Welcome
It's that back-to-school time of year. A sniff of Autumn in the air, shop windows full of rulers and pencil cases. This month Epic Thinking turns its thoughts towards the needs of Educators. We give some pointers to help with running Education-related e-learning projects, look at the divide between Education and Training, and show how innovative e-learning is being used to help students bridge the gap between home and college.
The Education Issue: Across the Great Divide
- It's all about you - UNIAID's Award-winning student induction programme
- Ten top e-learning tips for educators - Katherine Laux
- Are A-levels broken? - Epic survey finds students less mature
- Education and training: the Great Divide - Howard Hills
- The power of stories in learning - Dominic Mason
- Hot off the Blog - What's new on the blog this week
All About U
Epic/UNIAID student induction programme has won a National Training Award and been shortlisted for an E-learning Age Award.
All About U, an online programme produced by UNIAID in partnership with Epic and HSBC to help students prepare and cope with University life, has reached the finals of the National Training Awards.
The programme reached seven million about-to-be-students, through use of a viral online game and e-learning materials.
'Many parents will have concerns regarding their children's ability to manage the change from home to college,' writes Epic's Tracy Capaldi-Drewett: Deputy MD - Commerical (father of a daughter about to take up further education); 'It's not only the change of culture, and moving to a more self-managed environment in their education, but also the practicality of having to manage finances away from home. It is really encouraging to see an e-learning initiative having tangible success in helping our children face the demanding world we are all striving to prepare them for...'
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Ten top e-learning tips for educators
by Katherine Laux
Epic's leading design expert looks at the 'how' of running a successful project in the Education sector. Katherine gives a quick overview of how to maximise your chances of success - while avoiding some common pitfalls!
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Are A-levels broken?
As background to the issues underpinning the All About U case study, Epic recently carried out a desktop survey of recent opinions in the somewhat hoary debate over A-levels, looking at arguments both pro and con.
What emerged from this exercise was that widening access to further/higher education is changing the character of the intake, and whether you believe A-levels are getting easier or not, there is little doubt that the average student is less equipped nowadays for the demands that will be placed upon them at college.
The internet and e-learning offer one route to getting this generation of 'digital natives' (Prensky 2001) up to speed, as demonstrated by the success of All About U.
Educators who would like to discuss solutions to their own challenges in this area should click here to arrange a meeting with one of our consultants.
Education and training: the Great Divide
by Howard Hills
Over fifteen years ago I opened a presentation to senior academics at Surrey University with this statement. "I am a trainer, you are educators, the difference between trainers and educators is that trainers know what they are trying to achieve". At the time I was responsible for developing all the training that Lloyds Bank delivered to its employees and had been asked to deliver a presentation on corporate training. Could I justify the same opening statement today with the web, e-learning 2.0, social networking and all the other changes in the world of work and learning?
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The power of stories in learning
Dominic Mason argues that educators and trainers must tap into the primal power of narrative to engage their audience.
Relatively few people will recognise the name of an ancient Welsh book of folktales: The Mabinogion (Mab-ee-nog-yon). However, many people know the stories of King Arthur and Robin Hood that borrow heavily from it. More people still will be able to recognise the epic (small 'e') myth structure behind all three sets of tales. Even more people experience daily immersion and excitement through forms of popular entertainment that take strands of these ancient stories and weave them into cinema, TV, videogames and theatre as Star Wars, Bad Girls, Tomb Raider and Othello...
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Hot off the Blog
Rapid Create info pack - NEW
Create your own accessible, SCORM-compliant e-learning with Epic's new authoring tool. Email us today for your CD ROM information pack, including:
- Walkthrough
- Brochure
- Fact sheet
- Details of our Rapid Create Coffee Morning
Epicentre - Specialists in Educational publishing testing
Epicentre has unrivalled experience in testing educational publishing and educational software for the past 15 years. Our clients range from big to small and we're proud to have long-term relationships with the likes of Oxford University Press, Harcourt Education, Nelson Thornes, RM, Smart Learning, Eclipse Books, Whizz Education, ESP and Scholastic.
Epicentre offers a complete software testing service throughout the development cycle, ensuring you can rest easy, knowing your brand is rock-solid, your reputation is protected and your product is ready to go.
For more information please email marketing or visit the website
The relationship between the client and customer has been really well managed and Epic has striven to deliver exactly what we wanted all the way through our partnership. Working with Epic has been a pleasure and we're confident that the toolkit we have created will have a major positive impact within our organisation.
Matt Pollard, Project Manager, Home Office
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