About ITEC
Established in 2000, ITEC is the largest provider of
distance learning education in Ireland. In fact. ITEC is
bigger than all the other distance learning course providers
combined offering over 400 quality courses and new,
exciting, practical and topical courses are added all the
time.
Our continuing goal is to provide the opportunity for
people to gain recognised qualifications in the most
convenient and flexible way possible through distance and
online learning and substantially less that any other course
provider. This is why we urge prospective students to visit
other websites and compare prices.
We are committed to the highest standards in providing
accredited distance learning training and education in
Ireland.
ITEC Quality Assurance
ITEC is committed to the highest standards of Quality
Assurance and has put in place comprehensive processes and
procedures to ensure high standards of service are provided
to learners. We were
certified holders of the ISO 9001:2008 standard. Following
our own internal review of the relevance of this ISO and our
experience in securing it we formed the view that it is
something that is available to be purchased.
Guaranteed Irish. We are proud members of this
movement which is your guarantee for Irish quality and Irish
jobs.
Our Student Charter
further outlines our commitment to quality assurance.
Our basic core values are to provide:
- Quality, externally accredited courses at reasonable
prices.
- One-to-One Support: the provision of one-to-one
support to learners by qualified and experienced Tutors.
- External Certification: our quality systems are
externally certified and audited.
- Customer Service: providing best-in-class customer
service.
- Innovation: embracing new technologies (e.g. email,
internet, electronic documents, interactive CDs, online
tutoring) to make education more accessible.
- Accessibility: encouraging and facilitating access by
those in society normally excluded from further education.
Certification
Learner Outcomes
Up to quite recently, the traditional way of teaching was
based on what is called a teacher - centred approach where
teachers/lecturers decided on the course content, how they
planned to teach this content and then went on to assess
the content.
One of the perceived drawbacks of this system was the
difficulty to state exactly what the student had to be
able to do in order to pass.
In recent years there has been a shift from this 'teacher
- centred' approach to a 'student-centred' approach. With
this latter system the focus is on what the student can
expect to be able to do at the end of a particular module/
lesson or programme. This approach is now commonly
referred to as an outcome-based approach and the learning
outcomes are used to express what it is expected that a
student should be able to do at the end of the learning
period.
In summary, teacher-centred approaches place the emphasis
on the teacher while outcome-based approaches place the
emphasis on the student.
We have adopted the outcome-based approach as a integral
part of our mission to contribute to the achievement of
learners in as an efficient manner as possible for all our
courses.
Our Definition of Learning Outcomes.
Learning outcomes are statements of what a student is
expected to know, understand and/or be able to demonstrate
after completion of a process, (module/lesson or
course/programme) of learning.
Therefore, when you enrol for a course or programme of
study you will find that there is a written statement of
the learning outcomes for each module/lesson.
These learning outcomes will state what the student will
be able to do or demonstrate and they are written at the
beginning of each module/lesson in simple and unambiguous
terms so that they are clearly understood by students,
teachers, lecturers, colleagues, employers and external
examiners.
Learning outcomes specify the essential learning for a
module/lesson and whenever possible the minimum accepted
standard is specified that a student must achieve to pass
the module/lesson or course/programme.
This is why there is a small number of important learning
outcomes rather than a large number of superficial ones
that are capable of being validly assessed.
There is a difference between (module/lesson,
course/programme) aims, objectives and learning outcomes.
The aim is usually a broad general statement of the
teaching intention – on what the teacher intends to cover
in a period of learning.
The objective is generally a statement of teacher intent –
on what specific areas the teacher intends to cover in a
defined period of learning.
Both of these tend to concentrate on the intent of the
teacher and are therefore rather limiting in this regard.
Learning outcomes, on the other hand are clear statements
on what the student is expected to achieve and how the
student is expected to demonstrate that achievement.
They are therefore, of themselves more precise, easier to
compose and far cleared than objectives.
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