JISC e-Learning Blog

We are looking for people with an institutional role in supporting and developing ‘digital’ learners, which might mean working in learning development, information literacy, e-learning, ICT support, personal development planning, career planning, developing ‘literacies of the digital’, institutional strategic planning, and developing a 21st century curriculum in your subject area.

We would like to invite you to pilot a set of materials for institutional and curriculum development in the area of supporting digital learners. Materials will draw on outcomes of the JISC ‘Learners’ Experiences of e-Learning‘ programme and the ‘Learning Literacies for a Digital Age’ project, as well as a new set of case studies current under development (see below). You will be helping us to refine and contextualise the resources before public release, but we hope they will be of value to you in their pilot form.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact Helen Beetham (helen.beetham@googlemail.com) with your name, role, email address and institution. A brief idea of why you are interested would be helpful but is not necessary.

We are also looking for institutions that can demonstrate good practice in one of the following areas:
1. digital literacy as part of a widening participation or employability agendas;
2. use of e-portfolios to develop learners across the institution; or
3. using learners to support the development of digital literacies in other learners (such as through a student mentoring scheme).

Chosen institutions will be supported by the JISC funded SLiDA project team to develop a case study that showcases their work and analyses their experience for the benefit of others. The case studies will be made available from the e-Learning Programme pages on the JISC website and may also be showcased in JISC e-Learning publications.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please contact Rhona Sharpe (rsharpe@brookes.ac.uk) stating your role, institution, the area in which you can demonstrate good practice, and a few lines about what you are doing to support students.

The deadline for expressions of interest is Friday 7th May.

JISC has commissioned Stamp Consulting to objectively evaluate the effectiveness and impact of a range of communication activities funded by the JISC e-Learning Programme between 2004 and 2009. Activities to be evaluated include printed publications (for example, the JISC Effective Practice guides), multimedia resources, workshops and online conferences. Findings from the evaluation will inform the e-Learning Programme’s future communication and dissemination approaches to ensure we are better meeting the needs of the community we serve.

Case studies which demonstrate the impact of previous communication activities will also be developed as a result of the project.

In order to evaluate communications activities, Stamp Consulting will use data from a variety of sources including JISC web statistics, previous evaluation surveys and press / internet cuttings. In addition, we will conduct telephone interviews in order to obtain more qualitative, in-depth information about how JISC e-Learning communications have impacted upon knowledge and practice amongst the target audience.

We would like to talk to a wide range of people, including practitioners, e-learning/ILT managers, staff and educational developers, learning resources staff and institutional managers working in HE and FE.. We have launched a short online survey which allows individuals to register their interest in participating, as well as collecting general information about awareness of JISC e-learning materials. We are also interested in collecting examples of the impact of JISC e-Learning communications on individual’s or institutional practice which have the potential to be developed into case studies for wider dissemination.

Those who participate in the survey will be eligible for entry into a prize draw to win a 32GB iPod touch. (Sorry, but members of the JISC executive are not eligible for the prize draw.) The survey closes on Sunday 25th April. The prize draw will take place during the w/c 4th May. The winner will be chosen at random and notified by e-mail by 7th May.

Stamp Consulting will then be in touch with a representative selection of individuals who have agreed to participate to arrange short telephone interviews of about 20-30 minutes. Telephone interviews will be between 4th – 21st May. These will include interviews relating to case studies which demonstrate the impact of JISC e-Learning communications and dissemination activities. Where possible the case study interviews will be followed up by institutional visits.

Findings from the evaluation together with the case studies will be available from the JISC website later this year.

If you would like to take part in the online survey, or to register your interest in participating in the telephone interviews, please click on the following link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/GLLXNJH

If you would like more information about the evaluation process before you take part, please visit http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning/elearningcommsevaluation.aspx

Conference presentations and resources, including all the Elluminate recordings, from Innovating e-Learning 2009 (#jiscel09), are now available on the JISC website for general viewing: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningpedagogy/elpconference09/programme.aspx or http://tinyurl.com/yeftze5

The JISC Online Conference, Innovating e-Learning 2009 ran from 24th -27th November and attracted 450 delegates numbers from 12 countries. The conference theme was ‘Thriving, not just surviving’ to reflect the challenges facing colleges and universities in the 21st century. Elluminate recordings of the keynote sessions are now available and include presentations from Charlie Leadbeater, one of the most influential creative people in the world and adviser to companies, cities and governments, Nigel Paine, Helen Beetham, Rhona Sharpe (Oxford Brookes University) and Peter Bradwell (Demos).

