tesep: transforming and enhancing the student experience

TESEP: Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy

Scottish Funding Council e-Learning Transformation Programme

Programme managed by

2 TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformTransforming Learning, Teaching and Assessment the TESEP Way

Transforming Learning, Teaching and Assessment the TESEP Way

IntroductionThe Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy (TESEP) Project started in 2005 and has enabled three institutions (Napier University, Edinburgh’s Telford College and Lauder College) to explore how the transformation of learning, teaching and assessment practice in further and higher education can be driven by e-pedagogy. TESEP focused on two simple ideas:

To make a real difference to the learner experience, we must try to engage learners in active and 1.

self-directed learning at an early stage in their studies, and to achieve that we need to encourage them to take responsibility for their learning

Some e-learning approaches can play an important role in this, particularly where learners can 2.

be encouraged to use technology to locate their own material and enable collaborative work, formative assessment and discussion with peers

Transforming an institution’s learning teaching and assessment approach is a complex task. TESEP took a major rethink of learning and teaching principles and demonstrated that it is feasible to drive institutional transformation in learning and teaching using pedagogy.

LearningSupport

StaffDevelopment

LearningTechnology

Quality Enhancement

Learning, Teaching& Assessment

3TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformTransforming Learning, Teaching and Assessment the TESEP Way

Why do we need to change learning and teaching practices?Government initiatives to widen access and increase participation in further and higher education and encourage lifelong learning have resulted in more people than ever before having the opportunity to continue their education. Learners in the 21st century have a diverse range of expertise and skill in how to learn. This has posed real challenges for colleges and universities because people want to access education in ways that make sense to their lifestyles and prior experience, and traditional models do not always fully satisfy their needs. Institutions recognise the need to change and have started to develop and adapt their provision to allow greater flexibility and more personalisation to respond to the diverse needs of today’s learners whilst ensuring they deliver a quality service.

TESEP approached transformation in the following ways:

Using learning and teaching as the driver for changeEven before the TESEP Project started, the institutions involved in the project had recognised the need to change learning and teaching practices to respond to a diversifying customer base. The TESEP Project, however, shifted thinking. Previously the partners had placed emphasis on technology and content development as the ‘driver’ of change – TESEP placed the emphasis on pedagogy as the ‘driver’ and technology as the ‘enabler’.

The TESEP Project learning and teaching model encapsulated a truly learner-centred vision. The model encouraged learners to become more skilled in learning so that they could become more empowered when choosing how they wanted to learn. We assumed and have since demonstrated that the model we developed could be applied effectively to a wide range of subjects taught in Further and Higher Education as defined by the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF).

‘I love the idea that pedagogy can drive strategy in further and higher education. Sometimes it’s really the other way round, but this is a very good example of pure pedagogy and the business of learning and teaching driving policy and driving strategy across tertiary education.’

Dr Peter Easy, Vice Principal, Napier University

‘Our main objectives are encapsulated in our mission statement – we want to change lives through learning. We wanted to put more power into learners’ hands. TESEP is a magnificent vehicle for that.’

Isabel Craig, Assistant Principal, Edinburgh’s Telford College

Involving people from across the institutionFrom the outset, TESEP believed that neither a ‘top-down’ nor ‘bottom-up’ approach was appropriate to initiate the changes needed. TESEP’s approach to getting transformation happening in an accelerated way (institution-wide) was to involve people in the institution at all levels. TESEP identified four stakeholder groups. Each partner institution used different ways to engage each stakeholder group.

Managers

‘Pedagogy first is the right approach’

‘The old ways will not keep us at the front of developments. Complete change is needed’


Practitioners

‘I have learned lessons that will affect my practice in the future in a number of different ways’

‘We’re really looking to see how we can further work together as a team, right across the faculty’

Learners

‘It is really good to be trusted to learn. We’re being trusted, I’m learning what I need to learn’

‘Working with the group has taught me a lot in terms of skills for learning’

BenchmarkingWhilst benchmarking is no longer a new idea in e-learning, when the project started in 2005, e-learning benchmarking was not widespread in the sector. As this project was fundamentally about ‘change in behaviour and practices’, it was important that we could capture and describe attitudes and behaviours at the start of the project and show where we ended up at the end of our transformation journey. To assist this process, the project developed a ‘transformation matrix’.

