Unit 1: Induction and Introduction

1. Induction

In Unit 1 you will

• look at how the course is organised.
• get to know your fellow students and your tutor.
  
• study the materials 'SSSC getting started with Open Badges'.
• examine your own care work setting in a SWOT analysis.
• develop a reflective wheel with criteria for good practice in social care.
• attend the first online tutorial.
  

1. Read the course guide.
2. Watch a video introduction to the course.
3. Complete Unit 1 questionnaire.

1.1 Course Guide

Please read the course guide first of all. 

This guide explains:

1.2 Video Introduction to the Course

The short video below is a tour of the course website. 

It will help you find your way around and show you the different features you will find in the course. 

Please note: This video was recorded for the 2023 Learning Languages with Senior Learners course, and some small details in the video may look different in your course room now.

To watch the video, please click in the box below and the video will open. If you would like the video to be bigger, click on the box symbol in the bottom right of the video window.  To return to this screen you can hit 'escape'.  Depending on the dimensions of your screen the video may take up only part of your screen.

Download this video clip.Video player: Introductory%20Screencast%20reworked%2006032023.mp4

1.3 Unit 1 Questionnaire

In order to learn more about your motivation to study this course, the background you bring to the study and your needs for completing it successfuly, we have put together a short, anonymous questionnaire.

Please click the link below to fill in the Unit 1 questionnaire. 

When you have submitted the questionnaire follow the link to continue to the next activity.

Open the questionnaire

2. Introducing Ourselves.

Please enter the forum where you will post a short message to introduce yourself to your peers and read the messages posted by your fellow students and your tutor.  

Once you are finished in the forum, follow the link to the next activity.

Enter the Forum.

3. SSSC getting started with Open Badges - for social care staff working in Scotland.

To situate your learning in this course, your first engagement with learning materials will be to study the information on the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC) Open Badges system for assessment and professional recognition.  It is important to find out what Open Badges are and how they work, because this course is aligned with this system of assessment.

Please note: If you do not work in social care in Scotland this information is not relevant for you.  You can skip this activity.

a) First of all, watch the video 'What are Open Badges' on the SSSC website.

b) As the next step, watch all 10 videos in the SSSC 'Getting Started with Open Badges' series which will take around 1 hour.

c)Then read this 'Getting Started with Open Badges' hand-out.

d) Finally, register and introduce yourself and say hello to someone else on the SSSC Open Badges forum as this is a requirement for gaining your first badge for studying this SSSC material.  In your forum post, also write about the following aspects:

• tells us about three things you learned from the video tutorials that surprised you and why (75 words minimum)
• tell us about at least one thing you will do to encourage your colleagues to start using SSSC Open Badges (25 words minimum).

Once you have registered and posted your 100+ words in the SSSC forum, you will be able to receive your first SSSC Open Badge.

4. Application and Reflection

Throughout this course, you will develop your skills in becoming a reflective practitioner, in particular by carrying out the Application and Reflection tasks in the units. Two of the objectives of these are:

• to help you develop your skills at reflecting critically on your own work and its context.
• to encourage you to develop confidence in finding individual strategies and solutions for learning languages with senior learners in your own care setting as a non-medical intervention to enhance their health and wellbeing.

4.1 SWOT Analysis

In this first Application and Reflection task of the course, you will undertake a SWOT analysis. The concept of the SWOT analysis comes from the world of business where it is used as a strategic planning and management technique used to help identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats related to business competition or project planning. It is often more broadly called a situational assessment or situational analysis and can be much more widely applied, for example to your own teaching and learning context in the care setting you are involved in.

Please download this SWOT worksheet (18.2 KB)  and complete steps 1 to 5 below:

1. Analyse your own care context in respect of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats it presents for learning languages with senior learners. Where do you see chances and risks?
2. Note your views in the individual fields of the SWOT analysis. Please write down at least three points in each field.
3. Please write the conclusions you draw from your analysis underneath the SWOT table.  These should include ways in which you think improvements can be made to help people in your care to engage with language learning, things that work well, and how you can build on these etc.
4. Write a post in the course Forum where you attached your SWOT analysis.  You can summarise your SWOT findings in your forum post.
5. Then read the analyses your fellow students have posted and comment on what the group's analyses have in common and where they differ.

Once you have finished posting your file in the Forum, follow the link to the next activity.

5. Preparing the induction online tutorial

Please refer to your study planner for the date and time of the Unit 1 tutorial and where to access it.

If this is your first Zoom tutorial, please complete steps 1–2.

1. Take some time to familiarise yourself with the Zoom software, in advance of your online tutorial. This link will also provide information on how to check that your computer has the minimum system requirements to run Zoom.

2. To ensure you have the best possible experience during the online tutorials, we advise you to use a headset with microphone to avoid interference and any background noise. This is the same type of headset you would use for any online conferencing; you do not have to buy an expensive headset to use Zoom.

There is no expectation that participants use the camera during the live tutorial sessions. Yet, we do welcome all who are keen to use this tool as it supports engaging and interactive tutorial experiences.

5.1 Attending the induction online tutorial

You are invited to attend the induction online tutorial, where you will:

• meet your tutors and fellow students,
• discuss your experiences as a language learner and reflect on how you could use this experience as a resource,
• prepare for the SWOT analysis by discussing what is good practice in social care and where you see barriers,
• find out how to anonymise your data.

Please refer to your study planner for the date and time of the tutorial and where to access it.


Click "Next" to move on to Activity 6

6. Criteria for good social care practice

Language learning with senior learners is considered a so-called non-medical intervention. It focuses on enhancing wellbeing and brain health through providing opportunities for engagement with others, for discovering new ideas, building confidence through trying out speaking a new language, using the language to tap into memories and linking the language learning with a wide range of hands-on activities. Such an approach might be very different from the focus in the care you are normally involved in during your day-to-day practice, or from what you have learned to be important criteria for good care.

In this activity you will begin to produce a list of criteria that describe good practice in social care. Complete steps 1 and 2:

1. Write a list of at least 5 criteria that are important for good practice in social care in your opinion. Ideally, do not just list each criterion but add a brief explanation of why this is important.

2. Bring your list of criteria to the Unit 2 tutorial where you will share and discuss your ideas of good practice in social care with your fellow students.

7. Community Link

Click "Next" to continue to Activity 8.

8. Further Engagement

Did you know that there is a lot of support available to student carers at the Open University? 

We have a carers pack for students in our four nations. The carers pack for students of the Open University in Scotland can be found at Carers pack (opens in a new tab).

You have now completed Unit 1.

9.0 References

Lingo Flamingo (n.d.) [Online]. Available at https://www.lingoflamingo.co.uk/about (Accessed 30 July 2025).

Acknowledgements

Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. If any have been inadvertently overlooked the publishers will be pleased to make the necessary arrangements at the first opportunity.

Grateful acknowledgement is made to the following sources:

Course Image: Supplied by Rosi Mele, Lingo Flamingo

Unit 1 image: Supplied by Rosi Mele, Lingo Flamingo

Unit 1, video introduction to the course: Supplied by Baerbel Brash, The Open University