Work Ready Skills and Planning Your Career is a new subject taught online to 110 second year undergraduate students across four faculties and five campuses. The subject content was published in the LMS, with additional technologies being employed to further engage students, such as building a webfolio in PebblePad and the use of Blackboard Collaborate to hold fortnightly webinars. Students were encouraged to approach the subject as a self-paced one, with assessment tasks and webinars scheduled in such a way as to provide structure to enable completion of the learning activities on time. In this presentation, we will describe the design of the subject and reflect on the effectiveness of the teaching and learning activities and technologies used. We will also discuss the preliminary results of a pilot study measuring the Career Decision Self-Efficacy (CDSE) of students at the start and end of semester. Career Decision Self-Efficacy has been used in previous studies as a measure of the effectiveness of career development interventions.

1. Teaching Work Ready
Title of presentation Skills Online
Jason of presenter
Name Brown & Geoffrey Guilfoyle
Career presenter
Title of Development Centre
7 December 2012
School / Faculty / Division
xx Month 201x
@onejasonbrown
#ctlc2012
latrobe.edu.au/students/careers CRICOS Provider 00115M

2. Overview of HUM2WRS

3. Background
• Invited by HUSS to develop 2 careers subjects (HUM2WRS & HUM3TRC) for the
Work Ready BA
• Specifications:
• HUM2WRS to be taught online
• Reflect on development of employability skills
• Incorporate the use of ePortfolios
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 3

4. Developing the subject
BASED ON CAREER DEVELOPMENT FRAMEWORKS
• Self-Awareness; Opportunity Awareness; Decision Making; Transition Learning
(DOTS) (Watts, 1977)
• Australian Blueprint for Career Development (ABCD) (MCEEDYA, 2006)
AIM TO PREPARE STUDENTS TO:
• Reflect on development of employability skills
• Understand how employers recruit & select staff
• Participate in career planning activities
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 4

5. The Design
SELF-PACED ONLINE SUBJECT
• All about the student, so makes sense to be self-paced
• Generic content – evidence-based information; frameworks & theories
TEACHING & LEARNING ACTIVITIES
• All linked to assessment tasks
• Analysis of employability skills; LinkedIn profile; building new networks;
informational interview; collecting labour market information
ASSESSMENT TASKS
• Authentic tasks – job application; job interview; career portfolio
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 5

6. The Design
LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
• 8 topics (to break the link from traditional week structure)
• LMS as a resource space – all activities, readings, videos, podcasts, webinars, &
assessment tasks accessible from the LMS
• All content set up and accessible from 1 week prior to start of semester
INDUCTION WORKSHOP
• 2 hour workshop held at Bundoora and repeated as webinar
• Introduced students to staff, structure of subject, expectations, etc
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 6

7. The Design
SUPPORTING STUDENTS
• Assessment tasks scheduled to keep students on track
• Webinars (using Blackboard Collaborate) used to answer questions, explore
concepts in more detail, communicate requirements of assessments
• Discussion boards & weekly announcements
• Opportunities for feedback through formative assessment
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 7

8. The Students
Campus Enrolment Faculty Students
Albury-Wodonga 10 FBEL 44
Bendigo 35 HUSS 27
Melbourne 55 FHS 21
Mildura 3 FSTE 18
Shepparton 7
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 8

9. Reflections & Feedback

10. Observations & Reflections
• While most students completed the readings and tasks in line with ‘traditional’
semester timelines, some students did the work in ‘chunks’
• For some students, significant challenge - no single set textbook
• Students using different methods to query, check expectations – Q & A forums,
webinars, emails to lecturers
• Importance of providing structured interaction using various channels – in future,
provision of more regular webinars, more regular short quizzes. Balance between
structure and flexibility.
• Need to tighten Assessment tasks – written application task contained too many
variables – difficult to manage online
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11. Observations & Reflections
• Many students had difficulty learning new approaches to topics they regarded as
‘familiar’ and ‘known’
• These difficulties weren’t as apparent when they were completing the module on
careers theory
• Suggests that within an online subject, topics involving some ‘reframing’ require
particular emphasis on providing ways of querying, discussing and clarifying
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 11

