Empowering care and justice through eLearning
During May 2024, eCom collaborated with Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS) and West Lothian College (WLC) to develop an eLearning course on The Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, which was passed by the Scottish Parliament on 25 April 2024.
The specific aim of the course is to build CHS staff and volunteers', predominantly Panel Members', knowledge and understanding of how best to approach hearings involving older children, taking account of their age-appropriate views and needs, to ensure their rights are met.
There was a need to make the eLearning course available as quickly as possible after the Act passed parliament. May brought much focus and collaboration between eCom, CHS, and WLC stakeholders.
Posted 15 July 2024
Engaging and relevant learning experience
As with any legislative-based learning, the challenge to the eLearning professionals tasked with developing the course material is to ensure it is interesting and engaging for the learner. This course wasn’t any different. Early on in the course, characters are introduced which helps the learner appreciate many important factors that influence the children and young people involved in the hearing system.
Audio of young people in character lends authenticity to the stories and a more emotive element. The stories then allow the learner to be challenged in thought-provoking ways, such as challenging their own assumptions or preconceptions and being able to consider different angles and perspectives and how the new legislation influences decisions.
Practical tools for application
Another key element of the eLearning course is the inclusion of an editable workbook. At distinct and specific points in the learning, the learner is directed to the workbook to complete exercises and/or capture thoughts and reflections. While the course is based on legislation, adolescent decision-making and adolescent brain development provide quite an insight. Did you know it isn’t until someone is in their mid-20s that the human brain reaches full maturity?
Valuable learner feedback
These simple insights have proven to be really valuable:
"I feel this course should be mandatory for panel members - especially those who are longer-term serving. It is a reminder to be a supportive and objective individual and non-biased. This provides a very good and basic introduction to how the brain works and affects decision making and behaviour."
Learner feedback is extremely valuable. Yes, it is great to hear how well received any project is, but it is also important to build on positive, and any, feedback to ensure the next project benefits. The learner survey has been completed over 100 times and the initial average rating is 90%.
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Empowering care and justice through eLearning
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