Learning the ropes

The first Independent Learning Week was recently observed by Al Ain Women's College. The aim behind the project was to provide an opportunity for the students to learn on their own by accumulating practical knowledge. During the exercise the pupils were given a chance to review, consolidate, extend, remediate and take responsibility for independent learning. The staff, on the other hand, got the chance to enhance professional development.

The week got off to a robust start with a number of workshops and independent learning activities carried out at the Learning Resource Centre at the college's premises.

On the first day, the volunteers at the Information Desk got busy delivering advice and direction to the attendants. Passports with the day's programme were issued to the visitors to assist them in charting out their day.
From 9.00am-12.00 noon various workshops were held, attracting 880 students, all eager to benefit from the diverse topics on offer.
During the Web CT workshop, Omar Badran described some of the courses which will soon be available on the Internet. The Self Assessment workshop had Christine Burrows and Muna Al Dharmaki helping students discover their strengths and weaknesses.
In addition to these critical thinking, motivation, time management, fitness, learning styles, team building, telephoning and video recording were the topics of other workshops that proved to be great crowd pullers.

The interview technique workshop conducted by Tania Ghanem, Mariam Al Dhaheri and Haifa Rashid helped the senior students learn the dos and don'ts at interviews. 'Learning by asking questions' and writing workshops increased awareness on how asking questions can help make learning easier.