This paper provides an overview of the national perspective in further education (FE) developments in Information and Learning Technology (ILT) since 1992, from the unique perspective of a number of key staff members at the British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) and a member of staff with a role in quality improvement in the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC). It sets in context the research reported in this section in the papers by Cockrill et al. and Caven‐Atack

Brown, John

Gain, Meg

MacDonald, Jean

Martin, Joyce

English

In 1992 the Further and Higher Education Act created the English further education sector by taking colleges out of LEA control and bringing into existence the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC). As in higher education (HE), similar funding arrangements exist for further education in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland

Joyce Martin

John Brown

Jean MacDonald

Meg Gain

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Research in Learning Technology

Further education in transition

Name not available

Further education in transition*Joyce Martin, *John Brown, **Jean MacDonald and *Meg Gain*The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta)**Further Education Funding Council (FEFC)email: joyce_martin@Decta.org.ukThis paper provides an overview of the national perspective in further education (FE)developments in Information and Learning Technology (ILT) since 1992, from the uniqueperspective of a number of key staff members at the British Educational Communicationsand Technology Agency (Becta) and a member of staff with a role in qualityimprovement in the Further Education Funding Council (FEFC). It sets in context theresearch reported in this section in the papers by Cockrill et al. and Caven-Atack.FE has been in a state of transition for almost twenty years. Major changes have takenplace which have affected its status, funding, partnerships and its 'customer base'. But ithas always remained integral to local communities in providing a wide range of educa-tional opportunities. Information and Learning Technology (ILT) has played a part insupporting teaching and learning in FE but, until recently, has rarely been part of any well-developed strategy. This positional paper provides an overview of FE during recent years oftransition and change and describes the important new government investment that is sup-porting the development of a network infrastructure and a range of supporting activities toenable widespread use of ILT across FE for teaching, learning and management.BackgroundIn 1992 the Further and Higher Education Act created the English further educationsector by taking colleges out of LEA control and bringing into existence the FurtherEducation Funding Council (FEFC). As in higher education (HE), similar fundingarrangements exist for further education in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.In 1998-9 the FEFC allocated £3.09 billion to a total of 437 colleges, 52 higher educationinstitutions (HEIs) and 230 adult education centres. The majority of this funding wasallocated to FE sector colleges ranging from small sixth-form colleges to large urban multi-site general FE colleges. They include specialist colleges of agriculture or art and design5Joyce Martin et al Further education in transitionand a small number of residential colleges for adults. Radical changes to the managementof further education, increasing links between the sector and work-based learning, areplanned for April 2001 with the launch of the Learning and Skills Council.Both the Kennedy (1997) and Fryer (1997) reports, as well as the more recent White Paper,Learning to Succeed (DfEE, 1999) have recognized the important role of further educationin building the new culture of lifelong learning. Significant changes resulting from thesedevelopments have already taken place. For example, the sector has delivered a 15 per centrise in the number of funded full-time equivalent students and a 13 per cent efficiency gainin the last four years (FEFC, 1999a). However, public perception of FE is inevitablycoloured by personal experience of FE provision, which may range across many differentlevels and subjects. A wide span of provision is one of the sector's key strengths but also aweakness since it can make the sector difficult to understand.Information and learning technologies in further educationThe Labour government's focus of lifelong learning has meant that FE is in the spotlight asnever before, with the challenge of widening participation and raising standards at thesame time. The Chief Inspector's Annual Report on FE (1998-9) notes:An increasing number of colleges are also committed to the development of 'inclusivelearning'. This ensures that meeting the needs of individual students is paramount andthat there is coherence in the design of learning programmes, teaching and supportactivities. The most successful colleges are able to use such strategies to raise levels ofachievement while, at the same time, widening participation in further education byattracting under-represented groups