Mimi Murray
An Cosán, a community education organisation, has been operating successfully in west Tallaght for 30 years.
Four years ago, the board of directors decided to scale the college, coming up with An Cosán Virtual Community College, bringing virtual classrooms and higher education to students across Ireland, who otherwise would not have the means to pursue further education.
Liz Waters, director at VCC, says the organisation focuses on students who experience themselves as a consistent failure in education.
She says that 70 per cent of students who take an online learning course drop out, something she wanted to avoid with VCC. With the help of Three Ireland, they have developed an easy online model of education that suits the students they work with.
“Three have made available to us all of their staff resources. You often hear of volunteering, but this is more than that. They developed our website and logo in consultation with us, they guided our platform and supported us. They have also developed an e-mentoring platform. Students who are returning to education, who are as bright as anything, may lack confidence and have challenges around academic literacy so they need support and we developed e-mentoring for them. That has been very successful.”
VCC works in partnership with communities all around the country. They have a facility, with maybe 8-10 computers and 8 students who want to go on to higher education but have no chance of accessing it because of costs, access or confidence.
“We could have 20 students in Mayo, 10 in Donegal and six in Waterford so you would have students form a learning community to access a course in higher education.
“Students go online at a time that suits them and they have access to resources we put up for them, so it could be an article, a TED talk, a quiz and we expect them to study it. An ordinary class is usually about a teacher going in and giving a lecture. If students get all the information before they come to the live classroom, they are really able to deepen their knowledge. They are learning more and co-creating knowledge. It’s the recognition that adults have so much to bring to the learning process. They come into the virtual classroom at a set time and are involved in interactive engagement, and they critique what they’re learning.”
The courses are based around community education, for example community development, leadership development or drugs work.
“These are all issues in areas of disadvantage and the students want to be involved in creating and developing the solutions. If you have a degree today, it doesn’t matter what the degree is in, it’s that you demonstrate you have the problem-solving and the collaborative and communication skills needed, and you can walk into a job anywhere.”
VCC currently offers a modular approach; a 10 week level seven programmes that will eventually become a degree accredited by IT Carlow. They are also about to launch a City and Guild Group programme. “They have funded a two-year programme in social enterprise and leadership development for women that will be accredited under their institute for learning.”
As cost is a huge impediment to students entering further education, there is a bursary fund available and the organisation will help students access it.
ancosanvcc.com.