Transformation matrix

Determined the start point for institutions and practitioners against benchmarks■■

Tracked changes in behaviours and practice using transformation indicators■■

Measured the extent to which change had taken place during the project■■

Converting othersThe project was championing peer-to-peer ‘collaborative learning’. This applied equally to staff as it did to learners as a mechanism for attracting and engaging others and cascading new practices. From the outset the project introduced technology-enhanced applications such as the project’s online community of practice and other social networking tools such as Blogs and Wikis alongside more traditional face-to-face activities to encourage formal and informal peer exchange, peer learning and peer assessment and feedback. Actions could include:

TESEP Tips

Employing the same principles that guide the teaching of learners to staff development models.

Staff development should be:

Staff-centred■■

Applied■■

Responsive■■

Situated■■

5TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformTransforming Learning, Teaching and Assessment the TESEP Way

Using technology to enable and enhance learningThe project has always had a basic assumption that even a small shift in favour of improving the basic capability of learners to direct their own learning will bring about a transformational effect for the whole institution.

A single phrase encapsulates the desired effect of the TESEP approach: ‘learners in control’.

Participants who are redesigning learning the TESEP way always started to re-think their learning and teaching designs by pondering five TESEP principles. This approach has encouraged practitioners to think firstly about how they might encourage their learners to be more active in their learning, so that through this process they would develop skills and confidence to take more responsibility for their learning.

TESEP principles:Ensure that every learner is as active as possible ■■

Design frequent formative assessment ■■

Put emphasis on peers learning together ■■

Consider whether learning tasks can be personalised ■■

Consider how technology can help to achieve these principles ■■

It required practitioners to think about the sorts of learning activities their learners would engage in and the extent to which learners might choose to use technology effectively in their learning to enhance their experience.

This approach is very different to a technology- or content-driven approach where practitioners are encouraged to introduce technology to learning and teaching practices without necessarily re-thinking and changing the pedagogy underpinning their practices. This approach tends to lead to technology being used in a supplementary way instead of a transformational way.

How not to use technology

Practitioners might introduce an interactive whiteboard or PowerPoint to their practices, but without a change in pedagogy, they will still use it in an instructivist way as if it were an overhead projector, whiteboard or chalk board. The only thing that changes is the technology (but not the practice).

TESEP has not advocated any particular learning technology tool. If learners (and their tutors) are leading the way, they will continually discover new tools and new uses for these tools. However, the flavour of TESEP is best conveyed by what is now called ‘social software’ or Web 2.0 technologies. Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) can support TESEP pedagogical principles if learners are learning actively, sharing their learning with each other and getting frequent feedback.

VLEs

All too often VLEs are being used to ‘deliver’ the straight presentation of content where the idea is that if you make the delivered material enticing enough the learners will learn from it.


Further reading and resources:

The project’s online Evaluation Report details and evidences key shifts in practice and behaviour. The Transformation Matrix describes how transformation was tracked during the project. Three Institutional Online Case Studies detail how each partner went about transform practices across their institution.

Further information about the TESEP learning and teaching model and its impact on the transformation of learning and teaching strategy and practice in the partner institutions is available from the Transform website.

The publication Re-thinking Learning Support describes the need for new models for learning induction and support in more detail.

The publication Re-thinking Learning Technology provides more detailed examples of using social software in learning and teaching.

The Transform website includes these reports and has a range of case studies that illustrate TESEP in Action.

www.napier.ac.uk/transform

7TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformRe-thinking Learning Support

Re-thinking Learning Support

Over the last two years, the TESEP Project has more clearly understood that learners need to be prepared and supported at an early stage to cope with institutional changes in learning and teaching approaches.

This section includes suggestions on how to use pre-entry activities, Learner Induction and on-going Learner Personal Development Planning to improve the capability of learners so that they are prepared and empowered and can take more responsibility for directing their own learning.

Pre-entry All learners, when considering coming to university or college, will have had some educational experience. However, they will all have had different experience (some negative), they will have a diverse range of learning skills and a differing set of learning styles and preferences. Learners will use all of these things when trying to ‘imagine’ what learning and teaching will be like at college or university.

An institution’s approach to learning and teaching will be a factor influencing a learner’s choice and it is important that colleges and universities provide information that illustrates the sorts of educational experience individuals can expect if they choose to come to the institution.

Theories of student choiceIndividuals will seek to make a choice that will bring them maximum benefits■■

Individuals will take an open-minded approach to decision making and will collect sufficient ■■

information that will assist them in weighing up the alternatives

The resulting decision will be logical and rational based on the information held.

(SFC Publication: Choosing to Learn – learning to Choose)

Suggestions

Open days/learner selection interviews

By re-thinking Open Day and Learner Selection/Interview activities you can demonstrate the institution’s preferred learning and teaching approach.

