Le Mans Racing - A Communication Skills Course

Background: 16-18 year old apprentices, who have left secondary school have to continue studying English, if they do not achieve a pass. The course design sought to improve and sustain the apprentices long term motivation and engagement with the English course. Furthermore, considering autonomy is a key proponent of motivation and contributes to academic success, the course aimed to increase the value of English by embedding session within their vocational course, which they chose to study.

Challenges: The apprentices are generally not enthused by the subject matter in higher education level, as they particularly enjoy a variety of hands on activities and can become bored quickly with lecturer based learning. It was clear there was a lack of interest towards the subject matter. Therefore, motivational design principles were applied to increase the rate of engagement and apprentice retention and attendance of the course. 

Solution: During a motivational survey of the apprentices, it became apparent that all of them have some experience with playing video games. Therefore, in order to deliver the course through a range of modalities and apply an element of novelty to what seemed a mundane and boring subject, gamification would be appropriate to support the learning outcomes of the Electrical course and GCSE English. The course aimed to increase attendance, apprentice: confidence, satisfaction, relevance of communication skills for Electrical Engineering and academic GCSE English results.

Design Process: Having collected data on the apprentices interests, hopes, fears and aspirations, whilst assessing gaps in their skills and behaviours the Le Mans idea was born. Racers need to be able to focus for long periods of time and must have the competence to make crucial decisions to get across the finish safety line. This seemed more than relevant to the competencies needed for the long haul of studying English for another year. Furthermore, to ensure an inclusive learning environment and sufficient support for the range of learners in the group, UDL principles were applied at each term of iteration.

I started the design process using ADDIE for the initial course implementation, then switching to a SAM model, which I felt better supported the iterative nature of the course and took account of creative inputs on a weekly or even daily basis. I evaluated the course every six weeks from implementation using the Kirkpatrick model.

Results: The results showed over three terms that the attendance and retention was the highest in the construction department of 400 students. Furthermore, a questionnaire to collect data on their interest towards the course, showed positive results of 90% feeling the course was engaging and preferred to the normal mode of delivery experienced in mainstream education. Academic Performance is TBC.