Foundation Skills/Welcome and course introduction/Introduction

Introduction
Kia ora and welcome to the Foundation Skills course. This elective course is intended for new lecturers and provides basic knowledge and skills about learning and teaching in a structured, yet flexible way. There are ten key areas that you will engage in whilst participating in this course and you will be supported to match these to your own specific areas of learning and teaching. It is recommended that you proceed through the course in a sequential fashion, starting with Unit 1. You will notice that not all Units are of equal length – some include two topics, others as many as five topics. However, we suggest that you pace yourself and aim to complete one topic per week. Nothing, however, prevents you from completing more than one topic per week!

For participants who are enrolled in the Foundation Skills course through Otago Polytechnic,the following applies:
 * A suggested schedule is provided on the Foundation Skills Moodle site
 * Contact with other participants in the course will be made possible through a blend of differing types of interaction and online engagement in a variety of formats using Moodle.

Course Outline
The Foundation Skills course consists of ten key areas of learning in addition to the first introductory unit:
 * Unit 0: Welcome and introduction to course
 * Unit 1: Principles of adult/tertiary education
 * Unit 2: Learning styles/preferences
 * Unit 3: Teaching approaches that support learner-centred education
 * Unit 4: Developing and using basic teaching resources and equipment
 * Unit 5: Introduction to learning management systems
 * Unit 6: Basics of assessment – principles and tools
 * Unit 7: Session/learning sequencing and delivery
 * Unit 8: Lecturer self- and peer evaluation
 * Unit 9: Introduction to open education resources and practices
 * Unit 10: Basics of pastoral care

For those participants enrolled in the Foundation Skills course through Otago Polytechnic, a more detailed course outline is provided on the Foundation Skills Moodle site.

Your Expectations
If you are not a paying particpant in this course, then it is sufficient for you to simply maintain a reflective journal to record your thoughts and responses to questions and activities.

For those participants enrolled in the Foundation Skills course through Otago Polytechnic, there are additional assessment tasks of which details are available in the course outline on the Foundation Skills Moodle site.

Personal Learning Plan
After perusing the course outline for Foundation Studies, you may want to think about what you hope to get out of the course - this will also prepare you for e-activity 1.1.

It is also recommended that you prepare a table with dates and milestones, e.g. "complete Unit 6 by 30 April 2014", "complete classroom observation by 5 May 2014", etc. Make sure that the plan is easy to read - use tables, diagrams and colours to improve readability.

For participants enrolled in the Foundation Skills course through Otago Polytechnic, a Timeline Planner is available on the course Moodle site.