http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/York/documents/ourwork/employability/employeelearning/EEL_UniversityManagementOfWBL.pdf
I have finally tracked down this HEA publication that came out in August 2010. It includes a chapter on "Reorientating institutional systems to support the flexible learner" by M. Noble, S. Frame & C. Eustance and includes some of the early insights from the UG-Flex project.
Interesting to see how UG-Flex has progressed since.
Wednesday, 15 December 2010
T-SPARC comes to Greenwich
I’ve had good feedback from colleagues who attended the VOXUR training session run by Oliver Jenkins from BCU's T-SPARC project last week. VOXUR really is straightforward to use. It is such a clever concept that it is not that surprising that one question asked was whether there are other products that do the same thing cheaper/easier still? The answer appears to be no!
It was very encouraging to note that my colleagues were as intrigued as I have been by BCU’s innovative work that seeks to shift the focus on curriculum design from a single concluding approval event to the wider thinking and processes that underpin curriculum approval and review.
All in all a worthwhile session. Thanks Oliver and Paul from BCU for your generosity in lending UG-Flex one of your VOXUR units until the end of January. Thanks also to my colleagues for taking the time to attend. All suggestions of similar sessions UG-Flex might run are very welcome.
It was very encouraging to note that my colleagues were as intrigued as I have been by BCU’s innovative work that seeks to shift the focus on curriculum design from a single concluding approval event to the wider thinking and processes that underpin curriculum approval and review.
All in all a worthwhile session. Thanks Oliver and Paul from BCU for your generosity in lending UG-Flex one of your VOXUR units until the end of January. Thanks also to my colleagues for taking the time to attend. All suggestions of similar sessions UG-Flex might run are very welcome.
Thursday, 21 October 2010
Project, Cluster & Programme Meetings, Presentations and Progress
September and October 2010 will go down as busy, productive months for UG-Flex despite the blows of Browne's Review and Osborne's axe.
Validation & Review Enhancements Go Live
Monday 20th September saw the formal launch of UG-Flex's enhancements to the University's Authorised List of Programme. To recap, one of the recommendations that came out of the project's investigation into validation & review processes was to design an accessible and accurate way for staff to view any programme’s approval and review status and history, to review progress and plan activity accordingly.
A training needs survey has been conducted to ensure that staff would receive information and guidance most appropriate for their needs, and as a result a series of short 'how to' crib sheets have been produced and face-to-face training conducted. An issues log has been set up to record comments; feedback, suggestions etc and plans are in place to monitor the impact of these enhancements next year.
Birmingham CAMEL
Tuesday 28th September saw Claire & Duncan in Birmingham for a 2-day CAMEL meeting with colleagues from other projects in our cluster. It was a timely opportunity to reflect on our projects at the mid-way point and I felt pretty upbeat in being able to report on the completion of our "quick win" piece of work (hmmm) as well as the initial outcomes from our consultation with staff on the changes needed to deliver a better experience to students who do not study via one of the University's "standard" modes.
Our group work to identify the themes that have emerged from our projects so far and produced a huge, complex, 'wicked' mind map. I came away recognising that all of the projects have generated a huge amount of new information, knowledge and insight over the past couple of years. (Note to self to remember that just because I have experienced this incrementally having lived with it day to day, the knowledge and evidence produced is not necessarily common-place or even acknowledged in many cases!)
The highlight of the sessions on student engagement for me was Birmingham City's Student Academic Partners project (superb) and since then I've been doing my best to bring it up in conversations with as many colleagues at Greenwich as I can.
Project Meetings at Greenwich
The week of 10th October saw meetings of the UG-Flex Steering Group and the Management Group. In both cases challenging but useful discussions followed Duncan and my presentation on 'Improving the experience of students on "flexible" programmes - the problem and possible solution'. The next step is to raise awareness and hopefully build wider support in advance of my presentation to the University Executive (gulp) in early November. Interesting times at Greenwich generally with impending change of VC in 2011.
JISC CDD Programme Meeting in Nottingham
The same week saw Duncan and me on the train again, this time to Nottingham to attend the joint design and delivery programme meeting. UG-Flex was busy and contributed to the sessions on ‘Project Perspectives on Quality Assurance and Enhancement’ and ‘Students as Change Agents’, and both went pretty well. Both keynotes from Peter Findlay (quality & QA in HE) and Betty Collis (learning from a workplace perspective) were thought-provoking and I enjoyed the closing plenary. Regrettably as I try to recall the key messages, I find they have been swamped by thoughts of Browne and Osborne.
The same goes for the JISC Learning & Teaching Experts Group I attended in Birmingham on 20th October. Our cluster presented on some of the themes and learning outcomes that have emerged from our projects so far. Hard to quantify? Probably. Tecchie? Definitely not, but nevertheless significant and I hope colleagues in the sector agree and stick with us. I'll leave the last words on this to Stephen Brown, Cluster B's critical friend, "on the day when so much madness was unleashed on HE I think our presentation stood out as a beacon of good sense."
