning systems as well as the validity of reference material.
 * The useability of the products has been evaluated by the trial group and other potential users and business operators throughout its life cycle.

Project participants worked towards the mainstreaming of sustainability planning and practice in workplace change at all levels of operation. They were also able to access the program using communication technology from home and work. Flexible access was considered an essential option in this project as many participants were time poor and often at considerable distance from a central face to face location. To complement this flexible approach specifically designed face to face sessions were incorporated to compliment e-learning and improve group communication and motivation.

The project team implemented a variety of resources including: = Benefits = During the project the team has developed practical, universally usable examples of e-trainers’ e-learners’ resources for the 3 units of competence. We believe that this will be of great interest to other RTOs, prospective students around the country and business operators seeking improvements via professional development for staff with providing upgraded qualifications. A Resource model is available via the website www.byroncollege.org.au/eswp. = Framework resources = The NSW Toolbox Champion worked with us on researching (eg through LORN) any e-resources that had been produced regarding sustainability across all training packages. We found nothing and came to the conclusion that this was pioneering work and that we were starting from the beginning in this relatively new high priority information design field. = The results = During this process we have discovered a number of exciting new interactive tools for the presentation of course material. Using mixed media kept the participants engaged, interested and inspired to explore further. Business people involved found this method of learning convenient, flexible and accessible. The facilitator found this to be an easily navigable, engaging and flexible vehicle for presenting to varied learning styles.
 * Interactive web-based e-communication (blogs)
 * // Articulate ( // // rapid e-learning software and e-learning authoring tools – including scored quizzes) // //, //
 * audio file sharing (podcasting),
 * video recording and sharing (youtube),
 * still images collection and sharing (flickr).
 * Blog plugins ( Apture, PollDaddy Polls - WP-Polls  ,
 * Simple:Press Forum – a fully featured but simple page-based forum for student to student and tutor interactive communications),
 * Kimili Flash Embed - provides a full Wordpress interface for   [|SWFObject]     - the best way to embed Flash on the site,
 * FLV Embed video - Standards compliant FLV embedding in blog posts using SWFObject and FLV Player. Supports Video Sitemap generation.
 * Skype – instant messaging, voice and video communications

Participants were interviewed and recorded (audio and video) to gather their feedback. Participant interviews and trials highlighted the agility achieved and time-saved through having information, links and resources all in the one site. Participants’ feedback through contact questions gave further direction for continuous improvement and also recorded how on-line access assisted in behavioral change resulting in a positive shift towards ownership, understanding and implementation of everyday workplace practices in a sometimes skeptical and resistant business climate.

Flickr photos

Sustainable work practices course