FROM LITTLE ACORNS

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FROM LITTLE ACORNS

• Penny Palmer Abbitt
• Hadlow College

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Introduction to Hadlow College

• Located in Hadlow, Mottingham, Canterbury
• FE and HE College, specialising in Land based
  subjects.
• Student Numbers

FT PT
FE 530 1050
HE 230 90
Other 0 320
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Development of the VLE

• Agreed VLE platform was Moodle.
• Software installed but not configured.
• Personal experience of using VLEs
• Aim is to go live from September 2006 for a
  range of courses in FE and HE sectors

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Pilot Scheme

• Needed to pilot the VLE within the college
• All National Diploma students have a compulsory
  unit on business.
• Ideal area to use for the pilot.
• Not assessed this academic year.
• Subject not favoured with the students.
• Wide range of student groups to select from.

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Student Selection

• 5 groups of students from different curriculum
  areas selected to be part of the trial.
• Remaining students continued with existing course
  delivery.
• 75 students involved in the trial
• All age ranges, mixed ability, primarily mixed
  sex groups.

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Student Engagement

• Initial reaction varied with the groups.
• Generally the learners were willing to try the
  new approach.
• Interest and enthusiasm in the subject increased.
• Many of the traditional approach learners still
  demonstrated a negative attitude.

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Exploring the functionality of the VLE

• Resource storage
• Schemes of work
• Assignment briefs
• Course notes
• PowerPoint presentation
• Handouts
• Printed copies no longer supplied.
• Mixed reaction

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Reaction to Paperless Lessons
Student Group Reinstate Handouts Keep paperless
Fisheries 7 6
Animal Care 3 8
Horticulture 10 2
Countryside 9 7
Equine 5 8
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Activities Trialled

• Quick Quiz
• Excellent for reinforcement of learning
• Discussion forums and chat rooms
• Enables all students to voice their opinion
• Messaging Service
• Probably will be disabled again as students
  distracted.
• Choices
• Very successful activity
• Online Assessment
• Grades and feedback available online.

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Research and Preparation Time

• A VLE is not the easy option
• Considerable development time is required to
  establish a course and prepare materials in a
  suitable format.
• Image and file size considerations
• Ongoing support time reduced as students can
  access all documents at anytime.

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College Strategy

• The VLE development has resulted in the complete
  redevelopment and rethinking of the whole IT/ILT
  strategy.
• Confusion over positioning of the elements
  IT/ICT/ILT/VLE/MIS/e-learning
• Radical decision taken to remove the terminology
  ILT from all documentation and only refer to
  e-learning

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The Future for Hadlow College VLE

• All students having access to all
• courses from September 2006.

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From little acorns .

• Select few courses from September 2006
• Continual staff training and support to develop
  increasing numbers of courses for September 2007
• By 2009 the majority of all courses offered
  within the Hadlow curriculum utilising the VLE.

.To mighty oaks