By Ismail Ahmed Fulu, School of ICT

I believe that learning takes place best when learners take responsibly for their own learning. Competitions are an ideal environment for promoting such increased learner responsibility.

Students join a competition with the desire to win. As a result they are highly motivated and prepared to spend time outside their regular school hours to train for the competition. Fortunately, students who are interested in competitions tend to manage their time well. Preparing for the competition helps them to develop their time management skills even further.

Learning Beyond the Curriculum

Competitions provide the opportunity for students to learn beyond their normal curriculum and thus widen their knowledge base. Very often the scope of any competition is far from what students need to learn in class. Whether it is a competition involving programming or debating, participants will learn a great deal beyond their regular curriculum during the process of preparation.

The Microsoft Office Specialist Program

Over the last five years I have been involved in preparing students for the Microsoft® Office Specialist program, which is:

"a globally recognized standard for demonstrating desktop skills with the Microsoft Office suite of desktop applications."

This competition tests software skills in Microsoft Office at Specialist level in the Preliminary round and at Expert level in the National Finals. Students from across Ngee Ann Polytechnic are encouraged to enter this annual competition.

There are 15 questions in the 50-minute examination. The result is known to the competitors as soon as the test is submitted.

I was thrilled that participants from Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s School of InfoComm Technology, (ICT) won the Word Championship twice, in 2004 and 2006 respectively.

2006 World Champion in Microsoft Word, Lay Yong Shun Edward

Training for the Competition

I take a learner-centred approach to training students for this competition. There are no formal classes and students need to learn the materials independently and in their own time. The participants are provided with:

1. A clear statement of the syllabus for the competition;
2. Online study materials; and
3. A desktop application that allows them to practice for the competition in a simulated test environment. This application includes Microsoft Office skill questions that are similar to previous years examination questions.

Fulu (in blue shirt) with competition participants

During the one-month training period, students can consult with me via email, phone or in person. So the students are learning but there is limited input from me. The clear learning goals for the competition help students to focus and take responsibility for their own learning.

Observed Learning Outcomes

During the training for the competitions over the last 5 years I observed the following learning outcomes.

Students took responsibility for their own learning: The students had a sense of ownership for their own learning and as a consequence, they took it more seriously. I did not need to chase them all the time to learn the skills. Instead, they were motivated and took responsibility for developing the skills.

They became more skilled at managing their time commitments, having to juggle between regular school work and learning the new skills required for the competition.

I found them to be very enthusiastic in learning these new skills through the hands-on practice tests. The online assessment was helpful in boosting the students’ confidence and it encouraged them to close any skill gaps that they found.

Increased responsibility for learning was a valuable outcome of the learner-centred approach taken to this training.

Students developed a cooperative learning approach: Another interesting observation was that the trainees formed a “learning community” among themselves and naturally adopted cooperative learning during the training period.

Johnson and Johnson in An Overview of Cooperative Learning, maintain that in cooperative situations, students perceive they can reach their goals only if other students in the learning group reach their goals, while in competitive situations students perceive they can reach their goals only if other students in the group fail to achieve their goals.

Cooperative learning is a learning strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve all team members’ understanding of a subject. Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping team-mates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement.

I observed that the students shared their knowledge and helped each other to prepare for the competition, even though they were going to compete as individuals. There was a sense that they wanted fellow Ngee Ann Polytechnic students to be in the top 10 rankings for this competition, so they naturally formed self-help groups.

Collaboration in the learning process was another positive outcome of the learner-centred approach taken.

Teaching Others Promotes Better Learning

On reflection, I believe that in the process of helping each other to acquire the necessary skills, the students consolidated their own learning. They needed to think through the vocabulary used, the steps required and the correct order of those steps. They then needed to share that knowledge, and as a consequence, they learned the knowledge more thoroughly.

Competition Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the competition are awarded a Competency Certificate in Word and/or Excel issued by Microsoft. This certificate can be included in their portfolios and used in job applications.

From the Overview of the Office Specialist site:

The results of an independent research study of participants in the Office Specialist program indicate Office Specialist certification improves employee competence, productivity, and credibility, including the following:

Up to 87 percent of employers observe increased competency in their Office Specialist-certified employees.
Up to 83 percent of employers feel their Office Specialist-certified employees are more productive.”

Conclusion

By taking a learner-centred approach to training students for the Singapore Microsoft Office Academic Skills Challenge, I believe that the particpants became more passionate about what they were learning. As a result, they became more responsible for the outcome and they naturally adopted a cooperative approach to their fellow competitors.

I am enthusiastic about the positive outcomes that can be obtained when we involve students in external competitions. The students achieve:

• Recognition of their learning by an authentic external body
• Motivation, engagement and responsibility for their own learning
• Skills in cooperative learning
• Self esteem (there was great jubilation when students scored full marks in this competition)
  

I believe that in particular, the Microsoft Office competition has positive learning outcomes because:

• The competition has an obvious value add for the students, since they will all use Microsoft Office products in their working lives
• The skills learned have a broad application
• The competition fosters the view that there is more to learning than studying for school exams
• The students begin to build skills for life-long learning

In conclusion, I believe that by conducting the training for this competition in a learner-centred manner, the students have gained many important skills that would not be possible if I had conducted conventional classes in Microsoft Office.

Author

Ismail Fulu, School of ICT, Ngee Ann Polytechnic

References
Johnson, D. and Johnson, R. An Overview of Cooperative Learning, (online). Retrieved 29 Oct 2007 from http://www.co-operation.org/pages/overviewpaper.html.

Overview, Microsoft Office Specialist Certification, (online). Retrieved 29 Oct 2007 from http://www.officespecialist.com.sg/benefits.htm.