Development of a self-study course for the Austrian Red Cross as part of the blended learning training programme for social care workers.Â
What is it all about?
Since 2015, Red Cross volunteer social companions have been providing additional support for people who sometimes feel overwhelmed in their everyday lives, alongside help from family or friends. Until now, the prospective social companions were trained in the regional organisations in a 3 to 4-day classroom training course and prepared for their new role. In order to make the training more flexible in the future and to enable participants to start at any time, the aim of the project was to cover a large part of the knowledge transfer in the form of elearning. Â
This sub-area was embedded in a comprehensive project entitled " JETZT – gemeinsam Kinder, Jugendliche und ihre Familien stärken ", which was financially supported by the Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection. Â
Based on the training documents provided, an 8-hour online self-study course on the topic of "social support" was developed in collaboration with common sense, which supplements the existing script and prepares for the activity and the two days of attendance.Â
Project profileÂ
Customer:in | Austrian Red Cross - ÖRK |
Period | February to April 2023 |
Target group | Persons (aged 25 and over, especially 40 - 60 years, pensioners) who will volunteer as social companion in the future |
Our work | Creation of WBTs, explanatory videos, Moodle activities and ac/infographics, as well as design and structuring of the online course on the ÖRK learning platform |
Language | German |
Learning time | 8 hours |
Tools used | Moodle, Articulate Rise, Vyond and Adobe Suite |
Enabling learning!
The aim of the course is to impart basic knowledge and fundamentals for working in social support in a practical way. Four topic sections have been defined, each consisting of a self-learning module, important documents for practice and a quiz. For the four interactive self-learning modules, the storytelling approach was used as a common thread to guide the content. Care was taken to integrate practical examples that both reflect the diversity of the target group and take into account state-specific information and requirements. Exercises and additional materials in the form of infographics and a video glossary with short animated videos on the topic of the "welfare state" were created for two further topic sections, "Welfare system in Austria" and "Poverty and migration".
Insights into the online courseÂ
Our highlights and learnings from this projectÂ
With this self-study course, learners not only receive a practical introduction to the content of social counselling through realistic case studies/stories, they also find all the important documents for practice conveniently and clearly in one place.Â