Schools – Becoming a WOW! Campus
Easy to Use
Highly Customisable
Fast to Implement
Robust Reporting
Flexible Integrations
Built-in Course Editor
WOW! The Context!
The founders of the WOW! Institute are all professional educators. They know that a dedicated teacher can spend a thousand hours a year outside class time, preparing lessons, tailoring programs for different students, and creating innovative ways to engage their learners.
We also know that today’s students are digital natives – virtually born with an ipad™ in their hands.
While most teachers are digital immigrants (people who have had to adapt to the new language of technology), some are actually digital refugees (people whose jobs, livelihoods, and lives have been disrupted by or are in danger of being disrupted by, the rapid advance of information technology, automation, and artificial intelligence).
WOW! Institute has been designed to address the needs of your digital natives, your digital immigrants and your digital refugees!
WOW! The Culture!
Do you have a teaching culture or a learning culture in your school?
What are your school values? Are they explicit or implicit?
WOW! Institute is an egalitarian educational tool. Teachers, ancillary staff, volunteers, parents, local businesses, community members, the school governance team, principals and faculty leaders can all learn through the extensive range of WOW! Institute courses.
If it’s good enough for the employees of these companies, it’s good enough for your school!
Let’s face it, your digital native students are comfortable with computers and technology.
Technology is an integral and essential part of their lives. They’ve grown up in the digital era, under the ubiquitous influence of the internet and other modern information technologies. They think, learn, and understand the world around them differently from most adults.
No matter what career they choose or what industry they work in when they leave school, they will be engulfed in a business undergoing digital transformation.
They need to be equipped!
Equipped for Life!
Upon successful completion of the assessment tasks, the learner’s achievement is recorded in the ASQA compliant Learner Management System of GEM College. A Statement of Completion is immediately available to the student to print for their Work Experience portfolio. A unique Skills Passport is established for the student, and each time the Learner successfully completes a module, a digital micro-credential is dynamically created, added to the Skills Passport, and stored in perpetuity,
This provides immediate gratification. What’s more, our micro-credentials are “stackable”, meaning they can be accumulated to gain credit status towards nationally recognised Units of Competency at Certificate III and IV qualification levels. Thus, the WOW! Institute provides a gentle, non-threatening entrance to Vocational Education and the World of Work.
Because “nothing succeeds like success”, your learners will want to undertake more WOW! modules in areas that interest them, and add more and more micro-credentials to their Skills Passport.
We know you’ll probably have the full range of teachers on your staff.
Some will be digital natives, exceptionally comfortable talking gigabytes, zettabytes and big data. They’ll want to help you create the school’s digital twin! Others will be keen to identify which of the 1,260 courses will suit their different classes and individual students, and will appreciate the high-quality resources available to them. Some will be excited that resources they’ve previously created can be uploaded and shared.
Make it your own! Put your stamp on it!
The WOW! Institute is a Learning Management System with Built-in Content Authoring. All WOW! modules are comprised of fully customisable course material, so it’s easy to make changes to the material. All course manuals and resources open in MS Word or any word processing program. In addition, you can take existing teaching materials you’ve developed and instantly convert them to e-learning resources. From there, you could have virtual classrooms for special needs students (ie the gifted, the CALD, and/or the remedial students) operating simultaneously within your classroom. At the same time, you’re free to go from Learner to Learner.
As a Pastoral Care teacher you may want to customise selected courses. Teachers with a large number of CALD/NESB students or students with Literacy difficulties will be excited to use the “text with audio” feature. Students hear and see the written word simultaneously, hearing correct pronunciation and/or strengthening neural pathways around and within the left inferior occipital lobe, which is activated by reading.. Others will be interested to read the section on Dis-Ability and e-learning, and implement new strategies to assist students with learning and/or learner dis-Abilities.
Teachers in Christian Schools, Jewish Yeshivas or colleges, Islamic Madrasa or schools may want to customise the materials by inserting quotations from religious writings that underpin the key principles of particular courses e.g., Respect in the Workplace, Goal Setting, Conflict Management or Anger Management.
There’s truly something for every teacher!
