Progressing Through Your Course

Your course is comprised of a series of modules. The Course Overview lists them all and shows you the order in which they will be studied. Each module contains a series of topics, and it is important that you move through these sequentially as each one builds on the last.

To get the most out of your learning it is good to spend time reflecting on what you have learned and checking your understanding through the learning activities. These learning activities are not part of your assessments but are a good way to prepare yourself before starting on the assessments for each module.

If there is more than one assessment in a module, Assessment 1 needs to be completed and achieve a grade of Competent before you can move on to Assessment 2, etc. It may take several days for your trainer to mark your work, so you can be starting on the preparation for your next assessment while you wait. However, you should not SUBMIT more than one assessment at a time. There is often feedback from the trainer that you need to incorporate into your future assessments. Once you have completed the last assessment in the module and it has been graded as Competent, your trainer will arrange for the next module to be opened for you.

The following diagram represents a sequence of modules in your course.

Unlike at school and university, your assessments in this course will be graded as either COMPETENT or NOT YET COMPETENT.

COMPETENT
Having an assessment graded as COMPETENT means that you have demonstrated the required skills and knowledge associated with your assessment. This means that you have passed. 

NOT YET COMPETENT
Having an assessment graded as NOT YET COMPETENT means that you have not yet demonstrated the knowledge or one or more of the required skills associated with your assessment. Your trainer will give you feedback and you will need to redo your assessment in accordance with that feedback and resubmit your assessment to achieve competence. 

It is very important to note that a grade of NOT YET COMPETENT does not mean you have failed. With Swinburne Open Education, all students can resubmit their assessment up to three times without penalty.
If you receive a grade of NOT YET COMPETENT, it is important to take the following steps:

1.    Don't be disheartened. This is normal in Vocational Education & Training.
2.    Ensure you understand the feedback provided by your trainer. You can contact them via the message centre if you need additional clarity.
3.    Review the assessment you submitted and where the feedback applies. 
4.    Update your assessment to incorporate the feedback. 
5.    Resubmit your updated assessment. 

Once you have resubmitted your assessment, your trainer will mark your work again. If you have followed the steps above, you should then see your grade change from NOT YET COMPETENT to COMPETENT.
 

You will discover as you progress through your course that there are generally two or more assessment tasks in each module. It is important to note that every assessment must be completed satisfactorily for you to achieve a grade of Competent for that module.
In some courses, you may need to complete Structured Workplace Learning and Assessment (SWLA) to demonstrate your skills in a real-life environment. If your course requires SWLA, you will not be deemed Competent for any Units of Competency that require practical demonstration in the workplace until you have completed SWLA.

You are already an experienced learner. You have learned at school and perhaps also in a training course or on-the-job training at work. You probably already know what study methods work for you and have the skills to study. Self-paced learning is a little different. Here, you are in control of your learning schedule.

Even though your course is self-paced with no fixed assessment deadlines, it won’t work for you if you if you just keep putting things off indefinitely. If you find this happening, a good trick is to remind yourself that you are paying for this course! The only way to get value for your money is to put in the work, understand and learn the material and gain the qualification. You need a plan. 

Firstly, ask yourself these questions:

•    How many hours a week can I dedicate to study? 
•    When do I want to finish my course? 
•    Is there some reason I may need to plan a break from study?

Secondly, look at the Course Overview. There you will see the estimated hours that each module is expected to take. 

Thirdly, work out your own study schedule.  To help you with this, use our excellent Study Planner, which is also located in your Course Overview. We have completed an example below, to show you what yours might look like.

When you access the Study Planner, you will notice that the information on the top, under ‘Course Details’ is pre-populated. This gives you details about the specific course you are enrolled in. In study plan template you have to add start date for each module so completion date will be calculated automatically.

Create a weekly schedule that you can follow, allocating certain hours to studying the learning material, completing assessments, and connecting with your trainer or classmates through the Live Q&A and forums. Commit to making your online coursework part of your weekly routine. Our experience tells us that thinking you will study when you feel like it just doesn’t work!
Let's look at an example student.