How a virtual learning environment can transform higher education
Greg Crichton, Head of Information Services at Oxford Brookes University, discusses the university’s IT strategy, and how its agile virtual learning environment continues to help it achieve its vision of transforming university life through the use of digital technologies. At Oxford Brookes University, our IT Strategy 2020 is well underway. The key outcome of this long-term strategy is to deliver and support a rich set of information technology services that are customer-focused, and contribute to our vision of transforming university life through the use of digital technologies and services. Providing information technology services that meet the needs of our students is a key objective for our IT Services. Their needs are diverse and they are generally very early adopters of new technologies, which create opportunities for the University’s IT landscape. In 2013, as part of this strategy, we started our partnership with CoSector – University of London, when we decided it was time to implement a new Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Drive for change The first project I inherited when I moved to a new role in the University was to implement a new VLE. The drive for this change came from student and staff, who told us that the existing platform wasn’t flexible enough. This resonated with our IT colleagues as, from a technical viewpoint, its flat hierarchy didn’t allow us to create categories that could represent programmes. In order to align with the IT strategy, we wanted to offer a much more versatile approach, and at Oxford Brookes we strive for quality when selecting new digital services, specifically favouring ones that are future proof and can adapt to changing needs. Part of our strategy continues to be focused on the use of technology to enhance both the transactional elements of staff and student experiences and transformational learning, which underpins a commitment to providing an excellent online learning experience. In order to achieve this, it is vital that the university offers an attractive, digital learning experience that meets the needs and expectations of both our staff and students. Oxford Brookes decided to do some peer analysis and requirements gathering, to evaluate the services that other institutions were using. Once this process had been completed, Moodle, a widely used VLE, was seen as the right solution for us. CoSector was chosen as the service partner due to its knowledge of the sector, being an academic institution itself. Today, the University works with the CoSector Digital Learning team, which includes the hosting and technical support of the Moodle VLE platform, including Mahara (e-portfolio) integration. An ongoing partnership The original tender for the VLE implementation was very technical, and CoSector were initially required to only host the Moodle platform. However, since the partnership began, our relationship has evolved significantly and we’ve expanded the use of Moodle into other areas outside of online learning; including the integration of student management records and mobile apps. As a result, the Moodle platform has changed from a standard VLE, into one of the University’s most used digital services, and it has become thoroughly embedded into the University’s digital environment. And maintaining a 24/7 service is critical to teaching and learning at the University. CoSector provides ongoing technical support and advice for this, and both organisations have since embraced a service credit model, which provides a better understanding of how much capacity each side has, and allows for easier communication. This gives a level of independence to the University: for example, if a product requires changes within the Moodle platform, the University can quickly inform their Digital Learning team, and, as a result of opting into the tailored Service Level Agreement service, we can request the installation of third-party plugins as well as plugins developed onsite. This activity is based on an element of trust between both parties; speeding up the process and enabling a better workflow between the two organisations. Oxford Brookes has a vision to be at the forefront of digital transformation in the HE sector, and good working partnerships are fundamental to this vision succeeding. Bournemouth & Poole College select CoSector – University of London for its virtual learning environment Bournemouth & Poole College is home to 11,000+ students from across the region, the UK and the world. The institution is the largest provider of Further Education (FE) and Apprenticeships in the surrounding area. The college supports a range of values, among them a passion for learning and success, within a supportive and caring environment. In order to uphold these values, it is important that the college offers the best learning experience that is supportive to the needs of every student. Bournemouth & Poole College’s core focus is on developing the work skills of students to ensure that at the end of their study, they are well placed to start or to progress in their chosen career. The college has a strategic plan ‘The Bournemouth & Poole College strategy 2017-2020: Inspiring Excellence’ to ensure it meets this vision. The ambition is to be recognised for excellence and by 2020, the college will be outstanding with student achievement rates amongst the highest. To help achieve its mission, the college has a number of areas of focus including; offer flexibility in delivery, developing its curriculum to meet the skills needs of the local economy; value and empower its staff and unlock their potential and make the college an attractive place to work; and foster innovation and be prepared to take risks, whilst ensuring a high trust culture. To this end, the college needs to offer an attractive, learning proposition that will enhance and enrich the student experience. Challenge In 2012 the college was using a virtual learning environment (VLE) platform, however this solution provided a high renewal quote and did not support the Individual learning plan (ILP) that Bournemouth had in mind for its staff and students. They therefore sought a new VLE that would support the features it needed, as well as providing a modern looking front end, that staff and students could interact with quickly and efficiently,
Edtech provider CoSector partners with Janison
CoSector – University of London, the provider of choice for products and services that enhance and enrich digital learning, has announced a partnership with Janison, a provider of learning and online assessment platforms, in order to bring efficient digital assessment to the UK higher and further education sectors. The partnership means that customers of CoSector – University of London will be able to purchase digital assessment software directly through Janison. It will then be implemented by CoSector, which will also provide ongoing customer support for the assessment platform. The Janison digital assessment platform allows education organisations to create the assessment, and deliver it in a locked-down, controlled environment, as well as closely manage the marking process. It also offers an analytics tool that, once results are in, can help staff identify how to improve student performance through reviewing the data. The benefits of an online assessment solution include improved efficiency, with intuitive platform that allows educators to quickly and easily design authentic assessments that include engaging multimedia, and tailor them to students with specific accessibility needs. Security-wise, for students, it means that their tests are now completely traceable through a digital footprint once submitted, meaning less room for human error and mistakes in the delivery of their results. Tests can also be sent to examiners to review faster, which