12. Student feedback - What was the best aspect of completing an
online subject?
“The efficiency of it. I thoroughly enjoy and benefit from online
subjects much more than face to face. It allows for students to
work through at their own pace, and not be held back by other
students”
“Flexibility and also the exposure to the online/technology
enhanced world of learning. The exposure to and use of tools
such as webinars, LinkedIn, PebblePad – great tools which as a
learner has allowed for the support, which I sometimes feel
that I don’t get in traditional face to face classes”
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 12

13. Student feedback - What was the best aspect of completing an
online subject?
“It is easy to fit the work around other classes and no travel is
involved”
“Accessibility to resources and lecturers has been fantastic. The
format of week structures provides structure to the self paced
learning”
“The ability to work at my own pace and catch up on tutorial
recordings when I couldn’t attend”
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 13

14. Student Feedback - What was the worst aspect of completing an
online subject?
• Technical issues and difficulties – webinars, uploading video files, using Pebblepad
• Maintaining motivation towards the end
• General communication, support & feedback mechanisms
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 14

15. Student Feedback on HUM2WRS 2012
5
4
3
2
1
Score
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16. Career Decision Self-Efficacy as a measure of effectiveness

17. Pilot Study
By completing HUM2WRS, students should be more confident in performing a range of
career planning activities, such as:
• Networking
• Preparing job applications
• Finding authoritative labour market information
• Making career decisions
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 17

18. Pilot Study
Career Decision Self-Efficacy (Taylor & Betz, 1983)
• “Measures an individual’s degree of belief that he/she can successfully complete
tasks necessary to making career decisions”
• Based on Bandura’s self-efficacy theory
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19. Pilot Study: The Measure
Career Decision Self-Efficacy – Short form scale (CDSE-SF)
(Betz & Klein, 1996; Betz, Hammond, & Multon, 2005)
• 25 items – 5 subscales identified through factorial analysis
• Scale has excellent psychometric properties – internal reliability coefficient alphas
range from .93 - .97 for the total score across many studies
• Some studies have failed to replicate the 5 factors (e.g., Creed, Patton &
Watson, 2002), so it is recommended to use the total score only
• Total score 3.5> indicates a willingness to approach the behaviour
• Total score <3.0 indicates inadequate confidence to approach the behaviour
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 19

20. Pilot Study: Method
• Students invited via email, LMS message and announcement in webinar
• Questionnaire completed using an online survey instrument
• Responses: Likert scale 1-5 (no confidence at all – complete confidence)
• 13 students completed survey at start of semester (T1)
• 13 students completed second administration of questionnaire at end of semester
(T2)
• 12/13 students appear to be the same based on demographic profile
• Response rate 11.8%
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 20

21. Pilot Study: Results
Analyses of the data show a significant increase in the total score between T1 & T2
Total score (sum of 25 items / 25)
• T1: 3.13
• T2: 3.87
Comparison of means (ANOVA): Total score vs time (T1:T2)
• F(1,22)= 10.021, p<0.01
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22. CDSE: Mean responses @ T1 & T2
5
4
3
2
1
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 Q19 Q20 Q21 Q22 Q23 Q24 Q25
T1 T2
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 22

23. CDSE: Difference in mean scores T2-T1
1.5
1
0.5
0
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 Q19 Q20 Q21 Q22 Q23 Q24 Q25
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 23

24. Pilot Study - Discussion
• Results indicate that the students are more confident in approaching a range of
career decision behaviours
Cautions:
• Low response rate
• No control group used in the study
• No guarantee that the same students completed the questionnaire at T1 & T2
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 24

25. Next steps
• CDMSE-SF can be used as a career assessment tool for individuals
• Incorporate into learning activities in 2013 -> increase sample size
• Look at sampling comparison groups – those participating in short term career
programs and a control group
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 25

26. Summary
• Overall, positive feedback from students
• Pilot study demonstrates increases in confidence of students to approach career
decision making behaviours
• Some changes will be made to provide more scaffolding, but keep self-paced
structure of the subject
• Changes to assessment tasks to increase efficiency in marking and providing
feedback
CAREER DEVELOPMENT CENTRE | La Trobe University 26

27. Thank you
Questions?
latrobe.edu.au/students/careers CRICOS Provider 00115M