Learning through isolation

Business Administration students have continued to learn throughout the lockdown albeit from their dining room, kitchen, living room or bedroom.

At the start of their course in September their teacher Niki Tomlinson introduced them to working with Microsoft Office 365 one of the most used software packages in the workplace.Since lockdown started students have been able to continue working towards their qualification and learning the skills needed to work in an office.

The students have been collaboratively learning through the 'Teams' app.Here they can chat to each other and discuss their thoughts and opinions. For example, discussing the advantages of using electronic diary systems.Following their discussions, they have produced reports which have been uploaded into their classroom notebook.  

The main change for the majority of the group is the time they access their work. Some have children who require the family laptop during the day for their learning, so the students have had to switch and work in an evening instead.The group also has a couple of key workers, so they access their course work on their days off. The advantage of using the chat feature in teams is they can read the comments made by their peers and add their views. Although not fully interactive for them, they do not miss out on any discussions that have taken place. 

"Niki has been supportive, I cannot always log on at our normal class time or day as I am a key worker, but Niki always makes time to support me whenever it is!"

Student Manjeet

"My students are working brilliantly, they have remained focussed on gaining their qualification working hard to juggle family life with their learning.They are absolute stars!"

Teacher Niki