For example, you could:

Organise group activities so that learners have opportunities to work in teams to actively learn ■■

about the institution

Use existing learners to demonstrate how they have been using learning technologies in their studies■■

Think about how you involve parents■■

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Experiential activities for influencers

You could:

Re-think how you engage with people that influence learner choice■■

Invite Careers Advisors and Guidance Tutors to come along and experience what it will be like to be ■■

a learner in your institution

Use TESEP principles to design the event ■■

Promotions

Re-think how you use institutional websites to raise awareness of your institution’s preferred learning and teaching approaches. For example, you could consider online illustrations incorporating learner video clips and examples of how learners use learning technologies in their learning.

Parents, employers, school teachers, careers advisors views and opinions will have an influence on learner choice. Institutions need to think about how they make influencers aware of changes to learning and teaching.

Selection and admission activities provide perfect opportunities for schools and faculties to start to assess individual learning abilities and preferences. Introducing learners to the Personal Development or Learning Plan at this stage is beneficial, because it can be used to record the results from initial diagnostic assessments and can be used to inform discussions about future learning development goals once the learner has started their programme.

InductionA key recommendation from TESEP is that institutions need to re-think their Learner Induction methods and, where possible, devote more resource to getting learners ‘ready’ to take shared responsibility for achieving learning outcomes.

This implies that institutions need to have a fairly fundamental re-think of roles and responsibilities played by the institution, the tutor and the learner.

Induction is a good place to start making changes. Currently induction tends to be based on a model of standard delivery, where learners are presented with a more or less identical experience. TESEP suggests that a more flexible approach is needed.

TESEP TipsIntroduce learners to examples of the kinds of learning and teaching approaches and the ■■

types of technology available (eg e-portfolios, Wikis, Blogs) as early as possible

Devise methods of encouraging a reflective and active approach to learning from the start■■

Have discussions with individuals so that learners are given first-hand experience of ■■

learning being ‘personalised’ to their needs

Encourage group work and establish a culture of learning in a community■■

Introduce diagnostic testing early on to establish a profile for each learner■■

Consider how you extend ‘induction’ beyond the first few weeks of a course starting■■


Suggestions

Determining prior educational experience and preferences

Use TESEP principles to design group, peer-led activities to encourage learners to share their prior ■■

learning experiences with each other. Encourage them to share things that were positive and negative

Encourage learners to think about what learning skills they have – where do they see their ■■

strengths, where are their weaknesses. Suggest that people with strengths mentor people with weaknesses. Suggest that they look for resources to help them develop skills in areas of weakness

Encourage learners to record agreed actions in personal development plans/records. This ■■

approach allows learners to negotiate on learning goals and how these will be achieved. Progress and feedback can then be followed up in personal development planning meetings

‘Institutions will need to ask themselves more difficult questions about the value they are adding to learners’ development and support innovative change and improvement in individual and collective practice.’

SFC Publication: Taking Forward Learning to Improve

Preparing learners for what to expect

Learning is a partnership between the learner, their peers and their tutors. Introducing ‘Learner Agreements’ at an induction that specifies roles and responsibilities (including the tutor’s) can help to manage learner expectations of the approaches to learning. In this session learners and tutors should be honest about the consequences of failing to deliver on their responsibilities and agree mechanisms for communicating concerns should this happen.

‘It is therefore important that the learning process does not reinforce any previous negative experiences, but rather removes as many barriers as possible.’

HMIE Publication: Preparing Learners for Learning in Scottish Colleges

Assessment

Programme and unit/module induction is a good place to introduce changes to assessment processes. An overview of an overall change in approach can be given at programme induction, and specifics provided at unit/module level.

‘It is better to think of learners as co-creators of learning in partnership with staff’

SFC Publication: Taking Forward Learning to Improve

10 TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformRe-thinking Learning Support

Personal Development Planning (PDP)Personal Development Planning meetings (Guidance meetings) with learners are an effective way of ensuring that learners continue to reflect on their learning skills (post induction) and continue to work to improve them. Key steps include:

Learner reflection

Encourage learners (either individually or in groups) to consider how their learning skills are developing. Encourage them to keep reflective learning logs to capture their progress, highlighting key learning points. Get learners to reflect on the learning goals set and record what they have done to achieve the goals set. Ask learners to comment on the progress they have made. If appropriate, encourage learners to use their peers to get feedback on progress being made.

Progress meeting agendas

Encourage learners to set the agenda for progress meetings in advance of the meeting.

Progress meeting

Progress meetings can be conducted face-to-face or online. They should be one-to-one. Make sure learners get time in the meeting to discuss progress with learning skills goals. The progress meeting is a good time to give feedback. Feedback should be honest and motivational. Where possible tutors should try to include comments from other staff involved with the learner in their feedback. The meeting should be used to discuss what further learning skills need developing. Tutors can suggest to the learner how this might be accomplished. Suggestions should take into consideration individual learning preferences. At the end of the meeting, the learner and the tutor should have agreed future goals and targets. These should be recorded in the learners personal progress record.

