Framework/Strategy projects

Interact employees provide services within the community, disability, offender management, employment and hospitality industries. This project targets Interact's Community Services Division employees, who provide services to people with a disability or who have mental health issues.

This project came about from a desire expressed by our business partners to be able to train their employees (in aged care and disability services) in the skills to provide a selection of reflexology techniques to the clients/residents in their care.

Apprentices/traineesDisabilitiesGeographically isolated BHI is partnering with SPELD Victoria, a not-for-profit organisation that provides support for people with specific learning difficulties, to design, develop and implement a virtual classroom for use with: -students with learning disabilities -mature-aged tutors, many of whom are volunteers and not highly tech-savvy in a two-pronged approach to assist SPELD in its service delivery.

The use of geographically placed matrix barcode signage linked to web based content that can be accessed via mobile devices.

Centre for Adult Education Contents Organisational overview CAE has been a leading provider of adult community education (ACE) in Victoria for 65 years, and is located in the heart of Melbourne's CBD café district in Degraves St and Flinders Lane, right by Flinders St station.

Trainspace Pty Ltd Contents Organisational overview Trainspace is an accredited training and elearning consultancy company which aims to assist training businesses with an integrated and "systems-theory" approach to RTO business management. Our goal is to provide training and eLearning solutions and the training necessary to implement these solutions.

TAFE NSW North Coast Institute Contents Organisational overview One of the ten Institutes of TAFE NSW, North Coast TAFE consists of seventeen campuses located along the coastline of northern New South Wales stretching from the Great Lakes region, north of Newcastle, through to the Queensland border.

TAFE NSW eLearning Hub Contents Organisational overview The TAFE NSW eHub provides support to the ten TAFE NSW Institutes, with a focus on advancing teachers' eLearning capability via learning experiences and knowledge sharing.

Kangan Institute has sought to improve the accessibility of video learning content by developing a user guide with instructions on attaching subtitles to web-based video. The guide, aimed at technical developers, will apply to a range of mobile devices (iPad, iPhone and Android) and to HTML5-enabled desktop browsers, and will help with WCAG 2.0 AA compliance. Certificate III Carpentry and ESL students took part in the trial, but the outcomes can be extended to all industry areas that use video.

Based on currently available open source applications, the project team identified, developed and customised multi-touch educational activities for use by learners with a disability. Outcomes included reporting how Australian Government web accessibility requirements (WCAG2 Level A - or ideally, Level AA) can be achieved on touch screen devices. The activities were trialled with students from New England Institute and Tasmania Polytechnic

This trial sought to overcome many of the technological challenges faced by educators in delivering written notes to learners, particularly those containing special symbols not easily rendered digitally. The project focused on helping vocational education and training (VET) teachers who have been traditionally isolated from online delivery because of the medium of their content. Assistance was provided by providing access to a simple, reliable method of online content creation that works without a large investment in retraining.

This trial took a series of existing interactive learning activities developed in Adobe Flash and redeveloped them in HTML5 to determine the capabilities and potential uses of this emerging technology for the development of interactive and engaging e-learning.

This trial explored whether electronic versions of printed books (eBooks) can provide streamlined training that can be accessed at a time and place convenient to the learner, thereby increasing time on the job for apprentices in the beauty industry. It explored the opportunities and challenges of converting and adapting current print resources to eBooks, including features and benefits and eBook to eBook reader compatibility.

A major challenge for educators wishing to adopt e-learning practices or redevelop their courses is the often significant lead time for development using traditional methods. Wikis offer a platform on which educators can design, develop and evaluate while simultaneously providing students with access to materials. This trial sought to inform the development of standards and guidelines around the use of wikis as development and delivery platforms, and explore the question, "Do wikis offer a sustainable, collaborative rapid development tool for the VET sector?"

The Western Sydney Institute trial team evaluated the benefits for on-the-job learners of delivering learning content, formative assessment tasks and evidence gathering via mobile devices using wireless networks. The trial integrated several established technologies (2D-barcodes, wireless networking and an open-source web server / application framework) into a customised system, in order to overcome several problems encountered when using mobile devices as a learning platform: difficult navigation and text entry using mobile phone keypads slow data transfer speeds and expense of the commercial 3G mobile network limited options for authoring and/or hosting learning content specifically for mobile devices.

CEB developed, trialled and evaluated an automatic RSS based course administration, monitoring and reporting system as part of an organisation wide e-learning infrastructure, communication, professional development, and organisational change strategy. The trial involved a real world pilot of a Web 2.0 learning model that is inclusive of a clouding concept. The suite of tools automated the delivery, submission and reporting process using RSS feeds, linked from personal and collaborative wikis, to feed readers embedded into other personal and collaborative wikis via Google.

Charles Darwin University (CDU) aimed to deliver a geo-referenced "augmented reality" tourist guide for the Red Centre Way tour, whilst contributing to the construction of national geo-locative standards. CDU conducted a pilot training program in the use of 3G capable, GPS compliant mobile computing devices in remote areas. The equipment was trialled to demonstrate how it could be deployed as a recording and reporting tool for workers conduting fieldwork and research activities in remote environments. In addition, the use of tools such as 3G capable, GPS compliant mobile computing devices and their potential for producing relevant outcomes to meet industry needs was investigated.