Quotable Quote:
Rather than trying to insert knowledge into our kids’ heads, as in the past (and then to measure how much of it got there), today’s teachers need to find ways to create 21st century citizens (and workers) who parrot less and think more. Teachers guide students by doing what they do best—for example, ask the right questions, put things into the proper context, and ensure quality and rigor. teachers need is the freedom to implement what they know to be right. … But getting one’s head around new roles and approaches is not always easy. Change is difficult for all of us, particularly those not used to it.– Marc Prensky, Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom 2011
BUT…that’s where WOW! Institute’s support system comes in:
We appreciate that some schools will have all the expertise and experience needed to establish, operate, maintain, manage, and expand the functionality of their own dual-branded WOW! Institute. Others will find it daunting – not because it’s hard, but because it’s new.
WOW! Institute will provide you with “How to” webinars (synchronous and asynchronous). We can run workshops for your staff and provide one-on-one support if required.
The WOW! Institute was primarily designed for teachers, but just don’t tell the kids!
Are your ancillary personnel part of the Learning Culture of your school?
When did they last undertake Professional Development? What qualifications do they hold? How long ago did they gain it? What role models do they present to students considering employment in administration, records and information?
With over 800 Information Technology/Computing modules and more than 300 Soft Skills, your ancillary staff can address immediate “skills gaps” as they go about their work. Volunteers could be offered access to the WOW! Institute as an expression of gratitude for their service and as a way to enhance their skills. “Return to work” adults in the community can access WOW! Institute courses, and as they feel more comfortable, enrol in a full qualification.
WOW! really does open up a World of Work opportunities.
The Australian National Micro-credential Framework (2021) defines a micro-credential as
certification of assessed learning or competency, with a minimum volume of learning of one hour and less than an AQF award qualification, that is additional, alternate, complementary to or a component part of an AQF award qualification.
Why Digital Credentials?
Digital credentials have become the new currency for dynamically trading employability skills information between educators and employers.
In September 2023, the Federal Government began to create a digital ‘Skills Passport’ for workers so they can more easily connect with potential employers. This national initiative will be rolled out as an app that can act as a digital CV. It will include workers’ qualifications, industry certifications, licences, etc.
The Skills Passport is designed to help address growing skill shortages to function in a similar way to the Medicare app, which stores the personal details of patients and connects them to services and service providers. The Skills Passport will simplify recruitment processes for employers. The Business Council of Australia calls it “a game changer”.
Although satisfying industry needs and driving the economy through a skilled workforce is important, the primary goal of the WOW! Institute educators is identifying and developing the unique strengths of each learner, nurturing their innate talents and gifts, and facilitating the pursuit of their full potential. The wide range of options in the 1,260 short courses offered by WOW! enables each Learner to “taste and see”, to identify their interests and determine their own path. The educator facilitates this grassroots learning – and can measure the satisfaction Learner gains from the receipt of their outcome-based micro-credentials- which will, in turn, benefit business and government.
Your Learners and graduates will operate in a world of workforce mobility, for them, the mobile Skills Passport will be an essential commodity.
When each type of Learner successfully completes a WOW! Institute module, a unique digital micro-credential Statement of Completion will be added. These micro-credentials are encrypted digital records. They are unique to the Learner; they are secure, verifiable digital credentials.
The digital credentials we offer are part of a global “end-to-end credentialing system” that is not only ASQA compliant but also compliant with global standards including W3C, Open Badges 3.0 and UK standards including iFATE and OfQual.
The Australian Government, Department of Education, Skills and Employment have released a National Microcredentials Framework, which sets out the Critical Information Requirements and Recommended Requirements for a micro-credential.
Click here to see how well WOW! aligns with the National Microcredentials Framework.
We know you’ll want to know more, so this section is just for you!
The WOW! Institute and GEM College Learning Management System are built on the znanja architecture developed by our Canadian alliance partner, VELSOFT Inc. This technology allows live-edit published e-learning courses.
Following is a summary of the features of our e-learning architecture.
APPS
The Apps offer the following functions:
Conversion: Direct-to-eLearning conversion technology that allows you to automatically convert Word or PowerPoint files directly into eLearning. Only znanja offers this proprietary technology.
Messenger: The built-in messenger system allows students to talk with the instructor or other students taking the same course. Start course discussions on any course page, and keep in touch with your students, all without leaving WOW!
Certification: WOW! allows you to quickly and easily create completely custom Statements of Completion to add to your own developed courses. Only WOW! has this level of control over the look and feel of your certificates.
