Recently I was asked to give a presentation to a group of lifelong learning tutors at my university wih the theme 'e-Learning in the lifelong learning context – opportunities and challenges' and so this post provides a brief summary of this event. Most UK HEIs are still pretty much based on the premise that most students turn up on campus so that the teaching can be delivered. The Government's Lifelong Learning agenda, however, has led to an increased number of 'tutors' who are usually part time and who 'teach' on modules covering a wide range of subject areas, including arts and humanities, languages, IT, archaeology, philosophy and so on. And students are not necessarily 'on-campus'. Online learning and Lifelong Learning should be complementary concepts, but how are these part time tutors to be prepared for what we all know can be a challenging role?
First, here's a little background to help establish the framework for my presentation. The majority of the lifelong learning courses are now accredited by the university. In a university context such lifelong learning usually implies mature learners. Each course is designated as 100 hours of study, and this breaks down into 20 hours of face-to-face contact and 80 hours of private study.
Accredited lifelong learning courses attract central funding and so they are subject to the same scrutiny and requirement for assessment as any other university course.
Such accreditation, however, is a break with the traditional model of liberal adult education in which such courses could be free from formal assessment. Non-accredited courses can still be part of the portfolio of lifelong learning but they have to be self financing. At the same time the real costs and the assessment requirement can be a positive disincentive to adult learners who wish to learn for learning's sake. And so many non accredited lifelong learning courses are being considered economically unviable with a concomitant rise in the accredited course. The role of the tutor is such accredited lifelong learning is key to the success of such courses and so it's important their staff development needs as met, particularly when they are expected to support online learners.
When I was asked to give the presentation it was clear from the discussions I had at the time that whilst the word 'e-learning' was familiar, there was little understanding into its meaning. I asked the rather pointless question 'Why do you want to do e learning?' As expected the silence spoke volumes! It was an unfair question but it did give me my starting point by listing the drivers that e-learning may help to address.
Here's my list with some brief comments of what I had in mind. It's not exhaustive but it did prove to be a useful stimulus for discussion and questions after the presentation.
• Offering a more flexible way to study
- The fixed two hours a week face-to face is too restrictive and could be excluding a large number of students.
• Keeping ahead of the competition
- Competition is not only coming from other academic institutions but also from independent providers who increasingly are offering online courses.
• Coping with a wide range of abilities
- There is often a range of abilities of students starting on life-long learning courses and it is difficult to help those that struggle when the face-to-face time is so short
• Ensuring that the course is at a level that is appropriate for university study
- Often the wider university community considers that lifelong learning courses have no place in universities. It is incumbent on those responsible for the delivery of the courses to show that their courses do stand up to any academic scrutiny. At my university there is the intention of providing part-time degrees and this can only increase these demands.
• Supporting the private study time
- The 80 hours of private study time is a very grey area and it is often difficult to justify how it is being used. At Boards of Study the external examiners are increasingly questioning the utilisation of this time. Again this can only become more important for any degree level course.
• Developing a sense of community
- The two hour weekly meeting does provide some sense of community, but the students can feel isolated at the other times. This does intensify when problems arise during the week perhaps when faced with difficulties when working on an assignment.
• Providing better student support by giving timely feedback on their work
- The time for feedback on work submitted by students can be up to two weeks – or longer – from the time when the student first started the work. This represents a significant proportion of the time for the complete course.
• Analysis of the end of course feedback
- All students on lifelong learning courses complete a questionnaire and they can provide a valuable insight into areas that need to be addressed in the course.
When you look at the list of drivers these do become the opportunities and challenges that the talk was all about. My audience in the main had no experience of e-learning and its possibilities to address some of these opportunities and challenges. In the time I had available I couldn't possibly do an in-depth analysis, but I did hope to end up with tutors having some feel for what this is about and stimulating them to look at each of their courses to see if they could put the 'e' into the course.
I mean 'enhanced' when I refer to 'e' in this context.
In my presentation I considered:
• Recognising that learner behaviours and expectations are changing
• Plugging-in to pedagogy, not a browser
• Thinking of e-learning as a process not as content or a single product – in other words e-learning is about process not an event
• Designing with an 'e' framework of outcomes, events and activities, resources and assessment in mind
• VLEs – first generation and the later open source alternatives
• eTools
- Weblogs
- Wikis
- RSS
- Podcasting
- Discussion forums
I gave examples of the VLEs and each of the eTools. Weblogs and Wikis produced a lot of interest and discussion after the presentation. In particular the concept of a Wiki was difficult to take on-board. The Wikipedia entry about the London bombing of the 7th July help clarify the concept by showing how the wiki entry had developed from its first entry within hours of the events unfolding. My audience was impressed and sold on the potential of wikis!
So what was achieved? In the feedback that I received after the event, the presentation has raised a number of questions in the tutor's minds and also some concerns. The concerns were largely about the extra work that could be generated for the part-time tutors and also some anxiety about the use of the new technologies.
A positive outcome is that a discussion forum will be created for the tutors because they too sometimes feel isolated and in need of peer support.
So what's the general message? Quite simple really. With the increasing migration away from non-accredited course to accredited lifelong learning in HE plus the expectation that online learning will make a significant contribution, the tutor's role becomes essential and their ongoing development critical.
