INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY IN
SCOTTISH FURTHER EDUCATION
COLLEGES
AN ASPECT REPORT FOR SFEFC BY HMIE
ICT in Scottish Further Education Colleges
Foreword by Her Majesty’s Senior Chief Inspector
This report has been prepared by HM Inspectorate of Education as part of our work on behalf of the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC) in accordance with the Service Level Agreement between us.
The report examines the impact of ICT initiatives on learning and teaching practices in Scottish further education colleges, and identifies more generally what constitutes effective use of ICT in support of learning and teaching.
The report commends the increasing awareness among senior college managers of the potential of ICT for improving the student experience, the growing confidence of college staff in using ICT, and the effective use of ICT in delivering on-line learning in flexible ways to students at various locations.
Further improvement in the use of ICT can be achieved through well-targeted staff
development, more flexible deployment of staff, the development of more suitable learning materials, and more effective evaluation of the impact of ICT on student learning.
DA OSLER
CONTENTS
Page
1 Purpose 1
2 Methodology 1
3 Context 1
4 ICT in the colleges 2
4.1 Level and nature of activity 2
4.2 Evidence from the review process 3
4.3 Evidence from college visits 4
5 Approaches to ICT that support learning and teaching 4 5.1 Learner access to course and unit information 5
5.2 On-line learning materials 6
5.3 On-line tutorials as part of software packages 6
5.4 Simulation software 6
5.5 Support for learners through e-mail and conferencing 7
5.6 Computer-administered assessment 8
5.7 Virtual learning environments 9
5.8 Videoconferencing/netmeeting 9
5.9 Use of ICT for class presentation and demonstration 10
6 ICT in support of teaching 10
6.1 Effectiveness of teaching 10
6.2 Responsiveness to group and individual needs 11
6.3 Development of core skills 12
6.4 Promotion of achievement 12
6.5 Use of ICT resources 12
6.6 Quality of feedback to learners 12
7 ICT in support of learning 13
7.1 Planning for learning 13
7.2 Learner motivation 13
7.3 Progress in learning 14
7.4 Personal responsibility for learning 14
7.5 Interaction with others 15
7.6 Confidence in use of ICT materials and resources 15
8 Conclusions and recommendations 16
8.1 Conclusions 16
8.2 Recommendations 17
Appendix 1 Glossary 19
Appendix 2 Good practice identified in college reviews 20
Appendix 3 Illustrative practice identified through college visits 22
1.
Purpose
This report assesses the extent to which the investment in Information and
Communications Technology (ICT) in Scottish further education colleges over recent years has affected practices in learning and teaching. It focuses on the extent to which certain aspects of ICT are represented in the current practice of colleges and their staff, and evaluates their effectiveness in supporting learning and teaching. More generally, the report sets out the characteristics of effective use of ICT in support of learning and teaching.
The term ICT refers to a range of information and communications technology including computer workstations and display facilities, software, specialist hardware, technology based recording and processing systems for sound, still and moving images, and a wide range of associated communications facilities. Appendix 1 of the report is a glossary which explains abbreviations used in the text.
2.
Methodology
The report is based on a combination of desk research, discussions with national agencies and visits by HM Inspectors (HMI) to eight randomly selected FE colleges. The desk research draws on review and inspection reports published by HMI over the past two years. It also draws on evidence from individual lesson evaluations during HMI reviews conducted since August 2000, from which date reviewers' reports have included the evaluation of ICT use in learning and teaching. HMI also held
discussions with staff in Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTScotland) and the Scottish Further Education Unit (SFEU) to ascertain the extent to which these bodies' initiatives and projects were impacting on learning and teaching practice. In the eight colleges visited, structured interviews with tutors and learners provided insights into how effectively particular aspects of ICT supported their teaching or learning. The evaluations in the report are based on the quality indicators for learning and teaching as set out in the Scottish Further Education Funding Council (SFEFC)/HMI Quality Framework (Quality Element A5: Teaching and learning process). The college visits and interviews were planned to provide information on typical uses of ICT in engineering, business and management, core skills development and remote learning. HMI also explored the range of information available on these colleges’ websites.
3.
Context
The use of ICT in support of learning and teaching has been the subject of various initiatives in the FE sector in recent years. Since the early 1980s, several agencies have promoted the use of ICT in the sector, including the Microelectronics
Educational Development Centre (MEDC), the Scottish Council for Educational Technology (SCET) and SFEU. The work of these agencies has raised the general level of awareness of ICT among FE tutors. In addition, these and other initiatives have resulted in a substantial body of information and guidance that is accessible to any college wishing to use ICT effectively and efficiently in support of its learning and teaching.
Scottish FE colleges have good access to a range of support mechanisms to help them plan, resource and implement ICT projects. These include the national agencies such as LTScotland, SFEU, the British Educational Communications Technology Agency (BECTa), the Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) and initiatives funded by SFEFC, by European organisations and by Scottish Enterprise and its agencies. There are also partnership arrangements among colleges, for example, the Colleges Open Learning Exchange Group (COLEG), the Glasgow Telecolleges Network (GTN) and the UHI Millennium Institute (UHIMI). Some funded projects aim to deliver learning opportunities to small and medium enterprises. They seek to improve access to and take up of training for employees as part of the government's drive to make Scotland competitive in the knowledge economy. Some ICT projects aim to benefit the whole sector, those relating, for example, to the delivery of basic skills and core skills. Others focus on topics in specific subject areas such as financial record keeping and engineering design.
All colleges are experiencing an increase in the number of learners who require open or flexible access to learning, including distance learning. ICT provides a number of technological solutions to help colleges meet these needs, including
videoconferencing and Internet (Web) access. Increasingly, these ICT-based solutions are being extended to be available to all learners, including full-time students.
Investment in the ICT infrastructure in Scottish FE colleges has improved
significantly in recent years, particularly since the Government allocated specific funding for the FE component of the National Grid for Learning (NGfL). The most recent advance has been to link all the FE colleges to the UK joint academic network (JANET), giving them a guaranteed capacity for external network connections. This improvement in funding for the infrastructure has been matched by a corresponding increase in specific funding for staff development in ICT and for the production of content suitable for electronic delivery. SFEFC's well-defined strategy for ICT guides its planning for development and informs the range of initiatives which it funds across the sector.
