JISC

Read the transformation story which highlights keys issues, lessons learned and outputs

The Transforming and Enhancing the Student Experience through Pedagogy (TESEP) project is a partnership of Napier University, Lauder College and Edinburgh’s Telford College. These Partner Institutions share a vision of transforming learning and teaching practices. Working together, the Project Partners plan to pool collective knowledge and experience to create situations where College and University staff can better understand e-pedagogy and work collaboratively to create innovative and high quality learning environments, programmes and learning experiences for students. This project is about culture change. The project will be successful if it succeeds in ‘changing’ the way Partner Institutions provide and support education and training in a way that will benefit the people in the communities who wish to continue learning throughout their lives. 

The TESEP project will not only enable the Partner Institutions to accelerate the process of transformation within their own Institutions to the benefit of learners, but will also provide Scotland’s Universities and Colleges with significant benefits for transformation within their own contexts.

Aims and Objectives

Vision

The vision for TESEP project is to transform learning and teaching practice, and substitute new practice for old.  The project will also impact on:

• collaborative models between the FE and HE partners
• working relationships between FE and HE Partners
• joint business processes and learning environment development.

Aims

The project has been designed to address a number of key challenges.

For Learners

• Difficulties for learners wishing to progress from FE to HE 
• Poor retention and progression rates
• Unsatisfactory learning experiences
• Not meeting the learner needs. 
• Not providing learners with enough guidance and direction. 
• Learning not being accessible 

For Academic and Support Staff:

• Using learning technology to supplement rather than transform learning and teaching practices 
• Lack of time to devote to pedagogy 
• Lack of time to reflect on learning and teaching practice. 
• Lack of confidence to change learning and teaching practices. 

For Curriculum Design and Development:

• Mis-alignment of FE/HE curriculum. 

Objectives

• The project will be realised in two Phases. Phase 1 focuses on designing for learning and will:
  • Identify examples of effective, transformational learning and teaching practice that currently exist in the Partner Institutions.
  • Produce case studies to illustrate effective learning and teaching practice in FE and HE in a structured manner.
  • Produce staff development programmes and resources that FE/HE can use to stimulate changes and transformation of learning and teaching practice.
  • Recommend changes that have to be made to the physical and virtual learning environment to support transformation of learning and teaching practice.
  • Review student perceptions of e-learning and use this information to produce resources to support learners to make the transition from more traditional methods of learning and teaching to e-learning.
  • Produce learning design models and tools with guidelines for their implementation that staff can use to re-design courses and learning activities.
  • Cascade learning design models, tools and guidance to ‘Experts in Residence’.
• Phase 2 of the project focuses on transforming learning and teaching practice and will:
  • Use the new models of learning design developed in Phase 1 of the Project to stimulate innovative FE/HE curriculum design that improves joint FE/HE curriculum design, collaboration, knowledge transfer and improves the transition between FE and HE for the learner.
  • Evaluate and validate the effectiveness of applying the models of learning design developed in Phase 1 of the Project to FE/HE curriculum/learning design in the context of transforming learning and teaching practice.
  • Determine and categorise the factors that encourage FE and HE staff to transform their learning and teaching practices.
  • Evaluate the impact of new learning and teaching practices on the learner perception and experience of e-learning and on retention and progression rates.
  • Evaluate the impact of new learning and teaching practices on staff workload and their perception of the quality of the learner experience.
  • Understand the changes that need to be made to learner support services and business processes to support new learning and teaching practices (potentially in association with other Projects who are looking at business process and learner support service transformation).
  • Inform Teaching Qualifications Providers of any changes required to support transformational learning and teaching practice.

Project Methodology  

The Project is about culture change and transformation. Technology and infrastructure will not achieve the required transformation on their own. Rather, staff have to be willing to share the vision, develop the approach and implement the solutions. The Project will therefore focus on staff and educational development. At the heart of the Project sits the concept of an FE/HE Expert Group with the skills required to develop a high quality and transformational learning environment. 

The Expert Group will be led by an e- Pedagogy Consultant. The e-Pedagogy Consultant will work with the Expert Group to challenge the traditional, stimulate innovation and devise implementation strategies to ensure the wider body of staff can share and implement the vision.  The Expert Group will work with, support, guide and develop Experts in Residence in all three Partner Institutions and in other FE Colleges and HE Institutions interested in participating in Phase 2 of the Project.  The Experts in Residence will form FE/HE communities of practice who will then take forward learning and teaching transformation Projects into departments, schools and faculties in the Partner Institutions and in other participating Institutions.

Deliverables  

The Project will produce a variety of products, tools, models, materials and experiences that will be shared with Colleges and Universities in Scotland and across the UK: 

• Modularised Training Programme for Expert Groups with lesson/delivery plans and support materials. 
• Learning Design Models that work for FE and HE.
• Metrics Model that other Universities and Colleges will be able to use to set targets and measure learning and teaching transformation.
• Modularised Training Programme for Academic Staff in Learning Design with underpinning support materials and delivery plans that map the resources to the Mayes and De Freitas framework.
• Learning and Teaching Forum.
• Opportunity to participate in Learning Design Training Programme.
• Sample Induction Materials for Learners.
• Sample Online Learning Guidance and Support Materials.
• Staff Development Frameworks mapped to accredited programmes e.g. the SQA e-qualification suite.
• ‘How to’ briefing papers and case studies. To include: How to setup an ‘expert group’, How to select curriculum areas for change, How to select learning and teaching activities and convert them using ICT.
• Impact Studies, for example: Extent of substitution/transformation of learning and teaching practices, The impact the changes in learning and teaching practice on the learner in terms of learner retention and achievement, Changes to workload and work practice, Impact on market reach,  Impact of learner satisfaction with new learning and teaching methods.
• Effective E-learning Practice Case Studies – working with the JISC e-learning programme, the Project intend to deliver: 
  • Feedback on how well the tools and resources JISC are producing can be embedded into Institutional change programmes, 
  • Evaluation of the effectiveness of tools and resources in large-scale Institutional change programmes,        
  • Additional effective learning Case Studies produced to a format JISC can use, 
  • Evidence that empirical research in e-learning can be used to build practical, effective learning and teaching models.

Stakeholders  

The Project will engage staff at all levels across the participating Partner Institutions. Internal stakeholders include:

• Senior Management
• Heads of School/ Faculty/ Curriculum Managers
• Academic Teams
• Learners

External Stakeholders include:

• Other Projects including other Projects funded through the SFC e-Transformation Programme, JISC e-Learning/Pedagogy Projects
• FE/HE Community in the UK eg Senior Management Teams, Heads of Faculty, Heads of Schools, Curriculum Managers, Teaching Faculties/ Curriculum Teams, Staff Development Professionals and Curriculum Development Support Teams

Other information
The project will also draw on the work of other initiatives such as:

• JISC e-Learning and Pedagogy Programme
• SFEU’s learning and teaching workshops and pilots that have been developed and run in the ‘Centre for Learning Effectiveness’
• the materials developed/being developed to support SQA’s PDA/e-qualifications suite
• the Ferl Practitioners' Programme Pack
• development programmes available from the JISC RSCs
• development programmes available through e-Merge
• the X4L Staff Development Resources