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Change in e-Learning in a UK university – London Met RLO-CETL

John Cook CETL Centre Manager

Reusable Learning Objects (RLO)

Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL)

john.cook@londonmet.ac.uk

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Acknowledgement co-authors

• Debbie Holley and David Andrew from London Met

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Structure of Talk Introduction – Effecting Change

Institutional Change Model

5 Questions

General Discussion

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Introduction - Effecting Change

• London Metropolitan University and its partners, the Universities of Cambridge and Nottingham have launched a CETL in Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs)

• RLOs are easily accessible electronic aids to learning for students

• Each year: 90 RLOs to be designed, developed, used and evaluated with 2,000 - 3,000 across partner sites

• These objects are transferable and can be used in all sorts of learning situations

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Examples of RLOs

• A selection of London Met learning objects that have been developed and can be found at:

http://learning.north.londonmet.ac.uk/bssmstudy/p540.htm

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Localised use

InternalCoordination

Processredesign

Network redesign &embedding

Redefinition & innovative use

Degre

e o

f ch

ange e

ffort

Range of potential benefits

High

HighLow

Based on a model of change from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on how e-learning systems transform business processes

Institutional Change Model

Tipping point

Replication Transformation/innovation

(adapted from Shaw, 2006)

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Effecting Change

• There are no easy solutions. • Adapt processes to suit the change intended. • Change requires teamwork and leadership (and the

two are related). • Work with the culture (even when you want to

change it). • Communicate, communicate, communicate.

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• Colleague 1:– Has to be top management commitment – otherwise

nothing changes at the bottom in a bureaucracy.– Willingness to invest – either in a specialist VLE (WebCT,

Lotus Notes, Blackboard) or to invest in staff development & training for open-source software eg Moodle, Boddington

– At London Met we went for WebCT Vista because of the support that is provided

Question 1. What are the critical success factors for institutional change?

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• Variety of students via bursaries and students union• Colleague 2 activities:

– Centre for Academic Development, – Various Continuing and professional development modules– Talks at learning & teaching committee and at L&T workshops– Getting managerial support– Focus of attention raises profile within the institution – Enabling collaboration through providing a focus, resources etc

Question 2. How did RLO-CETL embed e-learning into institutional practice?

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• My view as manager– A key point in terms of team

empowerment is that all members are involved in presentations about our work, as the extensive dissemination list on the News section of web site shows.

Question 2. How did RLO-CETL embed e-learning into institutional practice?

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• Colleague 1:– Personally my main issue was with my

departmental head – he didn’t want to release me from my teaching, and made things very difficult (even though every single RLO goes back into the department for the benefit of the students) … the top level management are committed

Question 3. What were the problems we faced and how did we address them?

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• My view as manager:– Since the previous statement was made the

situation has changed.– We must be doing something right as

Colleague 1’s Head has agreed to my (John’s) request to support release to run the next phase (September 2006 to Feb 2007)

– This is seen by the team as a major result.

Question 3. What were the problems we faced and how did we address them?

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• What are the issues around embedding and dealing with problems?

Discussion around Questions 2 & 3

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• Colleague 2:– Not managing to deal with all the political

players at the right time – not that it would be possible!

Question 4. What mistakes did we make?

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• Colleague 1:– Really important – the tutor has to have a really good

think through the use of RLOs as part of the module pedagogy, and not have them as a ‘bolt-on’ later. This planning before development is crucial, or the student experience won’t be the same.

– Had a huge impact on the student experience – they really enjoy the interaction, the design, the links through to their assessment tasks – they could see the links through the whole module

Question 5. How did RLO-CETL change the student experience?

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• Six years into attempts to use RLOs to achieve a tipping point are we there?

– The answer is no but that we are getting close in terms of the redesign of courses in the largest Department in our university.

– We predict that critcal mass will be achieved in 2008 as the CETL gets wider.

Conclusions

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• key critical success factors for institutional change at London Met.

– Sustainability– RLO-CETL is situated in phase 2 of our model

Conclusions

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– Engaged in a process of • determining the degree of difficulty in shifting from

existing to target practices• a stakeholder analysis has been performed to identify

what is required to retrain current practice and implement targets

• a networked organisation has been developed as a premium has been placed on innovation.

Conclusions

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Thank You & Some Links

• http://homepages.north.londonmet.ac.uk/~cookj/

• http://www.rlo-cetl.ac.uk/ • http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/ltri/index.htm

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General Discussion