Investment in the ICT infrastructure has helped colleges meet the objectives set out by the Government in respect of developing skills for employability in a knowledge economy. All college learners have the opportunity to acquire ICT skills as part of their programmes of study, particularly skills in the use of the Internet. Learners have access to ICT facilities either in colleges themselves, outreach centres, local libraries or community learning centres. There are schemes in place to provide ICT equipment loans for learners who are housebound owing to disability and for learners in
disadvantaged families. Increasing home ownership of personal computers and home Internet access also extends the potential for learners to do most of their learning remote from the college.
4.
ICT in the colleges
4.1 Level and nature of activity
A considerable volume of ICT-based activity took place in all colleges, in specialist ICT rooms, libraries, learning resource centres and flexible learning centres. A large
proportion of this activity centred around the acquisition of ICT skills, usually in relation to word-processing, spreadsheet, database, presentation software and to the Internet. Other activities involved the use of software for vocational purposes, such as office administration, accounting, computer aided design, and information systems. Another significant proportion of ICT-based activity related to learners using software tools to produce reports or access information from the Internet.
Only a small proportion of ICT activity related to its use by tutors to support their teaching and by learners directly to support their learning. This report deals with such uses of ICT for pedagogical purposes. In these cases there was a specific purpose to the use of ICT to help the tutor deliver effective teaching and to help learners learn effectively and improve their attainment. Through the use of ICT, learners:
• improved their access to information
• organised information and detected patterns
• observed and modified the behaviour of systems and analysed the results
• communicated with others in a systematic manner
• engaged in learning using on-line materials.
These and other activities gave learners opportunities to extend their learning and make more effective connections between theory and practice. One reason why such activities were not more prevalent was the lack of confidence with ICT exhibited by a significant minority of college staff.
4.2 Evidence from the review process
HMI reports place increasing emphasis on the impact of ICT on the quality of the learner experience. A total of 133 explicit evaluations of the provision for ICT were made in 40 subject reports since the introduction of the SFEFC/HMI Quality
Framework in 2000. Of these evaluations, 61% were positive, and identified instances where subject departments had good ICT equipment and were making effective use of ICT in their learning and teaching. The remaining 39% were negative evaluations, drawing attention to either a lack of ICT resources available to staff and learners or a lack of development of ICT in the approaches to learning and teaching in that subject. A total of 12 main points for action (some 6% of the main points for action across all colleges) made explicit mention of improvements required in ICT provision or use. A total of 11 of the good practice examples in these reports (13% of the total across all colleges) highlighted commendable use of ICT. These
11 examples are reproduced in Appendix 2.
A similar analysis of the eight HMI inspection reports published between May 1999 and October 2000 showed a much smaller incidence of references to ICT (a total of 68 across 55 subject inspection reports). Just over 50% of these evaluations were positive in contrast to the 61% for the more recent period.
Individual lesson evaluations also provide an indicator of the incidence of ICT use in colleges recently reviewed. There were explicit references to the use of ICT in learning and teaching in 46 of the 380 lesson evaluations. This was 12% of the total.
Almost all of these evaluations described the use of ICT as making a positive contribution to learning and teaching.
4.3 Evidence from college visits
Staff in all eight colleges visited were acutely aware of the need to effect improvements in the way they resourced and managed ICT in order to secure
SFEFC's objectives for ICT. Senior managers were well informed about the range of initiatives under way in the sector. They recognised the influence of SFEFC,
learndirect scotland, LTScotland and SFEU on developments. They noted an increasing availability of ICT products for learning and teaching, both from
commercial sources and from funded projects. However, managers recognised that careful evaluation of these products was necessary to establish their potential and their usefulness in an FE context.
In each college HMI interviewed tutors, in groups and singly. These tutors had been selected by college managers because they were using ICT to support one or more groups of students. Their views, commitment and active involvement in the delivery of ICT-based education were not necessarily representative of the sector, but shed useful light on current good practice. These tutors all expressed a personal interest in developing their professional role to make more effective use of ICT. HMI found that senior managers and tutors alike were enthusiastic about current ICT projects under development. However, even the selected examples of practice instanced by individuals were sometimes tentative or partial. Overall, the evidence from the college visits confirmed the statements in sections 3 and 4.1 above, that good practice remained sparse.
The colleges visited were pursuing active programmes of staff development in ICT for all staff. However, not all tutors were willing participants and some remained sceptical about the value of ICT for their own teaching. Some tutors indicated that their own ICT-related skills were limited and inhibited their use of ICT approaches to broaden the student experience. In a few colleges, senior management had provided incentives for tutors to be involved in the development of ICT approaches to learning and teaching. In one case a challenge fund provided the additional resources for such developments. In another, tutors involved were rewarded with improved ICT
equipment for departmental use.
Appendix 3 presents a number of illustrations of ICT in use to support learning and teaching. However, ICT was used in only a small proportion of all the learning and teaching activities across colleges. In all colleges there were specialist areas which had been relatively unaffected by the availability of ICT approaches. In two of the colleges there was no intranet yet in place. In two others, tutors had difficulty in accessing personal ICT facilities to help them develop new approaches. The sections that follow should be read in this context. References to tutor use of particular ICT approaches refer to the selected sample of tutors interviewed by HMI.
5.
Approaches to ICT that support learning and teaching
This chapter sets out the range of ICT approaches found in colleges. It provides a brief description of each approach together with an estimate of the prevalence of its
use in the sector. HMI noted that tutors using ICT approaches effectively had taken steps to ensure that:
• sufficient ICT resources were available to learners in the right place at the right time
• learners had sufficient ICT skills to allow them to use the specialist ICT applications or access the Internet
• ICT-based activities dovetailed with the other learning and teaching approaches chosen for the course.
Tutors also made good use of exemplar materials now available on Internet web sites to help them in their planning.
5.1 Learner access to course and unit information
Information about courses and units can be accessed in electronic format through ICT in a number of ways. The information can be stored on a stand-alone system, on a college network, or on a web server for internal (intranet) and external (Internet) access. Software tools are also available to help the user find information easily and quickly.
Most of the colleges visited had a corporate web site. All intended to have one in place by the end of 2001. The websites were mostly attractive, welcoming and easily accessible. In general they provided the equivalent of the college prospectus in web form. The web sites typically provided outline lists of courses and units for
programmes. However, they did not provide enough detail of these components to enable students to make informed choices without consulting specialist or guidance tutors.
