Teacher Education Futures: Developing learning and teaching in ITE across the UK

A selection of papers from the Teacher Education Futures conference 2006

An ‘objective-centred’ approach to course redesign: using learning objectives to integrate e-learning

This article describes the process of integrating e-learning into the M-level research methods course Research Synthesis for Policy and Practice. It explores an ‘objective-centred’ approach to course redesign. This entails using learning objectives as the basis for developing online activities and integrating technological tools. This article describes what this ‘objectives approach’ meant in practice and illustrates the importance of learning objectives for the redesign process. Embedding elearning into the course provides new opportunities to meet existing objectives in an innovative, and hopefully more effective, way. Technological tools provide the scope to extend and develop new learning objectives to better meet the needs of students. Whilst objectives are central to the redesign, the article highlights the significant role played by other types of knowledge, namely tutor experience, student views and research

Project-based cooperative learning to enhance competence while teaching engineering modules

This paper focuses on teaching control systems to engineering students not only by way of the traditional lecture deliveries, but also by implementing several student-focused problems based self-directed learning projects as well as presentations from students. Engineering field constantly evolves and thus teaching a module to engineering students should involve current state-of-the-art research trends in the lectures. In addition, the tutor should also motivate students to have the current research developments incorporated within the student’s self-learning projects. The work presented in this paper revolves around three mini-projects, each project on a different aspect of control engineering and to be completed within two weeks each. The aim of these problem based self-directed learning mini-projects is to get acquainted with the practical aspects of the theoretical learning that has been undertaken within the lectures, something that UK Standard for Professional Engineering Competence (UK-SPEC) focuses on. After completion of the mini-project, the students present their work/discuss results etc. as a power-point presentation lasting 15 minutes, and answer queries from peers (compulsory) and tutor, thus promoting life-long learning along with class participation and peer assessment. The student is also given verbal feedback after each of these project presentations, thereby encouraging improvements in the subsequent presentations taking place after two weeks. The purpose of these projects is to keep alight with the practical aspects of the current professional practices in industry, in the area of engineering, while also building a strong foundation through the self-learning model, thereby promoting deep learning via a blended approach. A questionnaire is also presented in the results and discussion section, which suggests that inclusion of a blended approach has improved the student’s reading beyond the course requirements, has encouraged them towards deeper learning, and also improved both their theoretical as well practical aspects in engineering education

Using assignment data to analyse a blended information literacy intervention: a quantitative approach

This research sought to determine whether a blended information literacy learning and teaching intervention could statistically significantly enhance undergraduates’ information discernment compared to standard face-to-face delivery. A mixture of face-to-face and online activities, including online social media learning, was used. Three interventions were designed to develop the information literacies of first-year undergraduates studying Sport and Exercise at Staffordshire University and focused on one aspect of information literacy: the ability to evaluate source material effectively. An analysis was devised where written evaluations of found information for an assessment were converted into numerical scores and then measured statistically. This helped to evaluate the efficacy of the interventions and provided data for further analysis. An insight into how the information literacy pedagogical intervention and the cognitive processes involved in enabling participants to interact critically with information is provided. The intervention which incorporated social media learning proved to be the most successful learning and teaching approach. The data indicated that undergraduate students’ information literacy can be developed. However, additional long-term data is required to establish whether this intervention would have a lasting impact

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

Developing sustainable business models for institutions’ provision of open educational resources: Learning from OpenLearn users’ motivations and experiences

Universities across the globe have, for some time, been exploring the possibilities for achieving public benefit and generating business and visibility through releasing and sharing open educational resources (OER). Many have written about the need to develop sustainable and profitable business models around the production and release of OER. Downes (2006), for example, has questioned the financial sustainability of OER production at scale. Many of the proposed business models focus on OER’s value in generating revenue and detractors of OER have questioned whether they are in competition with formal education. This paper reports on a study intended to broaden the conversation about OER business models to consider the motivations and experiences of OER users as the basis for making a better informed decision about whether OER and formal learning are competitive or complementary with each other. The study focused on OpenLearn - the Open University’s (OU) web-based platform for OER, which hosts hundreds of online courses and videos and is accessed by over 3,000,000 users a year. A large scale survey and follow-up interviews with OpenLearn users worldwide revealed that university provided OER can offer learners a bridge to formal education, allowing them to try out a subject before registering on a formal course and to build confidence in their abilities as learners. In addition, it was found that using OER during formal paid-for study can improve learners’ performance and self-reliance, leading to increased retention and satisfaction with the learning experience

The Learning Experience of Engineering Foundation Degree Students

University foundation courses have been designed to address the need of highly-diverse groups of students approaching Higher Education. These courses have been developed to support the needs and expectation of both traditional and non-traditional students, either keen on securing employment, or embarking with confidence on an Honours Degree programme. One of these programmes is the “Foundation Degree”, which targets individuals wishing to acquire knowledge and skills readily interfaceable with the work environment (Higgins, Artess and Johnstone, 2010); Engineering is particularly suited to be the subject of this type of course due to its intrinsic empirical character as a discipline. The development of Engineering Foundation Degrees has also met the employers’ demand for a competent, empirically-oriented work force. In the past 15 years, the Foundation Degree has been developed to respond not only to the needs of employers, but to fulfil students' demand for a course that balance empirical and theoretical contents and learning activities.Another foundation programme is the “Extended Degree” in Engineering, which offers a foundation year to applicants who did not fulfil the entry criteria for the first year of an accredited Engineering Honours degree (Fowler, 2015). Like the Foundation Degree, this course is aimed to both traditional and non-traditional students, supporting and enabling the acquisition of the necessary skills and knowledge to enter Higher Education, whilst taking into account their previous experience (McDowell, 1995). This course was initially developed in the 1980s to increase the national pool of professional engineers, and therefore was developed as a Level 0 study programme preceding the first year of an Engineering Honours degreeThere is a need to capture the learning experience of foundation students approaching Higher Education in order to develop and improve learning methodologies that provide them a rich and enjoyable learning experience, hopefully contributing to their academic, professional and personal development. This paper builds upon the past experience of foundation students to further elucidate the mechanisms behind the learning process of students of engineering foundation courses. The author's experience as a lecturer in a foundation engineering course at a British Higher Education Institution is presented and analysed. The effectiveness of contemporary learning methodologies and pedagogies on the learning process of students of engineering foundation courses, including the author’s, is then discussed. The evidence gathered shows that taking into account students’ emotions within the context of a problem-based approach to learning promotes student engagement and is an example of deep learning (Montero and Gonzalez, 2009)