Development Day Feb 09

The student experience and the application of E Learning

February 6^th 2009

The SAME has been active in developing pilots of on-line approaches to support the student learning experience. This event was an opportunity to share the findings and evaluation of the pilot stages of projects implemented in the school. Two occurrences of this event took place during the day as part of facilitating attendance by a greater number of staff in all roles in the school. Although this meant that the sessions were highly concentrated more staff were able to attend and this positive was balanced against a longer, less structured day. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive from the on-line survey with 85.7% of responses agreeing that what they had learnt applied in their teaching and learning practice. Feedback comments included:

'very well constructed and thanks for considering this important aspect of education'

'as a speaker at the event the other items were of particular interest too, as I am particularly interested in online applications and technological research'

'the event was very useful and helped clarify areas that I could consider for use within … AME and the … scheme I manage'

We would like to acknowledge the work of Rich Ashley, Sarah Lawton, John Washington Jane Stuart and Terry Speake in sharing their experiences of implementing the ePDP approach and approaches and benefits of social networking.

Rich, Sarah and John presented their evaluation based on the pilot ePDP experience, highlighting the benefits and the problems associated with implementation and training, the problems with the VLE (Moodle was the platform of choice for students) including issues of privacy and how they were dealt in the short term. The Reflect is a purpose built PDP tool for use in Teacher Training education and thus had different issues such as registration problems on the site. The evaluation has evidenced the success of the pilot and the high numbers of students in the school who used this approach in its first pilot. It has provided a focus for the next stage of development and full implementation across the school in the future. In addition it is providing the research findings for the research project on PDP as part of the NARN PDP project led by the University.

Jane and Terry shared both personal and academic use of social networking which was impacting on and supporting their individual roles. The use of a networking site as a teaching and learning tool which has been in use for some time in MA photo was an indicator of success in this area.

Maria Rodriguez Yborra gave a presentation on what VLE's can be used for in the context of learning and teaching and Gary Burns responded to a discussion around the university's E strategy and the future development of the VLE platform.

Ruth Coward, AME's Student Liaison Officer (SLO) presented an overarching picture of her experiences and findings from her role in SAME and particular issues were developed further through linking to the NSS results and issues arising from those by Barbara Thomas.

Sadly this was Ruth's last attendance at a school event as she has now left to take up a post at Nottingham Trent University. As a valued colleague she had a key role key in supporting students in the school. We wish her well in her new career.

An exhibition of IT 'then and now' was organised by the E team and for some of us it was a reminder of the early excitement and implementation of IT in the developments of that time.

A presentation on the new levels of Turnitin was shown by Rich. Subsequently the Director of School has requested that all staff identify one module for piloting through Turnitin for this semester before full implementation in the school from September 2009. This will be supported by training sessions organised by the E team over the period up to the summer.

There was lively discussion, debate and engagement around the different aspects of the presentations and future support needed for staff in managing e approaches to learning and teaching and the student experience. The minimal negative feedback received was about the timetable and the perceptions that the content was not fully relevant to the subject area.

Further positive feedback indicated that:

' this was much more relevant to my teaching practice than past events, I am glad I attended'

'Its beneficial to have such events for SAME staff to spend time together sharing their innovative work & good practice & networking'

Specific topics for events were suggested and these will be considered as part of staff development planning for the future.

Thanks to the E team for all their work in preparing for the day and the AV team for support and to all the staff who attended and engaged with the debate and discussion. We look forward to other stimulating events.

Barbara E Thomas

February 2009