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Executive Summary

1 Introduction

2 Context

3 Methodology

4 - 9 Findings, Analysis and Discussion

10 Summary of Findings

11 Discussion of Findings

12 References

13 Case Studies

Acknowledgments & Partners

Case Study Map 

Institution H1

5 Impact of networked learning on institutional development

Development of networked learning and current position

The documentation, questionnaire responses, and interviews provide considerable evidence of an institution that seeks to engage in the use of technology to support learning and teaching.

The first interview question asked the respondents to consider whether the institution was involved in large scale networked learning. The consensus of opinion, among those interviewed, is that networked learning is not yet large scale but that it is growing. About one third of the students used the virtual learning environment (VLE) in the year 2002 03. Respondents in different positions perceived the amount of use and growth of networked learning slightly differently. Two respondents felt that the institution was involved in fairly large scale networked learning.

Yes … I don’t think it’s changed the focus, we haven’t become a wholly networked learning but we introduced a VLE over the last few years and that has continued to expand rapidly. … We go with the explicit aim that it should augment the traditional teaching and so the VLE is used in that light and does have a phenomenal take off. The first pilot of course we ran with 10 people to now some 6 or 700 tutors are using the VLE. So that’s just one example, so I know it is increasing. (H1I5)

Five other staff saw it as growing but would not wish to describe it as large scale yet.

I wouldn’t say it’s large scale, I would say it is emerging and it’s probably emerging in some areas more than others. (H1I6B)

It was felt that the institutional strategy is still in its early stages and so has not yet had any significant impact.

No, not large scale. …There isn’t an institutional drive– in a planned way to uplift each academic school from where it currently is to some other point. So I think as an institution if you were to go in all of the schools you would find that they were all at a different level in implementing networked learning. We are aware that we should have institutional strategy, and in our last – well in the current learning and teaching strategy, we’ve indicated that we’re going to encourage it’s development, and we’re going to identify the required levels of investment. So that’s how far strategically we’ve got. (H1I6B)

This quotation suggests that not all respondents were aware of or had access to the e Learning Strategy (2002 05), described in the section on Documentary evidence above, which at the time had not be put into the public domain at the university.

There was widespread agreement that the initiation and development of networked learning has been ‘bottom up’. The questionnaire responses were divided only in so far as four respondents thought that networked learning had been introduced by a small number of individuals while two others felt that a one or a small number of departments had introduced it. However, they were split on whether there had been some whole institution involvement as well; four people thought that there had been and four thought not. Interviews clarified their views; seven of those interviewed felt that the introduction had been bottom up and that there had been no central push, and four people felt that, while the introduction was bottom up, there had also been support from the centre.

… that would be an example of where the, you know, the Vice Chancellor said this is where we are going chaps but then on the ground I think the vast majority of e learning development has occurred as a result of individual academics saying I’d quite like to experiment with this….Different Faculties doing things in different ways and even within those Faculties, different Departments or Schools are doing things differently. You would be hard pressed to find some sort of central dictate that says we are going to do this. (H1I2A)

Largely bottom up introduction with individuals showing interest and taking initiative, complemented by central purchase and support for VLE – except for school of medicine which developed its own. (H1I4 questionnaire)

The arrival of the new Principal in 2002 and the major restructuring and reorganisation during 2003 suggest that the institution is in a period of rapid change and that the locus of the ‘push’ is becoming more centralised.

Drivers

Respondents were also asked about influential drivers in the development of networked learning. The drivers mentioned by those interviewed were market pressures and students; three people specifically talked about not being left behind, but two people also referred to student demand and expectations, and one person recognised the need for networked learning to support a growth in student numbers.

So it’s a case of we’ve got to do it because others are doing it and if we don’t do it then we will be out of sync with those others. (H1I3)

I would think so and we are probably going to reach a point where it will be led by student demand, they will go from one tutor to the next and then say where’s my VLE course, where’s all my notes and slides, I don’t want some photocopied thing I can’t read. And so, especially when they are paying upfront tuition fees, they will want the delivery of good learning resources. (H1I5)

Planning

There is evidence from the documents that the institution is looking ahead and planning its engagement in networked learning.

The university’s first Learning and Teaching Strategy was published in 1998 and this has been followed recently by the first e Learning strategy (2002) in response to HEFCE recommendations (1999). The majority of the networked learning changes referred to in questionnaires and in interview occurred during the previous three years (2001 2003).

It is only relatively recently that institutions like this have any sort of strategy for learning and teaching at all and really there was quite a lot going on and I mean there is a central push in a sense that the centre for learning and teaching and information systems services, (H1I4)

During this time there has been a rapid growth in the use of networked learning.

