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Worcester College of Technology Senior Manager Perspective

Carl Flint

Vice Principal

 

Project:

WORDLE (Worcester Digital Literacy) - Developing Digital Literacies programme

 

The vision for digital literacy that Worcester intends to develop through the project focuses on skills and attributes that learners need for becoming effective 21st century lifelong learners. But teachers also need to be on board to make best use of technology to deliver and support learning. This will embrace developing e-confidence in use and practice of online technologies such as learning platforms, e-portfolios, effective searching and research skills, mobile learning, educational apps, web 2 technologies and social media.

 

Alignment with institutional agendas and strategies

The project aligns with several college strategies:

  • achieving outstanding status in teaching, learning and assessment
  • developing the college workforce with effective continual professional development in order to improve the student experience and
  • further developing collaborative and partnership opportunities, including enhancing commercial performance through, for example, shared services, innovative revenue streams and employer engagement

 

The project is in its early stages, though staff have already helped to deliver on these strategies through staff delivering ILT (information and Learning Technology) development activity and the development of an OCN (Open College Network) qualification. The project will also directly influence the next iteration of the teaching, learning and assessment strategy. The research and analysis with students has highlighted the importance of focusing on the leaner experience and the need to adapt pedagogy accordingly and additionally, provides a benchmark for staff competences in ILT.

 

Unlike higher education institutions, FE colleges are output related in terms of the teaching process and have very little opportunity for research - the project has allowed us to recruit staff who can carry out this research and then discuss it with management and colleagues - you actually get a huge output and a huge amount of investment in knowledge which we wouldn’t have got (without the project).”

 

Impact on staff culture and capabilities

The project is developing a minimum level of “e-ability” and providing staff with the necessary understanding and experience of ILT to develop an e-learning culture, which is really important for the college, where there are some staff who don’t have basic knowledge of nor motivation to embrace ILT.

 

It is important that projects like this have very specific and clear objectives which make a change – and that all staff are made aware of the processes to achieve the change so that they will be more receptive to future innovation/change projects.

 

Our expectations of all staff will be that they should be able to achieve a minimum level of ‘e-ability’.”

 

Impact on the student journey

The main impact of the project will relate to enhancement in curriculum design and assessment approaches and, to a lesser extent, on flexibility/mobility of learning and student employability and retention.

 

The project will influence our processes and hopefully support students and staff in improving retention … and will also influence the way in which we deliver curriculum and the design of assessment approaches, without a shadow of a doubt.”

 

Impact on institutional efficiencies and effectiveness

The project will boost staff understanding and confidence in using technologies and e-learning processes and systems and thereby improve staff efficiency and effectiveness. The college anticipates the project being sustained and embedded through e.g. the creation of Personal Accountable Learning (PAL) packs and the impact will be monitored after the formal completion of the project. However, the most important aspect in terms of sustainability is embedding in staff mind-sets and changing culture.

 

Costs and measuring cost/benefits is important for FE colleges and the project will save on costs e.g. in respect of development of materials, however, it is hard to isolate a specific project from other activities when making calculations.

 

This project won’t be one of those projects that comes, goes and dies off”.

 

The project has made a difference ….and is already having an impact on staff mind-sets”

 

Impact on institutional management and wider engagement

Sustaining innovation in enhancing teaching, learning and assessment and thus the student experience is crucial to the college’s core business and Jisc is hugely important and helpful in this area, particularly in the light of increased student fees where expectations in respect of support, advice and guidance and the way they are taught and assessed will be raised.

 

It is much harder to release internal funds for this kind of project in FE, compared with HE.

 

The project, alongside other ILT activity, contributed towards the college QAA institutional review process and was very much recognised by the QAA. However, an Ofsted inspection is different – they are much more focused on project impact and value for (public) money together with numbers of learners/subjects reached and making a difference to the bottom line. They particularly focus on whether an ILT project applies to only some learners – if so, they ask “why has it not been applied to all learners?”. Because of this, the college’s recent submission (position paper) for their Ofsted inspection, did not include the project – however, it may be included when there is more evidence of impact and improvement to the bottom line. The project will be briefly mentioned in the Ofsted submission in relation to partnerships (working with Jisc).

 

In FE colleges, working life tends to be one of “fire-fighting” and this project has enabled the college to spend time on research and development.

 

The college anticipates the project will have an impact on the sector, but it is too early to judge.

 

This project is hugely important to us and important to our future…. without Jisc, this project would not have happened.

 

The project is very much recognised by the QAA”.