Introduction

Quality early childhood education holds a key place in the wellbeing of families and their local communities. It provides key opportunities for children's development and social engagement, whilst allowing families to return to work or study, each of which is important in contributing to stronger families.

According to Harvard University’s Centre on the Developing Child¹, “the science of early development has clearly established the first five years of life as the most critical for building the foundations for life-long learning, well-being, and health. While there is great variation in the environments in which children live and grow, the interaction between young children’s developing brains and the environments in which they learn has a significant impact on development”.

A child's participation in an organised early childhood education program assists in the development of their cognitive abilities, and helps to enhance social and emotional skills while interacting with their peers.

Early childhood education helps children by:

• creating a life-long passion for learning
• supporting the development of social skills
• encouraging the development of fine motor and sensory skills
• fostering language development and vocabulary expansion
• priming children to be creative
• encouraging them to develop problem solving skills.

Remember, all children develop at different rates.

The Certificate III in Early Childhood Education and Care qualification helps students to:

• Support infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers during their respective critical stage of life.
• Understand and implement the early childhood education workplace policies and procedures.
• Create individual children’s profiles to plan activities and provide suitable experiences.
• Facilitate children’s leisure and play to achieve their developmental outcomes.
• Gain an introductory understanding of the National Quality Framework and Early Years Learning Framework.

Online learning has become increasingly popular over the years. It is one of the most convenient, flexible and effective ways to study. Setting aside dedicated hours of study each week, and creating a study plan, with set goals of completion for each module will help you in setting yourself up for success.

As online learning may be a new experience for you, it is highly suggested that you take your time to explore and familiarise yourself with the learning platform and course requirements. It might feel a little overwhelming at first, but please remember, though you are enrolled in an online course, it does not mean you are alone. The staff here at Swinburne Open Education, including trainers, assessors and Student Support officers, are more than happy to support you through your learning journey. It is our goal as much as it is yours, to see you graduate!

We understand studying needs to fit around your life, and that sometimes things don’t go to plan. Our learning platform is designed with this in mind – flexible study for busy lives.

Here is what to expect in your learning platform:

• Learning modules
• Webinars
• Interactions

Learning modules

You will be provided with sequential learning modules that will build on your knowledge and skill as you progress through your course. Each module will contain useful information on the unit of competency that will be later assessed.

The learning modules include:

• topics that are filled with informative content, weblinks, and engaging videos.
• interactive activities that can be found throughout each of the topics and will assist you in retaining valuable information that will be needed in assessments.
• additional resources to enrich your learning experience and provide you with useful links to sample documents, factsheets and templates that will be of effective use in this course. Additional resources often include content that will prepare you for assessment tasks.

Webinars

Too much knowledge is never enough. Your trainers have a wealth of experience in the early childhood education and care sector and are always enthusiastic to share what they know with you! You will be informed by your trainers of the details for any upcoming webinars during your course. Webinars presented by your trainers cover a range of useful topics, provide assistance for assessments. It is highly encouraged to participate in webinars where possible. This improves interaction, constructive discussions and the understanding of the contents of the webinar. The links to the webinar recordings will be provided for you to access online. This will add to your learning experience and help you stay motivated, grow and progress in your course.

Interactions

There will be times throughout your studies when you will have a query or two, and may need to reach out for help, or you simply want to speak with others during your studies to maintain your engagement in your learning. Regardless of the need for interacting with others, it is important you know the correct person to contact for your type of query.

Have a look at the different people that you can turn to and the best way to reach them:

• Trainers: There is no such thing as a silly question, so take advantage of the messaging system within your learning platform to contact your trainers for any type of learning and assessment assistance.
• Feedback: Trainers and assessors will provide formal and informal feedback to the student at regular intervals. They can help clarify any uncertainties and give you the confidence in understanding the learning and assessments.
• Students: Some students like to ‘buddy-up’. Getting yourself a study buddy can help in encouraging progression and motivation. You can meet study buddies on the online forums, and by attending live webinars. Just like the trainers, you can contact other peers by using the messaging system in the online platform. Although you are responsible for your own learning, having a study buddy can keep you accountable and move forward toward the completion of your course. It is important to note that while Swinburne Open Education encourages you to have a study buddy if you wish to do so, you must abide by student codes of conduct relating to communications and assessment submission.

Note: From time to time, you may also be required to contact a trainer and students as a part of your assessment requirements.

• Student Support: Contact our friendly Student Support team regarding any queries relating to your course enrolment. These may include queries relating to course extensions, course completion, payment, login access, unique student identifier etc. Student support, unlike your trainer, has no industry knowledge and experience and cannot answer any questions relating to your learning and assessments. Please redirect those messages to your trainer.

Swinburne Open Education provides answers to a series of Frequently Asked Questions that you may find useful.

Assessments

Once you work your way through each module’s learning content, you will need to complete a series of theory and practical assessments. This is how you will demonstrate your knowledge and skills for each unit of competency.

Assessments are carried out by using a variety of tasks, including:

• Short answer questions
• Written assessments
• Case studies
• Projects
• Video and/or audio role plays and demonstrations
• Workplace Assessment evidence gathered as a Portfolio including the collection of work samples of annotated and validated pieces of evidence, compiled over time
• Direct observations conducted by an appropriately qualified assessor as part of workplace visit(s) and/or ZOOM
• Assessor-guided interview processes

Practical tasks will be completed in the context of a simulated environment and during the Structured Workplace Learning and Assessment (SWLA) as described in the Course Overview.