Approx. 500 tutors registered on the VLE out of c.1000 academic staff. NB school of medicine has its own in house VLE. (H1I4 questionnaire)

The university remains focused on research activities but there is evidence from the questionnaires that some change of focus may be taking place; although the university had held the view that distance learning was not part of its business, there are now some distance learning programmes.

The view has been that we would not move into distance education in a significant way but would remain largely a campus based institution, but we have begun to offer distance programmes via UKeU and we already have a lot of distributed learning for students on placements and at partner institutions. (H1I4 questionnaire)

As well as the changes in networked learning the university is currently restructuring its faculties from eight to three and is installing a new management information system (MIS).

That’s changing, in that this sort of huge restructuring in that all eight faculties are been amalgamated into three. (H1I2A)

The whole university is in utter upheaval. We are re organising ourselves, the faculties are going, the departments are turning into schools, the whole level of things is changing. (H1I2B)

Strategies

One respondent interviewed confirmed the aims set out in the strategic documents but indicated that the level of engagement with networked learning was set at School level. This respondent also acknowledged that the drivers identified above – market forces and student expectations – may have an influence on future strategy.

… one of the things that we have actually posed in the Learning and Teaching Strategy is that we want schools to set targets, to actually be explicit themselves about the extent of which they are going to move towards e learning. We’ve started to move in that direction already because we have had a couple of surveys conducted in two of our existing faculties where somebody from each department was asked to assess what percentage of their colleagues were at each of the levels of engagement that we had identified, and where they expected them to be in five years time. But so far there is no sort of edict from the top saying you must all be at this level by a particular time though I think probably what we would feel is that we probably would expect to have some online presence for all our units, or at least all our programmes in the not too distant future because I think that is the sort of thing that students are going to expect and in order to respond to market forces we are going to have to match that. (H1I4)

The strategic plans were also reflected by five of those interviewed, who expected to see continued growth of networked learning in the next few years; getting all courses on to the VLE. Five respondents referred to the institutional VLE.

I’d like to see a situation in which all units have some sort of online presence. (H1I2B)

Well, I’d like to think that in three to five years time we’d have all courses well embedded within the VLE and managed learning environments. I would hope that would happen sooner rather than later from the students’ point of view really. (H1I3)

Well I think I would like to see all programmes with at least some IT based dimension, because people expect it now, and I think to have, certainly all the basic, core information, which you have to have available, and think that needs to be available electronically, and available easily. So I’d definitely expect to be in that position. (H1I4)

Three respondents discussed the possibility of more interactive, student centred approaches to teaching and learning; they thought that the use of the VLE would have to become more mainstream before any changes in teaching and learning would happen and that it would take time.

So, assuming we get to that stage where the majority, if not all, of our courses are embedded within the VLE I would like to think that we’d have more interactivity. (H1I3)

I think it’s more difficult to assess the extent to which people will be doing more interactive things, more innovative things. I think there will be a steady increase in that area but I don’t think it’s going to be dramatic, because I think it will take time, because we’re not in the position to put in a huge amount of resource. So it’s going to depend on academic staff having the commitment to move forward in this way themselves. And we’re not the sort of institution where people generally work as teams, they’re very individualistic in delivering their programmes. That’s not to say they don’t work together, [but] it’s very much on an individual basis. And on that basis it’s very difficult to move forward very rapidly because you need to get everybody on board. But … that’s the direction things are going, [and] I think people recognise that. (H1I4)

Funding was also discussed. One respondent thought that there was a need for more investment in support of staff to enable them to engage with e learning beyond a basic level.

I think that probably we will need quite a bit more resource in terms of people on the ground to help lecturers engage and certainly to engage beyond a threshold level…

… I think there will have to be an institutional decision, as it has already to make the money available for various initiatives like Assisted Technology. It’s not to say that funding hasn’t been made available but I think in terms of the grand scope of what we might do I think there is probably more resource that will need to be put there. (H1I6B)

One respondent wanted to ensure that the strategy should assist the cultural change for staff, and that a means would be found to engage the less enthusiastic staff, through setting intermediate, realistic short term goals. The respondent also noted that a means would have to be found to overcome staff apathy and resistance if the strategy was to be successful.

The argument behind the strategy is that it is not meant to cover the full period and it is going to be revised annually and the idea from my point of view is to set fairly short term realistic goals that could be achieved as away of basically supporting staff in making, for what to many of them is a very big cultural shift in terms of the way that they approach their teaching and for this current year the focus has been on our full time courses and there have been things like every full time course should have a VLE equivalent. (H1I3)

Its just getting staff interested. I seem to remember a quote from …a senior member of staff … whose attitude was basically, I’ve a small number of years to go until I retire from the institution so why should I bother to learn to use something like the VLE or anything else and so I’m going to continue in the way in which I’ve always done it…there’s a long way for those people to go to fulfil our aims, particularly within our school. So that’s going to be a substantial problem I think, if we want to hit our strategy targets, and aims. (H1I3)

There was no mention in interviews of any incentives to staff, in terms of funding, time or celebration of achievement, to encourage staff to develop or engage with e learning. However, one respondent revealed, in the questionnaire, that something of this nature this was being considered.

