Ferndale Adult Education offers evening classes two days a week for students who are unable to attend during the day school, or who wish to supplement their day school classes with evening credits to accelerate their education.
While one night course each quarter follows the traditional on-ground classroom approach, the majority of the courses offered for night school take place through one of two computer programs: Compass Learning, and Nova Net.
This blog will discuss the learning technology Ferndale Adult Education uses, how it is managed and implemented, and make recommendations for upgrades, improvements, or changes.
I am curious to find out between the two computer programs Compass Learning or Nova Net, Can adult learners choose which program to take or is the program already selected for each participant? If he or she can choose, how does he or she knows which one is better?
ReplyDeleteThe program in use depends on the course taken - it's not a matter of choice for the students. These classes are all designed to continue a degree path for a high school diploma, so the courses are recommended by a counselor based on the participants' existing transcripts.
ReplyDeleteI interviewed the school counselor, and she added the information that the instructor is the one who chooses which software the student uses, based on available ports (site licenses) and which courses are available on which program.
ReplyDelete(M Mirkes, personal communication, February 23, 2011).
If the instructor chooses which software based on availability of ports, what happens if all site licenses are used by other adults when another adult wants to enroll in one of the programs? What do the instructor do?
ReplyDeleteEnrollment is only open for a limited time, so the situation of an adult enrolling partway through does not occur.
ReplyDeleteHowever, it is very rare for all of the students assigned to a given software platform to attend all at once. Partially that is due to the erratic attendance of our students.