All colleges visited had internal networks in place that allowed tutors to make course notes in electronic format available to learners using shared folders. A few did not yet have intranet facilities developed to the level where learners could access web-based materials directly across the college network. In several colleges some tutors had rented space on an external web provider and used this method of making web-based notes accessible to learners either from the college or, increasingly, from home. Staff initially offered learners their notes in standard text formats. As their own experience grew, they were converting these to HyperText Markup Language (HTML) format for web-based delivery through either intranet or Internet arrangements. An increasing number of staff were using Microsoft PowerPoint presentations for the delivery of content and then making them available in electronic form to learners for their own use in revision and remediation. For many tutors such presentations were the most common first steps in ICT.
College guidance teams and careers advisory services gave learners access to software products such as PROGRESS, PLAN-IT, and TELL to help them plan their next steps. One college had developed software to help students determine for themselves which units they should take in order to complete a particular award. SFEFC had provided funding to make this on-line software available to all colleges.
5.2 On-line learning materials
On-line learning materials provide the learner with unmediated access to learning materials in electronic form. These materials can be delivered using a range of ICT solutions, including CD-ROM, web server technology or specialised software. Materials can be very brief, such as a short lesson on a single topic, or extensive, for example, a series of CD-ROMs covering a whole course of study. On-line learning materials can be purely text based, or they can incorporate a full range of multimedia and hypermedia elements. Most incorporate elements of interaction to help the learning process, for example, by illustrating a concept through animation and to help the learner track his/her progress. Commercial companies market CD-ROM and web based training packages for a range of standard software products. These products are generally of high quality, making extensive use of graphics and animation to enhance the learning process. Colleges can benefit from campus-wide or nationally-negotiated licensing arrangements for these products.
HMI found on-line lessons used for delivery of courses and units in all the colleges visited, spread across most subject departments. These were most commonly in CD-ROM format. The number of on-line lessons in a web based format was smaller but increasing. On-line learning materials included commercial training products and materials developed by college tutors as part of local initiatives or consortium arrangements. The commercial products were used mainly for training in the use of software packages such as Word, Excel, Access, PowerPoint and Internet Explorer.
5.3 On-line tutorials as part of software packages
Standard software packages for business or technical use incorporate internal help and tutorial facilities to support users. Most of this help is hypermedia based and the tutorials are interactive, allowing the learner to practise the use of a particular feature of the software. These help facilities form a resource which can be used to enrich the learner experience.
HMI found that tutors rarely incorporated these on-line resources into their formal planning for a unit, but usually made use of them in an ad hoc way to provide assistance to learners. This ad hoc approach did not capitalise on the potential to provide learners with an important set of skills in the use of software packages by using the on-line help.
5.4 Simulation software
Simulation software provides the capability to simulate the operation of a physical or logical system, and explore the way in which the system responds to changes. It is of particular value for systems that are too complex, expensive or dangerous to be studied in real life.
The most widespread use of simulation software by colleges was in technology, where it was used effectively to help learners make the connection between theory and practice. Simulation software was also an important tool in certain aspects of engineering where it would be dangerous or uneconomic for learners to work on a
real-life system. Learners benefited particularly from software that allowed them to program a computer-controlled machine tool and then simulate its operation before transferring the code to the machine tool for production purposes. Other uses of simulation software in technology included electronic circuit design and pneumatic systems design. HMI also found simulation software in use in other subject areas including business, computing, mathematics and science. However, tutors did not use simulation software widely enough in the teaching of these subjects.
5.5 Support for learners through e-mail and conferencing
5.5.1 E-mail systems
E-mail supports communication among learners by providing the capability to send and receive electronic messages, store and forward them, and use group distribution lists. Colleges can provide e-mail services to tutors and learners as part of their network services. Free e-mail addresses are widely available to Internet users, including learners who access the Internet through college facilities.
The most obvious and common use of e-mail was for the support of learners who were unable to have regular face-to-face contact with their tutor. Colleges with significant numbers of remote learners had built up expertise in this form of communication and support. HMI found this mode of support being used for all learners in colleges with good quality network provision. In most of the colleges visited, all full-time learners had been given a unique e-mail address on the college system.
Where learners had e-mail on the college system, they made good use of the potential to contact tutors without having to make an appointment to see them or search them out. Tutors used e-mail to communicate with individual learners as well as groups of learners. This had improved their contact with learners who were poor attenders or who had become disaffected. Tutors used e-mail for a range of purposes, including notification of key events and the transmission of assessment details. Learners had become increasingly confident at submitting completed assessments by e-mail. Tutors found that e-mail exchanges with learners provided added insights into the problems that troubled learners most.
HMI found that in all colleges there was considerable use of e-mail for internal communication, tutor-learner communication and learner-learner communication. E-mail was particularly useful for learners who were required to move location over their period of study. This included off-shore workers, those at sea and armed services personnel. E-mail support for remote learners was almost always
complemented by other forms of communication including postal, fax and telephone. Increasingly, tutors and learners used e-mail to communicate with other institutions and with other learners, including those in other countries. HMI found also that some tutors had recognised the value of conducting certain types of electronic exchange in a more structured environment, and had moved from e-mail to electronic conferencing in such cases.
5.5.2 Electronic conferencing and bulletin boards
Conferencing allows a defined group of users to engage in a threaded discussion of a topic. The simpler facilities of bulletin boards provide a forum for tutors to broadcast messages to groups of learners.
Most of the colleges provided facilities for electronic conferencing. This was usually provided as part of a virtual learning environment (VLE). However, HMI found that while a majority of tutors interviewed used bulletin boards, only a few were using electronic conferencing. Those who had used threaded discussions reported that they provided useful insights into aspects of learning that were most problematic for learners. Tutors controlled these discussions by moderating the contributions and deciding when to close the discussion. However, successful use of this approach required the tutor to invest a considerable amount of time. This was particularly important in the early stages of a discussion when it was important to stimulate learner participation and maintain the relevance of contributions. Participation in conferences demanded some maturity on the part of learners and this may explain why most use of conferencing was observed with higher education classes.
5.5.3 Internet relay chat
Internet relay chat (IRC) provides the facility for simultaneous exchange of text messages between two or more participants. The scope of this facility can be restricted to a selected group of users.
