1. Introduction
These notes are from the HEA Pathfinder evaluation and dissemination meeting that took place on Tuesday 5th June in York. The meeting was attended by Sue Timmis as Pathfinder Project Manager and Chris Mullings as Internal Evaluator. A short proforma was sent out in advance and we were asked to complete this before the meeting. The form was circulated for comment to relevant members of the e-learning systems board. The questions in the form and responses are as follows:
What aspects of your Pathfinder project are you most pleased about?
- Recruited some excellent e-learning support people in faculties.
- Central and faculty joint recruitment of personnel worked well.
- Monthly e-learning support network meetings between hub and spokes staff have been set up, sharing experiences with a focus on skills development.
What are the main challenges that you have faced?
- Even working at faculty level is difficult because the culture is departmentally specific.
- Communications between hub and spokes are challenging as 6 different models of communication are emerging to reflect different contexts, structures, people, interests, locations and experiences.
What do you think needs to happen next to take forward the work of your project?
- Sustainability is the key issue.
- Funding is very difficult for both faculties and central services, but already there are moves to try and convince faculty heads to continue funding beyond the first 12 months.
- It all takes a very long time, and as yet it is early days – we won’t see much impact until next year.
What plans do you have for dissemination/publication of project outputs?
- A Website has been set-up and is being populated.
- Conference papers are being planned.
It should be stressed that this was preliminary feedback designed to aid discussion in the meeting and is not a formal report.
The meeting began with an overview by the HEA on progress to date. The second session of the day consisted of a report back on each of the pilots who had previously completed the short evaluation template (as above). The external evaluation team (known as EdSUT) then gave their views on what they felt the key focus and challenges were for each of the pilots. Each institution was then invited to comment on these. The final session focussed on reporting and outputs from the pilots (though this was very brief as time had run out!).
2. HEA overview
The meeting began with an overview by Derek Morrison of the HEA of where we were with pilot phase ; general issues on dissemination and feedback to the sector were raised.
HEA suggested that we should be asking ourselves the following questions:
What transformation models/frameworks are you employing in your pathfinder project? Can you identify the ‘interface points’ with the hefce e-learning strategy?
Note: if not considered then need to do so and early feedback on this is welcomed as the hefce e-learning strategy is now being reviewed.
3. Pilot project progress
Each pilot project reported on the progress they are making:
Univ of Leicester is conducting intensive change management workshops (known as Carpe Diem), working with specific teams from a wide range of disciplines and subjects. The focus is on working with teams who manage a course.
Coventry Uni /Warwickshire College: Strengthening and enhancing the student experience across FE/HE boundaries and transitions.
CABLE ? University of Herts ? a change academy model (not unlike the Leicester carpe diem approach) ? schools embed outcomes in strategic planning. Sustainable change and developing partnerships – between the blended learning unit/ CETL on blended learning and the schools. Key issue is continuation of capacity enhancement.
University of Chester ? building central capacity through the development of a learning technology unit. Plus development of a blended learning module, links to schools and use of podcasting for feedback/e-portfolios. Key issues for them are developing staff and capacity building.
Institute of Education ? The project is about pedagogic research and about staff development for research into practice and vice versa. They have developed templates for course redesign ? a pedagogic planner, working with Diana Laurillard. They have direct collaboration with 11 course teams. What is interesting is the cultural impact ? how they have found this to be more important than expected.
Manchester ? project has to be understood in the context of a newly merged university. It involves developing the eMM (e-learning maturity model) methodology as a change management framework.
Oxford Brookes ? Their project is evaluation-led. How is the student experience driving this? Other theme is learning design ? course redesign.
Warwick ? development of inter-service model. Trying work more departmentally and join things up ? coordinate support to departments. They are also focussing on developing, enabling and valuing e-learning practitioners.
4. Key Challenges
Each pilot institution was then presented with some key challenges that the EdSUT team felt they faced from previous discussions and that they need to address in the long-term sustainability of projects:
For Bristol, these were:
- How to evaluate the impact? How will we evaluate the impact on faculties and on the teaching: research nexus?
- How will we ensure the sustainability of spokes?
- How will we develop a better understanding of the student experience?
- Does e-learning need external research funding in a research-intensive situation?
- What is the long-term role for the hub?
The following themes were identified as emerging from across all of the pilots:
- Change
- Bridging gaps ? sociocultural/informational
- Working with organisational structures
- Staff capacity ? development, empowerment, engagement
- Research
- Reward and recognition and branding
- Transition
- Partnership, collaboration (FE/HE)
- Assessment, e-portfolios, repositories
- Social software, new technologies
- Technical infrastructure, interoperability and standards
- Quality frameworks ? quality assurance
- Impact on the learner experience/evaluation-led
- Models of transformation/transformational change
What? ? Products -Focus on staff or students
- Course redesign
- Staff development resources
- Support mechanisms
- Frameworks ? ways of looking at and understanding institutions
How? ? Processes that the pilots are using:
- Change management
- Partnership
- Collaboration
- Capacity building
- Research as a mechanism for initiating and sustaining change
Observations from Terry Mayes of EdSUT:
These were short-term projects with long term aims, which has been problematic for everyone. He also noted that these projects have mainly focussed on the supply side not the demand side ? i.e. the students and what they bring.
Embedding or enhancing? Is embedding the appropriate term ? what does this mean in practice? What are we embedding for? Enhancement is soft term for improvement – there is now a shift in emphasis away from embedding towards enhancement. The term in Scotland is transformation.
5. Success factors
The question of whether we have identified our success factors was raised. We were asked to brainstorm some of these during the meeting. We came up with:
Posts in faculties- have they been continued by faculties? Do the departments now have e-learning implementation plans? Do the departmentally based initiatives have a clear focus and are being evaluated? Are these evaluations and ideas being disseminated through the hub?
Action: We need to post the definitive list of these on the blog
6. Reporting requirements
The final session discussed what we would be required to report on and when. Two reports are required – a completion report (non disclosable) and a dissemination report ? templates for both will be issued. Committed salaries are OK to take forward.
Reports will need to be completed by 30th September.
Sue Timmis
Chris Mullings