White Label: WOW! Institute can be dual-branded/rebranded. Choose your school’s logo and colours to make it your own. Your brand and your World of Work and World of Wellness Community hub is the focus, not ours.
PageBuilder: Editing is made even simpler with PageBuilder. PageBuilder offers over 500 pre-built pages that can easily be dropped into your course and edited. Plus, all of WOW! is SCORM-Compliant, so you never have to worry about it.
Cloud-based: WOW! is stored completely in the cloud. That means you don’t need to host any hardware or software, and your students get consistent access and speed right out of the box.
API: WOW! offers free access to a powerful API that’s been implemented in projects such as our virtual campuses and single sign-on applications
SCORM Connector: All WOW! courses come with the znanja proprietary SCORM connector export. Export a small package into your LMS, and watch as it updates in real-time with your edits on znanja.
AUTHORING
Audio: you can easily add audio to every page in your course. Add step-by-step narration with ease, and you can even record the audio directly from within WOW!
Intuitive: WOW!’s editing tools are simple to use and reminiscent of technologies such as Microsoft Word.
Developer Tools: WOW! and GEM College personnel are very innovative, and we don’t want to limit you and your creativity! If you’re capable, you can take complete control over the JavaScript, CSS, and HTML of every page in any course you upload, and provided you don’t tamper with the assessment tasks or competencies, you can make everything you can dream of possible with WOW!.
Branding: All your WOW! courses are built in a way that allows rapid and powerful customisation. Change the fonts, styles, and colours, and even effortlessly add your school’s logo to a whole course . Then instantly copy those settings into other courses for a consistent look and feel.
Responsive Grid: WOW! includes a powerful Bootstrap grid tool that will scale beautifully and make courses you’ve developed look naturally stunning on all devices.
Animations: Bring courses you’ve developed to life (or add further zing to WOW! modules) with animation and movement. With a full array of CSS animations easily accessible without any programming knowledge, anyone can make lively courses.
MANAGING
Group: You can group students and teachers together to make assigning courses, viewing reports, and opening chatrooms effortless.
Reporting: You can instantly generate reports with in-depth information on your student’s progress through your courses.
User Roles: With custom access for teachers, students, content creators and administrators, it’s easy to set up all your users with just the level of permissions they need.
White Label: You can completely rebrand the LMS as your own. Choose your own school logo and colours and make it your own.
LTI Integration: znanja follows the LTI standards, making it easy to integrate with the LTI-compatible tools you’re already using.
Workflows: Using a powerful toolkit of triggers and actions, you can create workflows to automatically enrol students, send messages, and even more.
REPORTING
Quizbuilder: Review knowledge transfer and reinforce concepts easily with the QuizBuilder tool. Add SCORM-compliant tests, exams, assessments, and quizzes to your developed courses. All quizzes are automatically displayed in the reporting.
Answer History: Don’t just see the final answer, but watch the process as your student works through a question. Identify problem areas and guide your student’s teaching in ways only possible with eLearning.
Time Tracking: WOW! tracks how long a student visits every page. You can easily see where students struggled to interpret content and what came easily.
Real-Time Grading: Let WOW! automatically grade your simple questions! You can test your student’s comprehension and push them to study the content more in-depth at their own pace.
Instructor Grading: Using text responses, you can create in-depth comprehension questions and essays for your students. Then you can effortlessly see the responses in the reporting and grade with ease.
Grouping: You can sort your students by group, course, or individually and generate powerful top-level reports as soon as needed.
INTERACTIONS
If you want to get really creative, you can pair with Gameo for even more interactivity.
No Programming Required: Create amazing interactions using our simple but powerful interaction editor.
HTML5 Output: You can publish your interactions as HTML. Our interactions work on Windows, Mac, iPads, Android Tables, Chromebooks and more.
Real-time Editing: You can simplify your workflow by using our real-time editor. Update your interactions without the need to re-export or upload it again.
No Software Required: No software download is required to use our cloud-based editor. WOW! works on Mac, Windows and Linux in all modern web browsers.
SCORM Compliant: Our interactions report scores and completion data to your SCORM1.2, SCORM2004 or Tin Can / xAPI compliant LMS.
Embed Into Your Content: You can easily embed your interactions into your own content using our embed code.
SCORM Export: You can export your interaction as a stand-alone SCORM1.2, SCORM2004 or Tin Can / xAPI package to import into your compliant LMS.