means that results arrive sooner. James Silcock, Commercial Director at CoSector – University of London says, “Partnering with Janison will allow us to offer a smarter and much-needed solution to the outdated assessment practices currently used by organisations in the higher and further education sectors “Digital assessment addresses the current challenges of paper-based assessment, being the unengaging media format, the environmental issues around use of materials to create and deliver the assessment, not to mention ongoing security issues and long processes for papers to be marked.” Wayne Houlden, Founder of Janison, says: “This partnership with CoSector will allow Janison to tap into CoSector’s deep industry experience in helping education institutions around the UK and Europe to digitally transform the delivery of education services and enhance the student experience.” Growing ICT provision is not about making it ‘good enough’ Q&A on future-proofing ICT provision in education settings Antony Mellor, Head of HE at Stone Group and Mark Newton, Managing Director at CoSector – University of London, discuss how future-proofing your organisation as far as is economically viable, is the key to growing your ICT provision and improving the learner journey. Which new trends can education’s ICT departments expect to see within the next five years? AM: The rise of 5G Networks will drive an improvement in application performance and lead to the creation of new applications that will benefit from the significantly higher speed, latency, and capacity that 5G brings. For the higher education sector, this will mean a capability to deliver a faster, better user experience, and to further encompass the Internet of Things (IoT), leading to more and more connected devices. MN: Cloud is the most pertinent trend, and it’s emerging as the most cost-effective way to manage infrastructure within higher education. It allows a setting to eliminate that cost of running a data centre on premise and it can be managed by a cloud provider, reducing time and money spent being managed in-house. AM: Within the next couple of years, the clamour for IoT will lead to an adaptation of teaching style, as students begin to rely more and more upon connected devices such as tablets, smartwatches, and AI assistants. One result of this will be an increase in data, and in turn, the need for more scalable storage, which lends itself to more utilisation of cloud-based storage solutions. What about compatibility with student devices? Will BYOD be widely adopted by education? AM: BYOD has been a buzz-acronym for quite some time, and in the ideal world it is a way in which the setting can save on device cost, as students or staff are likely to own a laptop or tablet, which they would prefer to work on, are more comfortable with, and they have the ability to use that device in a variety of environments. The pitfalls here, however, can quickly outweigh any benefit; what happens if the students forget their device? What if the device fails? What about application incompatibility? Giving everyone access to really good WiFi, for example, is great, but the underlying need is that those that need a device, always have one available. MN: I agree, and I don’t think certain trends that claim to be cost-saving solutions, such as BYOD, always reap the benefits they promise. Having an infrastructure that is compatible with a whole range of devices may well cost you more in order to make sure your systems can do that. It’s undeniable though that this is an expectation for students now – they come with their own devices. AM: A laptop loan programme can remedy this issue. It helps to save on cost, and ensures that those who don’t have access to a device, are able to get their hands upon one. This simple solution has already been implemented in lots of universities, the student can access a locker using their ID Card, and loan a laptop for a period of time. To keep the cost down even further, these devices could be Chromebooks – inexpensive, secure, and they are extremely mobile devices. MN: Personally, I think it should be more of a question of what they want to use to access education systems. It’s not a cost-saving practice, but it’s what universities should be doing to improve overall student experience. What role can a scalable ICT framework play in cutting down budgets and how easy is it to adopt? MN: You want to be able to flex up and down, and one of the ways to do that is to use a pay as you use supplier. If you use more capacity you can scale up for it, but you can scale down at quieter times when you don’t need it.
Roehampton’s digital learning journey
Xavier Briche, Head of Digital Learning at the University of Roehampton, discusses how the Digital Learning department has enhanced the student learning experience. Here at Roehampton, we have created a robust Digital Learning Services department (DL) to support technology for teaching and learning. The department strives for innovation within the University and focuses on new and existing technologies to support the learner’s journey and to provide digital tools to the teaching community. We have separated the two departments to allow a greater focus on cutting-edge educational technologies to support the outstanding student digital experience. A solution for diversity In 2015, the University decided it was time to enhance the virtual learning environment (VLE) as a key enabler for improving accessibility. The existing solution wasn’t fit for this purpose as it was too static. We needed a versatile solution, one that would easily allow regular upgrades and product functionalities to help improve the user experience for less able students as they enter HE. We’ve been implementing an SMS plug-in as an add-on to our online assessment workflow. The plug-in automatically sends a text message to students when their assessment feedback is on the VLE, to engage our students in their learning and close the feedback loop more effectively. Complying with GDPR The new GDPR regulations and EU directive on online accessibility needed some close attention, therefore discussions between both teams about GDPR, and the steps needed to ensure the online learning practices, processes and system compliance were addressed. Clear results for students Universities are underpinned by their scores in the National Student Survey (NSS) and the Teaching Excellence Framework. Our DL follows these performance results closely, to see how outsourced services are performing and whether they are adding value to the student experience. The Moodle platform and the service, provided by CoSector – University of London, has increased student satisfaction by around 6%. Students now feel the VLE is reliable and robust, and can be accessed 24/7 from any location. We are pleased with the Moodle platform and the benefits of supporting the VLE as well as the teaching and learning ecosystems. Blended and online learning are priorities to engage and support our extremely diverse student population. Students and staff often rely on assistive technology integrations in the VLE, its therefore vital to ensure the VLE is an inclusive and accessible digital environment. Online learning and VLEs are hugely beneficial for students with disabilities as e-resources and teaching material such as course slides are systematically uploaded to the VLE. Most VLEs now provide a way of navigating around an online course with ease, accessing web links and additional files by using keystrokes only. Changing a VLE host can be a big risk because the system is embedded in all aspects of the delivery of teaching and learning. In terms of account management and value added for our students and teaching staff, it has proven to be well worth the switch. See roehampton.ac.uk for more details on how the university uses digital learning to enhance the student experience.