ILT/e-Learning Strategy - Make it work for you

Preview Centre, East Parkside,
Greenwich Peninsula, SE10 0JF

"It was enjoyable being part of the event".

"Lots of links and resources; opportunities given to get insights from peers, and share ideas".

I enjoyed the "open discussion with other colleagues; good ideas and structure of the day and to see what processes are likely to work well".

: John Williams, Greenwich Community College

Welcome

Hosted by Greenwich Community College, this event attracted delegates from across the sector, including ACL, WBL, FE and Sixth Forms. John Williams, Director of E-Learning at Greenwich welcomed delegates and highlighted the importance of such events to those tasked with writing a learning provider’s ILT/e-Learning strategy. Of the event he said, “Now I feel there’s still an awful lot to do”.

John Gray's session

: John Gray and Bernard Aghedo, RSC London

Bernard Aghedo, RSC Senior e-Learning Advisor, introduced John Gray, RSC London Associate Advisor, as the main facilitator for the day. After a careful introduction to the resources prepared especially for this event , John got participants to think about some key research findings affecting the sector:

What does the research say?

'Although most providers have ICT and e-learning strategies, there is variation in their scope and the extent to which they are actively implemented.’
Respondents’ strategies are more likely to cover use of ICT and e-learning to deliver learning in general terms (72%) than specific applications such as ‘use of ICT in self assessment review’ (30%) and ‘use in administering and managing records’ (44%)
Thirty-five per cent of providers have formal targets in ‘all programmes’ and a further 34% in ‘some programmes’. The presence of targets can suggest strategies are being translated into action.
Eighty per cent of provider respondents thought less than half of staff at their colleges were aware of the ICT and e-learning strategy. This suggests that more work is needed at some providers to raise awareness of relevant strategies and their implications.
Some providers interviewed said that ICT and e-learning strategies were primarily concerned with purchasing hardware and encouraging use of electronic resources. More innovative ones, however, were trying to ‘embed’ ICT and e-learning in to wider college strategies. (Becta 2009)

Who needs an e-strategy?

A key question that dominated most of the morning session was whether learning providers need an e-strategy. Some participants were clearly in disagreement.

A delegate said ‘I don’t think there should be a separate e-learning strategy; it should be part of teaching and learning’. Another said, ‘We’re still a long way from not needing a strategy’. The concluding message from this discussion was that it is the college culture that will determine whether a written strategy is useful or not. As John Gray said, even if you haven’t got a written strategy, you have a strategy in place anyway, but perhaps a bad one’.

A matrix of good practice in strategy development

John drew on a Center for Excellence in Leadership research report to bring into the discussion the cyclic internal strategic steps of visioning, choosing, developing, delivering and reviewing. It was interesting to see how these internal steps linked to external factors such as scanning, optimizing and politicking.

A key part of this presentation related to his matrix, which cross links the three top-level dimensions from the new Framework for Excellence with established LLUK’s management standards. ‘These standards show what anybody leading on developing an e-strategy should be concerned about’.

Group work across sub-sectors

: Delegates working in groups

The morning session finished with delegates working in groups with colleagues from other sub-sectors to discuss common issues raised in the session so far.

Situation analysis tools for the FE System

: Graciano Soares, RSC London Senior e-Learning Advisor

Graciano Soares, RSC London Senior e-Learning Advisor, started the afternoon activities with a look at tools available for the sector to help review their progress with technology or assess the current position. He mentioned existing tools, such as ELPS designed by CEL with Becta and later on adapted for ACL and WBL. Delegates were also introduced to Becta’s new Generator, which ‘evolved from ELPS and WELPS and builds upon these, and other, tools. Generator however is broader and wider in its scope, depth and flexibility of use and in its reporting power’.

An important message to delegates was that the key role of the RSC London is to help learning providers in the region make sense of the plethora of information out there. Part of the RSC London offer is the E-Learning Progress Review (EPR), a service that aims to provide learning providers with an opportunity for a frank conversation about the use of technology in their organizations. EPR has been used successfully in London and in other parts of the country. One of the most recent colleges to benefit from it was Redbridge, and Ashley Garner, their Director of Learning with responsibility for e-Learning, Networking and Resources, had this to say about EPR,

‘It allowed us to involve people who would have never been involved in discussing technology otherwise’.

How this affects us

: Colin Aber, Operations Director of JGA Group and Anne O'Hara from JACE Training & Assessment Centre

In the last main activity, delegates worked in groups again to discuss how they were affected by the issues identified throughout the day and to start to plan the development of a strategy document relevant to their context. The session finished with presentations from the groups.

Feedback from delegates (pdf).

Final thoughts

Delegates felt the event provided much food for thought and went a long way to clarify some of their queries regarding the development of an e-strategy. It was clear that the debate of whether a learning provider should or should not have a written document that detailed their strategy was best left for each organisation to decide. The event provided delegates with a sound basis upon which to build their strategy development.

Delegates agreed that discussion of the issues from this event shouldn’t stop here. It continues on the RSC Moodle site where the resources from the day can be found.

John Gray
RSC London Associate Advisor

Bernard Aghedo
Senior e-Learning Advisor

Graciano Soares
Senior e-Learning Advisor

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