Excellence Gateway
Published: 18 September 2009
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) London on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Sector relevance: Further education and Sixth Form colleges
Keywords: Improving teaching and learning, improving responsiveness to learners, improving institutional effectiveness, women, residential learning, virtual learning environment (VLE), flexible, distance learning, staff development, community and voluntary sector
The staff responsible for the employability programme at Hillcroft have developed the College's use of blended learning in response to the needs and requirements of learners and their specialist tutors, some of whom live some distance away.
The College offers flexible roll-on, roll-off, programmes with face-to-face teaching for the employability programme offered over residential weekends.
Hillcroft College is focussed on improving the quality of its delivery whilst responding to the need to support its learners at a distance and developing its involvement with community and voluntary sector training.
Situated in Surbiton, Surrey, Hillcroft National Residential College for Women is a small learning provider offering residential learning opportunities to enable women to change their lives through education.
Hillcroft was first established in the 1920s as the Working Women's College and specialises in enabling women to develop transferable skills for work, study or self-fulfilment.
Learners can attend the College for courses in functional skills, preparing for employment and academic studies on a full-time or part-time basis, and for programmes that last from one weekend to a year.
A challenge for Hillcroft College is that it is a small provider but with a national catchment area offering very flexible patterns of attendance. For example, the 'Women into Management' is a Level 3, national programme offering residential weekends. These women learners include some employed in community group leadership and management roles, and who typically join this roll-on programme at different stages. They also have different patterns of engagement – some wanting to achieve a qualification in the shortest time, others fitting attendance around other commitments and taking up to 18 months to complete.
Hillcroft aims to use its virtual learning environment (VLE) to enable learners to engage with one another and with course materials throughout their programme, whilst maintaining the quality of provision by supporting tutors and learners in their use of the VLE.
Hillcroft has made progress by giving tutors the basic support they need to use Moodle and allowing the learners to create further interest and momentum. A key insight at Hillcroft came from an IT tutor who argued that it is a myth that learners can't cope – or aren't ready – but that some tutors themselves aren't ready. So Hillcroft is enabling its learners to drive progress with blended learning by getting them engaged at an early stage.
This is made possible by the central uploading of course materials. Every tutor teaching a unit has that unit structured on the VLE and populated for them, and their learners with online resources, quizzes and forums. Tutors can then focus on keeping the course material updated and developing further online activities. Current experience is that learners actively look for additional resources.
Hillcroft is concentrating its efforts on coaching those tutors who want to embrace e-learning in order to develop some College champions, who in turn will disseminate good practice.
Tutors usually come together once or twice a year and this is an opportunity for Howard Bailey, Curriculum and Development Leader, to engage with them around their use of technology. Howard takes the role of subject champion while Tony Vowles, ILT Manager, runs a staff development training programme in Moodle basics, including one-to-one support when needed.
Tony also delivers 'e-bytes', short staff development sessions that cover Web 2.0 type tools and utilities for learning, including social networking, social bookmarking, Google Docs, etc. For visiting tutors who tend to be subject experts rather than full time teachers, Howard acts as the filter, conveying appropriate information and guidance.
The core delivery of some management courses is now taking place off-site. These learners are driving the use of the VLE, requesting more resources online and using the forums with enthusiasm. Access course learners are also using the VLE actively for online references and resources. Keeping this material up to date and refreshed is a key factor in keeping the learners engaged and motivated.
In addition, the Learning Resource Manager is developing modules to encourage students to reflect on their learning.
The introduction of Moodle to the employability programme has had a positive impact on learner achievement, says Howard. He points to other benefits too, such as more proactive learners who access Moodle at all hours of the day and night, and make requests to have access to more materials available online.
Learners without home access are still showing activity on the VLE by finding alternative ways of getting online at work and using public internet access in libraries, etc.
Learners coming to Hillcroft have frequently had poor previous educational experiences and missed out on opportunities; they tend not to make demands on staff. Howard hopes that the proactivity he has observed in learners studying online may help them to develop a stronger sense of ownership of their learning and a willingness to take the initiative in accessing what they need.
Enrolment keys to access the units are distributed each Friday with learners frequently requesting access to course material earlier. Accounts are integrated so that access to VLE and main College systems are the same.
Learners with dyslexia are able to print pages of text in their preferred font, font size, colour of paper, etc.
An important contributor to the success of the VLE has been the practice of populating each online course with content centrally, so reducing barriers and time commitment for tutors.
Tutors are also able to guide students through the learning materials on the VLE and help them to identify the gaps in what individuals need to know, so personalising delivery.
The strategy that the College has adopted is to work with teaching staff who are ready to use the VLE in the expectation that other tutors will follow, especially as demand for online access and participation increases from students.
Hillcroft is:
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