Saturday, May 30, 2009

Open Learning for YMIS


Most of the YMIS course content will become open and available in 2009-10 through a 'wiki' like web shell. Each section is built on joomla articles, and you can search content by set categories, search box and a tag cloud. Anybody can seek to contribute by clicking the Do you have a suggestion!, button in the top right corner of the site. The decision to do make content free and available for a 'fee for service' course might be seen by some as unprofitable. Well that's not the point.

Firstly, YMIS course material is both useful for our fee-paying students and the broader community and we believe in sharing the great resources we have with the world, especially if it helps those in youth work. Our 'qualifications' still cost money as does to a degree the mentoring and training support we provide, but there is as an advantage to all involved in an open learning approach to our courses.

Secondly, we are adding value to the YMIS brand, that's no secret, by doing this we are creating a global network/forum for discussion around faith based youth work. WE are also creating pathways to other training and resources apart from our own, so this is a very win-win situation for YMIS.

The URL for this open learning resource will be ymiscentral.com.

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