Post-meeting

Tutors should record their reflections and where appropriate link reflections to their quality assurance documentation.

Personal Development Planning is a structured and supported process undertaken by an individual to reflect upon their own learning, performance and/or achievement and to plan for their personal, educational and career development.

TESEP tip

Using Blogs is an effective way for learners to document their learning progress.

The primary objective for PDP is to improve the capacity of individuals to understand what and how they are learning, and to review, plan and take responsibility for their own learning, helping learners:

Become more effective, independent and confident self-directed learners■■

Understand how they are learning and relate their learning to a wider context■■

Improve their general skills for study and career management■■

Articulate personal goals and evaluate progress towards their achievement■■

And encourage a positive attitude to learning throughout life■■


Further reading and resources

The Transform website includes a number of documents and case studies that address the issues of enhancing learner induction and ensuring learner readiness in more detail:

TESEP Recommendations for Learner Support■■

Induction in HE – a strategic overview of how TESEP can enhance induction in HE ■■

Induction in FE (SFEU Report) – a review of current induction arrangements in FE■■

Lauder College Induction Case Study – one college’s steps towards transforming induction■■

Glasgow University Case Study – an illustration of and approach to testing and improving, the ■■

IT skill level of learners

www.napier.ac.uk/transform

Choosing to Learn, Learning to Choose – Scottish Funding Council publication www.sfc.ac.uk/publications/Choosing to learn April 07.pdf

Preparing Learners for Learning – HMIE publication The HMIE Preparing Learners for Learning Toolkit was designed to assist colleges to evaluate and evolve their learning services and activities alongside existing self-evaluation processes. www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/plfl.html

QAA Guidelines for HE Progress Files www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/progressFiles/guidelines/progfile2001.asp

12 TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformRe-thinking Staff Development

Re-thinking Staff Development

One conclusion from the TESEP project is that TESEP Principles should be applied to designing staff development activities.

This section provides Institutions with suggestions and examples of how to use TESEP Principles to re-design staff development.

Staff inductionStaff induction is often focused on academic systems and procedures and not on pedagogy and preferred learning and teaching practices. Staff induction activities can be redesigned using the TESEP principles. This way, staff can develop their knowledge and understanding of an institution’s preferred learning and teaching approach and experience it first hand.

When new staff join an institution, it is important that they quickly understand and experience the institution’s preferred learning and teaching model. TESEP has recommended that institutions could re-think their staff induction processes to ensure that in advance of any formal teacher training, they:

Encourage staff to consider pedagogies underpinning an institution’s preferred learning and ■■

teaching model as soon as they join

Help them develop an effective knowledge and understanding of the range of learning technologies ■■

available. As well as the institutional VLE, staff should be encouraged to learn about other emerging Web 2.0 technologies to support the TESEP principles

Experience the model and the technologies first-hand as part of their own learning and development■■

Interactive tool

An online Lecturer Induction programme developed during the TESEP Project provides opportunities for practitioners to develop their knowledge and understanding of pedagogy and Web 2.0 technology and apply them effectively to redesign learning activities. The programme can be downloaded into your own VLE. The programme is available from the Transform website.

Creating an Expert Group and cascadingThere are different ways to start transforming learning and teaching. The TESEP Project experimented with a cascade model where a central team of experts were established, trained and used to support and mentor other practitioners as they started to re-think their practices. The project promoted peer-to-peer ‘collaborative learning’. This applied equally to staff as it did to learners. As staff started to experiment with new practices, they were encouraged to tell their colleagues and persuade them to try new methods.

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StaffAs

Learners

ReflectiveParticipation &

DevelopingUnderstanding

Peers

TESEP Community

Wider Communities

Suggestons

Engaging staff

If an institution is serious about transforming its learning and teaching, it must try to engage staff at all levels of the institution. Choose people who are enthusiasts and influencers. The Expert Team should include people at different levels in the institution.

Senior Manager. Assistant Principal/Dean – Influencer within the Senior Management Team, Academic Board, Board of Management/Court, Institutional Committees such as Learning and Teaching Committee, Assessment Committee, Quality Enhancement Committee.

Academic Manager. Head of School/Associate Dean – Influencer with Head’s Forum, Institutional Committees: Learning and Teaching Committee, Assessment Committee, Quality Enhancement Committee.

Practitioners: Influencer with other practitioners.

Staff Development/Professional Development Advisor. Influencer within Professional Development support teams.

