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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 H4

7 Impact of networked learning on staffing and collaboration

Networked learning brings about potential for changing roles, and creating new roles and opportunities for collaboration; however, this 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

There have been considerable changes in the nature of work for some staff, particularly academic, support and technical staff. In response to the question ‘Has networked learning changed the balance or nature of staff work significantly?’ four people agreed that the nature of work had changed. It was suggested that for academics and within the library there had been a shift from delivery towards facilitation, while in technical areas there has been reorganisation and some redeployment.

For those staff utilising networked learning, there has been a shift from teaching (delivery) to tutoring and a greater focus on communication/facilitation. (H4I3 questionnaire)

… if you think about the kind of technology those people are involved in nowadays its driven by networks, its driven by software, its heavily driven by computing. So we basically took the educational technology central unit and merged it with [the media] division, so [the university has] now got an IT and a media technology division. (H4I5)

The libraries are getting involved a lot more, … it’s beyond support; it’s more user education. There’s classification of staff beyond the usual academic. Also virtually all our courses offer one year placements and a lot of schools are employing these placement students to support academics in developing the context of their courses. So this year we are looking at about 16 to 20 placement students across the university working with academic staff. (H4I3)

There are teaching and learning co ordinators in every Faculty and there was a central group who helped if you liked develop new methods of teaching and learning and I think it’s probably focused more specifically on network learning than perhaps in the past. (H4I1)

Two support units have been merged, the educational technology unit and the media division, and additional temporary staff (students on placements) have been employed to help academics develop their online courses. The focus of the Faculty Teaching and Learning co ordinators and the central support has also shifted towards networked learning.

However one respondent felt that there has not been a recent change in the nature of the work in Student Registry since support systems were already in place, including online application, registration and payment systems.

From a Registry perspective no, [they] have had to make special provision for students on distance learning courses to “speed up” the admission and registration process. However, as [they] had developed an electronic admissions system and an online enrolment system for all students these could be used for the benefit of students on distance learning courses. (H4I1 questionnaire)

As a result of the growth in networked learning a number of new posts have been created and new staff recruited, some on a temporary basis to provide support, others in permanent positions, as described below:

The new roles that have come in, for example with the very large programmes, [include] administrative people, and programme managers because of the size of the [development, and they are there to support the academics. We have also brought in new pastoral support in terms of tutors. We use a lot of PhD students for like pastoral support and they mentor the students. The other new roles that we have brought in I’ve already mentioned is the learning technologists posts. We have four learning technology teams [which] are made up of a learning technologist at the centre plus web designers, graphic artists and development officers. These are all new roles and they work to develop material. (H4I4)

… and then there are some content developers arriving…There are also graphic designers as well. (H4I3)

Lifelong Learning have got more staff to do the web development work, I’m not quite sure how many but I think it’s at least three or four staff there… (H4I1)

… it’s actually created new academic posts, traditional academic posts… because the programmes have been so successful. They’ve grown so much, [and] we’ve more students. (H4I4)

Four learning technology teams have been created each comprising a learning technologist with the additional support of web designers, graphic artists and development officers; new administrative posts have been created to support programmes; and a new pastoral support system for students has been introduced where postgraduate students act as mentors for undergraduate students. Finally, due to the increase in student recruitment, new academic posts have also been created.

Staffing – workload

Issues around workloads are clearly important. If networked learning is seen as increasing that load it could clearly act as a negative influence on the development of online learning. The questionnaire responses suggest that support and technical staff workloads may have increased significantly and that administrative staff workload has not changed much because systems were already in place. Only one person felt that academic workload had increased. However, little was said specifically about workload in interview, but this comment from one respondent suggests that staff may feel there is an increase in workload.

Some people say, yes the workload has gone up but part of the difficulty if you are thinking about teaching, … some people say yes the workload has gone up, there is more involved in online teaching. And to a degree that is true but part of it is you have to prepare much better for that. So there is more effort upfront and most academics I would argue, a bit like myself when I was teaching it, … tend to be relatively lazy and you just walk into a room and you can do it from bits and pieces, online you can’t [take that approach]. If you plan it upfront you can actually reduce the workload you have later on by effective planning. So it’s about trying to instil into people that you need to have effective planning, and that way you can manage your workload. Then it is more a question, within the university, of recognising the workload that is involved, whether it is research, traditional teaching or online teaching. (H4I4)

Staff attitudes

Four respondents spoke at some length about attitudes, describing the shift from the early days of concern about job losses and fear of the unknown to the present where the majority of people appear to be much more comfortable with networked learning. Three typical extracts are given below:

The other potential threat was that if we didn’t get some more institutional agreement that the library would act as a repository for reading lists and try and manage that as an institutional service, then there would be nothing really to stop things just being popped directly into [the VLE]. … the library is very heavily involved in this whole road to e learning, [it has] been in at the start, [it has not] been side lined… (H4I2)

But what we have seen is the usual innovators came over first, the pragmatic, (this sounds like a good idea but I have quite solid suspicions about it) came over next, and I think … a lot of people have started to drift on behind that. I think there is an interesting dynamic around when it becomes a mass exodus across, you have a trickle and [then] people look around and see a lot of people around them using it, [so] it starts [them] thinking about [it]. (H4I3)

A lot of academics in particular were very concerned about the online learning because they thought it was going to threaten their jobs. In fact what it has done is it’s done the opposite, it’s actually created new academic posts, traditional academic posts. (H4I4)