We are planning to encourage people to develop e materials by subsidising use of e Media production facilities. (H1I4 questionnaire)

In the past we have offered small L&T [Learning and Teaching] Development Grants, some of which have been used to develop e materials. (H1I4 questionnaire)

Structures

Incorporating new ways of working within an institution may affect its overall structures, however with major restructuring being planned at the time of this study it was difficult to identify changes, which could be attributed to the introduction of networked learning. But there were indications that networked learning was having an impact within the existing committee structure. More networked learning issues were appearing on the agenda, and three new university level committees were mentioned, one concerned with the managed learning environment (MLE) and computer assisted assessment (CAA).

At the moment I am on a Managed Learning Environment Steering Group which is run by the Director of Academic Services, so that’s Information systems services, Library joined together. That is trying to take a more co ordinated look at how the use of the VLE will move forward and thinking about the support issues for students and so on, and part of that group is looking at the use of computer assisted assessment. (H1I2B)

Another new committee is concerned with distance learning programmes, with a particular focus on quality issues.

We are already rethinking some of the QA [quality assurance] side of things as a result of this and that’s partly been triggered by our involvement with [name] and our involvement with UK e Universities worldwide. So as a result of that we have introduced, we’ve got a group looking at an enhanced procedure for the approval of programmes which are going to be delivered electronically because we have recognised bigger issues that are going to be addressed in terms of the risks associated with technical feasibility and the financial viability. (H1I4)

A third new group is dealing specifically with Computer assisted assessment.

But clearly with computer aided assessment there are no papers to hand in and they are by nature electronic and so the traditional procedures, particularly [those] around appeals, … that have to be changed and modified or reviewed and need to put [these] in place before we can set up sort of formal summative assessments … I mean that’s where the basis of this committee of bringing the people involved in that together so all the people working on it, different aspects of it and we have adopted the British Standard for CAA and so we started with that as a basis of working through some of the difficulties with courses. (H1I5)

Funding and resources

The strategic documents indicate that funding has been provided for the development of e learning and this was also stated in two of the questionnaires.

Importance is gradually being recognised at top level, evidenced by allocations from HEFCE project capital for L&T, allocation of strategic Development Funding [amounts] and incorporation in L&T strategy. (H1I4 questionnaire)

Yes, as evidenced by the significant investment in infrastructure and systems, and the continuing support for the CLT [Centre for Learning and Teaching] and other networked learning support staff scattered around the institution. (H1I2B questionnaire)

However, other questionnaire responses demonstrated less certainty of the university’s commitment.

… there is no central vision for or drive towards networked learning and I think that it is being allowed to develop naturally at its own pace. (H1I2B questionnaire)

Probably … as aspects are embedded within our Learning and Teaching Strategy and our new Vision … but there are some aspects that one might expect to receive more attention that have not…yet. (H1I2A questionnaire)

There is commitment to strategy; there is support of relevant project work but there is no tight linking of the two. (H1I6 questionnaire)

The interviews also demonstrated this difference of opinion about the level of funding: two respondents felt that there had been insufficient investment but another two respondents felt that there had been huge investment.

By comparison with many of our competitors, in terms of infrastructure, computing infrastructure, I think we’re behind – there’s just not been an investment. (H1I6A)

At a slightly more senior level, and a sort of higher administrative level, there is a huge investment in infrastructure, so I mean there are computers everywhere. There are computers on people’s desks, there are computers in the computer rooms that students have access to, there is all the infrastructure that surrounds that, there is a support line for example manned by our Information Support Services. There are all sorts of opportunities for support within the Library and all sorts of resources within the Library. So these are all infrastructure things that are happening and have been happening for quite some time. And I think that they are actually quite elaborate, so huge investment into that sort of activity. (H1I2A)

Summary

The information obtained from the questionnaires, documents and interviews indicate that the extent of networked learning in the university is not yet large scale but is growing rapidly. The university is still in the early stages of development and strategies have been put in place to take this forward. The university is in a period of rapid growth in terms of a restructuring of the faculties and the introduction of a new MIS system. The introduction of networked learning has been bottom up with central support including the provision of a central VLE, and support from senior management. The introduction of networked learning was seen as being mainly by market driven, although student numbers and expectations were also mentioned. As yet the impact on management structures has been fairly small but some new committees have been formed as a direct result of e learning issues.

There are some differences emerging in the perspectives of different respondents. This may be due to the fact that the university was undergoing a period of significant change moving from a devolved structure to a more centralised one, and where not all documents were publicly available within the university.