TESEP Tip

Cascading works best when:

Academic Managers play an integral role in the process■■

The cascade process involves teams (eg course/programme teams) working together ■■

The cascade process encourages peer support and dissemination■■

Try setting up an online community of practice and using it as a vehicle to support cascading across your institution.


TESEP Tip:

Try setting up an online community of practice and using it as a vehicle to support cascade across your institution

Continuing Professional Development in learning and teachingThe majority of institutions encourage their teaching staff to obtain a recognised teaching qualification within a defined period of time. Often staff will gain their teaching qualification but will not prioritise updating their knowledge of learning and teaching and learning technologies as part of their continuing professional development (CPD).

In re-thinking staff development, institutions need to consider how they encourage their staff to reflect on the contribution they make to the student experience and identify ways in which they need to further develop their knowledge and skills in learning and teaching to ensure that they are helping learners maximise their learning.

Giving practitioners a choice in their own learning process is a critical part of the staff development approach.

‘We recommend that all full-time staff in colleges should fulfil, as a minimum expectation six days of CPD a year and that colleges should determine and implement appropriate proportionate expectations for part-time, fixed term and temporary staff”.

Review of Scotland’s Colleges – the report of the Staffing, Learners and Learning Environments Group

SuggestionsThe majority of institutions will encourage their staff to participate in Professional Development Career Review (or equivalent) systems. In addition, staff are being requested to complete a required number of CPD days.

It is suggested that when setting goals, objectives and targets for CPD in Professional Development Reviews, staff (as well as dedicating time to improving their subject knowledge) are encouraged to dedicate some CDP activity to improving learning and teaching practices.

Importantly, staff should be encouraged to apply their new knowledge to redesigning learning activities and disseminate their experience to their peers.

The TESEP Project has produced a host of staff development tools and resources which have been developed using TESEP principles.Tools and Resources are available from the Transform website: www.napier.ac.uk/transform

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Collaborative learning and sharing practicesIf learning and teaching transformation is to be accelerated across an institution, it is important to encourage staff to work collaboratively.

TESEP has used social software to establish new support routes, guidance and educational resources for practitioners. Peer support and the opportunity to share experiences with other practitioners (irrespective of their subject discipline or the level they are teaching at) has been a valued support mechanism. The online Community of Practice provided a useful forum for peer discussion and for presenting an awareness of relevant issues. As a result, practitioners have successfully cascaded their findings, practices and experiences of the TESEP model to others.

SuggestionsThe institutions involved with TESEP all adopted different approaches to ensuring that staff learnt ■■

collaboratively and shared practice. The Institutional Case Studies provide exemplars of the different approaches used

The Scottish Further Education Unit’s Action Learning Sets provide examples of how small groups ■■

of individuals can support one another in learning and development in an area where they have an interest and wish to increase their expertise.



The Transform website includes a number of documents, case studies and resources including:

A case study of Glasgow Caledonian University, who have redesigned their staff induction ■■

programme. The design is a good example of TESEP principles being applied to staff induction

Kicking Off the Cascade:Examples of how TESEP supported the cascade process with its ■■

practitioners

An evaluation of the TESEP Online Community of Practice ■■

Institutional and practitioner case studies, which explain in detail how collaboration and ■■

sharing of practice was encouraged

Review of Scotland’s Colleges: Inspiring Achievement – the report of the Staffing, Learners and Learning Environments Group www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/180896/0051339.pdf

Action Learning Sets SFEU website: www.sfeu.ac.uk/actionlearningsets

ELATE – Effective Learning & Teaching Enhancement. The overarching aim of this project is to enhance learning, teaching and assessment by innovative developments to the peer review and staff development processes utilising principles of peer-support. http://elate.clinicalskillsnetwork.org.uk/index.htm

SFEU website: www.sfeu.ac.uk

17TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformRe-thinking Quality Enhancement

Re-thinking Quality Enhancement

When transforming learning, teaching and assessment, institutions need to think about how they prove that the changes being made are enhancing the quality of the learner experience.

This section provides institutions with suggestions on how to evolve the quality enhancement review processes they use to assess the impact changes to learning, teaching and assessment practices are having on the quality of the learner experience.

Re-thinking the collection of qualitative information

Using Personal Development Planning (PDP) to inform quality enhancement systems and processes

All colleges and universities have quality enhancement systems and processes in place that enable them to collect quantitative and qualitative information that can be used to inform professional judgement about the impact changes to learning, teaching and assessment practices are having on the learner experience.

Teaching staff very often find it difficult to produce evidence (that is not anecdotal) that supports their professional judgements of the quality of learning and teaching processes.

