The Blended Learning Unit, University of Hertfordshire: A Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Evaluation Report for HEFCE

The University of Hertfordshire’s Blended Learning Unit (BLU) was one of the 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs) funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) between 2005 and 2010. This evaluation report follows HEFCE’s template. The first section provides statistical information about the BLU’s activity. The second section is an evaluative reflection responding to 13 questions. As well as articulating some of our achievements and the challenges we have faced, it also sets out how the BLU’s activity will continue and make a significant contribution to delivery of the University of Hertfordshire’s 2010-2015 strategic plan and its aspirations for a more sustainable future. At the University of Hertfordshire, we view Blended Learning as the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance the learning and learning experience of campus-based students. The University has an excellent learning technology infrastructure that includes its VLE, StudyNet. StudyNet gives students access to a range of tools, resources and support 24/7 from anywhere in the world and its robustness, flexibility and ease of use have been fundamental to the success of the Blended Learning agenda at Hertfordshire. The BLU has comprised a management team, expert teachers seconded from around the University, professional support and a Student Consultant. The secondment staffing model was essential to the success of the BLU. As well as enabling the BLU to become fully staffed within the first five months of the CETL initiative, it has facilitated access to an invaluable spectrum of Blended Learning, research and Change Management expertise to inform pedagogically sound developments and enable change to be embedded across the institution. The BLU used much of its capital funding to reduce barriers to the use of technology by, for example, providing laptop computers for all academic staff in the institution, enhancing classroom technology provision and wirelessly enabling all teaching accommodation. Its recurrent funding has supported development opportunities for its own staff and staff around the institution; supported evaluation activities relating to individual projects and of the BLU’s own impact; and supported a wide range of communication and dissemination activities internally and externally. The BLU has led the embedding a cultural change in relation to Blended Learning at the University of Hertfordshire and its impact will be sustained. The BLU has produced a rich legacy of resources for our own staff and for others in the sector. The University’s increased capacity in Blended Learning benefits all our students and provides a learning experience that is expected by the new generation of learners in the 21st century. The BLU’s staffing model and partnership ways of working have directly informed the structure and modus operandi of the University’s Learning and Teaching Institute (LTI). Indeed a BLU team will continue to operate within the LTI and help drive and support the implementation of the University’s 2010-2015 Strategic plan. The plan includes ambitions in relation to Distance Learning and Flexible learning and BLU will be working to enable greater engagement with students with less or no need to travel to the university. As well as opening new markets within the UK and overseas, even greater flexibility for students will also enable the University to reduce its carbon footprint and provide a multifaceted contribution to our sustainability agenda. We conclude this executive summary with a short paragraph, written by Eeva Leinonen, our former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, which reflects our aspiration to transform Learning and Teaching at the University of Hertfordshire and more widely in the sector. ‘As Deputy Vice Chancellor at Hertfordshire I had the privilege to experience closely the excellent work of the Blended Learning Unit, and was very proud of the enormous impact the CETL had not only across the University but also nationally and internationally. However, perhaps true impact is hard to judge at such close range, but now as Vice Principal (Education) at King's College London, I can unequivocally say that Hertfordshire is indeed considered as the leading Blended Learning university in the sector. My new colleagues at King's and other Russell Group Universities frequently seek my views on the 'Hertfordshire Blended Learning' experience and are keen to emulate the successes achieved at an institutional wide scale. The Hertfordshire CETL undoubtedly achieved not only what it set out to achieve, but much more in terms of scale and impact. All those involved in this success can be justifiably proud of their achievements.’ Professor Eeva Leinonen, Vice Principal (Education), King's College, Londo

3D animation visualization on commercial websites

3D technology became more and more a part of our live. Often we even don’t know it. 3D technology can be found back in medical applications, cinematographic, automotive design, etc... Only one technology seems to have missed the 3D train, namely the World Wide Web. Internet is still not overwhelmed with 3D content, still and animated. This project analyses the reasons, bottlenecks why 3D technology is so slow in conquering the World Wide Web. The research is focused on 3D visualization in commercial websites. Research is done after the difficulties to include 3D content in a HTML environment. By involving a complete website solution, the ISPN-system, a realistic and immersive environment is setup to research where and what kind of issues may occur. The development of the ISPN-system could be a case on his own eventual done in another Msc project or a PhD project. Main goal of the ISPN-system is to provide decent footage material (visual and data) to graphic designers and website developers. An inquiry will be conducted whether this has some sense

ALT-C 2011 Abstracts

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Plumbing the depths: stories, e-portfolios; pedagogy, ownership

Over the course of this academic year, a colleague and I implemented an eportfolio pilot with 82 students aged 17 to 50 on a team-taught 30-credit Level 1 core course on behalf of the University of Greenwich. The students are studying for a degree in Education Studies and come from a wide range of backgrounds. The module comprises elements of PDP interwoven with lectures on contemporary education issues and was originally designed as a paper-based course. The pilot navigated the PebblePad system as part of a wider trial of a number of different systems by the university. This paper presents the results of research combining mixed methodologies mainly allied to the interpretive paradigm but incorporating elements of critical theory. The research evaluates the differing experiences of students and lecturers using this e-portfolio system for learning, teaching, reflection and assessment. Methods used include initial and final student reflections, surveys, interviews and critical analysis including the narrative ‘soundings’ of sample experiences from student blogs and visual analysis of some student portfolios. We used the PebblePad as a mini VLE, uploading course documents and lecture presentations and sending messages as well as creating online gateways for formative and summative assessment submission. It was accessed externally to the university systems. In a scaffolded process, students constructed and submitted blogs and e-portfolios composed of a number of assets. The process of interactions with an eportfolio system has raised substantial and complex challenges for course design and learning outcomes relating to pedagogy and assessment as well as challenges of implementation, resistance to change and around concepts of ownership. As a commentary on academic practice, an element of personal reflection on the project and the research is included in the form of a dialogic interlocution with these narratives, raising questions about the way in which we might use e-portfolios in Higher Education and considering how we evaluate online learning. As a process of evaluation, the research does not offer hypotheses or answers as such but aims to create space for different views by raising complex questions and challenges for consideration in the process of contextualising and making sense of the users’ different experiences, of plumbing the depths. Drawing on diverse genres and media the paper presents the results of the research and samples some of the work produced

Designing for learning: e-Learning@greenwich post-conference reflections and abstracts

The e-learning@greenwich/conference 2007, Designing for Learning, was the fifth conference in the series and has developed from its original focus on local institutional issues to a conference that focuses on global themes in e-learning attracting international participation. Our conferences are characterised by being practitioner focused and sector inclusive. Conference evaluations suggest that its intimate and friendly atmosphere, within the grounds of the world heritage site at Greenwich, allows practitioner-delegates to freely mix with delegates of international research repute and have an influence on practice, whether in the classroom or in educational software development. We felt it was now time to produce a series of publications to share the important work being captured and disseminated at the conferences to a wider public in the form of post-conference reflective proceedings

Australian tertiary learning and teaching scholarship and research 2007-2012

Research into Higher Education is strongly supported in Australia by journals and conferences. Teaching and learning awards, projects and programmes in Australia have gained a significantly larger profile over the last five years thanks, in part, to an imaginative and supportive environment fostered by the federal government through the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) and now the Office for Learning and Teaching (OLT)