About Educare
Educare are a training provider based in Taranaki, New Zealand. They specialise in training and qualifications for early childhood education, and education support. Educare are a charitable organisation. They provide programmes for free, ensuring people passionate about education can pursue their goals and careers.
The need for online learning
When New Zealand moved into a pandemic-related lockdown, face-to face education had to be put on hold. Educare were among the great many providers who needed to get their training online, quick.
Educare took up our free iQualify offer, got busy building, and had courses up and running quickly. They’re now continuing with the online courses, but supplementing with face-to-face workshops, noho maraes stays, and practicum visits.
How they’re using iQualify
Educare have created one iQualify course, for each of their usual face-to-face courses.
Courses often begin with a personalised welcome from a tutor. A great idea to help make the online space more welcoming! And in lockdown, easy to do from your own home with just a few clicks and a webcam.
“We loved how we could still have elements to build relationships online like the videos and discussions. And they were so easy to do!” – Educare Training
Discussions weaved into the course content gives all learners a chance to share, even the ones who might not have gotten a chance in class.
Throughout the courses there are videos and readings for learners to be able to access key information and ideas. With the range of copyright-free images out there and iQualify’s slideshow, you don’t need a graphic designer to quickly whip up a slideshow to illustrate key points.
Though their iQualify courses are more than just presentation of content. Tutors have also used a range of the 20+ different task types. With formative activities to engage and scaffold and summative activities to assess.
And who says you need to be limited to an essay assignment? Having video assessment is a great way to open up learner contributions and increase engagement. And for learners, recording and uploading videos is just as easy as it is for tutors – a few clicks and a something with a camera, your laptop, phone, tablet… They can use whatever device they’ve got handy!
Learning along the way
As with any transition, there’s a lot of change, and a lot to learn. But Educare took it all in their stride and we were here to help where we could.
“As a face to face learning environment for 34 years, Educare Training had to quickly adapt the programmes so that we could continue training extramurally. I am not by any means technology savvy, so this was daunting. The help from iQualify including clear guidelines from the videos, examples and communication throughout this process has been exceptional.” – Educare Training
We think Educare are a great example of just getting in there and going for it. They were completely new to online learning, but learned along the way, got help and support when they needed it and were able to reach learners quickly so they could keep studying.
So, if you’re thinking about online learning… you probably know you should… but we hope from seeing Educare’s success, now you know you can.
Want to know more?
If you’d like to know more about Educare and the programmes they offer, check out Educare Training.
If you’d like to give iQualify a go yourself, sign up for a free trial to see how iQualify and online learning can help your business succeed.
