Wednesday, 4 February 2009
'New and extraordinary insights' at ELESIG
Rhonas Sharpe has made a couple of posts about ELESIG (one of the academic networks I manage the online space for) on her blog. She asked members what benefit they found from the experience of being a member of the community, and got some great answers:From Esyin Chew's "I have experienced something new and extraordinary insights that have challenged my preconceptions about digital literacy and learners' experience through ELESIG.
to Jana Dlouha's "ELESIG is the working group with great potential for changes in higher (and other) education system as it works with learners' perspective - this is not as usual as it should be! Access to this research (and meta-research, researching the ways of research itself) is available through ELESIG work - often providing free methodological and other resources."
I'm pleased too that Amanda Jefferies was able to say that "The online NING network for ELESIG has been an excellent way to keep in touch 'virtually' with other researchers into the Student Experience and to be inspired by examples of innovative practice. "
More on Rhona's blogLabels: communities of practice, e-learning, elearning, elesig, HE, learner experience, onlne communities, Reach Further, research
posted by Helen Whitehead 12:45 PM
Sunday, 1 February 2009
Widening access to Higher Education
How do we get more students from lower income families to go to University? Aimhigher and similar projects have not had the impact that was hoped. In fact, widening participation may be purely about financial aspects of studying.
This was brought home to me the other day when someone pointed out the student loans are not interest free and it's true, of course - student loans are designed with low not no interest.
Last year it was clear that that with low-interest student loans a student was better off getting a loan even if the family had savings, because the saving rates were higher than the interest on the student loans. But now, savings rates are ridiculously low and student loan rates are still pegged to inflation (not savings rates) - and I think it's no longer worth having one. And if it's time for second thoughts for a family that wholeheartedly supports education and has a reasonable income to support its student members, how much more difficult is it for someone from a low-income family to take on such a loan - to study for a degree at a time when graduate employment prospects are the worst for 20 years? You can see why they'd think it's much better to get a "job in the hand" now.
The correlation between students attending University and their parents having attended University in the UK is the highest in WEstern Europe.
Even casting aside the financial issues, are the institutions themselves and their culture actually creating barriers. How much does the HE sector need to change its offerings to attract wider participation? Skills and knowledge are much needed to support the ailing economy - but should Universities become something quite different to suit the situation? Would it be throwing the baby out with the bathwater to lose the many benefits offered by a traditional University education?
Yes, it is vital that young and old get equal access to education and development, but perhaps Unviersities are just aprt of the answer, and not the most appropriate route to education and training for everyone. The FE and lifeloong learning sector and skills training of various kinds may be the areas to develop to encourage a variety of courses and educational opportunities that really meet learners' needs.
Is it necessary to change University courses to 2 years full time to suit workers? For some this may be appropriate - but there are doubts that courses can be delivered effectively in such a timescale. Work-based education and training may be very much more useful to many learners.Labels: access to education, education, HE, lifelong learning, training, universities, widening participation
posted by Helen Whitehead 2:24 PM
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
A new approach to assessment
Assessment is a key driver of student learning and at the heart of the student experience. From the student point of view, assessment defines the curriculum. Assessment can be an important route into engaging students in new ways of learning.
At the online Learning Futures Festival in November from the Beyond Distance Research Alliance at the University of Leicester Professor Margaret Price, director of the ASKe Centre of Excellence at Oxford Brookes University, spoke on "Shaping Assessment for the Future".
She established first that assessment practice isn't currently ideal - the types of assessment we currently use do not promote conceptual understanding and do not encourage a deep approach to learning. Problems with reliability mean teachers shy away from deep and contextual approaches to assessment. Students can become more interested in marks and grades than in the subject they are studying. Learning to pass the test becomes more important than learning about and interest in the subject. There are also issues with setting standards and criteria and encouraging involvement of and participation by student.
