The significance of the facilitator role at eCampus NZ cannot be understated. From guiding learners to achieve success through their online course, right through to monitoring learner engagement and working effectively with student advisors, they have an all-important purpose to provide an excellent learning experience for all students.
eCampus NZ Facilitator Pauline Lee excels in this vital role and she explains how the opportunity was so exciting that it actually coaxed her back out of retirement. “I retired from Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) and when I retired I did miss the contact with students.
“From a young age I was interested in teaching. When I was a teenager I became involved in a voluntary leadership course teaching gymnastics and this gave me a taste of it. I was a Girl Guide leader when my daughter was younger.
“Professional teaching was actually something I came to later in life. After I completed three years of college, I didn’t have access to further education opportunities – back then it was about getting married and having your family. But I did find ways to get access to education later on.”
Pauline’s ambitious journey into education was so successful it saw her become involved at a national level in the education sector. Along the way, she flourished in teaching business administration and technology and enjoyed senior policy and leadership roles in the National Business Administration Forum and NZQA. Her dedication to MIT culminated in an excellence award for her leadership in the introduction of an MIT Fees Free Programme introduced in the early 2000s. Needless to say, Pauline was an obvious choice for a facilitator role when eCampus NZ was established.
Her immediate answer? “Yes!”
“I have really enjoyed getting back to working with students again. When I worked with MIT it was also working with students online. When you are doing distance teaching it is so important to build a rapport.
“What motivates me most is why most teachers go into teaching – to help students achieve. When you hear that you have made a difference to their lives it makes it all worthwhile. This is ultimately why I do what I do.”