e-Administration for Teaching and Learning
This area focuses on the less visible but essential area of administrative technologies to support learning and learners. The role of data administration in transition and progression, in the provision of learner services and in learners’ access to learning opportunities mean there is a significant cross-over between this area and Technology-enhanced learning environments. There are many ways in which learner-related data can be useful during teaching or learning support, and these need to be explored further. Institutions also need to know they are getting value for money from their investment in ICT systems.There are many ways in which learner-related data can be useful during teaching or learning support
JISC’s aims in this area
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Help institutions use administrative technology more effectively
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Offer more flexible, seamless, high-quality learning opportunities for lifelong learner
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Lessen the administrative burden on staff
Some identified key issues and challenges
We need to:
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align institutional business processes with
ICT processes (enterprise architectures)
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lower administrative barriers to progression, transfer and multi-location learning
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deal fairly with increasingly diverse applications to
HE and meet demands of flexible provision
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use administrative data effectively within institutions to support retention and personal (academic) development
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coherence across institutions in provision of course-related information, and in access, authorisation and identity management
Current work
Following on from the successful projects and studies mentioned below it is proposed to:
Further developed the UCAS and JISC partnership and adoption of the Admissions demonstrators into live systems.
JISC CETIS to continue supporting institutions implementing XCRI-CAP and XCRI
Develop the business case to show the benefits of e-Administration services to the sector, lifelong learning and to demonstrate potential new services in a new e-Administration Adoption Programme. This programme will support the further uptake of XCRI, the admission pilots, Learning Records Service Unique Learner Number ULN) and Personal Learner Record (PRL), HEAR and PIOP.
JISC is helping to support the technical innovation and interoperability aspects of the piloting of the Higher Education Achievement Report (HEAR). The HEAR is intended to provide a single comprehensive record of a learner’s achievement at a higher education institution. It will be an electronic document, which will adhere to a common structure and be verified by the academic registrar or equivalent officer. Institutions may also choose to issue a paper document.
With UCAS, the Learner Register (previously known as MIAP) is embarking on a HEFCE-JISC funded Pilot
in Higher Education which resulted in a series of sector-specific case studies. These explored the benefits and opportunities of implementing the Learner Register (LR) lifelong ULN and the PLR within the HE sector. A large consultation event took place on 17th March 2010 and provided an opportunity to discuss the proposed pilots with colleagues from across the sector. A second consultation event will be held in Spring 2011 and will provide an opportunity to discuss the benefits and opportunities investigated during the pilots. UCAS and HESA have been commissioned to run a second phase to their pilots to March 2011.
UCAS-MIAP consultation event 17 March 2010 Completed work
Some priorities for recently funded project were:
- Course description and validation
- Support lifelong learning and improve the learner experience
- Toolkits demonstrations and domain maps
- Studies, other initiatives and sectoral developments
Projects were commissioned to investigate and provide a technical demonstration of the systems and processes needed to improve HE admissions processes in four main areas:
- structured personal profiles, course entry profiles and pre-assessment
improving applicant feedback
accreditation of prior experiential learning
e-portfolio based admissions
Further information about these projects
Course description and discovery mini-projects were commissioned to implement and test the XCRI course information specification. This was done by using web services to export course information from institutional systems, transform it into an XCRI-compliant format, and advertise it for consumption by an aggregator.
Course validation projects developed a system, using an existing business process management application, that supports the course validation process based on the COVARM reference model.
Further information about these projects
Support for lifelong learning and improve the learner experience
Many JISC eLearning programmes and projects impact administrative processes and tools, even if their primary aim is to provide a new technically enhanced way of learning or support service, for the increasingly diverse types of learners. Listed below are various eLearning Programmes that include projects that effect eAdministration.
Regional and collaborative projects
JISC funded a number of regional and collaborative projects to implement and evaluate the cross-institutional use of e-learning to support lifelong learning, including the provision of personalised learning experiences and flexible delivery to support progression, widening participation and work-based learning.
Regional pilot projects
Regional pilot projects were funded to explore the use of e-Learning systems and tools across a number of institutions across higher and further education within a region to facilitate wider participation in higher education and provide better opportunities for lifelong learners. These pilots are focusing on three themes: facilitating progression; collaborative teaching and sharing of resources across institutions and supporting the independent lifelong learner.
