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Institution F1

7 Impact of networked learning on staffing and collaboration

Staffing – change of role and new staff

The growth of networked learning has had a considerable impact on staffing; a number of new posts have been created, and additional staff have been recruited; two new posts for the information systems team, intranet teams, an e-learning coordinator, and three trainers in the flexible access centres. There were also plans to change the roles of some members of staff in the coming academic year (2003-04) by giving them responsibilities as ICT champions.

We had one [person] who was originally a graphic designer, but [who now] develops the learning intranet. But we’ve also taken on a web programmer …[and] (name) has programmers who support the learning team… We’ve taken on three trainers in our flexible access centre. That’s one full-time and two part-time; two at twenty hours and one at full-time. And we only opened our flexible access centre … three years ago…And they do a lot of support for learning.(F1I3)

In Registry we didn’t have to do anything, however in … for our Information Systems we had to form a [new] team [because]… at the time we didn’t have anyone, so we appointed two new posts. (F1I5)

The other impact on staffing has been the need for some staff to change their role; in particular the formation of a new intranet group and team managers, and the designation of ICT champions.

(name) was the Head of Section at that time, there were Sections and we didn’t have departments, … (name) had an I.T. co-ordinator role …then became the intranet manager. (F1I3)

But we’re also setting up a group of ICT champions. I think initially its ICT champions, but it will be ILT champions. And that’s across the whole college from each department. (F1I3)

Questionnaire responses support the view that there has been an increase in staffing.

Workload

The questionnaire responses suggest some increases in workload for technical staff but little change elsewhere. This view is confirmed by the interview responses; all agreed that the introduction of the administrative ‘intranet’ has saved time, made life easier and increased transparency and accountability. It has also made a difference to the culture, staff have got used to using the intranet and are beginning to see that there could be advantages in using it.

… incredible difference in administration. …so in terms of staff time it’s saves a tremendous amount of time but also improves accountability and tracking. (F1I4).

It is also starting to generate lots of interest and staff are now coming forward and saying I want to put this on the intranet, can we make it interactive, can we route it so it goes round all the people that need to see it. They are now coming forward and realising that the technology is an additional tool for them and that it can make life easier for them if it is applied properly. (F1I5)

However, one respondent was not entirely convinced that it reduced workload, while agreeing that it made life easier it also provided opportunities for additional work in training staff in line with new standards.

I’m not sure of that. Well. Workload in that, I suppose, perhaps from a secretarial support [point of view]. We’ve standardised templates for documents so... whenever you are preparing for a new unit it’s got to be typed up into the standard templates so it can always… go online…At the end of the day it’s easier… I think it might be creating more work because it’s given us the opportunity to train more people in line with standards. (F1I3)

Attitudes

New developments can be seen as both positive and negative. For some it is a threat to the way they do things and for others it offers new opportunities for development.
Attitudes to the using intranet appear to be fairly positive, and attitudes to networked learning are generally improving; in some areas it is firmly embedded in the learning and teaching practices.

Actually some staff have really embedded this and have it in place… [Dept X] for example. They have put in place learning material [on the intranet]…so part of [this department is] actually changing their teaching methodology to encompass that. Staff, for example, in our library have really pulled all the stops out and totally changed the nature of what they do as providers of information skills (F1I4)

… our intranet … is also starting to generate lots of interest and staff are now coming forward and saying I want to put this on the intranet, can we make it interactive, can we route it so it goes round all the people that need to see it. They are now coming forward and realising that the technology is an additional tool to them and that it can make life easier for them if it is applied properly. (F1I5)

However, the interviews revealed that three of the respondents felt that, for some members of staff, the attitudes towards networked learning were not entirely positive. Some staff appeared to fear job losses. These were being addressed by discussions between the college and the unions to address any contractual issues such as changing roles and workload modelling.

That’s the big problem but the next problem obviously is varying degrees of staff resistance to doing this. The more it affects them personally the more likely they are to be resistant and as I say it affects the core of teaching and learning. …(F1I4)

I think also that many of the teaching staff were frightened…that these computers would replace them and we had to really sell that, this is an additional tool to your teaching and so that took a while for some of them. (F1I5)

Conversion

There were clearly a number of fears and concerns among staff. Getting people on board was seen as a top priority by the senior management and introducing the administrative intranet before the learning intranet was viewed as the best way to do this. The college took a long-term view and a strategic approach, part of which included demonstrating tangible benefits arising from these new ways of working.