Public Library: You can browse the public library of interactions created by other users. Mark your own interactions as public to share them with others.
Team Accounts: You can invite other users from your school to help build and edit your interactions.
QUOTABLE QUOTE
I have a vision for education (and, of course, so do lots of folks). But my vision differs from most people’s in one very significant respect: My vision is bottom-up—it begins with the students—what they need and how we can give it to them. I want our young people to succeed in their 21st century, which will be, without a doubt, a turbulent one, characterized by variability, uncertainty, chaos, and ambiguity (what my good friend, former school superintendent David Engle, calls “VUCA”) and by increasingly accelerating change.
– Mark Prensky, D, From Digital Natives to Digital Wisdom
A special needs student is one who has been determined to require special attention and specific necessities that others do not.
Traditionally, this term has been ascribed to students with learning or learner disabilities. However, the 2001 Senate Inquiry into Gifted and Talented Students defined them as:
“students with the potential for unusually high performance in at least one area”.
and went on to say that the inquiry estimated that 5-10% of Australian students fall under this special needs category. It added
“gifted students are understandably not defined as being “disabled”, but instead
are described as having special needs. This is significant as it means educational
providers are not under the same legal obligations to accommodate their additional
needs, as they are of someone who has a diagnosed disability.”
So, for the purposes of WOW! Institute, we identify Learners with special needs as being the gifted students, those with remedial needs, those with learner or learning disabilities, those with chronic and terminal illnesses and those from Culturally and Linguistically Diverse backgrounds.
For all those kids and all their teachers, the WOW! Institute offers a lot of assistance.
CALD/NESB
Literacy and non-English speaking background – e-learning can assist the Learner with literacy development by having audio simultaneous to seeing the written words; AND it can assist CALD/NESB people with the sounding (pronunciation and tone) of English language spoken by a native English speaker.
Gifted Learners
High-potential students with special needs are likely to experience underachievement. Others suffer perfectionism and burn-out as they try to reach perfection. You may like to watch the video (36:02) Why Gifted Kids are Actually Special Needs.
Gifted students can choose from a wide range of 1,260 courses. They can work out what interests them and pursue it more broadly and more deeply. They’re not just being given “more of the same” because they’ve finished quickly. They can take control of their learning.
Dis-Ability and WOW! Institute
The WOW! Institute offers many advantages for students with learning and learner disabilities.
1981 was the Year of the Disabled and South Australian Julie Anne Lambert, a friend of the founders of the WOW! Institute, was named Australian of the Year. Julie Anne always spoke of “dis-Ability”. By using dis-Ability, this website acknowledges the tremendous legacy Julie Anne McBride (nee Lambert) left us.
WOW! Institute personnel are well acquainted with disability. Managing Director, Monique grew up in South Africa with a paraplegic father. Monique knows well the difference between disability and dis-Ability. Malcolm Koch, Advisor, is the hearing son of two deaf parents. Denielle Pitcher, Registered Counsellor, suffered a severe workplace injury that left her with a permanent disability. Others of us have been impacted by family members with epilepsy, autism and dementia.
The social model of disability says that disability is actually caused by the way our society is organised, and not by the person’s impairment. This model challenges us all to find ways of removing barriers that restrict the life choices of people with a dis-Ability. Once barriers are removed, people can be independent and perceived as equal in society and can exercise control over their life choices.
The WOW! Institute is removing barriers for Learners in the following ways:
Sight impairment: With e-learning, the learner can adjust the size of the font and/or can provide audio (which can be replayed) for the sight impaired. Also, the face of the Tutor in a virtual LIVE session can be made “larger than life” to assist the sight impaired.
Hearing impaired: e-learning can provide comprehensive Learner Guides and interactive learning methods that engage the learner. AND the face of the Tutor can be made “larger than life” so that the mouth of the speaker to be readily seen – assisting in lip reading. Volume control may be adjusted, and voice-to- text conversion is readily available.
Anxieties (agoraphobia or claustrophobia) or other mental health disabilities: e-learning can provide social interaction without requiring people to leave the comfort of their room/home OR without them feeling “locked in” a classroom environment. A person with a mental health condition may experience difficulty concentrating one day, but not the next. The Learner can learn when they’re feeling best. Any time, any device, any screen.