Prof Price introduced us to Assessment Standards, a manifesto for change, the results of two days of expert discussions. There are six tenets to the manifesto principles that need to be embedded before assessment techniques are redesigned.For me it was summed up with the comment from tenet 4 that It is when learners share an understanding of academic and professional standards in an atmosphere of mutual trust that learning works best. This is clearly the case and must be applied as much to assessment as to other aspects of designing learning, and indeed, is essential to those other aspects being successfully implemented.
- The debate on standards needs to focus on how high standards of learning can be achieved through assessment.
- We need to move beyond systems based on marks and grades because reliability issues get in the way of valid assessment.
- Limits to the extent that standards can be articulated explicitly must be recognised. There are important benefits of HE which are not amenable either to the precise specification of standards or to objective assessment.
- Assessment standards are socially constructed so there must be a greater emphasis on assessment and feedback processes that actively engage both staff and students in dialogue about standards.
- Active engagement with assessment standards needs to be an integral and seamless part of course design and the learning process.
- Assessment is largely dependent upon professional judgement, and to have confidence in such judgement suggests of establishment of forums for development and sharing of standards within disciplinary communities.
More information at http://www.business.brookes.ac.uk/learningandteaching/askeLabels: assessment, HE, learning, learning and teaching
posted by Helen Whitehead 8:30 AM
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
What is the future for HE?
A little while ago I went to a presentation by Martin Williams, Director of HE Strategy at the DIUS.He spoke about the future of Universities at a time when the Government wants to continue to grow numbers in HE to enable more potential students to benefit from HE.
So far as research is concerned, there is an emphasis on more quality of research the current RAE exercise is the last of its kind and the future of research funding may be based on linking assessment of research to available metrics such as citations, in some disciplines.
It seems to me that whatever way research is funded some people will lose out. Researchers n the sciences for example may publish less than researches in the humanities because the latter are more comfortable with writing. Obscure mathematical theorems may have huge impact on their field but that field is very small with very few people who can even understand the research, compared with say, a study on internet use which can be more accessible to those outside the field.
Universities and colleges have to adjust to demographic change start to focus on improving the skills of the current workforce. It's a challenge for the education sector to support acquisition of high level skills by those already in the workplace and it is a challenge for employers to support their staff in acquiring these skills.
If people are to be upskilled, acquiring new skills throughout their working lives, then there has to be much more of a culture of learning in the workplace and in the community a perception that learning is part of work and does not stop when one leaves a place of education. There is likely to be a good deal of resistance to this: many people identify learning with a school experience they did not enjoy, and do not want to undertake any further learning.
So how can universities adapt to a student body that will NOT be the traditional 18 year old coming into a 3-year full-time degree? And how will they be funded?
In the FE sector, a lot more of the funding that used to go via the Learning and Skills Council is now going to be distributed through local authorities.
Some scary(?) statistics:
- The average graduate today will have 7 different careers, 3 of which haven't been invented yet. (A Scottish study he quoted which don't have the reference for)
- 70% of the 2020 workforce are already in the workplace...
Labels: FE, HE, learning futures
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:13 AM
Monday, 29 October 2007
Links for week commencing 29th October - Copyright
Principles for user-generated content services
http://www.ugcprinciples.com
To protect copyright in services providing user-uploaded and user-generated audio and video content. It's good to see copyright being taken account of. But a shame that it's about commercial content and not that of the users themselves...
One thing that sometimes surprised me when I was working in HE was how little knowledge there was of copyright as it applies when people create their courses within institutional VLEs. Universities who employ permanent copyright specialists, usually within the library, are ahead of the game, and such specialists have a big job to do.
The JISC-SURF programme on 'Partnering on Copyright' covers mostly open access issues (we're back to institutional repositories!) rather than those of using copyrighted material within courses. But there is lots of useful information here. "This web site, created as part of the JISC-SURF 'Partnering On Copyright' programme, aims to contribute to a better understanding and awareness of copyright issues regarding OA through the provision of information resources for academic authors, HEI managers and librarians/institutional repository (IR) managers."
