14112009 Slide 1

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e-Learning technologies an overview
Bob Bell
HE in FE Co-ordinator Northern Region
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Priority Areas

• Key Priorities for HE in Fe
• Foundation Degrees
• Work-based learning
• Negotiated Learning
• Employer engagement
• Achievement of HE standards by Staff and Students
• Fullest use of available information
• Staff awareness of sources and dissemination to
  students
• On-going staff development

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Technologies

• Key areas that projects could address
• e-Portfolio
• e-Assessment
• Tools to support collaborative working and
  personalised learning experiences
• Other areas
• e-Administration
• Enhanced use of learning spaces
• Access to online resources

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How might technology help ?

• Foundation Degrees
• Personal development
• e-portfolios
• Work-based elements
• Evidence collection systems
• Collaborative projects
• Communications tools
• Fullest use of available information for HE
  delivery
• Staff awareness of sources and dissemination to
  students
• Content catalogues, object tagging and evaluation
• On-going staff development
• Learning objects and on-line training
• Mobile technologies
• Podcast menus

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e-Portfolios

• e-Portfolios.are personal online spaces for
  students to access services and store work. They
  will become ever more useful as learners grow up
  and start moving between different types of
  learning and different institutions.
• Secretary of State for Education and Skills,
  January 2006

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e-Portfolios overview

• Learners create different kinds of portfolio, for
  a range of purposes, permitting a range of
  interactions, e.g
• Presentation / showcase portfolio
• Selected material for application for admission
  to study or job, induction, appraisal or
  assessment
• Qualifications / evidence portfolio
• Evidence gathered for formal qualification
  validation
• Development or progress portfolio
• Personal and reflective, to guide and develop
  learning over time, in formal education, training
  and employment

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JISC e-portfolio work

• Presentation portfolio
• showcasing work in particular disciplines,
  applying for university and jobs, cv builder
• Qualifications / evidence portfolio
• Presentation of work for professional
  accreditation
• Negotiated Learning, outcomes and evidence
  management
• e.g. the UfI tool Learning through Work
• Development portfolio
• Reflection on skills with respect to career or
  educational aspirations support for development
  planning sharing of reflections with mentors and
  peers, including employers supporting students
  as they move from a high support environment to a
  low support environment
• E-learning tools VMAP, SPWS, Petal, e-Pet,
  Horus, interactive log book, SHELL-FISH

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UfI Learning through work

• A partnership between Ufi and 9 HE providers
• A means of gaining HE level work-based learning
  qualifications (or credit), supported through a
  sophisticated web-based environment.
• Learners (or groups) undertake individual
  programmes to meet their own and their employers
  needs
• Blended learning - work-based projects, taught
  courses, on-line modules, in-house courses,
  practical research
• Web environment incorporates on-line learning
  content but is also a resource for the
  development of tailored learning contracts

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UfI Learning through Work

• More than 2000 learners have registered and
  developed contracts.
• 550 plus have graduated to date
• 38 individuals, 62 part of employment-based
  cohorts
• 62 undergraduate level, 38 postgraduate level
• 80 business based cohorts
• 81 have all or part fees paid by employers
• 550 employers engaged, 33 in SMEs
• Now UfI want to scale up the offer and make it
  more widely usable

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UfI Learning through Work

• LtW has almost reached capacity - and has an
  architecture that is becoming out-dated.
• It is primarily designed to be used in a fairly
  linear way, the resources all accessed from the
  learning contract.
• The re-development will result in a versatile,
  robust and scalable web-based set of resources
  for institutions to use to support the
  development and delivery of work-based blended
  learning programmes.
• The redevelopment is due to be completed by April
  07.
• We also aim to expand the delivery network of
  HEIs and FECs (initially those with significant
  HE level provision).

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JISC e-portfolio work

• Data transfer
• ioNode middleware
• Standards ePortfolio
• CETIS Portfolio Special Interest Group
• Legal issues
• Data protection, IPR, data retention
• Accessibility
• ACCLIP
• Tools and software
• E.g. reflective blogs, Moodle, LUSID, ePet, Petal

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e-Assessment overview

• Improving the quantity and quality of e-learning
  is irrelevant, however, if it is not done within
  the context of curriculum development. It is
  crucial that we fully examine the potential for
  technology to modernise the curriculum and its
  assessment. ICT supports assessment playing a
  more formative role assessment for learning,
  not just for judging. And we want to see pilots
  of a wide range of applications of e-assessment
  immediate feedback to learners and teachers,
  online tests, personalised diagnostics, online
  assessment and accreditation of e-skills, and
  inclusion of e-skills in the assessment of all
  curriculum topics. QCA has the lead role in
  ensuring that we develop a curriculum which
  prepares learners for life and work in the 21st
  century.
• DfES e-Strategy, March 2005

