Assignments for Certificate Students

This course is divided into four units. Each unit addresses some of the learning outcomes. Certificate students will complete reflective tasks in an online learning journal to demonstrate competence in achieving the learning outcomes.

Methods

Your work in this course will be assessed by a review of your online Learning Journal or eJournal.

Learning Journal

Educational research has shown that keeping a learning journal is a valuable strategy to help your learning development. It makes use of the important faculty of reflecting on your learning, which supports you in developing a critical understanding of it. For certification in this course you are required to participate in ongoing journal reflection. This reflection will be facilitated through Mahara, an online ePortfolio application. The Learning Journal is where you will record your thoughts and feelings as you are learning. Although there are specific activities that you are asked to reflect upon, you may write in your online learning journal, eJournal, as often as you want.

Every insight you get that helps you clarify your values can find its way into your eJournal. Record your thinking about what you are learning:

  • Does what you learn confirm what you already thought?
  • Does it relate to young people in your country?
  • Does it give you a new way of looking at young people?
  • How might your learning affect the way you work with young people?

In this way, your eJournal will become a diary of your own personal growth.

Your eJournal is intended to carry the ‘footprints’ of your journey through the learning process about values and possibly beyond. The Mahara system is actually designed to be an ePortfolio for life. As such, it can be used for more than just your online reflections. You can use it to maintain a personal or public journal, as an online file storage area, even as a space for an online resume. You can control who sees what and for how long. You can decide to keep some things completely private. You can link with other students in the course.

While Mahara has many powerful features that you are encouraged to explore at your leisure, all you are required to use Mahara for is a platform for your online reflections. This will require you to use only the Journal tool.