RSPB sources MyKnowledgeMap e-learning for adult education launch

Mentor-supported e-learning developed by MyKnowledgeMap (MKM) has been added to the wide range of education solutions provided to members of Europe’s largest wildlife conservation organisation, the UK’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB).

Over the last few years, the RSPB has seen an increased interest in birds and wildlife. Its new Learn Birds course (www.learnbirds.com) will help adults develop new skills and knowledge and guide them through the early stages of their interest.

This increased interest is reflected elsewhere with the growing popularity of TV nature programmes like BBC Springwatch.

This year the programme attracted an average of 4m viewers a night who tuned in to watch the daily lives of nesting birds, foxes and badgers. Its presenters, Kate Humble and Bill Oddie, are now household names.

LearnBirds is being launched by the RSPB to help fill a gap in adult education. The course is an introduction to birds and birdwatching and has been designed to appeal to a wide range of adults.

Mark Boyd, RSPB LearnBirds Coordinator, said: “We sought a means of providing recreational learners with a broad and thorough introduction to birds and birdwatching that they could dip in and out of and learn at their own pace.”

In MyKnowledgeMap the charity found a solution provider with a proven record in web-based learning for a wide range of audiences.

The York-based company provides e-learning content and delivery systems, skills analysis software and is the UK's leading supplier of infrastructure systems for national skill e-academies, with solutions established in UK food & drink manufacturing, sport & active leisure, care, and retail sectors.

For the RSPB, MKM has devised a 10-hour course that takes learners on a journey into and through the world of birds. The course begins with the fundamentals of bird watching, moving to bird anatomy before looking at conservation issues.

The course is broken into 20 topics that use a wide range of texts and images in online interactions and offline activities.

Online interactions include building habitats, quizzes and matching birds with sounds. Offline activities include field tracking, silhouette identification and bird hunts.

The course makes use of extensive and detailed bird illustrations, as well as bird call soundtracks within ambient sound backgrounds (sea, wind, trees, tractor) to provide a more authentic listening experience.

A&C Black, the third partner in LearnBirds, provided artwork from some of its hugely successful books and sourced authors for the project. Along with video clips from the RSPB film library, these help provide a rich and enjoyable learning experience.

Printable workbook and birdwatcher logbook are provided in the course. Each learner is assigned a mentor to answer questions, and has access to a community discussion forum. Learners can track their own progress through the course.

A book derived from Learn Birds is to be published by A&C Black in 2008. Autumnwatch returns to BBC TV this November (2007).

Web watch
www.myknowledgemap.com
www.rspb.org.uk
www.learnbirds.com
www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/springwatch/programmes

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