JISC

The College of West Anglia is celebrating after winning an Association of Colleges (AoC) Beacon Award for a ground-breaking project that involved setting up an internet TV channel called Springboardtv.com to  provide an exciting teaching and learning environment and showcase students work on the world wide web.

Springboard TV was started with the help of £200,000 funding from BECTA,  the government agency leading the effective and innovative use of technology throughout learning. The project was then co-ordinated by JISC as part of a programme of work on how technology can help improve the curriculum.

The TV station has already boosted the take-up and success rates of full-time media courses. JISC e-learning programme manager Lisa Gray comments: “Our aim was to support the achievement of genuine transformational changes in learning and teaching practice, through the effective use of technology. Through its excellent work, Springboard TV have achieved exactly that –  in two years they have transformed  the staff and learner experience,  impacting across the whole college. SpringboardTV has addressed issues common to many, of student  recruitment, retention, engagement, achievement and progression, inspiring others  to see how technology can offer real solutions to these very real challenges.”

By developing its internet TV channel and website and using multimedia resources to broadcast, the college has radically changed the teaching and learning on its full-time media courses. Both staff and students are now more confident in using the new technologies and students are taking more responsibility for their own learning. There is also a lot of collaborative work with the media industry, community groups and the emergency services.

The college set up its very own Tower Studios at the King’s Lynn campus, which provides a fully-operational TV production and broadcast environment with state of the art facilities including a TV studio with auto cues, HD cameras, virtual studio software and editing suites. The students take an active role in working in a realistic TV production and broadcast environment, making programmes and films which are then broadcast on the channel.

On hearing the news of their success, Jayne Walpole, the college’s head of faculty for creative arts and leader of the Springboard TV project, said: “I am absolutely thrilled that we have won this national award. It is a fantastic tribute to the whole media team – staff and students. It has been very exciting and rewarding working on such an innovative project. The real-life work experience our students are gaining will be invaluable to them in their future career. Since we began the initiative, recruitment to our media, TV and film courses have doubled and student feedback is fantastic. We now want to extend the benefits of this project to students on other courses across the college.”

College principal David Pomfret said: “This is a great accolade for the college and, in particular, the media department. As a Beacon college, we are committed to developing innovative ways to improve teaching and learning and the whole student experience. The Springboard TV project does all of these and I am extremely proud of the achievement of the staff and students involved. The next step now is to extend the benefits of this project across the whole college.”

Chair of the AoC Beacon Awards, Dame Patricia Morgan-Webb, said: “Beacon Award winners raise the bar when it comes to finding new ways of doing things to enable colleges to play a leading role in the communities they serve. They help contribute to social justice by widening participation in further education and play a key role in local economic and social regeneration by encouraging links with local businesses and supporting people, both in and out of work, in learning new skills.

The college, represented by Mrs Walpole and Mr Pomfret, will be presented with their award by John Hayes MP, Minister of State for Further Education, at a national presentation ceremony due to be held in Westminster on 9 February 2011.

Springboard TV

Curriculum delivery programme