by Derek Morrison, 26 Feburary 2009 – N.B. published also in the Higher Education Academy Gwella, Pathfinder and Enhancement Academy blogs
Although I don’t post much material related directly to my work with the UK Higher Education Academy where I think it might be of more general interest, as with this post, I’ll create a duplicate copy here.
Part of the ethos established by the Academy’s Benchmarking and Pathfinder Programme team at the early stages of that initiative was that participants in the programme should also be considered important potential contributors to the programme in the phases which followed. Why?
Simply because hearing about the experiences of institutions that had faced the challenges of planning and implementing change can bring an extraordinarly high degree of authenticity to all of our learning. In this vein one notable set of ongoing outcomes from the Benchmarking & Pathfinder Programme was the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) that were originally established to facilitate dissemination but also to provide a learning and development focus for other institutions in the programme that had not been in receipt of a Pathfinder grant. It is gratifying, therefore, following my recent round of visits to see that the work of these Special Interest Groups very much lives on and that their already significant membership list continues to grow.
So what has this to do with Enhancement Academy or Gwella, or the other initiatives the Academy is facilitating?
My personal view is that we all need to view such groups (call them networks, communities, alliances if you will) as potentially important resources for the UK HE sector. Indeed, (as I jump on my soapbox) networks such as these are as much a community-grounded facet of an “Academy” as are offices in York, Cardiff, Edinburgh, or a national network of Subject Centres. The particular strength of these groups is that they have always been self-managing and self-organising and while Academy representatives may attend events or meetings the steering groups remain autonomous and can follow their own agendas or, alternatively, explore alignments with national agendas/agencies (or both). Those institutions shortly to enter the Enhancement Academy or currently particiating in the Wales Gwella Programme should become aware of the work of these groups and other networks; your designated “critical friends” may facilitate introductions or even inputs if you perceive the work of these and other groups has relevance to what your institution would like to achieve during the duration of your Enhancement Academy or Gwella project.
So if your institution is not already represented you may wish to consider the value of membership by following the links below.
Quality Assurance to Quality Enhancement Special Interest Group (QA-QE SIG). The focus of this group is the transition from quality assurance to quality enhancement in e-Learning. QA-QESIG originated from a Pathfinder Network Project led by the Institute of Education in collaboration with the Quality Assurance Agency, University of Derby, University of London External System, University of Reading, and the University of Teesside. The QA-QESIG website illustrates the range of activities and events the group offers.
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As its name suggests the Evaluations (and Investigations) of Learners’ Experiences of e-learning (ELESIG) focuses on the learner experience of learning facilitated by technology. As with the other groups its membership continues to grow and its events are always very worthwhile. For example, I attended an Impact Symposium with the theme of Impact of learner experience research using evidence to influence policy (London Knowledge Lab, 29 January 2009) which included a very stimulating activity in the form of an Evidence-based Claims Game led by the Institute of Education’s Martin Oliver which was designed to elicit claims about technology enhanced learning with implications for policy and practice but, crucially, supported by evidence. Small groups discussion identified elements of each others’ research and practice, the elements were recorded as claims on a flip chart sheet and a supporting evidence sources identified, that claim generator group then dispersed to other tables leaving their claims sheet behind, new groups then formed to critique and refine the claims and evidence chain, the original groups then reformed to repair their critiqued original work. This type of community oriented work by ELESIG and the other groups mentioned in this posting has potential synergies with the work of the nascent EvidenceNet (previously known as the Research Observatory) which will be hosted and facilitated by the Academy.
The Podcasting for Pedagogic Purposes Special Interest Group (PPPSIG) also has a growing membership and a vibrant set of events and activities. I attended their most recent event ( 24 February 2009, University of Leicester). The focus of this group is how learning, teaching, and assessment can be facilitated by the use of automatically downloadable digital media for use in mobile devices and as such spans theoretical, practical and policy aspects. In common with the other groups, events are hosted by the participating HEIs which also gives them an opportunity to showcase their work. The event at the University of Leicester included a keynote by Gilly Salmon and feedback on the work of the University of Leicester – Impala Projects (Informal Mobile Podcasting And Learning Adaptation) which is one of the project sets hosted by the Beyond Distance Research Alliance. There was also feedback from the team involved in the Informal Mobile Podcasting And Learning Adaptation for Transition (IMPALA4T) who gave a most interesting presentation on their work to date on the use of podcasts as a rich media form providing the authentic voice of students in transition. Aspects of this work can be found on that project’s StartingUni web site. What’s particularly interesting, and perhaps a little ironic, is that the podcasting arena seems to be particularly oriented to publishing in good old fashioned book form. For example, the PPPSIG are currently working on a collaborative book with the working title “Creative Voices” and of course we already have Podcasting for Learning in Universities (Gilly Salmon, Palitha Edirisingha, Eds, 2008, McGraw Hill).
In the title of this posting Authentic Voices Authentic Resources I’ve attempted to capture what, for me, made the Benchmarking & Pathfinder Programme so worthwhile. While, through over and inappropriate use we risk turning the concept of “synergy” into yet another cliche, I think that these three groups which started life as Pathfinder Network Projects are demonstrating the power of synergy when motivated individuals form interest groups which seek to benefit from the interchange of ideas, information, experiences, opinions, and – yes – evidence. Long may they continue and mega credit to the steering groups who are keeping their respective shows on the road. It is the existence of such groups that perhaps offers at least some hope of sustainability beyond the lifetime of whatever programme and associated projects has currency and precedence in the minds of funders, developers and implementers.