TESEP has found that PDP processes can be used effectively in a number of ways to inform judgements on the impact of learning and teaching on the quality of the learner experience.

‘Self-evaluation and quality enhancement processes can be enhanced if linked to learner personal development/learning planning processes.’

‘Personal Development/Learning Planning provided an excellent vehicle to encourage learners to reflect on prior learning experience and skills.’

‘Technologies such as e-portfolios, Blogs and the VLE proved effective in encouraging learners to prepare in advance for personal development sessions – ensuring that they were efficient and effective.’

Example – establishing a baseline

PDP provides great opportunities for tutors to obtain a position on an individual learner’s ‘readiness’ to have more control over their learning. Tutors can initiate discussions about a learner’s key learning strengths and weaknesses and use sessions to negotiate learning activities and to set goals aimed at developing a learner’s learning skill. For discussions to be successful, tutors need to broaden discussions beyond subject/course-specific areas and ability to use ICT.

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Many colleges and universities already have mechanisms in place to diagnostically assess levels of core/basic skill in ICT, communication and numeracy. TESEP found that learners need to develop advanced learning skills if they are to have more control of their learning. PDP can be used to set learning objectives and targets.

Example – developing learner’s reflection skills

Once PDP sessions have agreed learning goals and targets, learners should be encouraged to keep a reflective log as part of their personal development planning record. Encouraging this sort of reflection and requesting that learners use their logs when commenting on the quality of learning and teaching provision in focus-group meetings and/or when completing learner satisfaction surveys, can increase the quality of contribution made by learners.

‘In colleges we don’t always know the skills or abilities of our learners until they arrive, yet we have only a set amount of time to try and get them from where they are to where they aspire to be. We therefore need to help them prepare for learning in order to enable them to achieve their potential.’

HMIE Preparing Learners for Learning in Scotland’s Colleges

‘If practitioners get into the habit of routinely collecting, reflecting and summarising their learner’s Personal Development progress and achievements – this information can be used very effectively in quality reviews to evidence judgements made on the impact on quality of learning and teaching on the learner experience’.

‘Personal Development Planning records provided our programme team with a rich source of information about our learner’s development.’

‘Having maintained a reflective Blog for the duration of the unit, when I evaluated the unit at the end, I found that my learners were more able to contribute insightful comments on their learning experience,’

Re-thinking the use of quantitative data

The role of performance indicatorsQuantitative Performance Indicator (PI) data has a limited role to play in determining impact of new learning and teaching practices on the learner experience. PIs are ‘input’ and ‘output’ measures and TESEP found that they were best used as ‘diagnostic tools’, which could be used on a number of levels: at institutional level, faculty/school level, programme level and unit level to compare provision, consider trends, identify problem areas and pose questions about why there were differences in provision.

They did not tell institutions what the problems were but they did motivate staff to recognise that changes were needed to practices. Staff found, however, that more qualitative information was needed to help them realise exactly what changes were needed to get desired improvements.

The quality of learning, teaching and assessment is often expressed using Attainment of Qualification PIs. TESEP found that whilst a qualification is a desirable output from learning, it was only part of the picture.

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‘The dominance of Qualifications in the education system, their formality, their apparent objectivity and measurability offer tempting ways of seeming to measure the performance of the system. It is therefore all the more important that we remind ourselves of their limitations and the risk that over-emphasis on them may lead to less than optimal outcomes‘

Scottish Funding Council, Taking Forward Learning to Improve

Learning and teaching transformation was as much about developing learners’ learning skills, abilities and confidence to enable them to take more responsibility for their own learning. PI data proved to provide little insight into the impact new approaches to learning and teaching had on the development of learner’s learning skills.

The learner voice A key aspect of quality assessment and enhancement in colleges and universities is learner involvement.

The learner’s voice is a key component to evaluating the impact of learning and teaching. When rethinking quality enhancement, it is vital that strategies are implemented that aim to ensure that learners have a voice and are able to express their views on learning, teaching and assessment methods articulately.

TESEP prompted institutions to re-think how they sought learner views. Examples of new approaches adopted include:

Representation on key committees■■ . Some of the institutions participating in the project re-configured membership of standing committees including their learning, teaching and assessment committee and quality enhancement committee to include learners

‘When we revamped our committee structure, we invited students to attend both our learning, teaching and assessment committee and our quality enhancement committee so that we could hear firsthand how our strategies were impacting on them.’