An unusually long post - so thanks for reading!
Validation & Review Enhancements Go Live
Monday 20th September saw the formal launch of UG-Flex's enhancements to the University's Authorised List of Programme. To recap, one of the recommendations that came out of the project's investigation into validation & review processes was to design an accessible and accurate way for staff to view any programme’s approval and review status and history, to review progress and plan activity accordingly.
A training needs survey has been conducted to ensure that staff would receive information and guidance most appropriate for their needs, and as a result a series of short 'how to' crib sheets have been produced and face-to-face training conducted. An issues log has been set up to record comments; feedback, suggestions etc and plans are in place to monitor the impact of these enhancements next year.
Birmingham CAMEL
Tuesday 28th September saw Claire & Duncan in Birmingham for a 2-day CAMEL meeting with colleagues from other projects in our cluster. It was a timely opportunity to reflect on our projects at the mid-way point and I felt pretty upbeat in being able to report on the completion of our "quick win" piece of work (hmmm) as well as the initial outcomes from our consultation with staff on the changes needed to deliver a better experience to students who do not study via one of the University's "standard" modes.
Our group work to identify the themes that have emerged from our projects so far and produced a huge, complex, 'wicked' mind map. I came away recognising that all of the projects have generated a huge amount of new information, knowledge and insight over the past couple of years. (Note to self to remember that just because I have experienced this incrementally having lived with it day to day, the knowledge and evidence produced is not necessarily common-place or even acknowledged in many cases!)
The highlight of the sessions on student engagement for me was Birmingham City's Student Academic Partners project (superb) and since then I've been doing my best to bring it up in conversations with as many colleagues at Greenwich as I can.
Project Meetings at Greenwich
The week of 10th October saw meetings of the UG-Flex Steering Group and the Management Group. In both cases challenging but useful discussions followed Duncan and my presentation on 'Improving the experience of students on "flexible" programmes - the problem and possible solution'. The next step is to raise awareness and hopefully build wider support in advance of my presentation to the University Executive (gulp) in early November. Interesting times at Greenwich generally with impending change of VC in 2011.
JISC CDD Programme Meeting in Nottingham
The same week saw Duncan and me on the train again, this time to Nottingham to attend the joint design and delivery programme meeting. UG-Flex was busy and contributed to the sessions on ‘Project Perspectives on Quality Assurance and Enhancement’ and ‘Students as Change Agents’, and both went pretty well. Both keynotes from Peter Findlay (quality & QA in HE) and Betty Collis (learning from a workplace perspective) were thought-provoking and I enjoyed the closing plenary. Regrettably as I try to recall the key messages, I find they have been swamped by thoughts of Browne and Osborne.
The same goes for the JISC Learning & Teaching Experts Group I attended in Birmingham on 20th October. Our cluster presented on some of the themes and learning outcomes that have emerged from our projects so far. Hard to quantify? Probably. Tecchie? Definitely not, but nevertheless significant and I hope colleagues in the sector agree and stick with us. I'll leave the last words on this to Stephen Brown, Cluster B's critical friend, "on the day when so much madness was unleashed on HE I think our presentation stood out as a beacon of good sense."
An unusually long post - so thanks for reading!
Tuesday, 19 October 2010
Engaging Students in their own learning - good practice
It's been a busy time for the UG-Flex Project team with a Steering Group and a Management Group meeting and visits to Birmingham and Nottingham for a cluster meeting and a programme meeting in recent weeks.
Further posts on these events will follow, but first I wanted to shared Birmingham City University's (BCU) inspiring practice on involving their students in creating a learning community.
BCU have drawn on the philosophy embedded in Futurelab's 2006 'Learner Voice' handbook and have thought in detail about how students are engaged in learning development on a spectrum ranging from passive - active - co-dependent - independent.
BCU's Student Academic Partners Scheme has sponsored 30 educational development projects designed to develop specific aspects of learning and teaching practice. The innovation that takes it further along the spectrum (or "ladder") of engagement is the requirement that projects must be a genuine and equal partnership of staff and students, with the latter being the initiator. The student/s negotiate their own role in the project and are paid for up to 125 hours of work. Already some notable benefits have emerged.
I would really recommend you take the time to find out more at: http://www.birminghamcitysu.com/saps/
Further posts on these events will follow, but first I wanted to shared Birmingham City University's (BCU) inspiring practice on involving their students in creating a learning community.
BCU have drawn on the philosophy embedded in Futurelab's 2006 'Learner Voice' handbook and have thought in detail about how students are engaged in learning development on a spectrum ranging from passive - active - co-dependent - independent.
BCU's Student Academic Partners Scheme has sponsored 30 educational development projects designed to develop specific aspects of learning and teaching practice. The innovation that takes it further along the spectrum (or "ladder") of engagement is the requirement that projects must be a genuine and equal partnership of staff and students, with the latter being the initiator. The student/s negotiate their own role in the project and are paid for up to 125 hours of work. Already some notable benefits have emerged.
