Approaches To E-Learning: Developing An E-Learning Strategy

Approaches To E-Learning:Developing An E-Learning Strategy Brian Kelly UKOLN University of Bath Bath, BA2 7AY Email B.Kelly@ukoln.ac.uk URL http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/ UKOLN is supported by:

Contents • Strategic Issues: • User Requirements • Pedagogic issues • Who are your users? • Accessibility • Developer / Resource Issues: • Build or buy? • VLE or integrating components • Interoperability • Quality Assurance • Sustainability • Developing An E-Learning Strategy: group exercise • Feedback • Conclusions

What Is Pedagogy? • The work of a teacher; the art and science of teaching; instructional methods and strategies. • The linked processes of teaching and learning. • Teaching; assisting students through interaction and activity in the ongoing academic and social events of the classroom. • A term that is used to describe an approach to schooling, learning, and teaching that includes what is taught, how teaching occurs, and how what is taught is learned. • Pedagogy is the study of the methods and application of educational theory to create learning contexts and environments. User Requirements http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=define:Pedagogy

Pedagogy & E-Learning • In order for e-learning to be effective: • Need to address pedagogic issues • Need to address students' learning styles • Need to consider students' motivational issues • Need to consider stage in learning • Need to consider discipline-specific learning approaches (medicine different from arts subject) • Need to consider teachers' approaches to learning • … User Requirements Remember: The important part of e-learning is learning not the e-!

Who Are Your Users? • Different categories: • Learners Teachers • Administrators  Technologists • Members of your organisation: • Students Researchers • Academic staff  Other staff • Remote users: • Visitors  Organisation partners • Purchasers  … • Cultures • Home  Overseas • Native speakers  Non-native speakers • Special Requirements • Disabled  … User Requirements

User Requirements • Different groups have different requirements: • Learners: • To learn • Teachers: • To support the learning • Administrators: • To support the administration of learning • Technologists: • To manage the e-learning technologies (performance, security, …) User Requirements Requirements of the different groups may sometimes be in conflict or may be overlooked. There is a need to engage with all groups in your planning

User Requirements • What are the requirements of the user (the learner): • Motivation • Support • Interaction • Information • Knowledge • Ease of access • … User Requirements You will need to identify the requirements of your users – and then explore how the requirements can be achieved

Accessibility • Some users will have special requirements: • Disabilities • Users with disabilities may have special requirements • There may be legal as well as ethical (and financial) reasons to address such needs • Technologies • Not everyone has a PC – Mac, Unix, … users • Network issues in certain areas • Access to Robots • Need to allow automated tools to access and process resources (e.g. current awareness services) User Requirements

Deployment Issues • Issues: • Resourcing • Content creation • Training • Sustainability • Deployment model • Management acceptance • … Deployment Issues

Resourcing • Provision of effective e-learning is not cheap: • Who pays? • What's the rationale: long-term cost savings or enhanced quality of learning? • Using / buying e-learning vs. developing e-learning • Using in-house vs. selling to others • Training staff • Training users Deployment Issues

Deployment Model • Issues: • Purchase VLE/MLE • Home-grown developments • Interoperability: • Migration from one VLE to another • Integration across components of home-grown systems • Migration of data • Long term preservation • Centralised or distributed • In-house or integrated with remote services Deployment Issues

Sustainability • Will your e-learning communities by sustainable? • People • Motivation • Technologies • Support Deployment Issues Lot's of money could be wasted if your community is not sustainable

Acceptance • Is your e-learning: • An interest of a group of enthusiasts • A pilot experiment for your department • Part of your institution's overall strategy • Small-scale usage: • Can provide quick, effective solutions • Danger of lack of sustainability if enthusiasts leave, priorities change, etc. • Concept proven – but organisation selects alternative application for deployment Deployment Issues A bottom-up development needs to plan for success, such as organisational deployment

Quality Assurance • Need to ensure that e-learning services : • Work correctly • Are maintained • Are widely accessible • Are widely interoperable • A Quality Assurance (QA) approach based on: • Documented policies • Systematic procedures for ensuring compliance • can help Deployment Issues QA Focus project funded to develop a QA framework and provide support materials. See <http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/qa-focus/>

Group Exercise Exercise • Based on what you have learnt so far you will now: • Develop a plan for an e-Learning strategy for your organisation • Work in small groups • Selection of groups to report back on key issues

E Issues For Report Back • Report back on: • Purpose of your e-learning work • Target audience • Plans for resources your e-learning work • Technical architecture • Risk assessment – what can go wrong • Other key areas

Report Back Exercise • Small number of volunteers wanted to give a brief report back on their approaches

Conclusions • In this sessions we've learnt that: • The technologies we've used are not the most important aspect • There are a wide range of strategic issues which need to be addressed • Failure to address the strategic issues by focussing only on technologies is likely to lead to expensive failures! Conclusions Jon Maber will continue this discussion on strategic issues next week

Questions? • Any questions? Conclusions

Approaches To E-Learning: Developing An E-Learning Strategy