Most colleges provided facilities for chat rooms. Learners used the chat room allocated to their group to contact their tutor. This was useful for remote learners for whom telephone contact was difficult. It was also used by tutors working with groups of remote learners. Tutor used e-mail or a bulletin board to intimate their availability. Remote learners then joined in a series of text exchanges, either singly or jointly. Exchanges tended to be short and to the point. Tutors found it difficult to provide a welcoming and supportive environment, mainly due to the lack of visual and verbal clues and to the informal and shorthand form of the exchanges. A few learners reported using chat rooms to meet other learners, although they acknowledged that this could be time-wasting and distracting. The general experience of tutors was that IRC diminished in usefulness as learners became more competent and confident in their use of the other communication means available to them.
5.6 Computer-administered assessment
Computer-administered assessment (CAA) provides opportunities for learners to undertake assessments at a time suitable to their circumstances and stage of learning. CAA can provide valuable information to the tutor by automatically analysing the performance of individuals and groups.
In spite of these advantages HMI found very little formal use of CAA in colleges. Most CD-ROM based learning products incorporated self-testing in the form of quizzes or student-assessed questions (SAQs). Self-testing was appreciated by
learners in helping them assess their progress and guide their further study. However, only a few tutors made any significant use of this information for formal assessment purposes, preferring to rely on traditional modes of assessment.
Over the period covered by this report, the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) was conducting some pilots of CAA for summative assessment purposes, and some of the colleges reviewed were participating in these pilot studies. A number of tutors expressed concerns to HMI about the effects of extensive ICT use on the authenticity of submitted work for assessment purposes, particularly where CAA was used.
5.7 Virtual learning environments
Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) provide tutors and learners with a framework within which learners access learning materials and tutor support. Tutors manage the pace and direction of the learning while monitoring individual learner progress. The elements of a VLE include controlled access to a curriculum subdivided into small sections, a system of tracking learner activity, access to learning resources,
assessment and guidance, and a means of communication among tutors and learners. HMI found some form of VLE in use in all colleges, although in some the VLE was provided externally and accessed via an Internet link. There was uncertainty in each of the colleges about which VLE product would be adopted eventually. Tutors tended to favour those VLEs that allowed them to import their learning materials in the format in which they were currently held, such as Word documents or PowerPoint
presentations. Those tutors who were presently using a range of ICT approaches were attracted to the adoption of a VLE as a way of pulling together their e-mail and learning materials into a single framework. In this way, tutors would have better control over learner access to the materials and better information on learner progress. Some tutors were not keen to make use of the tracking mechanisms of the VLE, fearing that this level of monitoring of student activity might be intrusive and over-bureaucratic.
5.8 Videoconferencing/netmeeting
Videoconferencing (VC) is a medium of synchronous communication allowing the transmission of video images and audio between two sites, or among many sites by using a VC bridge. The use of VC requires learners and the tutor to be in fixed locations at an agreed time.
VC was in use to support remote learners in half of the colleges visited, mainly for lessons or tutor-learner contact. Those colleges that were partner institutions in the UHIMI had been using VC as a significant mode of delivery for some two years, particularly for degree programmes. They had progressed from using expensive fixed equipment to smaller portable units and were now making good use of PC based VC to expand the number of learners who could access VC facilities. Their experience was that VC on its own was not sufficient to support remote learners adequately. Colleges provided learners with an appropriate mix of VC, e-mail, and telephone contact along with on-line or paper based support materials. Their experience had showed that tutor staff development was critical to the successful use of VC for learner support. It was also important that learners themselves should have training to gain the maximum benefit from VC sessions.
A small number of colleges used network products that allowed tutors and learners to share views of each others’ computer screens. These products worked across the
Internet as well as within the college's own network. They made it possible for tutors to demonstrate to remote learners how particular software packages worked, and for tutors to view remote learners’ screens to assess where they were going wrong.
5.9 Use of ICT for class presentation and demonstration
ICT provides facilities for the presentation of information to groups. Data projectors can be connected to computer systems to project slide sequences or demonstrate the operation of software. SmartBoard technology allows an image to be presented on the board, edited and then saved for future recall.
In a number of recent subject reviews, HMI drew attention to the impact of improved ICT presentation tools on the quality of learning and teaching. A number of colleges had invested in data projectors in classrooms. These were used to demonstrate software to class groups and to deliver presentations prepared in either PowerPoint or web-enabled formats. In some cases tutors used these projection arrangements to take learners through an on-line learning unit from an Internet web site.
A more recent innovation in a small number of colleges was the combination of data projector and SmartBoard technology. This allowed the tutor to add further elements to a projected image and then save the combined image for learners to access in electronic form. These approaches to presentation in the classroom reduced the need for learners to be distracted by taking notes, secure in the knowledge that electronic versions were available to them. These methods of presentation improved the learner experience.
6.
ICT in support of teaching
The following evaluations are based on the examples of ICT use found in the eight colleges visited by HMI. Interviews were conducted with tutors covering some 45 programmes of study.
6.1 Effectiveness of teaching
The majority of tutors made particular reference to the demands that ICT made on their teaching methods. They had accepted that they could not present themselves to learners as the only source of knowledge. Most tutors encouraged their learners to adopt a more enquiring approach using ICT, allowing tutors more flexibility in the use of their time to support learners. Tutors used ICT approaches to address individual learning styles, providing dynamic links to external sources and to revision materials. They observed that providing learners with access to alternative approaches to a topic through the Internet or by using other software often improved their understanding. Many tutors noted that not all learners were comfortable using ICT to access and use materials from other sources. They had to be sensitive to situations where the use of ICT might not be effective for an individual learner.
Tutors used ICT to improve their presentation of information without having to create new materials. For example, they accessed materials on the Internet. They made increasing use of the college network as an alternative resource for learners, extending the ways in which learners accessed information and help. They encouraged learners
to improve their understanding by revisiting lessons stored in electronic form on the network. Business and management tutors made effective use of the Internet to access information and to link to Internet web sites designed specifically for learning and teaching in their subject.
Engineering tutors made effective use of ICT approaches to link theory with practice, using software to give learners access to video clips of real systems or links to
external case studies on the Internet. They used simulation software with learners to explore the dynamic behaviour of systems under study. Software for graphing experimental results improved learners' understanding of relationships between factors in simulated environments. Tutors also made effective use of ICT to improve learners' visualisation of system operation in technology and science. They accessed up to date technical information via the Internet to make aspects of their teaching relevant to current industrial practice. Tutors delivering to remote learners used videoconferencing to improve the effectiveness of delivery of lessons and tutorials.
