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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 
 

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Institution F1

6 Impact of networked learning on infrastructure and support services

The infrastructure in relation to networked learning requires examination of both the technological aspects of networked learning and the support that is required by both staff and students.

Technical infrastructure

The technological aspects that were identified by the participants in this study explored issues in relation to the security of the system, the development of the college VLE and centralisation of the services, and the development of a managed learning environment (MLE). The college is investing in developing its own VLE.

Robustness

The robustness of the system was not mentioned to any great extent. A comment by one respondent reflects a concern with the security of the system.

The problem is in network security is always an issue, … It’s finding how to keep everything secure but still keep it accessible to people. To find that balance that suits everybody while making sure that nothing is compromised. (F1I5)

Security was also mentioned as an area of major change in the questionnaires.

MLE interoperability

The college was just beginning to move towards the development of an integrated system the core of which is the integration of the VLE with the new student record system.

We’re just implementing a new student record system and we are hoping to develop it in such a way that it will become our managed learning environment and from it we will be able to track the students all the way through the bites of learning, chunks of learning so that we can… eventually feed that through the whole record system. We are going to be working with the company that we bought the student record system from [to achieve]…a managed learning environment, the tracking side… (F1I5)

It is also continuing with the development of its own in-house VLE.

… however we have developed our own virtual learning environment… We’ve seen many virtual learning environments, Web CT, Blackboard, but… the others just didn’t offer anything different to what we had. So that decision may change yet but at the moment we are still continuing with our own development.

Centralisation

One respondent made particular mention of standardisation of software and hardware, and also centralisation of services; it would appear that there is one central team at the college with responsibility for all sites. This has led to the recruitment of additional technical staff.

So we decided to bring everything together under one network, that increased the amount of equipment we had and the staff to maintain the equipment so we’ve probably taken on two technicians as well, support technicians in that time…. when (name) came he brought all the services together centrally, the IT support before was very departmental and he’s now got the team at one place centrally so that …we know how many PCs we have in the college, we have a standard operating system, we’ve got standard software and there’s nothing departmental. But we meet the departmental requirements obviously if they have something specific that they require but, so that it’s bought centrally and made more accessible to everyone, whereas previously one piece of software was used in one department and nobody knew it existed (F1I5)

Support

The technology itself is an important aspect of the development of networked learning but along with that goes a need for people to be able to use it effectively and to develop new skills. The questionnaire responses indicate that there has been an increase in technical support and changes in support for staff and students.

Staff training

Interviews confirm that frequent training courses are run. The respondents spoke about the amount, type and availability of training and support; the college offers basic IT training and specific training for their own administrative intranet to all staff, and all academic staff had an introduction to the new learning environment.

The end users had support because we decided very early that the key to the success of the intranet was going to be through training and we invested heavily in training staff. [The college runs] a fair number of sessions to encourage people to use the intranet, demonstrate its uses, first of all to smaller groups and then bringing in other groups. (F1I5)

We support any member of staff to ECDL level but they got specific training on the intranets … Last year myself and (name) met with all of the academic staff in groups, took them through the intranet and told them what it was about… We went through that with each member of academic staff… (F1I4)

However, there was a suggestion that perhaps less confident, and less enthusiastic staff might not go on such courses, even though some are compulsory.

We would run sessions that were open and anyone could drop in from any area and we ran specific training sessions maybe just for [certain groups of staff]… it was compulsory, although some still don’t turn u p and these are the ones that we have picked up as we are going along. (F1I5)

Staff support

One respondent explained that the college has provided staff whose job is to support academic staff in the development of teaching materials; secretarial and technical staff are available to help in transferring teaching materials onto the VLE, and an e-skills coordinator has been appointed to work with academics in the production of more interactive online materials.

… there are staff there to help them develop the material, there is an infrastructure there which immediately loads their material onto the intranet…So we put in place mechanisms, eg if a member of staff was getting one of the secretaries to type their course material, it’s automatically posted to intranet. So it’s easy for the member of staff from that stage, they are not being asked to do anything different, it’s there for them. …Since the beginning we have had the technical staff ……and we have just appointed an e-skills co-ordinator and their job is to work with the academic departments, … to sit down with the staff to help them move from the paper based onscreen version to the more interactive tool …so if an academic member of staff wants to adapt their material online, there has been an academic member of staff to work with them and there has been a team of programmers to do it. Academics don’t have to do it themselves, they can say to the programmers we would like that, that and that and they will do that. That was one of the important things about this change that unless you put the resource into it, it won’t work. (F1I4)

Student support

As outlined in the strategy documents, the college is committed to extending support and training to all students groups, including part-time, remote and disable students. This includes improving their access to facilities and flexible learning opportunities. The college is providing support for students in terms of induction to IT and online learning, and they also provide laptops for those students who would not otherwise have access to a computer.

… every student is given IT induction where they’re given a log in…and we only opened our flexible access centre… three years ago... And they do a lot of support with the learning. And they also do in fact the induction with all the students. They have a program of induction for students. (F1I3)

… we could loan them out a few laptops …we have a lot of that. We take the laptop out to the learner, loan it out to them for maybe a month or two months and maybe have … bite size chunks of learning but things that after an initial induction they can work away at themselves. (F1I5)

Summary

The technological aspects that were identified by the participants in this study explored issues in relation to the security of the system, the development of the college VLE, centralisation of technical services, and the development of a managed learning environment (MLE). The college is investing in developing its own VLE.

There has been an increase in technical support and changes in support for staff and students. Investment has been made in staff training, some of it compulsory, and in providing additional support in using the intranet to develop flexible learning materials. The college has provided staff whose job is to support academic staff in the development of teaching materials; secretarial and technical staff are available to help in transferring teaching materials onto the VLE, and an e-skills coordinator has been appointed to work with academics in the production of more interactive online materials.

The college provides support and training for all students groups, including training in ICT and online learning, and providing laptops for those students who would not otherwise have access to a computer.

It is clear that the infrastructure – both in terms of technology and support to staff – has been affected by the introduction of networked learning. Training is provided for staff, but is not always taken up. Support for both staff and students has increased.