Course:
Chef2Chef Culinary Practical Guide to Practically Everything.
The course that I chose was that of a baking course. I entered this course with little expectations as I doubted my ability although I was surprised by the amount of material, technology, interactivity and feedback available. Through further investigation into the baking course I was thrilled to discover the sources that where available as well as critique and reflect on the effectiveness of the course through its learning style aspects through aural, visual and write/read. And this further allowed me to explore and discover more effective ways in the delivery of the course through its learning styles so that learners of all different learning styles where able to fully thrive in their learning experience.
This baking course was very efficient in its supplied area of support through material as it allowed a large range of interactivity through blogs and forums available which allowed a great opportunity to gain feedback. According to Professor Stephen Heppell (2009) “we are living in a world now where people swap their learning and technology allows us to swap our learning around the world”. This is evident through the blogs and forums that are a vital contribution in the effectiveness of the course as it allows individuals to enter regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events and outcomes while allowing opportunities of combining text with images and videos. This baking course provides a wonderful opportunity for learners to blog their success and failure stories, provide tips, descriptions and advice to those who are struggling through the means of feedback. The blogs are also categorized for individual learners depending on their interests, hobbies and identity. For example, Chef2Chef offers blogs for ‘Communities’ so the learner can gain valuable advice from tips as to where to eat to tips and advice on a successful upside down pineapple cake. There is also a student blog where students are able to post their experiences and offer advice for beautiful budget meals for the average poor university student.
Forums are also available for further knowledge and interactivity within learners. Cooking Forums include:
· Ask a baker: this allows learners to ask baking questions through the forum and a professional chef will respond on the wall post so others are able to gain access into the information. For curiosity sake and to evaluate the effectiveness of this forum I posted a question on the difference between using plain flour and self raising flour while baking my sponge cake and was delightfully surprised by the amount of feedback I received. Not only did I receive a well-thought out reply by the professional volunteer baker but I also received comments by other course users and learners.
· Recipe Swaps: allows learners to swap their favorite, simple and successful recipes.
· Serious Cooks: allows learners to meet up with other serious home cooks to talk about other non- pro issues.
· Healthy Cooking: allows learners to ask questions and share tips on healthy recipes.
These forums are effective in allowing interactivity between learners so they are able to discuss, compare and evaluate their cooking outcomes as well as gain valuable feedback through sharing their information. Alan R. Roper (2007) outlines the importance of online discussion as a significant shift for students accustomed to in-class discussion “as it provides opportunities for richer discourse through written discussion that allows students to spend time crafting their responses”. Therefore gaining a broader cooking knowledge while allowing learners to meet new individuals who hold similar passions and interests.
The Chef2Chef baking course was successful in catering for different learning styles although it obviously suited some learning styles more then others. If the learner’s personal learning style is that of Writing/Reading then this course is most effective.
This is most obviously evident through its use of headings and listing (source 1):
Cake:
3 oz good quality unsweetened chocolate, chopped fine
1 tablespoon instant espresso powder
1/2 cup water
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups sifted cake flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
As well as its use of definitions (source 2): Sponge Cake Definition: A light porous cake made with eggs and flour and sugar without shortening.
As well as its use of notes (source 3):
Notes: Cakes
Baking cakes is not as daunting as many people believe, but to be successful at it you need to have patience and a basic understanding of the ingredients you are using. It is imperative that you follow recipes exactly because how the ingredients are handled and how they are combined will affect the quality and final outcome of your cake. The basic ingredients for most cakes are flour, butter, sugar, eggs, and often some type of chemical leavening such as baking powder or baking soda. From there, other ingredients and flavourings are added and all of these are factors that determine what type of cake you create. Cakes can be divided into two general categories--foam cakes and shortened or butter cakes.
From this the learner is able to re-write principles and ideas into their own words and therefore this course is a perfect experience for those learners who strive in the read/write category as the course is set out for the learner as the webpage has an emphasis on words and lists and the meaning lies within the words.
Although for a Read/Write learner this course is of much value, the Chef2Chef baking course did not incorporate a very effective learning experience to those learners who are able to learn more effectively through aural study strategies and this includes me as an aural learner. While doing this course I was interested in its lack of aural communication as there were no opportunities to openly discuss my baking process. For a more effective aural movement the course could provide:
An aural demonstration of the recipe where one could listen as someone reads out the recipe for you.
An aural description of the visuals for the learner.
Perhaps offer a hotline where one could call the course manufacturers and other learners where one could discuss topics, gain feedback and explain new ideas that could contribute to the course.
Through allowing this the learner could expand their notes and knowledge by actively talking and engaging with others and sharing baking experiences and feedback to make it a more interactive learning experience. Through listening to the recipes and advice being read aloud the learner is able to listen to the instructions and write down notes and ideas as well as allow knowledge to sink in through speaking the process aloud and discussing.
The visual learner will also not benefit as much as the course is not very visually stimulating. What the Chef2Chef baking course did offer in the visual sense is a photo of the end product of each of the recipes as to allow guidance for the learner. As well as a link called ‘Eye Candy: Food photos’ where learners are able to search through the photos of recipes and gain inspiration. Other visually inspired methods that could have been incorporated are:
Perhaps allowing a step by step photo log of each ingredient being incorporated so that the learner is able to visually watch the teaching process and hence gain a greater visually enhanced perception.
Incorporate links that allow video footage of the baker baking the cake.
Allowing the webpage to be set out in slides so the visual learner can reconstruct the images in different and more effective ways.
Incorporating flow charts instead of having the recipe in the traditional logically sequenced manner.
Using symbols, initial, jargon, underlining, highlighting, bolding and using different colors.
Using all of these methods above would allow a greater opportunity for those visual learners as it would help reconstruct the images in different ways and allow the learner to redraw the text from memory.
In reflection, the course was extremely interactive, suiting a range of different learning styles and gave the learner plenty of opportunities to broaden their knowledge in the baking field.
Reference:
Alan R. Roper (2007), ‘How students develop online learning skills’, http://www.educause.edu/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/EDUCAUSEQuarterlyMagazineVolum/HowStudentsDevelopOnlineLearni/157435
Chef2Chef Culinary Portal, http://www.chef2chef.net/learn-to-cook/
Source 1: http://www.chef2chef.net/featured_recipes/chocolate-cake-frosting.php
Source 2: http://www.chef2chef.net/featured_recipes/chocolate-cake-frosting.php
Source 3: http://www.chef2chef.net/learn-to-cook/cooking-class-desserts.php
Neil Flemming, (2001-2009), ‘VARK: A guide to learning styles’, http://www.vark-learn.com/english/index.asp
Professor Stephen Heppell, 2009, ‘The Future of Learning’ http://www.heppell.net, United Kingdom
