e-Factor Conference

Yesterday 27th June 2012 I went along to the RSC e-Factor “It’s all about the learner event” in London. There were just on 200 delegates, so a sizable gathering, with some really useful presentations from Colleges, I took ten pages of A3 notes, always a good sign, so will be following up on those. These events are always great for networking, and this time was no exception in during the two unscheduled fire alarms.

I must say that I felt particularly encouraged with regard to
the emphasis on the vle and eLearning especially with relevance to the new Common Inspection Framework. I have since grabbed a copy from the website along with the ‘Handbook for the inspection of further education and skills’. Reading through this I extracted what would appear to be the most obvious paragraph points and copied them here below, hopefully this will be useful to anyone reading this. While the term Virtual Learning Environment only appears twice, the numerous mentions to ‘learning’ are often accompanied by: - types, methods, capturing, forms, independent, outside sessions, range of environments, so this is very good. Naturally I feel that we should take every opportunity where possible to accommodate and demonstrate these through the use of our Moodle eLearning platform.

Below you will find a numbered list of relevant paragraphs, again hopefully useful:-

36. A provider may deliver a combination of provision, such as: community learning, apprenticeships and courses where a qualification is the main learning aim. If this combination of learning occurs in one sector subject area, it will be inspected as one subject area. The different types of learning will be considered for the overall subject area grade and highlighted in the subject area report.

44. The lead inspector will plan the inspection to ensure that the maximum amount of first-hand evidence is collected from learners and the activities they are engaged in. The inspection team will want to capture as many forms of learning as possible in order to make sound teaching, learning and assessment judgements. Although observations of teaching, training and assessment are key sources of this evidence, other methods of capturing learning and assessment on inspection are equally important. Therefore, the lead inspector will plan other activities such as: assessments; reviews; discussions with groups of learners; scrutiny of how learning materials and assessment are promoted and communicated to learners through technology;live demonstrations by learners to discuss their work; case studies;

100. Inspection of the Quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and the impact it has on the quality of learning, provides direct evidence. Inspectors will capture evidence from a variety of learning activities, for example through: direct observation; evaluation of learning materials and their use by learners; the use of technology to deliver and assess learning; and examining what learners
can do and make as a result of their learning.

101. Inspectors will also conduct formal observations of teaching, training or assessment activities. These should be of sufficient length to ensure the inspector has enough evidence to form clear judgements and give a grade. The inspector will usually provide feedback to the person
observed. This will normally include the grade awarded, with a short summary of the strengths and areas for development. Other forms of learning activity that are not teaching or assessment sessions may be graded, for example progress reviews.

152. To make this judgement, inspectors will consider:
how well teaching and learning methods – including training, coaching and mentoring – inspire and challenge all learners and enable them to extend their knowledge, skills and understanding the extent to which teaching, training and coaching encourages and develops independent learning

153. Where relevant, inspectors should take into account:
how the different needs of groups of learners are met the effectiveness of learning outside learning sessions through technology, reviews and tutorials care and support in their broadest forms, both in and between learning sessions.

154. To make this judgement, inspectors will consider:
how effectively and creatively staff use resources, including accommodation, equipment and technology, and specialist advice and guidance to promote and support learning the promotion
and development of independent learning skills, for example, through the use of a range of technologies, including a virtual learning environment.

155. Where relevant, inspectors should take into account:
how learning materials are used during and outside learning sessions, including those available in a virtual learning environment

163. Where relevant, inspectors should take into account:
the extent to which timely information, advice and guidance enables individuals to gain greater learning autonomy and decreases dependence on others

Page 49 Grade characteristics: Quality of teaching, learning and assessment (Outstanding)
Staff have consistently high expectations of all learners and demonstrate this in a range of learning environments. High quality learning materials and resources including information and communication technology (ICT) are available and are used by staff and learners during and
between learning and assessment sessions.


At the moment I am thinking of a series of 30 minute workshops, ‘Using eILT to get a better Ofsted’ or similar.

It was also good to see that other colleges are using Questionnaires in Moodle to record eILT staff skills as part of an overall approach to CPD, in very much the same way as we are here.

The event concluded with a really good plenary type keynote from Peter Mayhew-Smith the Principle at Kingston College, in summary:-

• eLearning, know what difference is being made
• eLearning, should be graded as means of assurance
• eLearning, appraisal is a good mechanism
• eLearning, should be responsive to the student voice
• eLearning, should make use of students own technology

If you would like to reveiw the Twitter comments then please make use of the following Hash Tag #efactor2012

Teaching & Learning Conference

Last we week had our Teaching & Learning Conference day here at the College, and as part of that I was asked to deliver a session on eLearning.
As I am sure it is the case for all Colleges it is not often that staff are given
a day to select a presentation / workshop that they would like to attend and so its one of those occasions were if you have a particular message to get across then you do have to pick your approach. In the end I decided to opt for an introduction to eLearning, the terminology, and standards and how the vle fits into the delivery. With regard to content I took the opportunity to demonstrate
Wimba Create, which in itself would act as nice advertisement for my training session. With Wimba Create in mind and the whole area of producing suitable content, the session touched on outlining the concepts of learning objects and the Scorm recommendations, I did find a very useful cartoon style short video clip SCORM Demystified from YouTube for this. Overall the sessions seemed to go very well and there was a lot of interest pursuing the use of Wimba Create as a tool for converting Word docs.


One of the other sessions running on the day was delivered by a colleague and featured the ComicLife app and how it was used as part of our Comenius Virtual World project using Open Simulator. This particular workshop must have been received well because I was approached by two members of staff after requesting an OpenSim Island for the coming year, brilliant. If you are interested our work using OpenSim then you may like to follow our BC OpenSim blog.



During this last week I came across a new report from TEL
(Technology Enhanced Learning) entitled called ‘System Upgrade Realising the
vision for UK education’. With was hooked in by the headline- Teaching and
learning in the 21st century needs to be 'turbo-charged' by educational technology rather than using technologies designed for other purposes’ . The result of over four years work the report looks at twelve principle themes, complete with recommendations for everyone involved in learning – including teachers, policymakers, lecturers and workplace trainers. Right from the opening paragraphs I am certain you will see as I did that this report addresses very pertinent issues, well worth a read this one and please feel free to post your comments.