6.2 Responsiveness to group and individual needs
Tutors made good use of particular features of ICT to identify and respond to the needs of individuals and groups. This included e-mail and conferencing and, in a few cases, a virtual learning environment that provided the tutor with detailed information on student progress. Tutors used ICT to extend the resources available for
remediation, such as simulation software that allowed learners to explore alternative ways of doing things. They encouraged learners to make use of the help facilities embedded in software packages so that they could get immediate access to initial support as and when they required it. In all colleges, tutors were making increasing use of professionally-designed software, usually from commercial sources, which provided easy navigation for learners to revisit sections of work or to obtain definitions of terms.
Most tutors were making use of open-ended enquiry tasks, particularly using the Internet, to provide challenges for the more able. However, HMI found that little was available yet to help less able students. They also identified a risk that these learners might be disadvantaged if the learning was dependent on a particular ICT skill such as the use of a graphics package.
Those tutors who were making use of bulletin boards or electronic conferencing monitored the discussions and exchanges. They used this information to intervene at the level of an individual learner or the level of the group. However, this kind of practice was at an early stage for most tutors. Tutors who used e-mail, mainly for remote learners, were able to engage more directly with the needs of individual learners. They indicated that this method of communication made it easier for the more reticent learners to articulate their difficulties. One consequence of this was a significant increase in the amount of time needed by a tutor supporting a group of learners. Most reported that resource planning in their departments did not take this sufficiently into account.
A few tutors used ICT for synchronous communication with remote learners to improve their responsiveness to their needs. This included the use of
conversations, and software products which allowed tutor and learner to remotely share a computer screen. Tutor experience of chat rooms was that as learners gained in confidence their use of this method of communication diminished rapidly.
6.3 Development of core skills
HMI found that most tutors using ICT approaches made good use of open-ended assignments involving the Internet. These assignments developed learners' skills in enquiry and encouraged them to find out things for themselves. In all colleges, learners were provided with induction to equip them with the requisite skills for the use of ICT in learning. This included basic skills in ICT and covered access to
information and the evaluation of its quality. Where learners made extensive use of e-mail they developed good skills in electronic communication. However, some tutors noted that learners who made extensive use of e-mail sometimes displayed an
informality and lack of structure in their written, assessable work.
6.4 Promotion of achievement
Tutors used the increased level and detail of planning for units to be delivered using ICT to identify milestones for progress and promote an ethos of achievement for learners. They also used open-ended assignments or provided CD-ROM based materials to encourage learners to go beyond the minimum requirements for the unit of study. Most tutors reported that the use of ICT enabled early identification of learners who were at risk and also provided the tutor with a range of strategies for providing additional support. Tutors encouraged learners to use the self-assessments in learning packages to gauge their own progress. However, few tutors themselves made any significant use of this information.
In some subjects the ICT skills being learnt were vocational and highly significant to learners’ progression into employment or to promotion. Office technology, graphic design and engineering design were specific examples seen in the college visits. This vocational context for the ICT encouraged learners to succeed.
6.5 Use of ICT resources
Evidence from subject reviews indicated that the overall incidence of the use of ICT resources in support of learning and teaching was low. Also, a significant proportion of the negative comments made by reviewers in relation to ICT referred to the lack of use of ICT resources, even where they were available. Of the 380 lesson observations examined as part of this study, only 46 reported the use of ICT in lesson delivery. It should be noted that in many of these 46 lessons learners were acquiring skills in the use of ICT, such as in computing or office technology units. In a smaller proportion of lessons, ICT was a specific component of the learning and teaching, for example, the use of a CD-ROM to explore the function of the respiratory system. Where ICT resources were being used, most tutors and learners demonstrated appropriate levels of skill in their use. However, in a small minority of lessons, the use of ICT resources was ineffective or poorly planned.
6.6 Quality of feedback to learners
Tutors made good use of ICT to ensure that learners received useful and timely feedback on their progress. This included self-assessment using on-line software, e-mail to individual learners and postings to shared areas such as bulletin boards. Where the learning materials had been developed in-house, tutors had been careful to include SAQs or on-line quizzes in the material to provide an appropriate level of interaction. Most of the on-line learning materials seen provided good navigation tools to help learners find their way to any part of the materials.
Tutors who communicated with learners using electronic means made effective use of this medium to respond to individual and group needs. Both tutors and learners made good use of this method of communication to take a more reflective approach to question and answer. While most tutors recognised the potential to use these exchanges as a source for the construction of a Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) resource, very few had been able to find the time to carry out such an exercise.
7.
ICT in support of learning
The following evaluations are based on the examples of ICT use found in the colleges visited by HMI. Interviews were conducted with tutors covering some 45
programmes of study, and with ten groups of students who had been using ICT in support of their learning.
7.1 Planning for learning
In a few cases, learners could use the college intranet to access information about their course, such as the phasing of units across blocks and assessment schedules. In other cases learners could access a web page devoted to an individual subject and find there all the details required for the study of that subject, such as lists of resources and schedules. The availability of this information helped learners organise their learning to best effect. Some learners were using e-mail contact with their tutors to help them organise their own work. VLEs, where used, provided learners with explicit support for their planning for learning. The VLE generally provided them with access to the course calendar showing the key dates for course submissions and course completion. All learners interviewed were confident in their use of word-processing, spreadsheet and database software to improve their personal productivity in relation to reports and assignments. Almost all were competent and confident in their skills in capturing information from web sites and incorporating this into their personal notes and
reports. However, very few learners had access to software products which supported planning or scheduling.
7.2 Learner motivation
Almost all learners used ICT resources regularly, mostly to support their personal productivity through the use of standard tools such as word-processing and Internet access.
The majority of learners appreciated the flexibility that ICT offered them in planning their own learning. This was particularly true for learners who had constraints on the times that they could attend or had irregular patterns of attendance. There was an increasing number of learners who used ICT to help them continue their studies even when their circumstances had changed, for example, being moved to another location by their employer. The remote learners interviewed all valued the access that ICT gave them to learning that would have otherwise been denied to them.
