Steering Group Meeting – HEA Research Observatory Project

Friday 31st October 2008.

Present:

Liz Warr NTF – Project Director (WrittleCollege)

Dr. Ian Scott – Head of Academic Development and Practice Unit, University of Worcester

Catherine Bone – JISC RISC Eastern E-Learning Advisor

Malcolm Bodley –JISC RISC Eastern E-Learning Advisor

James Wilson –Key Researcher

Rachel Butterfield – Researcher (WrittleCollege)

Apologies received from:

Dr. Abigail Hind – Director of Aspire CETL, HarperAdamsUniversityCollege

Dr. Jo Jones – Head of Learning and Teaching Unit, University of Essex

Ana Robinson – Project Team (FE KeySkillsLeaderWrittleCollege)

Jill Baldwin – Head of Careers Section

  1. Introduction.

Liz Warr introduced the project and explained that WrittleCollege had taken the decision to appoint a postgraduate student to work with James Wilson in undertaking the research work for this project.The individual appointed would undertake an M.Res degree focussed around the HEA project. Liz explained that Rachel Butterfield had been appointed to this position and welcomed her to the Project Team. Rachel agreed to take notes of the Steering Group meeting deliberations.

  1. Background Information.

WrittleCollege is approximately split 50/50 in relation to FE and HE student numbers and is a “small specialist institution”. The project aims to look at the technological approaches and pedagogic techniques that both FE and HE students and staff prefer and make recommendations for increased alignment. Dr. Ian Scott noted that this impliesa key assumption that they are not currently aligned. This will be explored through the research.

An important area of the research is to look at the ways in which learning technologies are being used and implemented by both students and staff. Moodle should be a unifying technology across the two educational sectors but there may still be some areas where it is used differently. This relates back to the research question of how learning technologies are being deployed.

FE is administered in a different way to HE, and there is a greater chance of a diverse skill base in one class – this may help or hinder the research. Using e-learning or more advanced e-learning for the more able is an aspect that is to be explored.

  1. Research Questions
  2. Transition into HE.

The Research question also addresses transition into HE, and it was felt that the questionnaire should contain an element of this without shifting the focus away from e-learning too much. This might later enable a small scale comparative study with other institutions and retention and induction surveys etc. This is an area that is to be explored and discussed in more depth.

3.2.Social Class.

Social Class, as assessed using Postcode, was identified as a good measure to use in the questionnaire. This will provide a mapping of the background of the students and may correlate with their engagement, or familiarity with technology. It was commented that this related back to a research paper by Becka Currant et al from BradfordUniversity on “Defining ‘Generation Y’: towards a new typology of digital learners” which might be used in this analysis.

3.3.E-Portfolios.

The group discussed the focus on e-portfolios within the project. The following diagram helps to illustrate this point.

  1. Research Tools.
  2. Questionnaire:

The purpose of the pilot questionnaire was discussed. The main questionnaire should be piloted to assess the validity of the questions and the reliability of the data. This would be best done with a small group of students given the size of the actual sample and the nature of the questions. Due to the diverse nature of the group, and the large range of variables that will be present (age, course, prior experience, socio-economic background etc…) and a relatively small sample size only a small quantity of ‘reliable’ data will be produced from the main questionnaire – an idea of the issues and perceptions will be gained but data will enhanced through the interviews, using the opinions and qualitative inputs to support the quantitative evidence.

4.2.Interviews:

The interviews should try and include all of the variables (as far as is possible – this could be a limitation to the research). It was observed that with such a small sample and campus size students could be reached through the last half an hour of a tutorial session.It was commented that a ‘targeted’ for example, personal approach may be of use to the research – for example sitting with people in the canteen at lunch and inviting them along to focus group sessions

  1. Research Design.

With careful questionnaire and interview design it should be possible to evaluate the use of e-portfolios within the main project proposal. The design of the questionnaire will be carried out in the coming few weeks; advice sought from Dr. Sue Judd within from the School of Equine and Animal Science and consultation between the project team.

  1. Other Considerations.
  2. Pro-Monitor.

One element of the FE e-learning experience (Pro-Monitor – an ILP to help track students’ progress and action planning) was not in use when the original HEA project was submitted. Its introduction has resulted from a recent OFSTED inspection and it was felt that this may have an impact on people’s opinions and usage of e-learning – this needs to be kept in mind throughout the research(questionnaire and interviews with students and staff).

6.2.Staff Perceptions.

There may be a gap between staff members’ perception and reality. It was discussed that although staff members felt they were using a common approach to e-learning within their teaching the students understanding of this may differ. This may be the result of a shift from FE to HE and the learning pedagogies undertaken within each area of teaching. Such issues will be highlighted as appropriate.

  1. Dissemination

Opportunities’ for dissemination were discussed – e-fair, poster session at the HEA, Cetl, and EssexSocialSciencesSchoolbeing popular choices that will be investigated further.

Catherine provided the following additional opportunities for dissemination:

  • The ResearchCentreCityCollegeNorwich - via the publications Database

    Contact there is Dr Angus Carpenter
  • The Learning and Skills Research Network (LSRN)
  • Association of Colleges in the Eastern Region (ACER) HE in FE Forum, may facilitate dissemination via their Network

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HEA e-Learning project 2008/steering meeting