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Excellence Gateway
Published: 6 July 2009
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) West Midlands on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Sector relevance: Further education colleges
Keywords: Improving responsiveness, improving institutional effectiveness, additional learning support, learning resources, coaching learners, developing self-confidence, curriculum good practice
The IT Project Area (ITPA) is part of a converged learning resources centre (LRC) service offering study support and audio and visual services. The ITPA reflects the learners' needs and is very curriculum-focused with services, including one-to-one IT support sessions and a comprehensive LRC induction programme.
Henley is a medium-sized further education college on the outskirts of Coventry.
Henley offers a variety of full and part-time further and higher education and training programmes to young people and adults. The College works closely with employers through its corporate training arm, Henley Business Solutions, to provide apprenticeships, Train to Gain and specialist short courses.
The LRC at Henley was established 12 years ago. At the time, there were several separate IT rooms spread across the College, which became increasingly difficult to manage in terms of student discipline.
The solution was to house a dedicated open-access IT area within the LRC to be centrally managed and used more appropriately for student learning. Known as the IT Project Area (ITPA), this now contains over 60 high-spec PCs and two Apple Macs. Teaching in the ITPA is discouraged as the focus and emphasis is on supporting the independent study needs of the learners.
Sue Bird, Learning Resources Manager, explains:
“The idea behind the Project Area was to make it a friendly, yet purposeful learning environment - a place where students can work on their assignments, but also come for IT help outside the classroom. We don't have a set of strict rules, as in some traditional library settings, but we have put measures in place so that students take responsibility whilst working in the ITPA. For example, we charge for paper and insist on recycling paper and plastics to encourage careful use of resources.”
At the beginning of the academic year, new students must complete a comprehensive LRC induction programme before being able to access the College's network. This includes a mandatory overview of Read and Write Gold - a piece of software that provides additional literacy support. All PCs in the Project Area include the same software as in the classrooms, such as Adobe Photoshop, AutoCAD and Dreamweaver, which makes the ITPA a very curriculum-focused service.
As part of the induction process, students must obtain an ID card from the ITPA, which allows them access to the network and the ITPA. The ID card is also their library card. To log on to any machine in the ITPA, students need to hand in their ID card at the ITPA desk and, in return, they will be allocated a PC.
Sue explains:
“We wanted to encourage the students to get to know the staff in the Project Area. This approach of booking a PC is more personable, and plus it's a way that we can track who is using the Project Area.”
For students who need a bit of extra help with IT, ITPA staff can offer one-to-one support with specific packages. And for those who have no prior IT skills, a short course, ‘A Touch of IT', covers the basics such as printing documents, inserting images, Internet searches and sending emails.
Sue says:
"The course is generally taken up by adult students who don't have any IT tutoring as part of their course but who are still expected to type up their assignments. Our open-access, flexible approach means we can reach students with little IT confidence and guide them through. We also provide help sheets on a variety of topics, and support classes on aspects such as WebCT, the College's virtual learning environment."
The LRC carries out a number of impact surveys throughout the year and focus groups involving student reps with responses being generally very positive. Comment cards, available in the ITPA allow students to make suggestions and provide feedback throughout the year - something which the team takes very seriously.
“Last year we had suggestions to purchase some Apple Macs, which we went ahead with. The ITPA is there for the students and we really do listen and take on board their ideas. Similarly, if we do have problems such as noise, we do something about it although generally behaviour in the ITPA is very good. Students are there to work and they recognise it as somewhere where they can focus on assignments and projects. The work-focus is emphasised by the ITPA being directly placed next to the library."
She adds:
“The majority of feedback is very positive and it seems that we can't do enough for the students.”
This feedback is echoed in terms of student satisfaction levels. Henley's LRC has recently moved into the upper quartile when compared to 140 other further education colleges.
Future plans for learning resources as a whole include the introduction of a media streaming service. Sue explains:
“This would be a great additional feature, as I feel that students should have access to all the resources they need both in and outside the classroom.”
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