Most learners indicated that they found the range of formats in which information was provided through the medium of ICT to be stimulating and engaging. This included the use of graphics and multimedia elements as well as interactions built into the materials (such as SAQs). Learners were particularly motivated by the facility that ICT gave them to explore a wide range of options in a short time and with very little additional cost. They could vary the colour schemes or relative sizes in a design, or alter the parameters of a model to determine the change in behaviour of a system. HMI noted that ICT provided strong motivation for learners with learning difficulties and disabilities. ICT approaches presented these learners with opportunities to engage with stimulating learning materials and to do practical tasks that had satisfying
outcomes, for example, production of a birthday card using desktop publishing. Where use was made of links to Internet web sites, learners enjoyed the additional stimulus of engaging with materials that offered an alternative or complementary view of their subject. However, this created a problem for some learners in that the Internet offered too many distractions for them. Also, not all learners were
comfortable or worked well with information presented on a computer screen, particularly when the materials were entirely text based. A significant number reported that they often printed out the contents of a web site for the purposes of learning and for inclusion in their personal notes.
A few learners were less positive about their ICT experience. This was mostly linked to inadequacies in the technical infrastructure, such as poor Internet access. Other reasons included the poor quality of videoconferencing or whiteboard links, and the inability of college PCs to cope with multimedia elements contained in CD-ROM materials. In a few cases, the quality of the ICT materials led to an unsatisfactory experience for learners.
7.3 Progress in learning
Most learners found that they could measure their own progress when ICT was used to present the learning materials in small sections. This supported learning by giving confidence to those who were doing well and helping weaker learners to identify where they required remediation. Learners also reported that ICT helped them identify their preferred learning approach and offered them a richer set of resources than those available in parts of the course not supported by ICT. For a small number of learners, the level of ICT skills required to make effective use of the ICT resources had initially proved a barrier to their progress in learning. The tutor had to provide additional support to help them progress.
7.4 Personal responsibility for learning
Almost all learners acknowledged that the use of ICT had encouraged them to become independent in their learning. They had found that the provision of easy and good quality access to the Internet and the provision of lists of relevant web sites by tutors helped them quickly gain confidence in finding things out for themselves. Learners noted that some ICT approaches required them to make decisions about how and when they accessed the learning materials. Most learners had been able to manage their progress through the materials effectively.
Some learners had used simulation software or other modelling software such as spreadsheets to develop a problem-solving approach to aspects of their learning. This had helped them in the application of problem solving in a more general way.
7.5 Interaction with others
Remote learners welcomed the opportunities that ICT afforded them to interact with their tutors and with fellow learners. Videoconferencing was the most useful tool to promote a sense of a 'learning community', especially in the colleges that provided learner-learner VC sessions. However, the learner experience was that VC contact was not in itself sufficient to promote and sustain group cohesion. Colleges with significant numbers of remote learners had brought them all to the college for a
combined face-to-face induction event. Learners found that this helped them establish a clear identity as part of the college community, with equal rights to college
resources for advice and guidance.
There was conflicting evidence on whether learners on a course were likely to use e-mail and other network facilities to share materials and exchange information. Some learners had used chat rooms to interact with other learners, while others developed no sense of a 'learning community' even when the ICT resources to support this were accessible to them. Generally, learners were disappointed with the low levels of interaction with other learners. In some cases, learners reported that tutors were tardy in responding to e-mail requests for help. Where a VLE was being used, the existence of threaded discussions provided better impetus for learners to be involved in a
learning community. However, HMI noted that the cohesion of a group of learners still depended to a significant extent on the composition of the group rather than the particular environment in which they were learning.
Some learners reported that the opportunities to be in contact with learners elsewhere, including overseas, gave them access to a wider body of opinion than they would have had without ICT. They valued this support for their own learning.
7.6 Confidence in use of ICT learning materials and resources
The learners interviewed were nearing completion of their studies and reported high levels of competence and confidence in the use of ICT learning materials. However, this was not necessarily the case at the start of their course, and some mature learners had high initial levels of anxiety about the use of ICT. Most learners had received appropriate levels of induction to ICT and to the protocols of on-line learning, but some had required additional support to overcome their fear of the technology.
Almost all learners had gained in confidence by use of the Internet at an early stage to access and navigate through a rich set of resources.
HMI found that the use of ICT resources to help learners with disability improved their self-confidence and helped them to be more productive. This included students with visual impairment and with dyslexia.
In a minority of colleges, an institutional commitment to enhance the ICT skills of staff in a systematic and comprehensive way had led to improvements in staff competence. In other colleges, many staff were ill-equipped to encourage and help students to make effective use of available ICT facilities to enhance their learning.
8.
Conclusions and recommendations
8.1 Conclusions
This report is intended to benchmark college practice at a time when there is a marked increase in the amount and quality of developments in ICT within Scottish further education. Consequently, HMI engagement with college senior managers on ICT-related issues for the purposes of this report was more extensive and detailed than in previous college visits. The conclusions from this study are set out below.
• Senior managers were more than ever aware of the potential of ICT and the benefits that its use could bring to their staff and students. Structures were in place in most colleges to provide appropriate technical and other support for staff engaged in ICT delivery or developments. An increasing number of staff was engaged in projects to deploy existing ICT materials or develop new materials, most with evident commitment and enthusiasm. The availability of funding for ICT developments from SFEFC, Scottish Enterprise, European sources and other agencies had stimulated these developments. Most projects were collaborative, bringing together colleges with other colleges, universities and business organisations. Staff welcomed the opportunities that this gave them for professional development and entry to a wider learning community.
• Where ICT was used to support learning and teaching both tutors and learners were positive overall about the experience. Learners were able to identify gains in their learning and to describe how the use of ICT had helped their personal development. They had acquired strategies for learning and accessing information that would stand them in good stead for later life. Tutors valued the use of ICT for the opportunities it gave them to be more responsive to individual and group needs. However, they also identified the increased demands that ICT approaches made on their time, particularly in the early stages of developing these new approaches.
• The use of ICT was most prevalent with remote learners. These most prolific users of ICT depended on e-mail, on-line access and videoconferencing for success in their learning. These learners also valued the extent to which ICT allowed them to identify with the college and with their fellow learners. Colleges with significant numbers of remote learners made arrangements for all learners to meet face-to-face to underpin their subsequent on-line
• The evidence from subject reviews showed that the incidence of ICT use in the support of learning and teaching was low, and this was confirmed in the college visits. Also, the use of ICT varied across subjects. The nature of some subjects limited the extent to which effective use could be made of these approaches.
