Enhancing employer contact & communication
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The aim of the project was to explore in a 'live' situation, prior to the operation of the Capability Improvement Programme, the IT e-system issues facing a potential employer and their employees, including the issues around customising the look and feel of Coventry University's existing e-systems.
Executive Summary
In support of Coventry University's move to become a more business facing institution, Acua's ambition is to achieve significant market penetration to deliver high volume FTEs. To do this we have to take advantage of technologies in order to offer a sustainable delivery model which offers value for money and a high quality learning experience. Technology will allow the delivery model to be re-engineered, so that where necessary support and learning can be facilitated via a virtual learning environment (VLE) using interactive, real-time concurrent blended learning approaches.
Therefore, the aim of the project was to explore in a 'live' situation, prior to the operation of the Capability Improvement Programme, the IT e-system issues facing a potential employer and their employees, including the issues around customising the look and feel of Coventry University's existing e-systems.
Our aim was to work closely with a potential employer, researching with them e-system interoperability in order to understand the depth and breadth of the issues. An IT steering group was established comprising the project team and other key stakeholders across the University. The primary purpose of the group was to explore how IT can be used to enhance the student learning experience, as there were other wider IT issues to be dealt with.
Coventry University's e-learning team conducted a review of the employer’s e-systems to establish issues surrounding access and produced a report – see appendix A of the full report. It transpired that the best solution, at that time, was already being discussed as part of the University's e-learning strategy. The solution was to offer Moodle. Moodle is a free and open source e-learning software platform, also known as a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This meant that initial access problems wouldn’t be as problematic as first thought because Moodle, as a VLE, would reduce any future e-system inter-operability issues due to it being less reliant on plug-ins such as Java. As it was being considered as the main platform to replace the University’s existing VLE, Blackboard, it meant that Acua e-learning provision firmly sat within the University’s e-learning strategy.
The project did face a number of challenges and issues, such as: (1) change in project manager, (2) silo nature of the Employer Engagement Project start up, (3) conflicting employer priorities and (4) a delay in commencing the Capability Improvement Programme with the employer. Though all of which were overcome without there being significant impact to the project.
The outcome of this work resulted in:
- the employer and employees having greater accessibility to Coventry University e-systems. E-learning activity has increased considerably and attitudes towards the use of e-learning is changing
- an improved service to employers and their employees, in that support materials and good practice can be shared remotely, and between employees
- a methodology to examine future employers IT e-systems has been developed. The work conducted was also valuable in that it also encouraged Acua staff to engage and build relationships with Coventry University e-learning staff. The net result is that Acua's e-learning approach is positioned within the University's e-learning strategy. Therefore, the combined expertise of Coventry University e-learning technologists and Acua's work-based learning specialists can be harnessed and deployed to offer a high quality learning experience to employers and their employees.