“That ICPA Qld lobbies the Schools of Distance Education (SDEs) to simultaneously release any new year level subject units with both printable and digital versions finalised, including all videos and audio to have transcripts, that are readable and printable.”
This year, some SDEs did not have paper versions of English V9 Curriculum available or printable content for Health and Physical Education V9 for Term 1 2026, only a newly launched, problematic online program called EduVenture that has too many shortcomings to mention in this motion.
This has left families navigating their own way and creating their own paper content. It is significantly more time consuming for each individual family to do this by themselves, than for the SDEs to do this “once” for distribution to all students.
Obviously, the content has already been written to be able to develop a digital program, therefore it would be a simple and necessary step to copy and paste into
printable PDF documents with access for Home Tutors or their schools to print a readable, printable copy.
Most of the teachable content has only been available by watching an animated AI generated video, for teachers, Home Tutors and students – with no transcripted version. A video should always have a transcript copy for many reasons, including accessibility, usability, learning styles, pedagogies and where internet/computer access is not available or reliable. There is extensive research proving students retain information better when they can see and interact with written content, especially for revision. It is also essential that the Home Tutor has a thorough understanding of the content and can readily refer back to it to support both the student and their own instruction without scrolling through a video, over and over again. It is also a wonderful opportunity for less screen time in a growing, heavily screen-dependent learning environment.
“Simultaneously” means at the same time. Students and their Home Tutors are being left in limbo for terms, semesters and in some cases, years waiting for improvements to transpire into reality. The missed opportunities for those students who miss out on this access, between curriculum upgrades and transitions. This is unacceptable and disadvantages them in future years.
When a new unit of work is released, it should not in parts, but as a whole – both printable and digital. The exact same content on two different platforms is not an additional step; they go hand in hand and need to be released together.
Our branch believes responsibility should sit with the SDEs, if they are to release a new unit of work, it must be finalised in both printable and digital format – available and released at the same time. “Lack of funds” is no excuse at the expense of our family’s own time, manually pulling apart poorly formatted digital solutions to offer our students decent written and teachable content, creating much learning downtime for our students and an extraordinary and unnecessary burden on our Home Tutors.
