Testing Times!

Nope, not a reference to the current economic climate and all the woes that brings but, instead, some thoughts on e-assessment and how this technology could potentially aid us in these troubled times.

At South Essex College we've been using TOIA (Technologies for Online Interoperable Assessment) for a number of years. The system allows tutors with the aid of our support to set up online exams, quizzes and assessments which self-mark and store results and reports in a number of formats for later digestion. Initially funded by JISC, TOIA is, unfortunately, no longer supported but has proved to be an invaluable tool in delivering curriculum outcomes, assessing learner progress, saving tutor time and helping shape and define the very nature of e-learning and online curriculum delivery within the College. Indeed, in a world where definitions of e-learning are at best hazy and understanding of the concepts limited, online assessment has proved to be the star of the show. It's easy, for example, to demonstrate and justify why going 'online' is more advantageous than using traditional pen and paper and it can clearly open up the curriculum to blended learning solutions.

This year we've been using TOIA to run online assessments for Bricklaying and Carpentry courses and so far we've set up and run over 40 separate assessments for 11 groups of learners. The results for each assessment are sent off to the examining body in order to evidence the learner's progress and count towards their final grades. It's clear that this would have been a logistical nightmare to organise using printed question sheets, pens, exam halls and invigilators, not to mention the huge amount of marking involved for the tutors.

Unfortunately, TOIA is past its prime now. Browser updates have rendered some of its features impotent, the clanky database back-end occasionally throws a 'hissy fit' and the process of setting up assessments can be lengthy, complicated and laborious...BUT...it is still an essential and well loved tool. Ideally we'd like to replace it with something 'shiny and new' but alternatives which offer the same set of powerful features are prohibitively expensive especially in these days of budget shrinking, cost saving and cut backs. The irony is, tools such as TOIA can save both time and money. Tutor time is liberated from hours of marking, courses can be delivered off-site reducing 'on' costs and tutor costs, class sizes are no longer dependant on room size or tutor availability, learners can complete a course at times which suit them etc etc...the benefits are many and clear.

So JISC, any chance of a TOIA resurrection? The timing couldn't be any better.

Jim

More than one way to joint a chicken

The BBC visited the College yesterday to look at the increased enrolment in education and how we're using award winning technology to really enhance the Student experience:

The BBC were particularly impressed with our innovative Kitchen Recording System developed in conjunction with Impact that creates video resources to aid Catering Students. Ron Wyatt-Goodwin (the chef featured in the video), Head of Commercial Catering & Operations Division said that the new system helped Students who are reluctant to ask the lecturer to repeat parts of lesson, allowing them to work through the technique at their own pace.

The other major benefit Ron identified for the system is that the resources produced are videos, meaning that they can be replayed and reused as many times as the Student or Lecturer needs, ensuring that learners get more out of a session and Lecturers can spend more time supporting Students in class.

Ron also said that giving the Students the option of watching and reviewing videos before, during and after a session gives them the ability to visualise and practice techniques, leading to a demonstrable increase in first time pass rates.

It also saves quite a lot of chickens.

Leading from the front

Most VLE's aren't what you'd call aesthetically pleasing, I suppose the best way to describe them would be.... functional.

I believe that this is mostly due to the way that the VLE has developed, incrementally and with a great focus on keeping it the same. I feel that a lot of VLE developers stick the mantra that 'Big change causes big problems', in that making radical shifts in design or functionality can alienate users and make the transition period hellish, forever tarnishing the reputation product.

And whilst that is true, we must remember that the first bite is with the eye or to modify an another cliché, all users judge a book by its cover, Students are even more design focussed than ever before.

So how do we respond as developers? With Varying shades of grey.

If the aim of ICT is to engage the user, why is it that most educational software looks so bad?

Of course the function of the software is paramount but we also need to realise that our user has changed and that their expectations of what software should look like have radically altered.

I'm not advocating BOLD FLASHING COLOUR SETS THAT MAKE YOUR EYES BLEED, instead we should focus clean looking, intelligently designed layouts that enhance the content.

Are we missing a trick by designing the way VLE's look?

Who are we developing for? Students

Who develop the VLE? Staff

Who provides feedback? Staff

Seeing a pattern here? If VLE's are for students why are staff designing them? I'm not talking about a simple student consultation process, I think we should get students designing the look of our intranet.

Where else but in education can you have access to hundreds of developers, graphic artists and designers chomping at the bit for industry experience?

Students get a VLE that looks good, the designers get experience and accreditation and we as developers can ensure that we have the best VLE possible as it led not just by students ideas but by their actual hard work.

Now this isn't just a flowery idea, I'm actually putting this into practice. A games development student has come forward wanting to work on our new version of seeNet and so he is going to design the look and feel for seeSpace.

That's how we at South East Essex College aren't just talking about changing ICT, we're pioneering the use of student led design over large scale projects.

VLE's for Students, By Students.

e-maturity: the role of the learner

Yesterday I attended a Becta Ed-Maturity and Impact Workshop to discuss the merits of the e-maturity framework and the concept of ‘e-maturity’ in particular. The e-maturity framework enables Colleges to assess and improve their use of technology to support teaching and learning.

In using the framework to make judgements about the use of technology Colleges will also be able to measure their level of ‘e-maturity’. Becta are hoping that all Colleges, if they have not already done so, will be able to make progress to reach a ‘performing’ level of e-maturity, which is just short of outstanding.