within their community.In further education, therefore, as in other sectors, there is a drive to raise standards, widenparticipation and improve the skills of the workforce in accordance with governmentobjectives. Many colleges make use of information and learning technologies (ILT) tounderpin these targets, though the use of technology to support learning is far fromuniversal. It has not always been included in college development planning and has rarelybeen part of a strategy to help develop independent learning. There are frequently less thanideal learning environments to accommodate changes in teaching and learning. Tutors mayalso lack skills, confidence and competence in the use of ILT, and technical support is notalways strong.Many colleges have made the strategic decision to deliver significant parts of courseprogrammes using intranet and Internet technologies. A recent study (Becta, 1999) foundthat two of the main uses of ILT are to provide easy access for students to learningresources on intranets and to aid student retention and achievement by providing forindividualized learning styles. Remote access to materials and online course delivery areparticularly valuable for part-time students, adult returners and the growing number ofworkplace-based students in SMEs. However, creating a potentially rich resource bank canoften be beyond the means of a single institution. Collaborative developments amongcollege consortia such as the FE National Consortium (FENC) and the LanguageDevelopment Network (LDN) have provided an important response to staff needs.However, despite these exemplars of good practice and collaborative activities, the use ofILT to support teaching and learning has tended to remain the province of the individualenthusiast and a modest number of the more innovative and far-sighted colleges.6A/t-J Volume 8 Number 3The ILT survey (ibid., 1999) of colleges undertaken by Becta on behalf of the FE FundingCouncil revealed some interesting statistics. While the median ratio of full-time equivalentstudents to computers was approximately 8:1, this figure masked huge variation. Whileone-fifth of colleges provided better than one computer for five FTE (full-time equivalent)students, at 3 per cent of colleges, sixteen or more FTEs shared every machine.Furthermore, the corresponding median figure for Internet-connected computers was inexcess of 20:1. Staff/PC ratios were typically rather better at 6:1.The National Learning NetworkIn its first comprehensive spending review, the government recognized the urgent need togive additional support to the sector to ensure that all colleges are properly equipped forthe computer age. In 1998, £74 million of government funding was allocated over threeyears for IT infrastructure development in FE. In addition to the estimated college currentannual IT spend of £100 million, this is the largest investment made by any government forIT-related activities within FE. The FEFC's ILT committee of college principals and sectorexperts (known within the sector as the FE ILT committee) has carried out strategicplanning for the investment. The committee produced an ILT development strategy for thesector entitled Networking Lifelong Learning, endorsed by the FEFC in June 1999. Twoimplementation task groups on 'Infrastructure' and 'Support' have consulted across thesector and produced implementation proposals. The resulting report, the FEFC's ILTImplementation Plan (FEFC, 1999b; FEFC, 1999c) provides a comprehensive strategywhich aims to deliver effective integration of ILT into FE learning and teaching.Dealing with the needs of more than 420 colleges and approximately four million students,the aims of the FE ILT committee's strategy are ambitious. It is intended that ILT will beexploited to:• enrich the learning experiences of students;• improve teaching methods and standards;D facilitate better management practices; andD assist in the development of a more IT-literate society.The FE ILT committee has not worked in isolation: new partnerships have been formed tohelp realize these plans. The FEFC has become the fifth funding partner of the JISC (JointInformation Systems Committee) and now has sector representation on all JISCcommittees. In future, all JISC support services and programmes will consider the needs offurther education, and a small number of additional staff are being recruited by the JISCwith experience of further education.Key FE sector organizations, such as Becta, FEDA (Further Education DevelopmentAgency) and NILTA (National Information and Learning Technology Association) arealso working together to help establish the FE ILT committee's blueprint.Local and national strategic planningAs noted above, there have been relatively few examples of colleges explicitly building ILTinto their strategic planning for teaching and learning. The National Learning Network(NLN) initiative requires colleges to revisit their strategic planning to address this issue.7Joyce Martin et al Further education in transitionColleges are required to develop and submit for checking an ILT strategy document.Support for this activity in the form of guidelines and examples