Case study Organisation: Coventry Adult Education Service Type of provider: Adult and Community Learning Focus on: Technology
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“What we hope to achieve is that e-learning will become embedded as part of teaching and learning.” Background Coventry Adult Education Service is an adult and community learning provider, offering part-time programmes across the city in 40 different locations, mainly in community centres and some schools. There were more than 20,000 enrolments in 2007/08. The service offers mainly classroom based learning, with stringent requirements for the learning environment requiring things like electronic whiteboards and internet connectivity. NVQ courses are delivered as classroom based learning, with assessment in the workplace or both delivery and assessment in the workplace. There is a partnership with schools that have facilities such as dedicated art rooms which can be used in the evenings. Diane worked in industry until 1988 as a personnel manager, where she developed her ICT skills in business and administration applications, either on in-house courses or by attending college courses. She has Computer Literacy and Information Technology (CLAIT) 2 and City & Guilds ICT skills at level 4. Diane began
teaching office based technologies on a part-time basis whilst training to become a qualified teacher. Diane describes her current role of academic manager as one of a facilitator and is part of the curriculum group that manages the service’s ICT programme planning, development, evaluation and assessment. Alongside that Diane is also the e-learning co-ordinator for the service making sure the infrastructure will support the development of e-learning: “What we hope to achieve is that e-learning will become embedded as part of teaching and learning.”
Use of technology
Impact/key lessons
In each curriculum group across the service there is an ‘e-lead’, who will cascade knowledge through the curriculum group. In addition there are also e-guides who have initiated a number of projects, cascading their knowledge and skills throughout the service. There is yearly self-assessment and part of that is assessing the curriculum including e-learning, and the teachers’ own use of information and learning technology (ILT).
Diane’s view is that the use of technology in education enables differentiated, inclusive and collaborative learning, at any time and any place to suit the needs and lifestyles of the learners. The use of gadgets such as voice recorders means that learners can revisit things; they can learn at their own pace and it encourages selfdirected learning. They are able to assess themselves without fear of judgement by doing online assessments. She goes on to say:
The service has developed a virtual learning environment (VLE) using Digital Brain, called Covlearn. Diane has worked with various curriculum groups in priority areas to populate Covlearn with learning resources. The idea is to share good practice and to enable the learners to learn ‘any time, anywhere’. Each member of staff has a Covlearn account with a web based email account to enable and encourage communication across the service. Part of Diane’s role is to ensure that the infrastructure is able to support e-learning across the organisation and to this end have:
“I think generally learners have more fun!”
• Installed interactive whiteboards across the service • Available portable e-learning devices such as voice recorders and cameras • PCs that are used in the work place for assessment purposes, so that tutors can write up observation reports on the spot, making assessment more accessible to learners
One challenge for teachers is that there is so much software available out there that it can be difficult to identify what best meets the needs of learners. The advantage to teachers is that they can focus more on creative teaching, and can share resources and best practice via a VLE.
Future plans Diane is looking towards more blended courses, and more online courses, believing that developments in the internet and online applications will facilitate this. Teachers will develop greater skills at using technology such as interactive whiteboards (which have very powerful software packages) which are currently only being used at a basic level.
• Three computer suites installed in more deprived areas of the city, so that the people who live there can access opportunities for learning. Teachers in the service are undertaking formative and summative assessment using online assessment tools whilst lesson plans and schemes of work are placed online via Covlearn.
“The use of gadgets such as voice recorders means that learners can revisit things; they can learn at their own pace and it encourages self-directed learning.”
RW09/09/CS010
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