The attitudes of those supporting the changes may have been a critical factor in the changes that have occurred; there appears to have been a lot of encouragement and positive support given to staff, as these extracts demonstrate:

… it’s getting them to buy in and that’s why [name] had to spend a lot of time going to Faculty Boards going to School Boards, going to individual academics and groups and spending hours with them, showing what can be done and how we do it and encouraging them and getting them onboard. A lot of it has been very much one to one. (H4I4)

We have appeared to be an answer rather than a problem and I think that’s not an e learning thing I think that’s just how e learning is portrayed in an institution. I think people perceive it as a threat, there is a barrier there rather than an opportunity and we’ve tried to ere on the opportunity side of things rather than the barrier, so the fact that there’s a positive momentum swing there is probably a big success although a hard one to measure. (H4I3)

Overall the respondents spoke more about positive change than about negative attitudes and the proactive promotion by, and sympathetic support from, senior staff probably has a lot to do with this.

Staffing - research

The institutional documentation has a clear emphasis on teaching and learning. Issues around research did not surface to any great extent in the interviews. However, one respondent, in discussing new paths for promotion through teaching and enterprise, indicated that the importance of research is implicit and taken for granted within the university, in addition to the new and explicit emphasis on teaching and learning.

So what we are trying to do is put out a clear signal that you can get promoted not just for research but for teaching because teaching has always been the sort of Cinderella subject... What I’d like to see is that we are showing a commitment to people and that … they will get rewarded in a number of ways … The [current] contracts, say [that] if you are an academic, you are employed to research and administer and teach. [So] we have reviewed all the promotion criteria and we’ve made it quite explicit … [you] can get promoted in a number of ways: you can either get promoted on the research track; or the teaching track; or on a wider basis for an academic enterprise which would be developing links, [eg] links with the community, [or] it could be setting up spin off companies. (H4I4)

Collaboration

The impact of networked learning on collaboration is mentioned several times by five of the respondents. All agreed that the growth of networked learning has led to a greater number of interactions between staff from different departments, between staff and students, and amongst students themselves, as these short extracts indicate:

It has suddenly brought support departments closer to courses. (H4I3)

Internally, we are getting more collaboration, or starting to develop more collaboration between the students because they are now starting to work in groups much more. (H4I4)

Well I think there has certainly been a closer relationship with the whole of the Lifelong Learning Team… There has been more interaction between the library and them and [that] wouldn’t have been the case I don’t think unless we had got involved in this programme … (H4I2)

However, one respondent did seem to think that the increased collaboration might have brought with it some concerns about potential job losses, as explained in this extract:

Well they do [talk to each other and work together] but it is [still] like if you have three different departments [and] it is not the same as if you had one department… I wouldn’t quite say [it’s] demarcation, I don’t mean people are protective, but I suppose you inevitably get a little bit of that and people in the more traditional MIS probably feel these web developers have taken over and then they are worried about their jobs… But, like all of these things, when they started to develop, I don’t think the extent of the inter relations were appreciated; and it is only now that we can begin to be aware of these and whether or not they are integrated … obviously there will be vested interests and people won’t want to lose their own bit into some central bit. (H4I1)

Communication

Communications appear to have improved as a result of e mail and online communication via the VLE.

I suppose how people work together has been significantly affected by the whole internet, e kind of environment developing. There’s email, the use of shared documents, and the use of web sites to actually share documents with and keep people informed so, in the very broadest sense, there have been significant changes… (H4I6)

However, the use of the words ‘will be able’ and ‘trying to encourage’ in the discussion about communication with students and between students, indicates that communications by electronic means may be in its early stages:

… the students will be able to submit something electronically rather than knocking on an academics door and leaving it in his or her office. (H4I5)

… we are trying to encourage academics to use the electronic notice boards rather than just pin up a note on a board saying that next Tuesdays class is cancelled. We are trying to get them to use [the VLE] because the students can access that from anywhere. (H4I4)

… we are trying to promote the interaction between the tutor and the student. That is part of staff development about how you run discussion groups, how you manage chat rooms, how you do all that … and the third bit is how you manage, or how you develop interaction among the students. Again, in staff development we are beginning to develop programmes on how you can get students to work in groups, strategies for how you can get them to work interactively with each other, and how you can design assessments that have got group work. (H4I4)

Summary

There have been considerable changes in the nature of work for some staff, particularly academic, support and technical staff. It was suggested that for academics and library staff there has been a shift towards facilitation, while in technical areas there has been reorganisation and some redeployment of staff. Changes in Registry have been limited because online administrative systems were already in place.

A number of new posts have been created and new staff recruited. Four learning technology teams have been created comprising a learning technologist, web designer, graphic artist and development officers; new administrative posts have been created to support programmes; and a new pastoral support system for student has been introduced where postgraduate students act as mentors to undergraduate students. Also, due to the increase in student recruitment, new academic posts have been created.

Support and technical staff workloads may have increased significantly but academic and administrative staff workloads have not changed much, although one respondent suggested that there might have been a shift in the timing of the academic workload.
There has been a shift from earlier negative attitudes to the current position where the majority of people appear to be much more comfortable with networked learning. Overall, respondents spoke more about positive change than about negative attitudes and the sympathetic support from senior staff probably has a lot to do with this.

All agreed that the growth of networked learning has led to greater number of interactions between staff from different departments, between staff and students, and amongst students themselves. Communications appear to have improved as a result of e mail and online communication via the VLE, although its use for teaching still appears to be in the early stages of development.