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e-Assessment JISC work

• Tools development and testing
• ASAP Automated System for the Assessment of
  Programming
• Set of application services to automate part of
  the assessment process for the teaching of
  computer programming languages
• ASSIS Assessment and Simple Sequencing
  Integration Services
• Tools for teachers to browse, search and preview
  and select assessment objects from question banks
• Open Mentor
• Provided a learning support tool for teachers in
  FE and HE to help them provide reflective
  comments on their assessment and feedback of
  student assignments and coursework
• TOIA
• Advanced online assessment management system
• Serving Maths
• Developed open source software tools to address
  issues around the use of mathematical expressions
  in assessments

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e-Assessment JISC work

• Mapping the terrain
• IBIS Item Banks Infrastructure Study (2004)
• Put forward a proposal for a distributed bank
  system suitable for use in UK FE and HE
• FREMA
• Reference model for systems in the e-assessment
  domain
• Will help in the development of further services
  and promote the re-use of existing ones
• E-Assessment roadmap (Sep 2005-Apr 2006)
• Aims to provide an overview of the current
  drivers and barriers to e-assessment in Post-16
  education
• E-assessment glossary (Apr 2006)
• A glossary of assessment and terminology for
  schools, post-16 and higher education sectors,
  jointly funded by the QCA
• REAP
• Funded by the Scottish Funding Council as one of
  their e-learning transformation projects.
  Investigating innovative approaches to
  e-assessment across 3 HEIs

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Tools to support collaborative working overview

• Technology based tools that enable greater or
  enhanced collaboration through space or time are
  becoming more numerous
• Flickr (sharing photographs)
• Del.icio.us (sharing bookmarks)
• Blogs (online journals)
• Wikis (allows for collaborative editing)
• Instant messaging
• VLE tools e.g. Moodle
• Potential to change practices in a range of
  education and research activities

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Tools to support personalised learning experiences

• DfES e-strategy 2005 identifies personal learning
  in two of the six priority areas
• Integrated online personal support for children
  and learners
• A collaborative approach to personalised learning
  activities
• Flexible, personal learning environments owned
  and managed by the learner, allowing learners to
  carry out a wide range of learning-related tasks
  in their own environment, no matter which course
  or institution those tasks are associated with.
• E.g. use of reflective blogs to support personal
  development planning
• Interactive Logbook software that helps
  learners to set targets, record activities and
  organise electronic resources, related to ALL
  learning

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e-Administration overview

• e-administration in terms of the context of this
  call is
• the use of technology to enhance administration
  processes that are involved in the learning
  process, i.e.administrative tasks of learners and
  teaching practitioners

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e-Administration examples

• Use of technology and assisted business processes
  to provide a more seamless transfer for learners
  between different learning providers on a course
• E.g. SHELL (single sign on for students at the
  University of Plymouth based in partnership
  colleges)
• SUNIWE (a portal based on the NIIMLE work for
  students providing access to MIS and course
  information and access to University online
  resources)
• P4P Pathways for Progression mapping curricula
  to facilitate student progression
• Supporting flexible and learner centred provision
  (particularly for learners in the workplace)
• E.g. providing learners with more control over
  the scheduling of learning and assessment
• VLEs remote submission of assignments

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Learning spaces

• Adapting learning spaces to provide enhanced and
  innovative pedagogical learning models.
• Embedding technology into learning and teaching
  spaces can involve
• Mobile learning mobile phones, digital cameras,
  pdas
• Connected learning wireless networks, wireless
  enabled laptops etc.
• Visual and interactive learning voting devices,
  video conferencing
• Supported learning assistive technologies, video
  recording facilities
• 21st learning spaces should be
• Motivational
• Collaborative facilitating social interaction
  and collaborative activities
• Personal 24/7 access to digital resources e.g.
  through VLEs
• Flexible mobile and wireless technologies
  supporting a wide variety of pedagogical
  approaches

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Learning spaces example

• University of Strathclyde InterActive ClassRoom
• Issue with low achievement and attendance in the
  Department of Mechanical Engineering
• Lectures were replaced with 2 hour active
  learning sessions questioning and discussion
  replaced knowledge transfer as the delivery model
• Supported by an electronic voting system to help
  students test their understanding of concepts.
  Collaborative discussion before and after voting
  established as an integral pedagogic approach

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Access to resources

• Access to resources, for example those in HE
  institution
• E.g. library resources, VLE, e-portfolio / e-PDP
  system (e.g. TransPortALL)
• remote access to equipment and resources
• Flexible access and support
• Supporting learners in the workplace
• Access to study skills resources e.g. eLISA
• Advice and guidance

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Ways to look at a bid

• Describe and prototype a tool which addresses an
  important area not currently served by any
  solution
• Evaluate one or more of the developments from
  previous JISC funded projects and take forward a
  plan which further develops (perhaps through
  pilot work or implementation) the tools or
  services provided by the original project
• Take an existing proprietary system and achieve a
  full implementation of that system with an
  emphasis on case study preparation, guidance and
  dissemination
• Undertake the project work in collaboration
  either sharing the work or with participants
  having different roles (e.g. one developer and
  multiple evaluators)