The Sheffield College

The Sheffield College logo

Experience:

MoLeNET3:

The Sheffield College has recently led a successful capital bid which involves the ‘Sheffield Diploma Consortium,’ and hence, a number of Sheffield Secondary schools. The focus for 2009/10 is on Hillsborough and Norton Colleges and our six partner schools. We aim to establish an on-going community of shared e-learning expertise and practice from across the city.

MoLeNET2:

In 2008/09, our project (MATTS – M-learning, A Tool for Transformation in Sheffield) involved: 483 learners aged 14-19, 195 learners aged 20+,132 staff, including 92 teaching staff, 84 Moodle participants

27 curriculum areas which include Access to HE, Additional Support, Animal Management, Apprenticeship – Dental Nurses, Aviation Academy, Brickwork, BTEC National Construction, BTEC National Engineering, BTEC National IT Practitioners, Business Administration, Catering & Hospitality, Communications, Early Years and Childcare, e-communications online Fn.Dg., ESOL, Foundation Studies, Hair and Beauty, Hospital Apprentice, IELTS online
iMedia, ITQ, Key Skills & Maths, NEETS, science, Teaching Assistants, Timber trades
Visually Impaired

MATTS had two main strands:

Vocational: to deliver increased efficiencies in vocational and work place assessments using m-learning to record evidence and subsequently store this in e-portfolios for tutors/assessors to validate online.

Learner Voice: Learners submitted short course 'bids' telling us what mobile technology they wanted to use and how they wanted to use it in their learning.

MATTS is part of a four year m-learning strategy within the college, with the first year focussing on Sheffield City College.

Areas of Success:

During MoLeNET2, Lecturers reported a positive impact in learners' attendance, behaviour and enthusiasm for learning and also predict an increase on achievement.

We believe that MoLeNET2 should be seen as a ‘three year project squeezed into six months.’ The associated college/staff/student development time line is longer than the original project period. For many staff the formal MoLeNET2 period was a time of experimentation and development with more formal use to occur during the current academic year. This is resulting in the development of a dynamic community of learning, one in which dramatically different curriculum areas interact, with the common aim of increasing the effectiveness of both teaching and learning.

The fact that MATTS’s initial (08/09) target of involving 30 staff reached almost 150 is a testimony to the proactive policies of the College. MoLeNET2 was a very powerful agent of change that affected the learning of almost 700 students. MATTS provides staff training that is specific to mobile technologies but also exploits our parallel ILT Gateway training. Staff have created videos, podcasts, used social web tools and technologies via training and resources developed in the ILT Gateway. The ILT Gateway and MATTS have worked together to deliver a responsive, structured CPD programme whose prime target is to raise staff skill levels.

MoleNET2 saw a number of key publications resulting from activity within the Sheffield College. We anticipate further publication at a national level, as collaborative work with our MoLeNET3 partners develops. We also anticipate further contributions to both MoLeNET and MoLeSHARE.

Milestone, Impact and Success:

December 2009 - appointment of MoLeNET Academy Manager
December 2009/January 2010 – identification, and ordering of appropriate resources, including furniture, hardware
January 2010 – planning of CDP programme
February 2010 – commencement of CPD programme
March 2010 – formal launch of MoLeNET Academy

We anticipate 200 teaching staff, and 100 non-teaching staff taking part in m-learning CPD during 2010.

In addition, we anticipate 200 non-TSC staff taking part in m-learning CPD during 2010.

Added value to other sectors:

We will build on the success of MATTS in 2008/09. We are currently extending the MATTS model across a wider range of both providers and age groups, through our partnership with ‘The Sheffield Diploma Consortium’, and thereby Sheffield Secondary Schools.

We support the vision in ‘Made in Sheffield: City of Opportunity, A Skills Strategy for Sheffield ’ (Sheffield City Council, 2009), and The Sheffield College’s own strategic objectives, as well as Raising Aspirations, Sheffield City Council's 14-19 Strategic Plan.

As part of the ‘Making IT Personal’ project the College is will co-leading a South Yorkshire wide project called ‘Next Generation User Skills’ where competencies for living and working in our increasingly digitally focused region are mapped and a host of short ‘ bite sized’ teaching tutorials are made freely available to the public and private sectors. This will include a project designed to train and send ‘Digital Outreach Trainers’ (DOTS) into the region’s most digitally under-skilled communities.

The project will also support the nation's first Digital Region, which aims to stimulate the economic growth of South Yorkshire through the availability of high speed, next generation broadband services to businesses and residential users.