During the morning session attendees flagged up their level of e-maturity across two spectrums, one for ILT maturity and the other for systems integration.

On viewing the criteria I assessed the College’s level of e-maturity and level of systems integration as outstanding.

The image below, taken by a colleague during the session, indicates where on the two spectrums attendees benchmarked the performance of their Colleges. South East Essex College's flag is yellow. The red flag indicates the national average amongst Colleges and other providers.

(Image courtesy of lizthebiz)

Pencil lines faintly visible bottom left in the ILT spectrum at the top of the image indicate additions I made to the criteria for the level of ILT maturity. Given the changes to the Common Inspection Framework announced in March this year my colleagues agreed that the use of technology to promote and encourage the Learner Voice will need to be central in every College's ILT strategy.

In sharing our experiences I described how during the past 10 years South East Essex College has made a strong commitment to using technology to support learning and business processes. I explained further that technology now lies at the heart of the functioning of the College and with respect to ILT there has been no need to speak of 'e-learning', no need to adopt ILT 'champions', no need to issue ILT 'strategies' to encourage staff and students to use intranet-bases systems and services.

A strong theme that emerged during our discussions was the role of the learner in the effective use of technology. Students now attend Colleges with a range of expectations and needs that did not exist just 5 years ago. With new and emerging technologies more and more students are expecting to use a range of technologies to underpin and support their time at College.

Our students are becoming avid uses of College based web services; as I write this there have been over 200 posts in the student forums this morning discussing a range of issues such as swine flu and what to do for their end of year prom. The Forums are not just used by students. Information Systems have this morning launched a trial of a new student email system and are using the forum as a platform to ask students to volunteer for the trial and receive student feedback on the system.

At the end of the workshop it became clear that benchmarking against a framework to measure a College's use of ILT is only part of the story. Ironically, my assessment of the college's standing with respect of ILT only highlighted the work that still needs to be done. It is now clear and will remain the case in the foreseeable future student engagement with the College's systems will be the final arbiter in any use of technology to support teaching and learning.

Students who attend South East Essex College access their course plans and schemes of work anytime, anywhere, they can search over 2 million pages on our College intranet, they can complete their ILPs online, use resources that have been deposited in our Learning Resources Pool, they can communicate with others using forums, email their tutors and they can plug their own devices into our wireless network. The final challenge though is that a College's use of technology will only be effective if it directly meets the needs and aspirations of students.

The Chairman of the Board

First Impressions

Part of my role as ILT Liaison Officer at South East Essex College is to train tutors in the use of interactive whiteboards. Across our campuses in Southend and Thurrock we have over 50 boards including Promethean and Smart interactive units and training can be arranged at any time via an online booking form on seeNet (our VLE) for both groups and interested individuals.

Are ordinary whiteboards in our learning centres obsolete?

Alas, the short answer is no. Our first boards were Promethean and early versions of the software proved to be unreliable and unstable, often crashing unexpectedly and fatally without warning. Unsurprisingly, many tutors found this ‘seat of the pants’ experience unacceptable when trying to do something as simple as writing on a board in front of their class. This is a ‘bread and butter’ aspect of teaching and learning but suddenly it became a complex, nerve wracking task accomplished only by the bravest, most IT literate members of our teaching teams.

Fortunately, things have improved with progressive software updates but there can be no denying the damage that has been done. First impressions of any new technology are vital. If users can’t see the benefits of new systems immediately why should we expect them to use them at all? As innovators, pushing the use of technology, we continually skate along a thin knife edge, being first to pioneer technology and systems while continually running the risk of alienating and ‘putting off’ the very people we want to be using that technology when things don’t work as expected. Three questions spring from this which can be applied to ILT in general and not just to the use of interactive whiteboards:

1. Should we wait for ILT systems to be 100% reliable before we push for their use?
2. Can IT based systems ever be 100% reliable?
3. Is there any point in over-complicating something which is relatively simple by using state of the art technology?

Firstly, IT based systems can never be 100% reliable. If we were to wait until they were we’d never get to use them. This is why Microsoft often gets blamed for releasing ‘unfinished’ or ‘buggy’ products which they later patch with updates. It’s impossible to find all the bugs in a complex piece of software and often fixing relatively small bugs leads to the creation of new, more serious ones. We need to test and use software and systems in the real world to discover problems and issues which may not surface until they are used on mass in the environments they were created for.

The risk of alienating or ‘putting off’ users through using technology which may not be 100% reliable is a risk we have to take. If we didn’t take this risk we’d never make advancements. There’s no doubt that undoing the ‘damage’ caused by the whiteboards early unreliability and rebuilding faith in their use is one of the largest barriers I have to face in increasing their use across the College but this can be achieved.

As for over-complicating something as simple as writing on a board through the use of technology, the benefits of the interactive software are huge and tutors receiving training are amazed at the potential the software offers. Importantly, interactive boards haven’t replaced the existing dry wipe boards; they co-exist in the same room, tutors have the choice to use either depending on the needs of the session. We’re not replacing the ‘bog standard’ board but merely offering a system with huge flexibility and scope that can transform the dullest ‘bread and butter’ element of teaching and learning into something far more stimulating.

Ultimately, first impressions do matter but they can be changed.