Excellent conference presentations and podcasts are also now available covering digital literacies and learners experiences; mobile learning; use of virtual worlds for learning and teaching; supporting and retaining learners through the use of technology; open educational resources; engaging employers and professional bodies in curriculum design and the design of technology-rich physical learning spaces. ‘Wonderful informed and passionate debates plus great keynotes all recorded for playback in your own time.’ Nigel Paine

Innovating e-Learning 2010 will be running from 23rd – 26th November 2010. More information on the themes for this year’s event will follow later in the year. #jiscel10

Author of the Demos report, The Edgeless University, Peter Bradwell opened the second theme of Innovating e-Learning 2009 with a warning note for higher education.

Universities are facing ‘a perfect storm’ of rising demand and strained resources, but Bradwell saw a solution in embracing what technology can offer. An explosion of free online resources and social media means that universities are no longer have sole rights over the generation of ideas, knowledge and innovation, he asserted, but technology should still be seen as an asset rather than a threat.

Technology helps learning by supporting collaboration, making information more readily obtainable and bringing people together. Technology can make research more freely available and enable more flexible and equitable access to learning. Universities, however, need to learn how to exploit this potential – the future lies in open, collaborative ways of working enhanced by technology rather than in the walled gardens of the past, Bradwell concluded.

The concept of ‘edgelessness’ appeared again in the sessions on virtual worlds. Virtual worlds researcher, John Kirriemuir, and session facilitator, David White, (Oxford University) explored the fine line between play and purposeful learning found in educational uses of virtual worlds and in games playing, but where were the familiar protocols and boundaries of traditional face-to-face teaching? Similar issues emerged in Alan Staley’s presentation of Shareville – a 3-D replica of a town created to support experiential and multidisciplinary learning at Birmingham City University:
‘We need to ask when should students play, when should they do it for real, and when should we try to replicate reality.’ Alan Staley
Virtual worlds, successfully harnessed, made irresistible viewing. Delegates were enthralled by Kathy Trinder’s demonstration in Elluminate of uses of Second Life at Glasgow Caledonian University. Kathy argued that the speed of change should not cause a rush to judgement about how new platforms should be used:

‘Perhaps we should consider how we can avoid repeating what we already do in the physical world, and, instead of building 500-seat virtual lecture theatres, embrace pedagogies beyond our traditional models.’ Kathy Trinder

Elsewhere in the conference the real world was more in evidence but the winds of change were still blowing. Mike Neary (University of Lincoln) explored the relationship between pedagogic principles and the learning landscape, while Mark Stubbs (Manchester Metropolitan University) and Peter Bird presented findings from the Supporting Responsive Curricula Project. The project is funded under the JISC Institutional Approaches to Curriculum Design programme and seeks innovative ways of engaging employers and professional bodies in curriculum design.

A closing keynote by Nigel Paine, former Head of People Development at the BBC, on 27th November concludes the fourth Innovating e-Learning conference with thoughts around the shift he sees taking place from learning on courses to learning in communities. Quote from Nigel on the conference: ‘Wonderful informed and passionate debates plus great keynotes all recorded for playback in your own time.’

Sessions at Innovating e-Learning 2009 remain open for reading and research by delegates until 1st January 2010. As in previous years, conference presentations and resources, including keynotes, will be made available within the next few weeks on the JISC website [www.jisc.ac.uk/ elpconference09] for general viewing.

Follow the conference on Twitter: #jiscel09

The JISC Online Conference, Innovating e-Learning 2009 which opened on Tuesday 24th November has broken all records for delegate numbers. 12 countries are represented with delegates from Australia adding to the discussions overnight UK time. Follow the conference live on Twitter #jiscel09

The opening keynote by Charlie Leadbeater, leading thinker on innovation and strategy, was delivered live via Elluminate to 145 delegates none of whom had left their desks or homes. His message was a thought-provoking conundrum. Where do you place resources to achieve innovation – on improving or reforming mainstream formal education, or on supporting supplementary or alternative approaches, for example via the family or the community ?

Using a quadrant to explore the tension between formal and informal learning, Leadbeater expressed the belief that radical innovation is likely to come from the margins rather than the mainstream and that what we should be seeking are approaches that ‘pull’ rather than ‘push’ change. Perhaps we should stop asking how to improve the system, he said, and start asking how we can better support learning.

‘If you start by asking how can technology be used to improve current approaches you’ll end up with incremental innovation. If you start from outside you will see different possibilities. Then the question is how to enable that kind of innovation to happen and to go to scale. Too often this kind of approach is marginalised or completely informal (kids learning through games and YouTube.)’ Charlie Leadbeater

Delegates were invited over and over to present their views via the text and polling facilities in the software: ‘it is rare to see that level of interaction between a presenter and his audience’, said one participant, as Charlie paused to absorb the audience’s views before building them into his presentation.