Here is an informative site from Leeds University on copyright
Links to information on copyright and IPR
Creative Commons UK
OK, everyone should have heard of this by now, but it's the appropriate copyright for the digital era. Excellent idea, and I must get around to putting it on all my sites! It allows you to share content with some rights reserved. I hadn't considered before the advantages of using a UK CC licence. Take a look.Labels: academia, copyright, HE, institutional repositories, internet policy, IPE, IPR, repository, research repository
posted by Helen Whitehead 8:53 AM
Monday, 22 October 2007
Links for week commencing 22nd October
Some interesting social software for learning:
Ecto
http://www.ectolearning.com/
Their blurb: "Ecto is a hosted, open networked Personal Learning Environment. Use Ecto to transform learning into an interactive, collaborative, and student centered activity. Ecto is the only learning management system built from the ground up on the principles and architecture of social software."
It's an online service and at the moment you can join for free although it's a commercial offering. At the moment it looks pretty vanilla - it seems to be social networking aimed at learning and teaching, nothing really new about it.
ELGG
http://elgg.org/
Elgg is an open source social platform based around choice, flexibility and openness: a system that firmly places individuals at the centre of their activities. ELGG is being used by a LOT of universities and educational organisations, but you do need a server to run it on so it's not a solution for individuals.Labels: e-learning, education sector, elearning, FE, HE, online learning, social networking, universities, VLE, web applications
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:20 AM
Tuesday, 16 October 2007
What does 'embedding' mean?
One of the "hot topics" at the HEA Pathfinder workshop in York that I attended with the University of Leicester's Adelie project was the definition of "embedding" - which was important to the description of what the Pathfinder pilots were asked to do.
How can an institution measure embedding? What does it mean - is it the provision of technology or something much more radical relating to attitudes and blends of learning opportunities?
For me: it is about embedding skills relating to learning technologies into lecturers' (and other staff's) everyday practice of designing, delivering and facilitating learning opportunities.Labels: Adelie, e-learning, elearning, embedding e-learning, HE, online learning, Pathfinder
posted by Helen Whitehead 12:19 PM
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Wikis - advantages and disadvantages
A wiki is a universally-editable website with minimal formatting. The word comes from the Hawaiian wiki-wiki which means "quick".
Advantages of using wikis in learning and teaching
- No special software needed
- Immediate posting of content
- Low graphics content - fast loading
- Simple or complex hypertext structure as required
- Can have email notification of new content
- Can track changes
- Can have associated discussions
- Can easily link to other wikis and websites
- If students do not like what they see, such as the approach taken by others, they may be more inclined to participate in order to propose an alternative approach.
- Facilitates collaborative and constructivist approaches to learning
- Students can see what they are learning
Although it is "new" technology in learning, wikis could soon move into the "Pets' Corner" or familiar area of the Media Zoo.
Disdvantages of using wikis in learning and teaching
- Students reluctant to make public unfinished working documents
- Students reluctance to let others contribute changes.
- Students very competitive about changes
- All content modifiable including pages for instructions, handouts etc.
- Simultaneous edits are allowed but not successful
- No standardised markup/spellcheck - formatting is basic
- No equations or drawing
- Institutional wikis vs external wikis: using external wikis brings problems of copyright, ownership, continuity, etc.
- Institutional IT policies: still relies on an infrastructure that enables the permissions to be set appropriately (e.g., some universities allow wikis to be editable only by those with University accounts)
- The wiki is forever evolving.
- Not really appropriate for tracking contributions or discussion, following individual students
- When new to both tutors and students lack of familiarity causes problems: can cause confusion and lack of clarity
- Staff opposition to student collaboration
- Research shows that on moving to an online environment, even groups that already know one another well face-to-face have to go through the access and socialisation stages, albeit in a more abbreviated manner, to be able to work together collaboratively in an effective manner.