• There remained a disappointing level of use of ICT in areas where there was considerable potential for all learners to benefit, such as in core skills
development. A number of on-line packages were available from commercial and other sources but colleges remained uncertain about how to use these to best effect.
• Evidence from HMI reviews of colleges showed that there was little formal evaluation of the use of ICT within programmes of study. Course teams were not fully aware of the benefits that the use of ICT might bring, and had no developed criteria against which to evaluate their own practice as part of college self-evaluation.
• The use of Internet searching formed a significant proportion of the overall ICT activities in support of learning. Most of this was well directed and helped learners locate resources of the appropriate level and type. In some cases, learners and tutors did not have sufficient skills in information search to make efficient use of the Internet to locate suitable resources.
• The colleges visited varied in the effectiveness of their development of materials for use in on-line learning. In the best cases, a support team with expertise in graphic design, web technology and programming was available to work collaboratively with content specialists in the production of new materials. This improved the efficiency with which new developments were completed and ensured a common 'look and feel' to materials. In a few
colleges, tutors had been expected to carry through developments on their own with the result that progress had been slow and of variable quality.
• Preparation for the use of ICT was a key factor in the successful application of ICT to support learning and teaching. Tutors had good opportunities to gain basic ICT skills and improve their confidence in the use of new technologies in the classroom. They could also develop their competence in specific ICT approaches, such as videoconferencing. Some tutors developing ICT
approaches had attended workshops organised by LTScotland and SFEU or by their own college or consortium. However, the majority of tutors still required staff development beyond the basic skills of ICT use.
8.2 Recommendations
SFEFC has put in train a significant number of collaborative projects designed to raise the profile of ICT approaches to learning and teaching. The following
recommendations are intended to help SFEFC achieve its commitment to the spread of good practice, while helping colleges to make effective use of ICT resources to enhance the student experience.
Colleges should:
• ensure that tutors develop the appropriate level of skills to enable them and learners to take full advantage of potential ICT approaches, including skills in information search using the Internet
• devise patterns of tutor deployment that provide support when it is most needed for learners using ICT approaches, taking account of the demands that are likely to arise from e-mail communications
• support tutors to help them convert learning materials more extensively to an appropriate electronic form and to make these available to all learners through the college ICT network
• make better provision for the support of tutors preparing materials for web-enabled delivery or for incorporation into an on-line learning format, including specialist help in graphic design, web technology and multimedia development
• incorporate evaluation of ICT approaches into their self-assessment and quality improvement processes in order to refine these approaches and improve learner experience and achievement.
SFEFC is invited to consider how
• it might continue to promote the better use of ICT through the explicit use of examples of good practice described in HMI reviews of colleges
and also how
• it might provide advice to colleges to enable them to undertake effective evaluation of the quality of ICT approaches to learning and teaching.
Appendix 1: Glossary
BECTa British Educational Communications Technology Agency CAA Computer-Aided Assessment
CD-ROM Compact Disk - Read Only Memory COLEG Colleges Open Learning Exchange Group ECAD Electronic Computer Aided Design ECDL European Computer Driving Licence ESF European Social Fund
FAQ Frequently-Asked Question
FEDA Further Education Development Agency GTN Glasgow Telecolleges Network
HMI HM Inspectors
HTML HyperText Markup Language
ICT Information and Communications Technology IRC Internet Relay Chat
JANET Joint Academic Network
JISC Joint Information Systems Committee LTScotland Learning and Teaching Scotland
MEDC1 Microelectronics Educational Development Centre NGfL National Grid for Learning
SAQ Student Assessed Question
SCET2 Scottish Council for Educational Technology SFEFC Scottish Further Education Funding Council SFEU Scottish Further Education Unit
SQA Scottish Qualifications Authority UHIMI UHI Millennium Institute
VLE Virtual Learning Environment
1
Based at Paisley University (1980 - 1999). Now merged with LTScotland. MEDC provided free staff development in ICT to all staff in the FE sector.
Appendix 2: Good practice identified in college reviews
The following are examples of good practice in ICT, described in subject reviews of FE colleges published in 2001.
Motherwell College: Communications and Media
The college intranet was used imaginatively to support both students and staff. High quality support notes were readily available as on-screen resources for students on the HN Film Craft and Animation programmes and the HN New Media Technology programmes. Communication staff used the intranet to store and access teaching reference materials, including nationally developed support material for core skills.
Motherwell College: Computing and IT
The class was divided into 4 groups, and each was allocated a sub-topic to explore and discuss using the college on-line IT facilities. The lecturer set questions and raised issues in an on-line forum, and students responded either individually or collectively. This gave rise to further exchanges until the lecturer judged that the students had acquired a good
understanding of the subject. He then introduced a new sub-topic. The approach proved successful in stimulating both independent thinking and collaborative working.
Motherwell College: Mechanical Engineering
Excellent use was made of ICT to teach the content of lessons in the HND Computer-Aided Draughting and Design course. Through the use of colour data projectors, students were able to follow the demonstrations of computer techniques of dimensioning, shading and rendering and replicate these on their own individual computer. The programme was
particularly well structured. A high level of student motivation made full use of the very good level of equipment and of staff expertise.
Dundee College: Communications and Media
HNC Digital Media was an intensive one-year practical programme which offered students the chance to learn sophisticated software skills for the design industry. The learning and self-help tutorial materials that students used meant that they independently managed their own learning. The ICT materials that they used could then provide exemplary materials for the industry for which they were training. Students were allowed to access the specialist hardware and software outwith class contact hours. They produced an outstanding quality of work in a short period of time.
Dundee College: Construction
An excellent lesson for evening class students on building services was greatly enhanced by the lecturer’s effective and imaginative use of visual aids and ICT resources. A PowerPoint presentation combined textual and photographic images very effectively to emphasise and illustrate key points. At one point in the presentation the lecturer used an overhead projector to superimpose the image of a partially filled decanter of water on the PowerPoint
photographic image to simulate water flow through a pipe. The engagement of the class in the discussion session that followed demonstrated very clearly how effectively the key issues had been delivered.
