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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

7 Impact of networked learning on staffing and collaboration

Networked learning brings about potential for changing existing roles, creating new roles and offering new opportunities for collaboration; however, it may also impact on workloads and thus on attitudes to this form of learning. In addition, the technology allows for new forms of communication to emerge.

Staffing – change of role and new staff

It is apparent from the questionnaire responses and interviews that the respondents see a number of changes in terms of their own role and the roles of other members of staff, and in the number of new appointments.

Two types of changes have been comment upon; recruitment of new staff identified specifically for networked learning and changes in role for existing members of staff. There was widespread acknowledgement of the creation of many new posts that were directly related to networked learning and these posts are also referred to in the strategy documents.

... he’s the new appointment… on computer aided assessment. (H1I6B)

… the growing commitment centrally is evidence of having a dedicated member of staff supporting the VLE which we’ve had now for a few years and then adding to that another dedicated member of staff to support QuestionMark Perception. (H1I4)

With the new appointments, with (name) in place, … since the learning and teaching portal manager, (name) has been appointed. (H1I6A)

Respondents identified library staff, support staff and technical staff as roles where the nature of the work had changed due to networked learning. The changes in the role of librarians was also highlighted in the questionnaire responses two respondents, and in interview responses there was a strong sense that this was an area where there had been a great deal of role change, with staff moving towards e learning support roles.

The Library has recently developed a 10 credit Information Handling Skills Unit on the VLE. This unit is compulsory on some programmes. For the particular staff involved this has meant a significant change in working. (H1I2C questionnaire)

We can also identify… in the library where people’s roles have shifted and many staff have taken on [new] roles, particularly the academic liaison librarians in the library, (name) for example. Now she’s got a role that specifically is in that area but she has also been working with a number of colleagues who do this among other things even though they are not leading on it and we can also point to examples in the schools. Quite a number of them have identified people specifically to support people who have a role in e learning, the School of Nursing is an example there actually. They brought in somebody specifically with an e learning [role] for that school. (H1I4)

However, there were differences of opinion about how much the support and technical roles have changed:

Most staff using learning technologies are still at the very early stages of adoption and hence it dos not form a significant element of their units or require much additional work (H1I2B questionnaire)

I would say probably changes in role rather than new posts. (H1I5)

Questionnaire and interview data suggest that no major changes have occurred in administration. Although, as noted below in Section 7, boundaries between administrative and academic staff may be becoming blurred.

I think the administration of the university has carried on in exactly the same way as before using the same systems and the arrival of networked learning hasn’t made an iota of difference to that. (H1I2B)

There have been a number of new staff appointments to support networked learning and there was agreement that the roles of library and support staff had changed. There was not universal agreement that the role of technical staff had changed and the majority of respondents thought that there have been no major changes in administrative roles.

Staff attitudes

Staff attitudes are represented as varied; all those interviewed referred to groups of enthusiasts, but staff with negative feelings were also mentioned by all respondents. The university has set out a strategic framework and encouraged people to identify their plans within that framework. The negative attitudes are managed partly by the training sessions described above, partly by staff going out and ‘evangelising’ and partly by informal peer support, as noted in the previous section.

I think yes, there is a longish tail of people that either don’t want to or can’t see the benefits but there is a wave of people coming forward who think yes this is something we can engage with. (H1I3)

At the same time I can easily identify a few individuals who have made much more exciting use of the system, who have taken it a lot further, who I hope will be an inspiration to their colleagues and on those individual course it has made a great deal of difference, but taking it as a percentage of the whole university, it has made quite a low percentage. (H1I2B)

Well that’s where we have gone out into the departments as an evangelist really, because people have heard of these things and don’t fully or may not fully understand what it means so this is the first, instead of them having to come to us, we go to them and give them demonstrations and they think oh that’s not so bad, I could make use of that and they have. (H1I5)

There are some courses specifically for new staff and it is thought, by one respondent, that this may lead eventually to a culture change:

There are lots of new academics that are coming through the system now that are learning about learning and teaching in a recognised accredited programme based in the CLT and part of that process is using a learning technology like the VLE and although I think the first cohort was very suspicious about that process, I think the second and third cohorts, it’s been a relatively smooth activity … I’m fairly confident that has a fairly substantial knock on effect into the rest of the institution, these new members of staff will go back out, fairly naturally using the learning technologies to support the learning of their students much more easily than it used to happen. (H1I2A)

A change in culture may be beginning but this change is likely to be slow because the people involved are individualists and because there is a fear of change and some difficulty in communicating what the change entails.

Certainly from the university’s point of view if you look at the number of courses that have been developed on the VLE since its inception… there has been a huge exponential growth in terms of courses that have been developed on the VLE. So there is obviously a ground swell there and I think if you use the term VLE 21⁄2 years ago it would have been what’s a VLE? Whereas now if you use the term VLE then everyone is quite comfortable with a VLE. (H1I3)

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 individualists in delivering their programmes, that’s not to say they don’t work together, 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 I think we’re going to because that’s the direction things are going, I think people recognise that. (H1I4)

Staffing – workload

The issue of increased workload was mentioned in some interviews, although not as much as might be expected from the research literature perhaps this was because no question about workload was scheduled in interviews. However, within the questionnaires, where this issue was specifically asked about, there was considerable agreement that workloads had increased across the board, and in particular for academics and in staff development and support.

