Exploring organisations
Course information
Learning outcomes
Course schedule
Introduction
The reflective cycle
Preparation for the face-to-face session
Information about the face-to-face session
Following the face-to-face session
Guide
Reporting back
Shared learning
Evaluation and certification
References
Course information
You will need access to:
- a computer with a web browser
- a group of Diploma in IT higher level learners.
Duration of the course: 8 hours over six weeks
- Online total: 4 hours
- Offline total: 4 hours
- face-to-face: 2 hours
- workplace: 2 hours (working with learners on the Exploring organisations unit).
Learning outcomes
Professional and reflective practitioner skills
At the completion of this course, you should be able to:
- understand how to embed available resources into a delivery plan for the Exploring organisations unit
- work with learners on the tasks and activities available within the Exploring organisations unit to produce outcomes appropriate for assessment
- identify areas where personal, learning and thinking skills can be developed and assessed within the Exploring organisations unit.
Practical skills
At the completion of this course, you should be able to:
- apply the assessment criteria for the appropriate awarding body to learners’ outcomes generated by activities in the e-skills UK resources
- recognise and assess the functional skills demonstrated by learners as they complete tasks and activities in the Exploring organisations unit.
Knowledge and understanding
At the completion of this course, you should be able to demonstrate:
- that you understand how to use e-skills UK teaching and learning resources in conjunction with local employers to deliver the Exploring organisations unit
- that you know how you and your learners access the e-skills UK learning resources through the Staffroom and the BigAmbition website.
Cognitive skills
At the completion of this course, you should be able to:
- identify how employer resources displayed on the BigAmbition website can be used by students to augment their understanding of organisations’ structure and culture
- identify opportunities to make use of local employer engagement to support learners’ understanding of organisations’ structure and culture.
Course schedule
Table 1 Course schedule
Week / Activities / Type / Duration1 / Activity 1 Registering for the Staffroom / Online / 10 minutes
Activity 2 Exploring the Staffroom and the BigAmbition website / Online / 40 minutes
Activity 3 The specification for the Exploring organisations unit / Online / 40 minutes
2 / Face-to-face session / Collaborative / 2 hours
3 – 5 / Activity 4 Posting in the forum / Online / 30 minutes
Activity 5 Work with the learning resource and a local employer to deliver Exploring organisations / Collaborative / 2 hours
6 / Activity 6 Reporting back to the forum / Online / 1 hour
Activity 7 Extracting our shared learning / Online / 45 minutes
Activity 8 Course evaluation / Online / 15 minutes
Total 8 hours
Introduction
This course demonstrates how to use the e-skills UK interactive resources with local employers to deliver the Diploma in IT Exploring organisations unit to higher level students.
The course materials are arranged in three sections:
- preparation for the face-to-face session
- information about the face-to-face session
- following the face-to-face session.
The reflective cycle
Vital courses are based on a cycle of professional reflective practice as shown in the diagram below.
This cycle draws on, and develops, personal and professional knowledge bases. The latter may be seen in the literature, resources, policies and other materials that are used to inform practice.
Throughout the course small icons will indicate the stage of the cycle being addressed.
NB Prof/Pers KB = Professional/Personal knowledge base.
Preparation for the face-to-face session
This preparation will take around 90 minutes. We will assume that you have completed this as the course facilitator will be addressing activities 1-3 at the beginning of the face-to-face session.
Activity 1 Registering for the Staffroom
10 minutes in the days preceding the face-to-face session
Before the facilitated session, go to the e-skills Staffroom. From here you can register by clicking on the grey register button on the right side of the page. You will need to register your school for access to the Staffroom. There is a database of schools already available on the Staffroom. If your school is not listed, contact as soon as possible, and at least four days before the facilitated session. Insert ‘Vital Course Registration’ as the subject of your email and your registration will be organised within 24 hours of receipt.
End of activity.
Activity 2 Exploring the Staffroom and the BigAmbition website
40 minutes in the days preceding the face-to-face session
The objective of this course activity is to become more familiar with the layout and structure of the Staffroom and the BigAmbition website.
Enter the Staffroom and visit the 14-19 learning content area by using the drop down menu option on the right hand side of the page. Browse the learning journeys available and familiarise yourself with the structure of a learning journey and its component nuggets of learning.
Visit the BigAmbition website and click on one of the moving ‘cool companies’ logos which are located on the right side of the page. This will display information from the company chosen, but will also reveal the menu on the left hand side of almost 50 different employers who support BigAmbition. Browse the content available from these employers and reflect on how delivery of the Exploring organisations unit could draw upon these resources.
End of activity.
Activity 3 The specification for the Exploring organisations unit
40 minutes in the days preceding the face-to-face session
The objective of this course activity is to familiarise yourself with the assessment requirements for the Exploring organisations unit.
The three awarding bodies that accredit the Diploma in IT are AQA/City and Guilds, Edexcel and OCR. You may have already made a decision about which of these boards you are using for the Diploma. Go to their website and look at the assessment criteria for the higher level Exploring organisations unit. You may already be familiar with this. If not, look at the four learning objectives that are assessed during this unit. These are summarised in Table 2.