The introduction of ‘real time’ evaluations■■ to daily/weekly unit delivery activities. Learners were asked at the end of sessions to reflect and comment on the learning activities that day/week. Some practitioners used online questionnaires, others encouraged a freestyle approach using Blogs. Some encouraged group reflections using Wikis. The feedback obtained was used to inform future learning designs and quality evaluations and judgements

Focus groups■■ with learners, where they were asked to use their reflective logs to prepare for an interview with an independent reviewer. This approach ensured that learners were better prepared and more able to articulate their views on the learning and teaching activities with which they had engaged

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Peer observations■■ where colleagues, assisting with re-designs of learning activities, were invited into classrooms. During the session colleagues observed learners and sought real-time views of how learners were feeling about the learning and teaching approaches being used. After the session these views were fed back to the tutor.

Since 2003 the Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Councils have funded a national development service to train student representatives and engage institutions and students’ associations in developing practice to more effectively involve students in quality assurance and enhancement processes. Student Participation in Quality Scotland (SPARQS) is a free service for Scottish colleges and universities.


Guidelines for HE, Progress Files can be found at: www.qaa.ac.uk/academicinfrastructure/progressFiles/guidelines/progfile2001.pdf

SPARQs Further information about SPARQs can be found at: www.sparqs.org.uk

HMIE Preparing Learners for Learning in Scotland’s Colleges www.hmie.gov.uk/documents/publication/plfl.pdf

21TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformRe-thinking Learning Technology

Re-thinking Learning Technology

Within the context of the learning and teaching principles developed for the TESEP Project, a key component of the project was to explore ways in which learning technologies could play an important role in enhancing the learner experience. The project was particularly interested in how ‘social software’ or Web 2.0 technologies, rather than institutional VLEs, could be used to encourage learners to be active in their learning, locate/create their own materials, work collaboratively with their peers and give and receive feedback as part of formative assessment.

For clarity, TESEP was not opposed to pedagogically appropriate use of institutional VLEs, some of which are now incorporating ‘social software’ functionality such as blogging and Wiki tools. Indeed, our practitioners demonstrated that VLEs could support TESEP pedagogical principles when learning activities were designed in ways that encouraged learners to actively engage in their learning, encouraged learners to share their learning with each other and provided opportunities for learners and tutors to reflect on learning and feedback.

The technology that TESEP found particularly of interest here can be classified by the following types of activities within Web 2.0 applications:

For user created content (You make it)■■

For locating existing content, including trends and overviews (You find it)■■

For developing and sharing content in a community – ‘crowdsourcing’ (You work on it)■■

For evolving community-developed tagging and organisational schemes (folksonomies) for large ■■

sets of user-created content (You name it)

For interacting within virtual worlds (You experience it)■■

For communicating with peers, and for discussion (You talk about it)■■

Technology examples

Learner-created content technologiesLearner-created content technologies place the power of content creation and distribution into the hands of the learners themselves and make it easy for learners and their tutors to contribute ideas, objects and other content. These technologies are accessible via the internet.

Access to these sites is not constrained to desktop computers. Indeed, many learners will already access these sites for leisure purposes using mobile technologies such as their mobile phones, PDAs and MP3 players. The emergence of ‘crowdsourcing’ through tagging allows interesting material to float to the top and be found. Social bookmarking allows users to store bookmarked links in a form accessible on the web. It becomes social at the point when tagging (marking with a keyword) is added, and learners can search each other’s bookmarks. TESEP has found that personal development

22 TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformRe-thinking Learning Technology

planning processes can be used effectively in a number of ways to inform judgements on the impact of learning and teaching on the quality of the learner experience.

Examples of this type of technology include websites such as Flickr, YouTube, Ourmedia. These allow learners to classify and evaluate what is there and add to the existing content. Simple interfaces allow shared collections of any kind of media to be built.

Learner reflection technologiesLearner reflection technologies enable learners to be reflective about their learning. Weblogs or blogs are easily updatable personal websites and are increasingly used as a vehicle for learner self-expression and reflection.

Learner feedback technologiesThere are a number of ways in which technology can be used to provide learner feedback. These range from personal response systems (voting systems) used in large classes, through various kinds of e-assessment software (eg question mark, hot potatoes, WebQuiz) to e-portfolios which can be built up over a sustained period, through familiar discussion tools, and then various social software methods by which peers can share and comment on each others’ work. All these are good examples of how e-learning can support good pedagogy.

Feedback can, of course, be offered in a straightforward way by tutors, responding on a VLE to learner assignments. In some subjects, such as maths, automated feedback can be built into special purpose software that offers problems for the individual learner to attempt. In others, simulations allow opportunities for genuine interaction with a virtual world. For TESEP, though, a particular emphasis is on informal feedback from peers.