Sometimes, the result of medication can disturb a person’s equilibrium for a short while. The Learner can avoid overly stressful situations – and learn whenever and wherever they feel best, so their condition is not exacerbated. More time and greater flexibility can be allowed for induction, training and when and how the person will be assessed, i.e. the Learner stays in control.
Even if the Learner is involved in interactions with other online learners, the Tutor can make additional time available to give the Learner with dis-Ability, their undivided attention either during that session (by taking them to a “break out” while others are busy undertaking exercises) OR after the formal class.
If instructions aren’t understood, the Learner can privately signal that in Chat Box to the Tutor, no-one else needs to see that private chat…. And the Tutor can respond by way of Chat Box or can just switch that Learner to a different “break out room” and give additional instructions. Thus removing any embarrassment to the Learner.
People with Brain Injury: Whether from birth or through injury sustained later in life – e-learning can assist these Learners who may fatigue more quickly. They can stop and start their learning as they require.
The speed of learning can be slowed down to enable the speed at which the Learner processes information, do their planning and solve problems to suit them. If the Learner experiences difficulty in areas such as memory, concentration and communication at any time, they can stop and start as it suits them. This will allow the Learner more time and greater flexibility for their training – to suit them.
Clear explanations have already been built into the e-learning platform and reviewed. All of this will minimise stress and enable the Learner to choose the time they want to learn, which will help them maximise their concentration and performance.
Other Physical Dis-Abilities: While access has become less of a problem in Australia, with RTOs and schools requiring access, Disability Toilets, etc, this can still be a problem for learners in some rural areas, AND for Learners who are not in Australia. e-learning removes the issue of physical access/egress.
Autism/Asperger’s syndromes: e-learning can reduce anxiety as the Learner can be in total control over their sensitivity to sight, touch, sound, room temperature, etc. Removes the need for trying to read body language in social settings that may cause stress (ie during Learning) but still enables the person to have a level of social interaction that they may seek outside the learning environment with their co-learners, ie they can learn when they want to and interact socially when they want to.
Dyslexia: e-learning can provide the text AND the audio to assist with delivery.
Learners having surgery or ongoing medical treatments: The Cancer Council recommends various ways teachers can keep Learners undergoing surgery and treatment engaged. The diagnosis of cancer or similar can be a major disruption, with frequent absences from school and erratic times of feeling unwell. WOW! can assist the Learner to remain “in touch” with their learning, and this regular communication can provide reassurance that they’ve not been forgotten by their teacher or friends, and help to keep them engaged with their education.
Year 1 Investment
One-off Licence establishment fee for your co-branded WOW! Institute:
$4,500
Cost per Learner:
$79 per academic year or
$49 per semester
Example: Year 1 Investment
To establish a customisable co-branded WOW! Institute campus if you have 450 students comprised of:
• 150 in Year 9
• 150 in Year 10
• 100 in Year 11
• 50 in Year 12
And 10 new students joined your school in Semester 2, you would pay:
Establishment (one off) $4,500
Full academic year students 450 x $79 = $35,500
One semester students 10 x $49 = $490
Total Payment $36,040
If 25 students left at the end of Semester 1 – you would receive a credit of $30 x 25 = $750
So, you would pay nothing for the 10 new students, and gain a rebate of $260.00
Payment Options
Option 1
School pays upfront $40,000
(Licensee establishment fee plus one year’s subscription for 450 students).
Adjustments made in second semester if required.
Option 2
School pays upfront $26,550
(Licensee establishment fee plus first semester’s subscription for students).
Adjustments made in second semester = continuing students x $30 = + new students x $49
Option 3
School pays upfront $8,055
(being $4,500 Licensee establishment fee and enrolment of 450 students of $3,555).
School pays a regular $3,555 each month over the following 9 months. With adjustments made in second semester if new students are enrolled.
To discuss, please call:
- Becoming a Licensed WOW! Provider – contact Dr Luceille Outhred, Resources Manager: luceille.outhred@gemcollege.edu.au?subject=WOW! Website Enquiry
- Implementing a World of Wellness Program – contact Ms Denielle Pitcher, Wellbeing Consultant and Registered Counsellor: denielle.pitcher@gemcollege.edu.au
- Accessing WOW! for your students, yourself and your school – contact Mr Brendan Lindstrom, Business Manager: brendan.lindstrom@gemcollege.edu.au