(For reference list see this post)
Labels: e-learning, elearning, HE, online learning, wiki, wiki bibliography, wiki-tivities, wikis, wikitivities
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:01 AM
Friday, 3 August 2007
Join me on the Creativity in E-Learning network
Labels: creativity, e-learning, education sector, elearning, FE, HE, learning and teaching, learning technologies, social networking, universities, Web 2.0
posted by Helen Whitehead 4:06 PM
Friday, 29 June 2007
Gordon Brown's changes in Education responsibilities
OK, I'm trying to get my head round the changes that Gordon Brown has wrought in the people and agencies responsible for Education in the Government.
John Denham is now the head of a new department - the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills, responsible for:John Denham left Tony Blair's government in protest over Iraq which is one thing in his favour (although let's not get into the pros and cons of the war - I believe that Tony Blair sincerely believed in the presence of WMD in Iraq). He was born in 1953 and was educated at Woodroffe Comprehensive School, Lyme Regis and Southampton University and has three children. So far so good.
- Universities - teaching and research
- Science (formerly of the DTI)
- Innovation (formerly of the DTI)
- Skills sector
In his ministerial statement to the Commons, Gordon Brown said: "The new department will be responsible for driving forward delivery of the government's long-term vision to make Britain one of the best places in the world for science, research and innovation, and to deliver the ambition of a world-class skills base".
The one thing that puzzles me (and others, apparently) is that FE Colleges will be covered by both departments - 14-19 provision by the Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) and HE courses and skills-based courses by this new Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills.
In another interesting move, Gordon Brown announced that funding for 16-19 education - which includes a range of academic and vocational training - would in future go to schools and colleges via the local authority education budget.
I guess the FE sector will have the most to do to catch up on what this all means for them - and the implications for actual funding levels won't be known for some time.Labels: education sector, FE, Gordon Brown, Government, HE, Innovation, John Denham, lifelong learning, policy, science, skills
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:48 AM
Friday, 22 June 2007
Embedding?
At a conference I attended recently, there was much discussion about what "embedding" means in the context of e-learning in Higher Education.
I was thinking maybe we should be talking about "Mbedding" because possibly the whole point is to lose the "e"... Technology should be just one of the tools which teachers use to develop, deliver and facilitate learning, no more or less important than any other. To use technology that way, however, there need to be a lot of things in place - infrastructure and support (including availability of IT experts and learning technologists), training and awareness building, piloting of technologies, and research into the pedagogical aspects of using technology (as there should be research into pedagogical aspects of all learning practices).Labels: embedding e-learning, HE, learning futures, learning technologies, universities
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:18 AM
Tuesday, 12 June 2007
Google pitching to Higher Education
According to this story on the BBC today, Google is expanding its empire into universities - with entire campus e-mail networks switching over to using Google's e-mail service. Apparently Trinity College Dublin has switched over entirely to Google's e-mail.
The new Google-based e-mail addresses (which can still be applied to a university domain name, but which can be accessed from any online computer) can be kept by students when they leave. I'm not sure this is a good idea. There are all sorts of reasons (e.g., authenticity and identity) why a university email address should be limited to those actually studying or working in them. Surely it would be better if university email accounts simply automatically redirected once a student leaves, with a notification that "this student has left".
Google says its higher education tools, hosted by them, allow students to work on files from any internet-connected computer, to engage in collaborative work - working together in real-time on the same document - and to use online timetables and calendars.
What's next - the Google VLE?
I would have serious doubts about privacy and security of data by entrusting all to Google - but it's certainly true that Universities can no longer ignore the rise of Web 2.0 applications.
As Michael Nowlan, director of information systems services at Trinity College Dublin, is quoted as saying, "The digital natives will find their own way, make their own discoveries."Labels: collaborative working, email, Google, HE, learning futures, universities
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:56 AM