Tools like del.icio.us allow examples, commentary and feedback from a potentially global audience, and learners have a low-risk, low-cost means to publish their own work.

Even podcasting (which would not be a good TESEP example if it was just used to ‘deliver’ content) is now being used in certain cases to provide a feedback channel from tutors to their learners.

The feedback aspect of blogs can be seen in the ability of other learners to comment on postings, to post links to other blogs, and to keep track of blogs that reference their own. For peer feedback to be effective, a culture of trust must be established.

Learner community technologiesWikis allow groups of learners to easily create content, with the important feature that it is editable by any of them. In this way individual learners can decide when new material should be added and through collaborative editing a joint output will emerge that satisfies the whole group. TESEP emphasises the importance of placing learners in the role of teachers of their peers. When all members of a group are required to switch frequently between these roles, a culture of shared understanding about the learning process grows rapidly.

An important feature of Wikis is that edits can be tracked, so that both the group members and the tutor are aware of individual contributions.

23TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformRe-thinking Learning Technology

Communities of practice and the emergence of social networking sites allow learners to create a profile for themselves, exchange views and share content. They allow learners to identify links to like-minded others, both inside and outside the institutionally defined boundaries of the learning environment.

Examples of social networking sites are Second Life, MySpace, Bebo and Facebook.

Personalisation technologiesSocial tools that are specifically designed for the support of personalised learning are starting to emerge. Some institutions are starting to offer Elgg sites as secure internal communities.

Elgg is an open-source bundle of tools that lets each learner set up a blog, a web profile, an RSS reader, and a file repository with podcasting capabilities.

Personal digital technologies, such as mobile phone cameras, can be used to allow learners to share their learning experiences from outside the classroom with their peers. Indeed, the main thrust of social software is to allow personally created and chosen material to be shared.

Challenges for institutions The technology approaches described here, present some significant challenges for colleges and universities.

Learner expectationsThere is growing evidence that many of the learners coming into universities and colleges are already making extensive use of Web 2.0 tools in their lives. The recent JISC reports on the learner experience reveal that the web is the first point of call, and their use of Web 2.0 tools is ‘pervasive and integrated’ and ‘personalised’. Clearly such learners expect to use the same tools, or tools that are at least as sophisticated and powerful, when they are learning.

Open Source softwareA different, but equally challenging, set of issues face IT Directors/Managers as they try to respond to the growing demand for Web 2.0 tools within the constraints of running an institutional network service.

Hear moreMany of the challenges to existing ICT policies are explored in an interview conducted during the TESEP Project with Louise Garden, Director of Information Resources at Glasgow Caledonian University. The audio link is available from the Transform website.

24 TESEP:Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience Through Pedagogy | www.napier.ac.uk/transformRe-thinking Learning Technology

Learner literacy skillsNot all learners have the capability to use technologies effectively in their learning. The need for a personalised audit of learners’ digital literacy using diagnostic assessment tools on entry is therefore all the more important.

Staff developmentAll too often staff development in the use of ICT focuses on basic applications such as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint etc. Staff need to feel comfortable designing learning activities that use technologies that their learners are often more expert in using. It is as important that teaching staff are empowered in the same way as learners to develop a knowledge and understanding of social networking and Web 2.0 technologies through staff/professional development.

The use of Web 2.0 and social networking software effectively in their own professional development is an important way of enabling staff to experience these new technologies first hand.

Managing perceptionsCollege and university staff tend to react negatively to the technologies that are already fully integrated in our learners’ lives (particularly in the lives of our younger learners). It is not uncommon for institutions to ban the use of social software sites and tools such as MSN, Myspace, Youtube and Bebo in response to concerns about safety, suitability and security. Similarly, mobiles and iPods are equally unwelcome in formal learning spaces. Policies will have to change if such technologies are to be used to enhance learning.


The Transform website www.napier.ac.uk/transform includes more detailed reports and case studies

The paper TESEP and Technology by TESEP’s e-Pedagogy Consultant, Professor Terry ■■

Mayes explores the issues around the use of social software in more detail

The Re-Thinking Learning Support Briefing paper explains the concept of learner literacy ■■

skills in more detail.

Case studies and illustrative examples which describe the technologies used by practitioners ■■

and learners as they re-designed learning

A case study by Glasgow Caledonian University illustrates how the university has raised ■■

awareness of technologies through using a TESEP-like approach to the training of new lecturers.

An interactive online Lecturer Induction programme provides opportunities for practitioners ■■

to develop their knowledge and understanding of Web 2.0 and social software and apply them effectively to redesigning learning activities.

These papers have been written by Andrew K Comrie, Project Director.

tesep: transforming and enhancing the student experience

Documents