Excellence Gateway
Published: 29 October 2008
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) London on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Sector relevance: Adult and community learning, further education colleges
Keywords: Improving teaching and learning, improving responsiveness to learners, embedding e-learning, Moddle, e-Learning Positioning Statement (e-LPS), equality of opportunity, ILT strategy
The vision of developing college-wide access to e-learning at SCOLA is supported by the SMT and driven by curriculum managers who, with teaching as part of their role, perceive the benefits to learners. SCOLA has used its planning processes including the self-assessment report (SAR) and the e-Learning Positioning Statement (e-LPS), to take the whole college forward with an evolutionary approach to embedding e-learning.
Sutton College of Learning for Adults (SCOLA) provides adult education and community learning in the London Borough of Sutton. Supported by the Borough Council and with 55% of the delivery being FE funded, SCOLA has maintained a broad curriculum offer to the local community. The College offers over 1200 part-time courses at seven main centres and numerous community venues in the day and evening throughout the year, including Saturdays.
Learning provision for the 12,000 students ranges from pre-entry level to Level 5 with significant GCSE, A-level and BTEC programmes.
The challenge for SCOLA, as an adult and community learning provider operating across seven main centres and employing 350 sessional tutors has been, “How do we provide access to e-learning for all students?” Equality of opportunity has underpinned the progress of e-learning development.
Jenny Sims identifies a pivotal decision at SCOLA in relation to a funding bid to NIACE for wireless equipment back in 2004. She describes this as the starting point of a college-wide approach to e-learning, “In a way the decision was made - how do we want the future to go? We came away from the ‘two classrooms with PCs set up. We wanted everyone to have access. That really was the philosophy behind that bid.”
The result, taken with advice from Head of e-Learning, John Faulkner, was an application for funding to install a wireless network throughout two floors and two banks of laptops to provide mobile access to e-learning across most of the main site.
Further support for this development and the cross curricula ambition for e-learning at SCOLA, came from a major commitment to participate in the 2005 eGuides programme with SCOLA's curriculum managers signing up for the three days of training.
Staff development opportunities at SCOLA underpin investment in the IT infrastructure. Training days are supplemented with shorter IT-related training sessions. Three years ago the focus was on the use of digital cameras, as the need for this area of training was met, the emphasis moved to the Recognition and Recording of Progress and Achievement (RARPA) and the use of interactive whiteboards.
There have also been web-based developments to support the curriculum. An open access ‘Learning Zone' provides online resources organised by curriculum area. NLN materials have been integrated into this site and links to other resources such as the Open University's ‘Open Learn'.
SCOLA is also implementing a Moodle. The development focus in 2007-08 has been to support a Certificate of Education course and for the 2008-09 academic year, Moodle will form an administrative base, holding course documentation for tutors together with demonstration course material such as tests and initial assessments, etc. The development of curriculum materials for Moodle is also a priority for the coming year.
SCOLA is taking an evolutionary approach that encourages interest with a range of online resources and access to technology at the same time as lowering the barriers to the use of e-learning with good technical support.
March 2006 saw the first formal inspection at SCOLA. Interactive whiteboards (IWBs) installed one week earlier produced a ‘too early to see' assessment. By the summer of 2007, following implementation of the action plan, inspectors identified significant progress.
Over 100 tutors have attended training to use IWs in the classroom and now tutors ask for training and to be allocated rooms where this technology is installed.
The impact is also evidenced in observation of teaching and learning.
A successful application for NLDC (Neighbourhood Learning in Deprived Communities) funding, with the e-Learning Positioning Statement (ELPS) adding strength to the bid, has resulted in two learning centres.
Every curriculum area is supported with e-learning material on the web-based Learning Zone.
In January 2008, a full-time ILT post was introduced to support Moodle development and manage e-learning resources.
Reporting on e-learning is now ‘by exception', that is tutors not using e-learning in their delivery.
Jenny Sims acknowledges the importance of external funding which has triggered investment, especially in ICT technical support hours, from the College's own funds.
In addition, she identifies the earlier development of an ILT strategy for the Borough, the use of the e-Learning Positioning Statement (eLPS), “a useful and straightforward tool,” and more recently, how ILT action planning has become embedded in the Self Assessment Report (SAR) action plan for e-learning. The mid-year updating of all SAR plans now acts as a driver for e-learning.
The Learning Zone will be maintained as an open resource of learning materials organised by curriculum area, while the development of Moodle is being ‘led by demand' from curriculum managers and their tutors - tutors are asking, “when are we going to have Moodle?”
SCOLA's latest bid for CAMEL funding will help to increase the number of laptops available to learners.
The vision of developing college-wide access to e-learning at SCOLA is supported by the SMT and driven by Curriculum Managers who, with teaching as part of their role, perceive the benefits to learners.
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