Courses help people to learn. Don’t they? Not always. Sometimes they provide us with information that we can mop up and regurgitate. That doesn’t mean that they actually benefit us.
What is Learning?
Oxford Dictionary defines learning as “the acquisition of knowledge or skills through study, experience or being taught.”
In the past, learning was often demonstrated through the passing of exams.
- We would memorise poems, formulas, calculations, facts.
- We would also then have to recall that information in an exam setting.
But learning is so much more than that.
- It is also a process leading to a change.
- That change may be due to experience or knowledge.
- Learning also relates to something learned from lessons or experience.
- Learning also increases our potential to learn more in the future.
- It also increases our potential to improve our performance.
Designing Courses For Learning
When we design courses, we have to ensure that the course helps the student to learn.
Memorising
Sometimes we have to memorise information, so courses can sometimes include the need to memorise information. We might need to know that information quickly and promptly, so we need to understand and memorise that information.
Memorising is not enough though. It is not just about learning facts, but learning these facts so that we can use them in the correct setting and in the correct way.
So sometimes courses will require aspects of memorising facts.
Exams
Some courses will have a requirement for an exam at the end. If there is an exam, then there is a need to memorise information to enable you to answer the question during the exam.
But as we just said, a good course should offer us more than facts we need to memorise ready for an exam.
At ACS, we think courses should be so much more than that. We think a course should help you in the future. Help you to learn, change, gain experience and increase your opportunities in the future.
Learning is something we learn from lessons or experience
Learning is something we learn from lessons and experience. We gain knowledge by studying and experiencing new and different things. No one knows everything, so by reading, studying and learning, we can start to expand our knowledge and learn new things.
By expanding our experiences we can also increase our knowledge.
A good course will enable us to expand our theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge.
With ACS courses, we provide theoretical knowledge and encourage students to undertake practical tasks as well. This is a double whammy, increasing our theoretical knowledge and then helping us to put that knowledge into practice in a practical way, so giving us new experiences as well.
A Process Leading to Change
Learning is a process leading to change. Suddenly understanding how to grow plants, the psychological theory behind how children develop, the plot of a good story, how to prune a plant. Learning is a process that enables us to learn, and through that learning we change. Any new experiences change us.
Think of a simple example, we don’t know how to cook and someone shows us how to make toast. Suddenly we can feed ourselves.
It is like that old phrase, give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he can feed himself.
Everything we learn changes us in a small or large way. It may change our understanding of a simple task or the world around us.
ACS courses are developed to ensure that students gain knowledge throughout the course. We start from the basics and build upon that knowledge so that the student experiences the process leading to change. Starting from the very start and continuing to build on that knowledge during the course and afterwards.
Learning increases our potential to learn in the future
Studying a course doesn’t just increase our knowledge of the topic we are studying. For example, say we study permaculture, we obviously, hopefully learn about permaculture. But with ACS courses, you are also developing other soft skills.
Soft skills are less obvious skills, but they are increasingly required by employers.
Soft skills are becoming more important to job seekers and employers. The soft skills market is a rich one — jobseekers are looking to improve or add to job skills to boost employability while employers are looking to train new hires to fill skills gaps.
A report by Deloitte found that 63% of all jobs in Australia will be soft skill intensive by 2030.
Employers want generalists. People who are skilled in a variety of ways, not just one limited way.
Soft skills include –
- Team work
- Conflict resolution
- Communication skills
- Time management
- Strong work ethic
- Leadership skills
- Growth mindset
- Responding well to feedback
- Adaptability
- Flexibility
- Emotional intelligence
- Communication skills
- Self management
- Digital skills
- Problem solving
- Critical thinking
ACS courses teach you about the subject a student enrols on, such as psychology, horticulture, agriculture. But we also encourage students to develop other soft skills.
Besides the skills already mentioned, the ability to carry out research is also an important one. By developing research skills and other soft skills we increase a student’s capacity to grow and develop during the course, and afterwards.
After studying an ACS course, the student hopefully goes off with more knowledge about their course subject and the soft skills they need to develop further.
Learning improves our performance potential in the future
As well as developing soft skills and subject skills, studying our courses also increases a person’s performance potential in the future. By studying, students demonstrate to employers that they are keen and willing to learn. That they are willing to improve. This improves the student’s job and career prospects.
Learning helps students to improve their career.
Learning is a lifelong process, whether it is by studying courses or developing new skills.
ACS courses encourage students to develop their careers.
Increase Your Future Opportunities
A successful course will therefore help a student to –
- Improve their job and career prospects
- Develop their soft skills
- Develop their subject skills and knowledge
- Improve their potential for learning in the future
ACS courses are successful because we encourage our students to do all of these things. Our courses are designed to encourage people to grow, develop, learn and want to grow, learn and develop more in the future!
If you are interested in offering successful courses to students, why not consider setting up an online school selling ACS courses.
Contact us to find out more.