Table 2
Learning objective / AQA/City and Guilds / Edexcel / OCRLO.1 / Business functions, role and responsibilities within different types of organisation and how technology can support them / Know that organisations have different structures, cultures and roles / Understand different organisational structures, cultures and roles
LO.2 / Organisational cultures, values and goals within organisations / Understand the purpose of key business processes / Understand the purpose of key business processes
LO.3 / Business processes / Understand how and why technology is used to support business processes / Know how the use of technology supports business processes
LO.4 / Setting up and running a simulated mini-enterprise / Understand that a number of factors contribute to the success of a business / Be able to explore key factors in an organisation’s success
Read through the details of your chosen awarding body specification in preparation for the section in the face-to-face session that reflects on how the Exploring organisations journey can be assessed using any of these criteria.
Principal learning objectives for higher level can be found in the following documents:
AQA/City and Guilds (page 29):
Edexcel (page 11):
OCR (page 11):
End of activity.
Information about the face-to-face session
You will have received information about the venue and time of the face-to-face component of this course. You will have two hours with a facilitator and other delegates during which ideas for delivering the Exploring organisations unit by using e-skills UK resources on the Staffroom and BigAmbition with local employers will be demonstrated. The course will also consider how the unit will typically be assessed by all three awarding bodies for principal learning and functional skills. Opportunities to assess personal learning and thinking skills (PLTS) will also be covered. A participant forum associated with this course will open when this session is completed. The pre-course preparation is important for this course. You should have registered with the e-skills Staffroom and familiarised yourself with the Exploring organisations unit assessment criteria for your chosen awarding body, prior to attending the face-to-face session.
Following the face-to-face session
Contacting participants
Activity 4 Posting in the forum
30 minutes in the days following the face-to-face session
The objective of this course activity is to make contact with participants of the face-to-face session and have opportunity to share ideas emerging from the course so far.
Guide
You will find more information on the use of forums in this Forum guide
As explained by your facilitator in the face-to-face session, the course forum is available to all participants in the course after the end of the two hour facilitated session.
Go to the forum and post a message to the other participants. You may wish to reflect on the course so far, or your plans for making use of the demonstrated resources with employers.
End of activity.
Working with learners
Activity 5 Work with the learning resource and a local employer to deliver Exploring organisations
2 hours maximum during weeks three to five of the course
The objective of this course activity is to create a delivery mechanism for the Exploring organisations unit by using learning resource examples with local employers.
Working with a local employer from any business sector, create learning resources modelled on those supplied in the Exploring organisations learning journey that can be used in the classroom. The resources provided in the learning journey include interviews, CVs, case studies, role models and activities. These are based on a fictitious company Nuware and can be used to illustrate key concepts such as organisational structures, roles and cultures.
Go into the Exploring organisations learning journey and select a ‘meet the….’ nugget of learning. Make notes about the key information that is included in the resource. Reflect on how this could form the basis of a template to collect information from a local employer. Think about whether learners could create a questionnaire or interview schedule that would help to get the information from an employer that is needed for this unit. Look at one of the interviews for further help with the questions that might be asked.
Learners need to understand how different job roles fit into teams and larger structures within organisations. In the ‘meet the..’ nuggets there is a diagram under the ‘with’ tab that shows how the person’s role fits into the wider organisational structure. This can be used as a template to give to a local employer. Reflect on how you would support learners to create organisational structure charts for a local employer.
Continue to look at the Exploring organisations resources. There may be areas where employers would be sensitive about revealing too much information about their company, for example, when carrying out a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats). In this case, the strengths and weaknesses nugget of learning might be useful to plug this gap. Reflect on whether you could use this as a simple activity to support learners understand this principle and how it might fit into your larger plan to use local employers for this unit.
End of activity.
Reporting back
Activity 6 Reporting back to the forum
1 hour during week six of the course
The objectives of this course activity are to:
- communicate again with participants from the face-to-face course
- report and reflect on your experiences of using e-skills UK resources with employers to deliver the Exploring organisations unit.
Go back to the course forum and post a reflective comment about the experience you have had with your learners and the Exploring organisations unit so far. Respond to any other posts that other participants have posted – this might include sharing your experiences of working with local employers to supplement the material from the ‘Nuware’ resource.
End of activity.
Shared learning
The reflective practitioner cycle is based on developing the professional knowledge base. We have now come to the end of the personal reflection phase and are to develop a common understanding of what we have learnt. We will share the key learning points as a group so that these may be collated and added to the community knowledge.
Activity 7 Extracting our shared learning
45 minutes during the sixth, and final, week of the course.
The objectives of this course activity areto discuss and agree what we have learnt as a group.
Go to the course forum and, in the Discussion called ‘Shared Learning’, post the key learning points that have emerged for you during the course. With your facilitator, agree on the common shared learning from the group.
End of activity.
Evaluation and certification
This final section allows for evaluation and certification.
Activity 8 Course evaluation
15 minutes online during the sixth, and final, week of the course
The objectives of this course activity are to complete an evaluation form and, if you wish, print a course completion certificate and rate and review the course.
Your task is to complete the evaluation questionnaire, which can be found on the course page. There are also links there to print a certificate and rate the course. The certificate will be ‘released’ by your facilitator.
End of activity.
References
- AQA/City & Guilds (2007) IT Level 2 Principal Learning Accessed 13 January 2010.
- BigAmbition Accessed 13 January 2010.
- e-skills Staffroom Accessed 13 January 2010.
- Edexcel (2009) Level 1 and Level 2 Principal Learning in Information Technology, Issue 3 (March 2009) Accessed 13 January 2010.
- OCR (2006) ‘Extract from OCR Centre HandbookSection 3 – Accredited Units’ in OCR Level 2 Principal Learning in IT H825 Accessed 13 January 2010.
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