We saw this as at least a five-year development. The first phase was the infrastructure in terms of the hardware, the second phase, which was largely overlapping was putting in place the intranets and again we made a decision that the first intranet we would concentrate on was the admin one, because all staff need to do admin…So at the very least every member of staff has an inkling, that the future of this college is about e-business and e-learning and you can’t avoid it. There are certain things in this college that you cannot use unless you use the intranet. (F1I4)

… and it’s now a case of putting everything into the pot and trying to prioritise but [also] trying to keep as many people as possible happy because in some areas where we might put something on the intranet that doesn’t seem to be strategically very important, however, it may bring disaffected groups of the college into the main area and that’s sort of bringing them on board and they are buying into a new way of working as well. (F1I5)

Much of the discussion about attitudes revolved around the methods being used to ensure that staff comply, particularly those resistant to change.

… and no doubt there will be staff who will be dragged… into doing it. But by the time we get to that point I think it will be clear that they have no choice… because you will have the majority of staff working in one way and…, they will be obvious in their difference and secondly I believe the demand will come …So I think they will comply with pressure.… I see this next phase as taking three years to achieve. We set off with this being a 10 year project. We can buy in all kinds of packages and we have done but whether the staff use them, that is the issue. (F1I4)

As we put things on the intranet we remove the paper copy…[so] there was nowhere else to get the information from, if they didn’t print it off the intranet somebody else had to do it for them. And that was a conscious decision to do that because otherwise we felt we would never convince the die-hards that just want paper. (F1I5)

One of the respondents understood clearly that to change staff attitudes would be the most difficult task because moving to networked learning involves a major cultural change.

… we always believed that the biggest challenge will be the academic staff because you are actually asking them to change themselves …. It’s not a matter of saying will you do this little task, you are saying will you be a different person and that’s why I think a lot of ICT strategies have failed in the past. They have not recognised the proposition that you are making to the staff, it’s saying you need to be somebody different. Whereas they are at the centre of the process now, [but] with the new delivery model they are no longer at the centre of the process. They are no longer in complete control of the learning process so staff attitude was very important to us. (F1I4)

The respondents clearly understood the need to get the staff on board and talked extensively about this issue. They said that attitudes were changing and that many staff are now positive about the use of the administrative intranet, but little was said about learning intranet. However, since the learning intranet (the in-house VLE) was only just being introduced it is not surprising that little was said about staff attitudes to it. However, there did appear to be a good deal of resentment to the changes, fear of job loss, and unhappiness about contractual issues.

Contractual issues

The expansion of networked learning along with the funding difficulties discussed previously set up some tensions and challenges within the college relating to staff attitudes and concerns relating to changing roles and practices. At the same time as the college was increasing staff to support he expansion of networked learning they were reducing staff in other areas to address a funding deficit.

The employment of programmers to support the staff involved in [networked learning], the investment in the infrastructure has been the first strategic call for the college. We are not a rich college, when [the principal] came here we were in operating deficit. This year for the first year we will move into an operating surplus. So we’ve done this at the same time as we’ve had to lose staff, restructure and make savings so it’s not been easy at all, it’s been a real challenge and continues to be a real challenge for us. (F1I4)

The expansion of flexible and blended learning through the use of networked learning has resulted in a change in staff roles, particularly a change in focus and delivery methods for academic staff, eg changing from direct contact with students to developing online flexible learning materials. So just as the tension between government policies is causing funding difficulties for the colleges, changes in working practices are raising contractual issues for staff. Staff had concerns about their contact hours and their professional status and possibly being replaced by networked learning.

The initial problem was that [online learning and assessment] would affect their contact hours and their professional status, if you like, but I think now they have started to come to terms with it. The other issue was trainers as well, where we are saying that you don’t have to have lecturers for every single bit … that became an issue with the full-time permanent lecturing staff as they would see that as taking work away from them, but what we argued was that a lot of them had seen it as actually giving them more time to concentrate on their academic lecturing at work. (F1I6)

One respondent explains the issues and concerns of staff below:

Some of the initial issues were raised by lecturing staff. There were obviously concerns about changes, concerns about hours … they’d be losing hours [with] the network type approach, in other words, were the computers going to be delivering on their behalf. If students could access it, then the lecturers wouldn’t be needed, so there were definite concerns that, if we turn everything into an electronic format, then we won’t be needed.
… and there was also the other aspect of hours that if you are asking us to do things differently and support in a different way, how is that recognised in terms of class contacts, not standing in front of a class, it is actually supporting in a different way, so is it recognised or not, does that come out of our teaching time or not teaching time. So that really was thrown into an industrial relations discussion about workload, and we have a joint academic working party now of management and lecturing staff where we …[are discussing the workload including IPR and administration].

The college is proactively tackling these issues and has set up a working group to address staff concerns and agree new ways of working and supporting students.