I would really recommend you take the time to find out more at: http://www.birminghamcitysu.com/saps/
Wednesday, 14 July 2010
Reflections on University of Greenwich annual e-learning conference "Future Learningscapes: a 21st Century Challenge
Last week's e-learning conference was enjoyable and (echoing the unofficial theme of the day) provided me with some food for thought.....
I enjoyed the keynote by Grainne Conole from the Open University and in particular I recognised a lot in her description of "a ha" moments. In short - there are so many resources out there but it takes an "a ha" moment for an individual to bridge the gap between promise and reality in how they could use and benefit from them.
Like Grainne I haven't had an "a ha" moment with SecondLife - although CNWL's presentation at the same event has made me want to take a closer look http://secondlife.com I'm also going to check out language learning community website www.busuu.com and the TED talks at http://www.ted.com/.
I enjoyed the keynote by Grainne Conole from the Open University and in particular I recognised a lot in her description of "a ha" moments. In short - there are so many resources out there but it takes an "a ha" moment for an individual to bridge the gap between promise and reality in how they could use and benefit from them.
Like Grainne I haven't had an "a ha" moment with SecondLife - although CNWL's presentation at the same event has made me want to take a closer look http://secondlife.com I'm also going to check out language learning community website www.busuu.com and the TED talks at http://www.ted.com/.
Wednesday, 30 June 2010
University of Greenwich asks "How Flexible Can HE Be (Are We?)?
On 10th June some of my colleagues from the University of Greenwich spent the day considering flexibility in education, focussing on flexible access, recruitment and admissions.
The day is well documented elsewhere, http://www.gre.ac.uk/offices/elu, but I just want to take this opportunity to note Professor Simon Jarvis's - our DVC for Academic Development - vision of on how Greenwich is - and should - respond to flexible learning.
I believe that UG-Flex has a role in encouraging further debate on these issues,with a view to the development of a University-wide strategy on flexible learning in the near future.
- Flexibility needs to have boundaries;
- Greenwich must raise aspirations, standards and quality and have the expectation of success;
- Greenwich should look at how it deals with credit accumulation and transfer;
- Greenwich could be more flexible in using facilities "out of hours";
- Greenwich should embrace "collaborative learning" and invest in technology to deliver a "real time feel" with podcasting and computer aided assessment and feedback;
- Despite a tough economic climate, Greenwich needs to pursue work based learning opportunities in partnership delivered through Foundation degrees, sandwich placements, internship, apprenticeships and flexible study packages such as Applied Professional Studies;
- "Graduate attributes" will be a major plank of teaching and learning strategies and this may place some constraints on flexibility;
- Greenwich should build its CPD activity through short courses, block mode delivery and accumulation of credit over time towards a qualification;
- Flexibility requires appropriate processes and systems to support it.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
University of Greenwich "Balanced Academic Workload Model" pilot project
A significant issue for UG-Flex's stakeholders is the extent to which the academic staff contract can support greater flexibility in pace, place and mode of delivery. We know from the discussions that took place at the last Programme Meeting in May that other projects in the CDD programme are pondering the same kinds of questions.
So the UG-Flex project will be watching with great interest a pilot project that has started at the University of Greenwich, led by our Personnel department, to test a method of modelling academic workloads that draws on practice developed through a national "Managing Academic Workloads" project based at Salford University. The intention is to feedback the outcomes later in the 2010/11 academic session, with a view to wider roll out at Greenwich from in 2011/12.
UG-Flex has been working to ensure that lessons from this pilot are shared and considered in a broader context of enabling greater flexibility in curriculum design. We are well placed since the main sponsor, Russell Brocket, our Director of Personnel, is also a member of the UG-Flex Project Steering Group and gave a presentation on the pilot at our last meeting in early June. Another champion, Mike Sharp, is member of our Project Management Group.
Further details of the background, principles and main features of the model can be found at http://www.gre.ac.uk/offices/personnel/ppga/baw
So the UG-Flex project will be watching with great interest a pilot project that has started at the University of Greenwich, led by our Personnel department, to test a method of modelling academic workloads that draws on practice developed through a national "Managing Academic Workloads" project based at Salford University. The intention is to feedback the outcomes later in the 2010/11 academic session, with a view to wider roll out at Greenwich from in 2011/12.
UG-Flex has been working to ensure that lessons from this pilot are shared and considered in a broader context of enabling greater flexibility in curriculum design. We are well placed since the main sponsor, Russell Brocket, our Director of Personnel, is also a member of the UG-Flex Project Steering Group and gave a presentation on the pilot at our last meeting in early June. Another champion, Mike Sharp, is member of our Project Management Group.
Further details of the background, principles and main features of the model can be found at http://www.gre.ac.uk/offices/personnel/ppga/baw
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