Open Polytechnic and LearningWorks collaborate

Thursday, 11 July 2019, 11:09 am
Press Release: Open Polytechnic

Open Polytechnic and LearningWorks collaborate to train on-job assessors

Open Polytechnic and LearningWorks have teamed up to co-develop a course that will train on-job assessors through online and blended learning.

This new collaboration between Open Polytechnic, New Zealand’s largest online distance provider, and learning design, technologies and training specialist LearningWorks, will see both organisations working side-by-side, sharing resources and intellectual property to design the course.

Employees from both Open Polytechnic and LearningWorks, a subsidiary of Wintec, are completing the design of the course, which will be offered through iQualify, Open Polytechnic’s online learning platform.

LearningWorks plan to deliver the course in a blended mode, face-to-face and online, with Open Polytechnic offering the course solely online.

The opportunity to work together came about during a meeting earlier in the year between Sandra Hutton, chief executive of LearningWorks, and Open Polytechnic chief executive Dr Caroline Seelig.

Initial discussions highlighted the benefits the two organisations could offer on-job assessors by combining the rich learning design and training resources available from both organisations.

“It’s exciting seeing our two organisations come together, sharing talent, processes and resources to create a high quality product that will benefit learners across the country, especially in light of the potential reforms within the vocational education sector,” says Dr Seelig.

“We wanted to explore opportunities to collaborate and work on the same subject matter to develop courseware that could be used in different ways. There is a clear desire from both organisations to collaborate this way moving forward.”

LearningWorks Chief Executive Sandra Hutton says; “It’s crazy for us to do this type of work singularly. Both organisations have capabilities that need to be nurtured in our uncertain environment. This collaboration is an opportunity to share our knowledge and skills and showcase how easy it is to pool this expertise. At the end of the day we are here to help learning work and enable quality learning. Working with Open Polytechnic, who share this mission, has been the start of what we hope to be an ongoing collaboration in the future.”

The new course, Workplace Assessor, is expected to be offered by both organisations from September 2019.

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