Exceptional uses I think always rely on the enthusiasm of the staff because obviously they are very pressed for time and they’ll have to find time to do all these things and the time taken to remodel your course is quite substantial, let alone the technical tasks. (H1I2B)

One of the respondents who was interviewed was an enthusiast and felt that the extra input of time was worthwhile:

I think the workload issue depends on whether you perceive it as work or whether you perceive it as an enjoyable exercise. If you perceive it as work you think gosh I’ve got so many hours to do this and I don’t want to do it whereas I would be much more willing to try and find some crossword, word search related software in my own time at the weekend just by browsing the web and trying to find it and then playing with the software myself. So it would take longer to do than it would a traditional lecture or run a course. (H1I3)

Research

Two respondents raised an issue that may be particularly relevant in research led universities: the relative priorities of research and teaching within the institution.

I think the other thing depends on the university’s view of what are [the] important strategic directions that it wants to take. If … research is the main focus of the institution, then I would hazard a pretty strong guess that these [networked learning] developments perhaps won’t take place, because there will be much more emphasis on staff getting publications and getting a research profile in such a way. … But if the pressure’s on to get publications, then no matter what will I have and enjoyment I have in that field [networked learning], my time will have to be taken up with the research. (H1I3)

… we are a research led university and most staff have most interest in research and learner support, particularly undergraduate learner support, it would be difficult to say secondary because that’s a bit confrontational, it’s not necessarily the priority. (H1I2A)

Collaboration

Networked learning potentially offers opportunities for collaboration. One benefit mentioned by two respondents was that more collaboration and teamwork is now required since people from different areas needed to work together.

Well I think actually, one of the benefits I think from my perspective is that effectively support e learning requires collaboration and partnership amongst a range of different staff in the institution and that is good. (H1I4)

Everyone agreed that networked learning had led to closer working relationships, more cross departmental working, and more sharing with colleagues.

I can only speak for the courses that I use and all my courses do use the VLE and I share my teaching with other colleagues within the school as well. So in that regard there has to be closer working relationships between myself and my colleagues. (H1I3)

… there used to be a very clear divide… between what an academic member of staff did or did not do and what an administrator was allowed to or was not allowed to do and I think those barriers have been broken down… the divide is been broken down. (H1I1)

Examples of collaborations, both internal and external that would not have existed were it not for networked learning were cited.

Certainly in terms of our working with other institutions we do have some partnerships which are specifically prompted by networked learning developments and I’m thinking particularly if the [name] initiatives an the e university. [name] in particular where we’ve got partnerships not only in the UK but transatlantic as well an that’s something we just wouldn’t be doing if we weren’t working in an electronic environment. (H1I4)

Communication

Not unexpectedly there has been a sharp increase in the use of e mail, but despite this there may be a preference for face to face communication when people are on the same physical site, and able to make a choice.

I think it is always difficult when you have a community that can meet easily face to face if it needs to and it’s only when online communication is the best method of meeting other people that it really achieves a great deal so we have tried to have CLT discussion lists for people interested in computer assisted assessment or something similar and they’ve never taken off the ground. The staff don’t find the time to stay engaged with it, they’ve got better things to do and if they want to talk about CAA they would much rather ring me up, pay a visit or attend a workshop. (H1I2B)

Learning communities

One respondent mentioned the importance of chat in helping to shape group dynamics, and it is interesting that students preferred msn messenger to the discussion boards on the VLE.

Respondent: There is a message medium. The lecture today is later and I think that is something that has been quite underestimated in terms of chat. When chat first came in it was that’s what kids mess about with chatting but I mean it’s a very big part of the dynamics that hold the group together. They will chat outside the lecture, chat during a lecture and they chat outside, well I didn’t understand that or whatever, that’s the valid part of it and that’s gaining some credibility.
Interviewer: Is that on The VLE?
Respondent: I would say the students are keyed into msn messenger, that seems to be the medium that they all use, so one of the natural choices. Everyone has accounts on there so that’s what is used. So I think it will grow and it will be anywhere, anytime, but it will grow. (H1I5)

Summary

The university was in a period of growth in terms of new posts and changing roles. A number of new posts were created and filled; and these were key posts mentioned within the university’s e learning strategy. The biggest change in the nature of work seems to have been felt in the library, by the librarians, other areas such as support and technical do not appear to have been affected as much. There appears to have been little change in administration as a result of networked learning, although one respondent suggested that boundaries between administrative and academic roles are becoming blurred. Workload has risen in almost all areas.

Staff attitudes are varied and there are a considerable number of staff who have yet to be ‘converted’ to using networked learning. This problem is being tackled by ‘evangelising’ and by informal peer support. There were also references to the tension between research and teaching in a research led institution, which could influence the extent of their development of networked learning.

Despite some negative attitudes to the use of networked learning there was complete agreement, among those interviewed, about the closer working relationships engendered by networked learning and the increase in both internal and external collaboration.