SQA Braille Competency Course - Contracted completing April 2022 - March 2023

Number of Participants completing: 6
Number of Respondents: 6

Overall Assessment:

How would you rate the following:

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

I will continue to practise Braille and will start to use it with the appropriate children.
Within my work to support pupils.
I will use it to support a Braille user I work with.
I will continue to teach pupils with VI and create adapted material. I will also transcribe braille to print for teachers to mark work.
I will use what I have learned in my day-to-day job, supporting a pupil at high school who is registered blind.
Enhanced my braille knowledge to help support children and young people with a visual impairment.

How would you rate the following:

What was best about the course?

Learning new skills and I really enjoyed each stage.
The support of my tutor.
I really appreciated the practice exercises and the fact that you could check your work. Also the support of my course tutor who was always great at answering any questions and giving helpful feedback. Gaining a sound knowledge of braille.
Learning a new skill that is highly specialist and gaining knowledge and confidence in this area to then help me to support a visually impaired pupil through high school.
In-depth materials.

What, if anything, could have been improved?

I would have like more exercises to practise.
More than one practice final exam.
There were mistakes in the braille resources of most stages which could be off putting. I would have liked more time after stage 11 to practise new braille in subsequent modules.
Throughout all stages there were errors in the marking sheets – when you are unsure, it can lead to confusion and frustration. Stage 12 revision – it would be useful to have a summary of main rules.
Occasionally response time to emails, etc was a little slow.

Any other comments regarding the course?

Thanks for all your help!
I really enjoyed it. It was a challenge but a very worthwhile one. I liked the way it was broken into parts/stages with regular assessments to see progress.
The final exam was difficult to complete and check in the timescale. I think I used a piece of braille paper that had a little braille on it already but only noticed when checking at the end when 3 or 4 words didn’t make sense.
It was difficult at times studying continuously for 18 months, including weekends and holidays. There is a lot of testing between the 11 stage assessments and also on exam. Part 1 of my exam contained lots of conversation with open/close quotes and I don’t feel that this was fully covered in the course.

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.

Distance was fine.
At first I was a little wary, but I found it a good arrangement. Predominantly because it had a blend of working to your own paces but within deadlines. Also having my course tutor readily available and always so helpful definitely helped. Thanks for all the support.
I think I would have liked a little of both.
Happy with distance learning but it does require a high level of commitment. It may be helpful to have a group chat for when you get stuck to chat things through with others in a similar position.
Yes, it worked well.

Overall distance learning experience

How would you rate the overall learning experience?

How did you hear about this course?

Co-ordinator/Line Manager: 3
Colleague: 1
SSC website: 1
No response: 1

What other SSC CPD training would you find useful?

More advanced maths braille training as I support a pupil registered blind who is going through high school level maths.