Dundee College: Hospitality
Staff in hospitality made effective use of ICT to capture the interest and imagination of students on a special programme. The main thrust of one lesson was on how to create a simple menu. The use of ICT made the task interesting for students and helped them to develop an understanding of the points to consider in menu planning. At the same time, they had an opportunity to develop their word-processing and simple desktop publishing skills.
Moray College: Business and Management
Staff had designed a web site to allow distance learners and other part-time students to get easier access to teaching material and course support. As well as offering remote access to some teaching material, the site had a chat room and bulletin board facility allowing students the opportunity to communicate with each other. Students could, therefore, collaborate constructively and exchange useful pieces of information related to their studies without attending college.
Moray College: Care
All students undertaking programmes in the care area were introduced to the use of the Internet by care staff as part of their induction programme. Staff then guided them in the use of the Internet, both to extend their learning and to encourage their research skills. Students who were planning to go on to higher education programmes found this to be valuable experience.
Moray College: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Students studying the Electrical Principles unit in the HNC Electronic course, benefited from an effective combination of good quality classroom teaching, reinforced by simulation practice, using Electronic Workbench computer aided design software and problem solving using tutorial questions. The learning was enriched by the lecturer’s frequent questioning approach to test individual students’ comprehension of the theory.
Moray College: Sports and Leisure
Careful planning allowed students taking part in a European exchange to negotiate their own learning opportunities with staff. These included units such as outdoor pursuits and
investigating a research topic, both included as part of the exchange programme. Students developed and used a range of ICT skills including word-processing, e-mail and video conferencing with the partner institution. They used the exchange programme to complete course work. At the end of the exchange, each group of students produced a coaching video and supporting handbook which became a valuable resource for the college.
Stevenson College: Science
The science section had established a flexible learning centre which offered very good facilities for independent and supported study. Students had access to a wide range of
resources, including ICT hardware and software, audio-visual materials, books and journals. Students could extend and consolidate their understanding through accessing the Internet and CD-ROMs and could use computers for remediation, self-assessment and word-processing.
Appendix 3: Illustrative practice identified through college visits
The illustrations that follow show how particular ICT approaches were found to work in practice. They do not provide evaluations of the quality of learning and teaching. Intranet (Falkirk College)
The computing department had made use of the college intranet to provide information about the individual units in the courses it offered, along with the unit assessment details and assessment schedules. This helped learners plan their own work. The web-based pages also contained all of the information that was in the printed course handbook, along with links to college-wide services which had their own pages on the college intranet.
On-line learning (Borders College)
The college had developed an interactive CD-ROM in partnership with colleges in Europe, using funding through ESF. The material dealt with social inclusion, equal opportunities, cultural diversity and anti-discriminatory practice in childcare in the partner countries. The material was structured around a set of case studies and included good quality audiovisual sequences. The unit assignments were included along with exercises for the learner to check understanding.
On-line learning (Borders College)
The college business department had been contracted to deliver specific training for business owner-managers. It had purchased an extensive series of interactive CD-ROM lessons on management development from a commercial supplier. The initial interactive module helped the individual learner to identify which of the 26 modules should be undertaken. The
modules were then delivered through an on-line system that tracked learner progress. Each module contained self-evaluation and assessment tasks. This form of delivery was ideally suited to the client group of learners who could only find time for learning when their business demands allowed.
On-line learning (Glenrothes College)
The college had developed a set of CD-ROM based multimedia resources to support core skills development in Communication. The materials covered National Qualifications levels from Access 3 to Higher and had been successfully implemented in the college. The success of these high quality materials had allowed the college to market them commercially and recoup some of its investment in the production costs.
On-line learning (Perth College)
The learning resource centre delivered a basic IT skills qualification, the European
Computer Driving Licence, to a wide range of learners, including company employees and the college's own staff. It had invested in the licence for a set of interactive CD-ROM based materials that covered the learning content and provided self-assessment. These materials were of very high quality including voice-over instruction, animation, navigation tools and live links to the software package being learned. This had allowed the college to meet the needs of a large number of learners with a minimum of staff costs.
On-line learning (West Lothian College)
An engineering department delivered training in a computer-based drawing package for its own full-time students and for employees in engineering and design companies. It had invested in the interactive CD-ROM based training pack produced by the manufacturer of the
software and this pack was now incorporated into the delivery of these courses. Learners were able to revisit aspects of the drawing software and to view demonstrations repeatedly to help their understanding. The availability of this training pack of commercial quality had significantly improved student success in this subject.
Simulation (Ayr College)
A group of mature electricians had apprehensions about returning to learning and having to deal with computers. The use of a simulation program for laboratory equipment helped them master the programming of programmable logic controllers by providing them with graphics output which demonstrated the operation of the devices. They found that this allowed them to visualise much more clearly what was actually happening and improved their understanding.
Simulation; on-line learning (Ayr College)
The college had given a group of aeronautical engineering students access to an Internet web site maintained by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They accessed on-line tutorials and an on-on-line simulation of a wind tunnel. The students used this virtual wind tunnel to explore the effects of changing the cross section and angle of an aircraft wing. This provided good underpinning for their knowledge and understanding in their aeronautical engineering course.
Conferencing (Lews Castle College)
A tutor in computing wanted to set up a conference facility for the teaching of computer programming. In the absence of a suitable system on the college network he used an external provider to provide a conferencing system for his class. This system also allowed him to make electronic documents available to his students (PowerPoint presentation and Word documents). The learners could access this group system through the Internet from college or from home.
Virtual Learning Environment (Lews Castle College)
A tutor who was delivering a unit to learners in remote locations across the Highlands had set up several conferences using the college VLE. He had been assiduous in cultivating the conferences, prompting learners to participate and putting in additional material when the discussion flagged. He had used these discussion threads to prepare an FAQ for his unit for the benefit of remote learners.
Computer-assisted Assessment (Perth College)
The arts faculty had developed an on-line HN unit in music theory, based on a VLE. This VLE had a built-in facility for computer based assessment and this had been adapted to provide both self-assessment and summative assessment within the learning package. Virtual Learning Environment (Lews Castle College)
The college had capitalised on the availability of UHIMI funding to build over twenty learning modules into a VLE. This had helped to promote more widespread use of the VLE across the college and one course now had all of its Level 1 and Level 2 units available in this format. The model for development made use of a small media team who provided the technical and graphics expertise and ensured a common appearance to all the modules. Subject specialists worked with the media team to convert their existing learning materials into the standard format for the VLE.
