The Learning Matrix
The Learning Matrix project was undertaken to achieve two linked goals for the Cheshire and Merseyside region. The first was to provide the technological resources that would allow the region’s educational institutions to co-operate in the active and seamless support of our local learners through their life-long and life-wide learning careers. The second goal was to pilot a type of regional service that would make use of these technological tools to encourage and support non-traditional groups of learners to engage meaningfully with their options for higher education.
Executive Summary
The pilot service aims to reduce barriers for non-traditional students entering Higher Education by giving them easy access to a range of short “HE taster courses” offered by the region’s educational institutions. The learner portal developed for the Learning Matrix also includes assistance for personal development planning (PDP) with activities designed to help learners reflect and assess their skills and interests which they can then relate to learning opportunities. The outcomes of their learning are recorded in a learner record which can potentially be used to support applications for further courses or employment.
The technology built for the project was in place by November 2005 and links 3 HE and 3FE institutions with hardware and software interfaces. The linked institutions use the technology to describe and publish information about courses they are offering to the Learning Matrix, process applications for enrolment and manage the learners on the courses offered. Other facilities allow them to interoperate with their own local databases, and to communicate learner information where appropriate. All these activities take place through the use of emerging standards for interoperability between educational institutions.
The “HE Taster” service was piloted in early 2006 with 54 learners being offered a choice from 13 learning packages provided by the 6 institutions who made them available by using the Learning Matrix interfaces. All learners undertook the PDP activities and enrolled on courses “online” using the learner portal. In all 39 learners have completed their learning packages so far and most are expected to complete shortly.
The project has received the full support of its participating partners and has made very good progress toward achieving its aims in a limited time. The learners in the pilot were able to register, use the PDP facilities and enrol on learning packages without problem. The institutions successfully used the administration interface to add and schedule courses, accept enrolments and confirm course completion. The details of the completed learning package then became part of the individual’s Learner Record. We were pleased to work with the XCRI project in developing a specification for a course metadata standard for the UK, and have been the first to use the standard.
In the course of the project areas for future development emerged that we hope to take up at a later stage. It had been hoped to include ePortfolio facilities for the pilot, but instead these will be added at the end of the project as a reciprocal benefit from the work of projects who built on our initial work. The PDP activities provided for learners, though appropriate, will need further refinement if they are to be fully engaging and valuable as reflective tools. On the technical front a start was made on interoperability with institutions’ own networks and databases but there is still much to be done in the areas of linking course catalogues and learner databases with the Learning Matrix systems, and in facilitating access to resources such as VLE’s and libraries.
The project received funding to continue to September 30th 2006 in order to embed the work further into the region. Dissemination and awareness raising activity led to the submission of two further bids based on the same technologies to support the three fully funded lifelong learning networks in the region. These have been funded and begin from October 2006. The HE Taster service itself proved difficult to embed in the timescale, but a different service using an adaptation of the same approach has been created. This is the “Continuing Professional Development Noticeboard” aggregating the CPD opportunities from all the Universities of the region to a single learner-centred portal. This work received additional funding from Liverpool City of Learning. Initiatives are ongoing with other regional bodies including AimHigher Greater Merseyside and the Merseyside Colleges Association.
In conclusion the Learning Matrix project has provided a technological base that other lifelong learning initiatives in the region can build upon, and that may provide a model for Lifelong Learning Networks elsewhere. A service offering HE taster experiences has been piloted, and a cohort of learners have already benefited from this. A service providing a coherent way for learners to search for, and enrol on, continuing professional education courses has been created. The challenge is now to further embed the achievements into the educational landscape of the region by nurturing this and other related services to promote widened participation in further and higher education, and lifelong learning opportunities.