Page 15 - 2018 Workshop Booklet

Workshop Booklet

We recognise that VC classes do present problems in terms of engagement. Some moves are underway to
obtain a national consensus about this. One of these is the Teacher Academy, which is assisting with setting
up a lot of strategies (face to face, zoom, canvas) for creating teacher training courses to support all the stu-
dents with a variety of skill sets. We have also created a Learning Support team of experienced community
contacts (see below). They will work together as a team to provide a consistent approach across the coun-
try. This will address questions such as: What do we need to develop for the LS teachers in all areas? How do
we put this support in at a campus level alongside of teachers? However, we do want the parents to contact
the teacher if they have a concern with how their child is coping. If a parent logs into a Canvas course and
finds a block of work and their child has Learning Support needs, they must ring the teacher to ask for guid-
ance to help the child understand their work on Canvas.

A LS Community contact in each state has been set up:

• Jon Arnold (WA)

• Steve Craig (SA)
• Myles Christian (TAS)

• Bill Hales (NSW)

• Phil Thomas (VIC)
• Mark Muller (QLD)

There really shouldn’t be a student with LS needs who copes worse via VC. If the pedagogy is right and the
teaching is right it should address these concerns. There are facilities in zoom that actually make it easier for
teachers to address this. Along with canvas, if the courses are differentiated well, it should make it easier.
Teachers are variable. If you do have a teacher that doesn’t have knowledge of these things, the student
may struggle. We are trying to get consistency across the country. Julie Murray from Woodthorpe is getting
the above team together in order for the teachers that are working with those students to get the support
they need. There are some things that we can teach the teachers that they need to be mindful of, but it
really is about pedagogy. We are in the process of collecting information from teachers across the country.
Based on this information we can work out what support the teachers need.

Q: What is the percentage of difference in VC exposure between a large campus and a small campus?

A: There is definitely a difference. This gap is narrowing. Just because you can run a face to face class well,
it doesn’t mean you always should. If we’re trying to increase student participation, we really need to focus
on that area. There is a lot of anxiety from parents with regard to VC because they have been so used to face
to face teaching. However, the notion that VC is a second-best option to F2F is not correct. Patrick McGing,
NSW RP, absolutely rejects that VC is an inferior platform. Most of our highest achievers are from small
campuses. The Dux of NSW in 2017 who scored an ATAR of 99.75% did most of the courses by VC . This is a
very powerful fact which should be distributed to parents. A statistical exercise last year of F2F vs VC classes
in NSW showed no difference in results. Largely all the IT issues have been overcome. A key focus will be
upskilling our teachers.
Q: How to provide help for students who are struggling and whose parents choose to ignore the fact?

CA Bootcamp 2018

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