of good practice have beenprovided, but it has been made clear that for colleges to qualify for future funding a soundILT strategy must have been submitted. Plans need to indicate the areas in which collegesare using the additional funding to supplement their own normal spending on informationand learning technology.As Figure 1 indicates, an analysis of ten current government-funded ICT initiatives (DfEE,1998) suggests that their focus is predominantly on hardware and connectivity. Nearlyfour-fifths of the total funding (some £1.6 billion) is devoted to infrastructure acquisition.However, the general lessons of previous IT investment suggest that for change to takeroot, a significant portion of the available funding has to be allocated to the 'softer' aspectsof innovation - specifically, content development and staff training in continuingprofessional development (CPD). The FE ILT committee's planning has taken note ofthese lessons and attempts to address the need for investments in both learning materialsand staff development.Content B j B,. HI:•• • 13%''mTraining ,^ H j ^ ^ B '•'.'• •<:.••'•' ;• .;::;.:InfrastructureFigure I: Analysis often current government ICT initiatives.Widening participation: providing the infrastructureThe fundamental 'backbone' to the FE ILT strategy lies in connecting all colleges to anetwork that will give them access to electronic materials arid educational content andinformation! The Secretary of State for Education, David Blunkett, used the phrase'National Learning Network' to describe this infrastructure, which will include highereducation with links to the University for Industry (Ufl), National Grid for Learning(NGfL), museums, libraries and other networks.Rather than create a separate electronic network for FE colleges, the FEFC has elected,through its membership of the JISC, to base its developments on the existing JANETnetwork. UKERNA is managing the connections and each college will have a minimumbandwidth of 2 Mb per second delivered to its door by spring 2001. Nine recentlyestablished regional support centres (RSCs) will provide technical support, training andawareness to colleges. Funding was made available in the first year of the initiative to8Alt-] Volume 8 Number 3provide vendor-specific training for technicians in colleges, to improve local area networksand to facilitate the purchase of equipment for designated ILT 'champions'. In later years,further funding will go directly to colleges to enable equipment update arid to facilitate thelicensing of managed learning environments (see below).Staff developmentOver the past four years there has been a drive to improve staff awareness of the potentialof ILT and to assist colleges in their use of ILT. Many colleges, through initiatives such asthe Quality in Information and Learning Technology (QUILT) staff developmentprogramme and European-funded ADAPT projects, have been involved in innovativedevelopments using ILT to support teaching and learning. Some examples of college goodpractice in ILT include work done at Telford College of Arts and Technology, winner ofBecta's 1998 Beacon Award, initiatives at Wirral Metropolitan College, with its 'LearningWeb', and at Gateshead College, with its development of specialist courses for the deaftaught by deaf tutors through the use of video conferencing.A substantial training programme to develop 'ILT champions' at both managerial andcurriculum level has been devised by Becta and was delivered throughout summer 2000.Funding given direct to colleges will be used to free up time for their 'champions' tocascade their newly acquired knowledge to colleagues. Manager-level champions, on theother hand, will be well placed to assist their college in implementing its ILT strategy.An important aspect of the broader staff development programme under the NLN is theplan to provide a set of ILT modules mapped against the FENTO (Further EducationNational Training Organization) standards framework, to give staff appropriate de-scriptors for goals within programmes of continuing professional development. This isnecessarily a longer-term intention because of the involvement of the NTO and awardingbodies throughout the UK, but indicates the depth of thinking that the NLN initiative haspromoted. Complementing this programme £5.45 million from the Standards Fund hasbeen allocated to colleges for ILT staff development.Learning materials exploitationQuite apart from new materials under development for the Ufl, some electronic learningmaterials already exist for use in colleges but the quality is extremely variable; many havelittle pedagogic foundation and offer little or no interaction for the student. Thenetworking of colleges, however, opens up new opportunities for the development ofonline learning materials that can be accessed by large numbers of students and staff.Substantial funding has therefore been allocated under the NLN to commission a range ofnew high-quality ILT materials, which will be made available free or virtually free at pointof use throughout FE. The selection of the materials to be developed has followed detailedmapping and auditing of existing college materials