Designing for Learning
This programme was to assist practitioners explore the process of designing, planning, sequencing or orchestrating learning tasks which may include the use of e-Learning tools. Outputs from this theme have helped practitioners to make effective decisions about the use of e-Learning, and helped to support the effective design and use of learning design tools. Read a detailed overview of these activities, together with commentary on how the outcomes and recommendations are being taken forward, in Designing for Learning: An update on the Pedagogy strand of the JISC eLearning programme
Understanding my Learning
This programme had a learner reflection focus on e-Learning. It explored the learner perspective on e-Learning. The projects investigated issues such as perception, participation, the value and meanings learners attach to e-Learning opportunities, and learner differences. Outputs from this theme help to inform all those involved in the support of student learning with ICT, and to promote the development of effective environments for learning. Read more about the background and rationale to Understanding my Learning
Learner experiences of e-learning
This programme spanned two phases over four years from 2005-2009. It comprised of nine research projects, employed mixed method approaches, and had the sustained involvement of over 200 learners and more than 3000 survey respondents.
Phase 1 focused on helping practitioners to design effective learning activities by understanding the learner perspective on the role of ICT in learning, and supported the effective development and use of learning environments. Outcomes of the projects are being used to inform the development of the next generation of learning tools and services.
Phase 2 focussed on the learner voice and used their worlds to show what it is like to study in a technology-rich age. The projects produced a huge collection of rich, detailed data that sheds light on what learners expect from the use of technology in further and higher education and the choices they make about using technology to support their study. The final synthesis report for the programme provides a review of the programme together with the key findings. An executive summary of this report is also available.
Kingston Access to Science Teaching Across New & Emerging Technologies
This project developed and evaluated models of good practice in the implementation of new and emerging technologies for personalised e-learning in relation to three key areas within science education.
Mobiles Enhancing Learning and Support (MELaS)
This project assessed the usefulness, and produced guides for administrative information distributed by SMS to students studying at level 1 in HE. It evaluated a range of subject based learning and teaching technologies by SMS from the staff and student perspective. It also identified the staff development needs of using SMS texting for administrative and academic work. It embedded SMS messaging within the institutional ePortfolio and generated a technology toolkit for groupcasting media nuggets.
Toolkits demonstrations and domain maps
These projects produced domain maps (and pilot implementations) of the key administrative functions that support learning and teaching (eg accreditation and achievement, student fee management).
The overall aim of this project was to develop an initial set of services from the Peer Review FREMA usecase, providing lightweight REST services, which may be reused within other group-oriented SUMs, to support the resource submission and distribution phases of Peer Review.
This project produced an e-Framework toolkit that enables users to create course evaluation applications. The toolkit focuses upon the authoring of evaluation questionnaires, their use by students, and the authoring of course reports by tutors based upon questionnaire answers.
The scope for aggregated calendaring information is wide, so this project aimed to provide a focus on a pluggable middle man / aggregator solution with sample plug-ins and agents to gather and provide views of individual or group information as calendar information.
This project developed a module within Reload and adapted the OpenDocument.net system to allow a user to query the OpenDocument.net repository network to discover IMS Learning Design units of learning. The project investigated the most useful metadata to allow practitioners to share educational materials.
The overall aim of the project was to add sustainability to the document literal wrapped style web service of the recent Making Tracks Demonstrator project. The project disseminated experience in developing document literal style web services to the e-Learning Framework community.
The study was commissioned to produce scenarios and process models describing timetabling and resource scheduling processes, looking at where these interacted with other administrative process in an institution. It also summarised how well these processes are supported by currently available technology and identified problems or issues.
The study describes current practices, envisions future processes in identity management and explores identity management issues within the context of lifelong learning. Further information, full copy of the report
The overall aim of the project was to identify, implement and evaluate the affordances of personal, user-owned technology integrating with institutionally-owned technology, the effects on the learner, learning, teacher, and organisation. It acted as a pathfinder for the greater communities of the University of Chester and the education sector as a whole, identifying successes, interventions and challenges which can be communicated and built upon.
The aims of this project was to reengineer the processes and practices of assessment within three Higher Education Institutions in Scotland and to disseminate improved models of assessment supported by e-learning technologies across the Scottish HE sector. Re-engineering extended beyond assessment practices within the participating academic departments. It also necessitated changes in processes that support assessment – in organisational structures and procedures in institutions (in registry, estates, IT and support services), in management processes (e.g. quality assurance, external examinations, course evaluation and in the ways in which student achievements are evidenced and recorded) and in individual roles and responsibilities (e.g. time spent on assessment tasks, types of support staff, collaborative work patterns).