End of week 1 at Bower Place

Overall a good week, apart from a few teething problems which of course is to be expected. The students are so excited to be at Bower Place, everyone was very keen and a lot of students turned up on Monday. It was maybe a bit disappointing for them there were no clients but Marten organised DVDs and exercises for the students in observation so I think that was very valuable for those that were there.

My week has been full on with students on the Moodle keeping track of what everyone is doing and problem solving. Still lots of activity from students and still lots of interaction on the forums with students answering each other's questions. People are starting to blog and I have collated a list of emails so students can "invite" readers as a way to keep their blogs private.

Wednesday afternoon, I only had 3 students in the computer room wanting help. I don't think this was necessarily a reflection of all who needed help but I had to laugh when a couple of students said Wednesday lunchtime after we had all been to the tutorial together that they would leave coming to see me until another day because I looked so tired. :-)

Today we had lots of students in the computer room including three who still hadn't got onto Moodle so that was fantastic to know at the end of the day everyone was in. I pointed a number of students to the videos I had created as I couldn't help all of them at the same time so I was very glad I had done those. I was surprised more students hadn't looked at them but my observation today would have been most were just looking for the instant answer to their questions or someone to show them what to do. I did get some positive feedback about the videos once they saw one or two so hopefully they will go there for help when I am not available.

The forum for the competency "Utilise specialist communication skills" was opened on Sunday and at the time of writing this had 77 posts. This is where students are answering activities. I was very pleased to see how quickly they started this task and how quickly they are posting answers.

So, to sum up, I think it was a good week with lots of positive outcomes and continued improvement by the students with the technology.