SQA Braille Competency Course - Uncontracted April 2018 - March 2019

Number of Participants completing: 14
Number of Respondents: 9

Overall Assessment:

How would you rate the following: Excellent = 5, Poor = 1

How will you use what you have learned in this course?

To assist child in P1 and throughout school.
Will support a blind pupil in school.
I am currently working with a child who uses braille and by doing the course I will feel more confident in being able to help them with their learning.
It will enhance my work with VI pupils.
Translation work.
Working with a blind child who has not yet started reading or writing braille, this will give me knowledge to help him learn and to create resources tailored for him.
Every day in support of a blind child at school.
I will help and support my child's learning.
Not using it at the moment but hopefully in class in the future.

How would you rate the following: Excellent = 5, Poor = 1

What was best about the course?

Learning a new skill which will help visually impaired children.
Learning new material.
The way in which we progressed through the alphabet, punctuation and numeracy. There was just the right amount of new information in each section.
Being able to contact the tutor.
The stages were logically ordered and tutor was of great help.
Encouragement to practice every day with deadlines resulted in good learning skills.
The methodical progression was very easy to follow.
I liked working at my own pace. The material was well spaced.

What, if anything, could have been improved?

More time to complete the course.
More information re posting of assessments - eg. The best method to prevent "damage" being done to the work sent. Labels for posting were not included in the pack I received and therefore I had to create my own through photocopying.
Exercises, including money signs, decimal money signs and various punctuation could be improved - more examples and exercises.
Numbers section needs improvement.
More explanation on how to layout a braille paper, line spacing and all examples of when to go in 3 cells.

Any other comments regarding the course?

There were some simple errors in the pack, which could be amended eg. When showing the numbers for fingering number 4 was shown as number 1.
It's a good learning curve.
Very worthwhile. Good support from own staff and from my tutor.
It was perfect. Thank you.
Very understanding to my situation. It is appreciated greatly.
There are quite a few mistakes in the course material, which I found really confusing.

Distance Learning

This course was delivered through distance learning - did you find this a good arrangement or would you have preferred a different mode of delivery? Please comment either way.

It was a good arrangement for me (2).
Found distance learning difficult.
This arrangement was fine for me as it suited my circumstances.
Distance learning mode was fine.
Distance learning suited me fine and worked well.
Distance suited me fine, meant I could still be at school to assist pupils and could fit my learning around my own family.
Yes, this was fine for me. Quicker response on emails would have been great.

Overall distance learning experience

How would you rate the overall learning experience? Excellent = 5, Poor = 1

How did you hear about this course?

Co-ordinator/Line Manager: 7
Colleague: 1
SSC Website: 1

What other SSC CPD training would you find useful?

To go onto the second part of the course.
Additional braille input.
Other training relevant to pupils with VI.
More generic training for working with blind children.
Contracted Grade2!