Excellence Gateway
Published: 23 July 2008
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) South West on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Weymouth College set-up a “Learning Gateway” as part of a move towards creating a “learning” rather than a teaching environment. It involved setting up 180 workstations through which learners could access Moodle, both in timetabled sessions and on an open-access basis. The project has been so successful that, three years on, the College is looking at ways of developing it and putting it at the heart of a new build scheme.
The College is a medium-sized tertiary college with 2,000 full-time and three and a half thousand part-time students. It offers full and part-time provision in over 90 vocational and work-related programmes. There are also 30 A-level subjects available. The development of Foundation Degrees is a continued priority for the College. It has a Centre of Vocational Excellence for its provision in stonemasonry, which is a joint collaboration with Bath and York.
The College wanted to be more flexible and responsive in meeting the needs of its learners. It wanted to enrich and give added value to the student experience. It began to look at ways in which they could encourage students to direct their own learning via the internet and in using Moodle. They already had good IT and decided to set-up a “Learning Gateway”, which would give Moodle access to students from a variety of locations, and would allow them independent learning online.
The College decided to embed e-learning into the provision of every full-time student. All full-time students are given timetabled slots, usually of an hour, in the Gateway each week, but, like all other students, they can also use the facilities on an open-access basis from 8.30am until 8pm. Work for the timetabled slots is set by their tutor and they work independently with learning resource staff available for help where necessary. This is part of their contact time.
There are four Learning Gateway advisors who are graduates and who each have a subject specialism. Each advisor is matched to one of the four schools in the College: Commercial, Enterprise and Sport, Business Skills and Care, Creative Arts and Construction, and Engineering. The advisors are able to compile materials to assist the tutors in setting work.
The staff found that the extra resources and discipline meant that behaviour improved. The computer area was no longer seen as “just a computer room”, which they could access materials placed there by their tutors. It also allowed students to make better use of their free time.
There was initially some concern expressed by teaching staff who felt that this contact time might not have been as productive as the time spent directed by a tutor.
Peter Vowles, the Library and Learning Gateway Manager, says:
“As the scheme has evolved, staff have become more enthusiastic, lecturers are setting stimulating work and attitudes have changed.”
Over the summer, the scheme will be revamped so that there is one zone for each school. Students of stonemasonry, for example, have used the time not only to research their designs, but also to use CAD (computer-aided design) to produce the designs which they intend to carve, often using the local Portland stone.
Richard Mortimer, Head of the Masonry Section, said:
“This has demonstrated effectively to potential employers that the students are not only skilled craftsmen but are confident with modern technology."
“This is ably demonstrated by the students' success in national competitions. Nathan, for example, won a gold medal at the national final of SkillBuild last October [2007]. He is now shortlisted for international selection and hopes to represent his country next year. For this competition, they are given computer-generated exercises on moulds, copings and plinths, which they have to turn into a finished piece of work.”
Image 1: A student of stonemasonry
Image 2: Another student of stonemasonry
A cross-college e-learning strategy group is responsible for monitoring and developing e-learning, which carries out regular audits. The surveys log the trends and ask whether students are enjoying Gateway time and whether there are enough resources. This information then informs the action plan. Staff have said they will make more use of the IT if they have projectors and interactive whiteboards in every teaching room. As classes are moved around, they will then be sure of having the necessary equipment at their disposal. All teaching rooms will have either an interactive whiteboard or a data projector for the start of the new academic year. Over the summer, the College will be looking at creating different hubs for the different schools.
The take-up on staff training relating to e-learning has been good and staff have become more enthusiastic as a consequence. Student behaviour has improved during open-access computer time because of the additional resources and structured help that is on offer. The Gateway is now not seen as “just a computer room”.
The students have also been given social activity computers in a computer lounge to accommodate the need for social networking. They are allowed free access, including Youtube, Bebo and Facebook. This was necessary because some music courses needed access to Youtube and has proved a popular decision. The College have had to increase their bandwidth. They will also be renewing their servers over the summer.
The project has been so successful that the College hopes to raise the money to create an iconic new building for the Learning Gateway at the heart of the College by 2011. In addition, students are building partnerships with different universities and using those resources.
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Disclaimer: The Regional Support Centres (RSC) and the Learning and Skills Improvement Service (LSIS) support the development of educational e-learning. In the case study, we may refer to specific products, processes or services by trade name, trademark, manufacturer or otherwise, or link to websites or supporting material. Such references are not endorsements or recommendations and should not be used for product endorsement purposes.
Source: Quality Improvement Agency
You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/162093.
