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5 Impact on infrastructure and support services

This section reports on the findings relating to the impact of networked learning on infrastructures and examines technical issues, technical support, staff development and library and learning resources.

The questionnaire asked about both the technical and support infrastructure, and there were also references to changes in the infrastructure within the documentation. However, during interviews the respondents were not asked any direct questions about the infrastructure, nevertheless the interviews proved to be a rich source of information about both the technical and the support infrastructure. The information presented in Figure 5-1 to Figure 5-7 below represents summaries of some of the main issues arising.

5.4 Support for staff

There are two particular type of support provided, which are quite variable: the provision of Champions and special units or teams to develop materials for networked learning. As can be seen in Figure 5-7 below, large and medium-sized FE institutions, which have been developing networked learning for a considerable time, have both champions and special development units. F8 appears to be the exception, being small and only recently involved in development of networked learning. There is no discernable pattern within the HE institutions.

CS	Size FTE	Size*	Length of time involved in networked learning	Champion	Materials unit
F1	3500	S	10 years video conferencing + admin net from 1999	No	Unit
F2	8500	L	10y + VLE from 2000	Yes	Unit
F3	4099	M	10y + VLE from 2000	Yes	Unit
F4	1900	S	3 years	No	Unit
F5	7800	L	10y + VLE from 2000	Yes	Unit
F6	4500	M	4 years	Yes	Individual + CISCO
F7	3300	S	2 years	Not mentioned.	Freely available (NLN_ materials (1); use of reusable learning objects
F8	2962	S	4 years	Yes	Unit
F9	2000	S	3 years	Not mentioned	Freely available (NLN) materials (1); use of reusable learning objects
F10	3500	S	5 years	Yes	Freely available (NLN) materials (1); use of reusable learning objects
H1	19000	L	10 years + from 1999	Not mentioned	Individual
H2	12000	S	3 years	Yes	Task force strategy used
H3	20000	L	3 years	Yes	Individual
H4	17000	M	4 years	Yes	Unit
H5	11000	S	10 years	Yes	Individual
H6	13500	S	5 years	Yes	Unit helps staff but doesn't develop materials for them.
H7	15000	M	5 years	Not mentioned	Task force strategy used
H8	10700	S	10 years + 3 years ago BB	Not mentioned	Team
H9	25000	L	5 years	Yes	Individual
H10	14480	M	3 years	Not mentioned	Team
* Definitions of size are as follows: for FE Small < 4000, Medium 4000 – 6000, Large > 6000, for HE Small < 12000, Medium 12000-18000, Large > 18000

Figure 5 7: Support mechanisms - Champions and Materials Development Unit