Collaborations

Internal collaborations

Interviews did not reveal any evidence of change in internal collaborations although there was mention of sharing resources and re-using learning materials by one respondent.

One of the things we’re lookingat, is how learning material can be used in different areas. Course collaboration. … So we’re looking at how we might do that. …I think that if we talk about collaboration … that nobody has to do something on their own, and two people don’t do similar things when they can be doing it together, they can do it in half the time and share the resources. I feel that to an extent, well certainly in my area, that has always been there…
I think there are areas where folks have just held on tightly to their own bits and pieces; that is changing. I mean there will be those that will take a long time. But it’s very much changing. (F1I3)

External collaborations

All the respondents spoke at some length about the external collaborations that existed as a result of networked learning; these were with local schools and community groups and with local universities.

Well, we collaborate with the schools. … So the schools will partly teach, the college will partly teach, we’ll use videoconferencing … and they have access to our material online …It’s fairly new.... (F1I3)

The community dimension is very much a product of a strategy that was built upon networked learning. So it wasn’t the networked learning that made it happen, but we used networked learning if you like as the hook, [two local universities] collaborations were a separate development. (F1I4)

… and since about 1996 we have been working with [name] University on the [name] site and they have got … [a commercial VLE] which holds all the note and [these] can be downloaded by our lecturers … As an FE college, we teach HNC, HND and then level three is taught by our staff as well, but the notes and the module descriptors are based on [name University] so we teach to their standards, but use the ICT ... So, the collaboration has been there and very, very strong now with [these Universities]. (F1I6)

… and certainly a lot of the community groups realise that the college isn’t all about coming to get an award it’s also about encouraging people back into learning and there’s an awful lot you can get from using just bite size chunks of learning rather than coming for a whole year to get a qualification. So we have a team that are very good at going into the community and networking and trying to encourage them into learning. (F1I5)

Communications

The strategy documents recognise the role of videoconferencing in supporting networked learning at a multi-campus institution, and one respondent mentioned the role of videoconferencing in taking the provision into the community.

… the driver is taking current curriculum provision to our community … it started with the videoconferencing probably 10 or 12 years ago in that if you had only got three people that were able to do a HNC at [place name] which is 75 miles away …you could videoconference and listen to the lecture and interact with the lecturer and we could still provide an HNC. (F1I6)

The particular question about communication produced a limited response; two people mentioned e-mail, and indicated that it was being used extensively, and in some cases for student interactions.

This year we’ve used two groups of students who’ve actually used it and we’ve been interacting regularly with them, both in the classroom and by just using the email. But they’ve had messages on bulletin boards and they’ve set up some, probably daft, threads on forums and it has been quite interesting to see how it goes. (F1I3)

… email was introduced and everyone was using email so if you are not using email you are missing out so you have to quickly learn how t use email and then your next step is putting things on the intranet. (F1I5)

However, one member of the team is not sure that the increased use of e-mail was entirely positive, and misses the face-to-face contacts.

… well the only thing I’ve noticed is slightly on the negative side …before there was always a bit more buzz about the place because there was all staff coming to see them, wanting to get information and things and they don’t have that contact now, they actually miss that contact… So that’s been a bit of a change and that’s more on the negative side. However, I think most people would agree that email has been a great thing if it is used properly for communication. (F1I5)

Summary

The growth of networked learning has had a considerable impact on staffing; a number of new posts were been created, and additional staff were recruited in the information systems team, intranet team, and flexible access centres, and an e-learning coordinator has been appointed. The other impact on staffing has been the need for some staff to change their role; in particular the formation of a new intranet group and team managers, and the designation of ICT champions. The questionnaire responses suggest some increases in workload for technical staff but little change elsewhere.

Attitudes to the using intranet appear to be fairly positive, and attitudes to networked learning are generally improving. However, in interviews three of the respondents felt that, for some members of staff, the attitudes towards networked learning were not entirely positive. At the same time as the college was increasing staff to support he expansion of networked learning they were reducing staff in other areas to address a funding deficit. The expansion of networked learning along with funding difficulties had set up some tensions within the college relating to staff concerns regarding changing roles and practices. This expansion has resulted in a change in focus and delivery methods for academic staff, eg changing from direct contact with students to developing online flexible learning materials. Staff had concerns about their contact hours and their professional status and possibly being replaced by networked learning. One of the respondents understood clearly that to change staff attitudes would be the most difficult task because moving to network learning involves a major cultural change. The college is proactively tackling these issues and has set up a working group to address staff concerns and agree new ways of working and supporting students.

The impact of networked learning on collaboration is apparent in the questionnaire responses where all respondents indicated that both internal and external collaborations had increased as a result of networked learning. External collaborations were with local schools and community groups and with local universities.

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