E-course on the MARLISCO educational pack, 23-30 June 2014
The course aimed to introduce the newly produced educational material Know, Feel, Act! to Stop Marine Litter: Lesson Plans and activities for middle level students to formal and non formal European educators.
As becomes evident by its title, the educational material has been prepared to inform, sensitise and enable European teachers and students to take action to tackle litter in our seas and coasts. The educational material has just been finalised in English language it will soon be available in English as well as many European languages.
During its 8-day lifetime, the 69 course trainees viewed & commented videos, studied online documents, undertook e-assignments, shared their experiences in online discussion Forums, and developed their own ideas thus forming a lively, highly engaged learning community. On behalf of the facilitators, it has been a pleasure and honour to run this e-course from which we have learnt a lot ourselves. We are certainly motivated to repeat it.
Iro Alampei, Course Facilitator
1st July 2014
The educational material “Know, feel, act! to stop Marine Litter”
The material contains 17 learning activities examining the characteristics, sources, effects and possible ways to tackle the problem, addressing it from an environmental, societal, cultural and economic point of view. It has been designed to primarily serve youth aged 10-15 yrs, but can be used also by educators outside the formal schooling system.
THE 8 DAYS E-COURSE
During the e-course an overview of the educational pack was presented, and effective ways it could be incorporated in real life were demonstrated. Trainers and learners jointly shaped a learning community that simulated characteristic activities of the Pack, tested their validity and appropriateness, and suggested ways to adjust them and possibly improve them. The course gave also the participants the opportunity to talk about the obstacles they face in implementing the activities and exchange views on ways to overcome them.
Course type: asynchronous
Time investment: 16 hrs total workload (~ 2 hrs daily)
PARTICIPANTS
For this first pilot round 69 participants from 13 countries were accepted (from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Turkey and the UK). They were coming from the formal as well as the non formal education sector but most, if not all of them, had an experience with marine litter issues either as educators, or field practitioners. How many of them completed the course?
40 of them (58%) successfully completed the course,
15 (22%) never signed in, while
14 (20%) completed only parts of it.
As the high drop-out rates are common, and considered an integral part of e-courses, internationally, the 58% rate of completion is considered a success for our e-course.
COURSE EVALUATION
The course was evaluated by the University of Plymouth by the means of a questionnaire. Detailed statistical analysis is beyond the scope of this report; however in the table below the average responses of the 31 trainees that kindly filled it are presented. A 7-scale Likert type was used.
|
|
The e-course: |
Average on a 1-7 scale |
Average % |
|
1 |
...was relevant and well linked to the EduPack "Know feel act! to stop marine litter" |
6.5 |
93 |
|
2 |
...was the right level of complexity |
6.0 |
85 |
|
3 |
...offered sufficient guidance on how to use the EduPack |
5.9 |
84 |
|
4 |
…was appropriate and useful for non-formal educators |
5.9 |
84 |
|
5 |
…was appropriate and useful for formal educators |
6.3 |
89 |
|
6 |
…had an appropriate time allocation (~12-16 hrs over 8 days) in order to achieve its objectives |
5.8 |
83 |
|
7 |
…gave me a good chance to voice my opinions in discussions |
6.3 |
90 |
|
8 |
…offered enough opportunity to ask questions |
6.1 |
88 |
|
9 |
…was well facilitated by the trainers |
6.4 |
92 |
|
10 |
…contained e-tools that I may use in the |
6.1 |
87 |
|
11 |
…achieved its objectives as described in the beginning |
6.3 |
91 |
|
12 |
…had a satisfactory level of engagement on behalf of the learners |
5.9 |
84 |
There is a high degree of trainees’ satisfaction as demonstrated by the high average scores in all 12 questions. According to the trainees, aspects that may be improved in future rounds of this course are:
It could host more trainees (depending on the facilitators’ capacities)
The 8 days schedule was considered very tight to some trainees that requested the course to last longer.
“Group work” exercises in such a tight schedule have been challenging. Such exercises may be more effective if done on individual basis.
An online forum could be set up to see how people are using adapting the pack in the future.
If done during the school year it could include a section for students.
A section for the "curious" who want to read more literature on ML could be added.
The course facilitators will take on, to the extent possible these valuable comments for the second round of the e-course that is to take place in autumn 2014.
THE COURSE ORGANISERS
Mediterranean Information Office for Environment, Culture & Sustainable Development (MIO-ECSDE)
Established in 1995 MIO-ECSDE is a non-profit Federation of NGOs from the Mediterranean region working in the field of Environment and Sustainable Development.
Contact MIO-ECSDE: www.mio-ecsde.org, info@mio-ecsde.org
Mediterranean Education Initiative for Environment and Sustainability (MEdIES)
Launched in Johannesburg (WSSD, 2002), MEdIES is MIO-ECSDE’s primal education imitative, with the objective to provide capacity building on ESD through publications, trainings and the facilitation of an e-network of educators.
Contact MEDIES: www.medies.net, info@medies.net