use by FEDA. The design of a suitable'repository' for newly created materials is also under consideration following an NLNfeasibility study conducted by NILTA.Many colleges have a programme of 'in-house' ILT materials development, but given therelatively small numbers of students undertaking each college course and the considerableinvestment required to produce high-quality learning resources, many find the exercise toocostly and time-consuming. The FE ILT committee, however, considered it essential that9Joyce Martin et al Further education in transitionan element of the learning materials development funding be devolved directly to colleges.The expectation, based in part on the experience of the earlier QUILT programme, is thatthis funding will help increase the ability of staff to make fluent use of new and emergingtechnologies and to create or adapt learning resources for diverse groups of learners.Without the development of these skills, the opportunity to widen participation, enrichstudents' learning experience and equip them for the new technology age will be lost.In parallel with the materials exploitation, through its subcommittee on integratedenvironments for learners (JCIEL), the JISC and other NLN partners are working on adetailed specification for the developer community of managed learning environments(MLEs) both in terms of functionality and standards for interoperability. The issue ofstandards is integral to all NLN development activities and all new learning materials willbe produced to open standards to enable portability, accessibility and transferability. Closework with the Ufl has taken place to secure the 'fit' between NLN and Ufl materials.An evaluation strategy to measure the success of the National Learning Network hasalready been established and set in motion by the DfEE. As well as evaluating theeffectiveness of the individual projects, more than forty colleges are taking part in aprogramme to measure the impact of the initiative, the new connectivity and the way thatcolleges use ILT in their teaching and learning.Conclusion: looking forwardNo development in ICT is without its attendant issues, and no one expects the NLNinitiative to be without problems. Whilst the programmes of staff development have beencreated and a measure of funding secured to enable college staff to participate in them, sofar the scale of the funding is insufficient to the task. It does not begin to approach the£400 per head allocated for the training of school teachers and librarians under the NewOpportunities Fund's programmes in support of the National Grid for Learning and thePeople's Network.Equally, the amount of funding for the development of new ILT learning materials falls farshort of the scale of the HE Teaching and Learning Technology Programme (TLTP), andat current prices will purchase only a few hundred hours of course time. Finally, ITequipment and networks require recurrent investment - 'one-off' funding is not a long-term solution to their acquisition. However, the scale of the funding that has been madeavailable to FE under the first round of the comprehensive spending review certainlyreflects a genuine intention on the part of government to move forward with the provisionof online learning. As such, the funding has proved to be a tremendous morale boost tothose colleagues who have - through their vision and energy - sought:D to create wholesale change in the sector's learning offering;• to confront the need for flexibility and custom-responsiveness; andD to play a key role in addressing the UK's skills deficiencies.Thus the National Learning Network, while still in its infancy, is helping to change the faceof vocational education and training in England and to lend its weight to drive forwardchange, opening up new options for lifelong learners nationally.10Alt-J Volume 8 Number 3ReferencesBritish Educational Communications and Technology Agency (1999), Learning On-Line:Electronic Learning Resources in Further Education, Coventry: Becta.Department for Education and Employment (1998), Open for Learning, Open for Business,London: DfEE.Department for Education and Employment (1999), Learning to Succeed: A NewFramework for Post-16 Learning, London: Stationery Office.Fryer, R. H. (1997), Learning for the Twenty-first Century: First Report of the NationalAdvisory Group for Continuing Education and Lifelong Learning, London: DfEE.Further Education Funding Council (1999a), Annual Report 1998-99: Delivering the NewAgenda, Coventry: FEFC.Further Education Funding Council (1999b), Quality and Standards in Further Educationin England 1998-99: Chief Inspector's Annual Report, Coventry: FEFC.Further Education Funding Council (1999c), Circular 99/45, ILT Implementation Plan.available online: http://www.fefc.ac.uk/documents/circulars/fefc_pubs/9945.pdf [2000, 7September].Further Education Funding Council (1999d), Networked Lifelong Learning,http://www.fefc.ac.uk/documents/othercouncilpublications/other_pdf/nlllrnit.pdf [2000, 23October].Kennedy, H. (1997), Learning Works: Widening Participation in Further Education,Coventry: FEFC.I I

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