Boundaries of place were also overcome with delegates joining from places as diverse as New Zealand and Dubai. Later, Brian Lamb joined for a discussion of OER live in Elluminate from the University of British Columbia. Mythical views about learners (especially those ‘digital natives’) were hotly debated in the Theme 1 keynote session led by Helen Beetham and Rhona Sharpe (JISC Learner Experiences of e-Learning theme); 120 delegates took part in this highly regarded session which continued asynchronously to debate the key capabilities of a 21st century graduate and the unexpected results of researching into learners’ expectations of technology use in higher education.

‘… there is no evidence that learners are demanding more cutting-edge technology for learning: in fact they are often more conservative than their tutors.’ Rhona Sharpe.

Helen Beetham challenged the consumer model of learning that is gaining acceptance, arguing that:

‘A consumer model sees learners’ needs and expectations as one and the same thing. Find out what learners want – or employers, in another version – and deliver it. But we know learning isn’t like that. If we see learning in the highest sense as self-reflection, self-realisation, self-transformation, we see that needs may be met by challenging expectations, and that both will change if deep learning is taking place.’

Elsewhere, delegates could were invited to undertake some learning themselves by trying out Elluminate, Second Life, digital video making, pedagogy planning and assessment tools in a new area aptly named the ‘Have-a-Go’ area. An enjoyable mix of showcase and activity, the Have-a-Go area featured the work of some of the JISC services and project teams from the JISC e-Learning programme.

Perhaps ‘Have-a-Go’ is the catchphrase for this conference. With much a reduced carbon footprint too.
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Some key quotes from Twitter
The mobile phone is only form of technology that really cuts across rich and poor. If you want to invest in education, invest in this! Re Leadbeater
Phone on divert, out of office on, meeting in progress sign on door, coffee in hand, all ready for #jiscel09 1st keynote
I didn’t realise it would be this exhausting

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From the blog
I am sure that there are quite a few people out there who are feeling slightly overwhelmed by the huge quantity of quality discussion which is happening here at the conference.

I am now looking at Theme 1 with 93 new messages…

Okay deep breath….

I am not going to be able to go through them all….

You don’t need to. James Clay

The JISC e-Learning Programme will be launching three new publications at the ALT-C Conference in Manchester on Tuesday 8th September.

Managing Curriculum Change
A new publication, Managing Curriculum Change, introduces two major JISC programmes of research commencing in 2008 that investigate how the use of technology can help make curriculum design processes more agile and responsive and the experience of learning more engaging, inclusive and rewarding. ‘Managing Curriculum Change’ gives an overview of the aims of the Institutional Approaches to Curriculum Design and Transforming Curriculum Delivery programmes alongside a vision for the enhancement of the curriculum design and delivery lifecycle through technology. The publication introduces the projects involved in the programmes and illustrates through a combination of text and graphics what might be achieved at different stages in the curriculum lifecycle, with a focus on who needs to be involved to enable institutional aspirations to become a reality.

The JISC Curriculum Design and Delivery programmes are supported by web based resources in the Design Studio . The Design Studio is a dynamic toolkit which draws together a range of resources around technology-enhanced curriculum design and delivery, including those that result from the work of the Curriculum Design and Delivery programmes and resources from previous JISC and Higher Education Academy programmes and other relevant sources.

The publication is available from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/managingcurriculumchange.aspx

Responding to Learners
This resource pack synthesises the outcomes from the Learner Experiences of e-Learning theme of the JISC e-Learning Programme which funded a total of ten projects from 2005 to 2009, and had the sustained involvement of over 200 learners and more than 3000 survey respondents to explore learners’ perceptions of and participation in technology-enhanced learning in a digital age. The content of Responding to Learners includes a series of five guides and a set of key messages postcards containing quotes from learners. The postcards summarise the key findings from this JISC-funded research and can form the basis for staff development activities. The series of guides offer recommendations on how institutions can better respond to learners’ expectations and uses of technology and offers practical guidance on how to embed the learners’ voice more effectively into institutional processes and practice.

The pack is available from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/respondingtolearners.aspx

Learning Literacies in a Digital Age
A new briefing paper summarises the recent JISC e-Learning Programme report, Thriving in the 21st century: Learning Literacies for the Digital Age, which explores examples of learning literacies provision in UK further and higher education. The Learning Literacies for a Digital Age (LLiDA) project reviewed the evidence of change in the nature of work, knowledge, social life and citizenship, communications media and other technologies, in the context of learning, and also explored the current responses to these changes from the further and higher education sectors. The project has collected substantial original data (available online) concerning current practice in literacies provision in UK further and higher education, including 15 institutional audits and over 40 examples of forward-thinking practice. Based on this, and on the body of existing research evidence, LLiDA offers a set of recommendations for institutions to consider as they examine their own provision and support in this area. By engaging with real examples of academic and learners practices we have provided compelling evidence of how effective digital learners develop and can be supported.

The briefing paper is available at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/learningliteraciesbp.aspx