ONLINE SERVICE STANDARDS

ONLINE SERVICES STANDARDS

Australian College of Professional Studies offers a range of courses delivered in a hybrid of face-to-face and virtual. We are committed to providing a high-quality virtual learning experience for students and these online service standards explain our commitment.

Student support 

ACPS Online provides the following support to help you with your study:

Trainers and Assessors

• Available for learning/assessment queries by phone, email, or online chat between 2:00 am and 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm Monday to Friday, for the duration of the course.
• Will reply to queries within 24 hours and return assessments within 7 days.
• There will be a maximum of 20 students for each trainer/assessor

Academic Officers

• Available by phone and email between 9:00 am and 5:00 pm and 7:00 pm – 9 pm Monday to Friday and 10 am – 2 pm Saturday and Sunday for the course duration.
• The office will reply to queries within 12 hours.

IT support helpdesk

• Available for learning/assessment queries by phone, email, or online chat between 9:00 am and 4:00 pm and 6:30 pm to 8:00 pm Monday to Friday, and 10 am – 2 pm Saturday and Sunday for the duration of the course.

Student entry requirements and induction

We do a comprehensive pre-training review for all prospective students to decide

• whether a program is suitable and appropriate for your individual needs, including:
• assessing your digital literacy by asking you to do a self-assessment quiz
• discussing the quiz outcomes and recommending whether the program is suitable for you and identifying additional support where required.

As outlined in our PTR you will be required to have

• a device with a minimum of 8GB memory and a 1.5Ghz processor
• Microsoft Windows 8 and above or Mac OS version 10 and above.
• Web-based content is available on hand-held devices including mobile phones and tablets.
• We provide a face-to-face or virtual induction on the LMS.

Learning materials

Our learning materials used in online training are interactive and in a variety of formats, including

• guided content
• graphics
• video
• audio
• interaction through discussion forums and webinars.

We apply the principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines to our learning materials by making them

Perceivable: our content information and user interface components are presentable to learners in ways they can easily perceive.

Operable: all functionality is available from a keyboard. The functionality of content is operable through a keyboard interface. 

Understandable: The text content of our resources and platform is readable and understandable.

Robus: elements have complete start and end tags, and elements are nested according to their specifications

Student engagement

We offer an online learning experience that is engaging and interactive.

We will monitor your participation and support you in progressing through your program.

We provide collaborative learning opportunities so that you can interact with peers, through

• discussion forums
• and webinars.

We’ll give ongoing feedback through the following:

• Interact with trainers/assessors in informal discussion forums
• in response to individual queries and in relation to the tasks you complete.

We will contact you if you have not logged on within 2 weeks of the program commencement date.

You will be deemed to have withdrawn from the program

if you:

• have not logged on within 4 weeks of the program commencement date; and
• after making five attempts at contact, you do not reengage with us

Mode and method of assessment

We will use a minimum of three forms of assessment for each unit including:

• knowledge questions
• projects
• case studies
• Role plays
• demonstration of practical skills in a regulated workplace. Work placement supervisors and assessors to assess practical skills

Skills First teacher skills and experience in online delivery

All trainers and assessors delivering our online programs are experienced and qualified in online delivery. They:

• participate in PDs in online training
•  and participate in a staff reference group