Molenet - Loughborough College

Year 3 Micro Project- Using Mobile Technologies to support chronically ill students to access courses by distance learning 2009/2010

To allow students who, for medical reasons, need to access the full range of learning in a way that is suitable to them and their specialist needs, and to provide individualised support for development both academically and personally. To provide opportunities for learners to progress to higher education or work.To allow these students access to varying means of communication both to their tutors and to their peers in ways which are not currently available.

Aims:

• To improve achievement and retention of chronically ill learners studying at a distance from the College – who may find learning at an institution too challenging.
• To engage learners with chronic health issues in the process of learning who have barriers to education.
• To develop peer support in learner groups who are geographically dispersed by using online and social networking systems that can be accessed online.
• To try innovative and digital formats to make learning resources more accessible to those who may find traditional formats to challenging to access.

Objectives:

• The College will develop and trial a mobile version of e-portfolio using a range of web2 technologies which will integrate into the College VLE (moodle open source software), accessible from a range of mobile devices. This will be tested with the group of learners in order to test the effectiveness of the technology on retention and achievement of hard to reach learners. The e-portfolio will link to Mahara (open source) used in the JISC EWE Project in order to enhance its range in the use of mobile learning.
• To allow students to set targets within the e-portfolio on their education and personal development. Learners are able to monitor their own progress using the e-portfolio and the college systems.
• Contribute to the ongoing development of teaching and learning by focusing on support for distance learners specifically via mobile technologies. Students, who are geographically dispersed and may want to access their studies at a wide range of times, can be provided with an opportunity to use mobile devices to facilitate the creation of communities of practice where they can support each others’ development.
• Loughborough College will purchase and trial a range of mobile devices to test how they can used to aid students in the recording of media rich content that can be transferred onto an e-portfolio. Recording presentation activities, professional discussions for assessment purposes.
• To explore the media abilities of mobile devices for learners by recording and disseminating learning content in the following ways;

a) Recording evidence which can be uploaded to their e-portfolio
b) Sharing experience with peers via video based discussion boards
c) Making use of live video streaming to record performance activities
d) Use of familiar web2 technology to communicate with peer groups and tutors.
• Trial mobile devices to move away from traditional based library/learning resources to achieve more flexible access via the use of e-books on mobile devices and web based resources.
• To test the improvement of retention and achievement of students who are given the use of mobile technologies.

Contribution to Local and Regional priorities

National Initiatives:
• Education and Support of NEET learners who have not been able to attend school or college due to a chronic illness, and have therefore been excluded.
• These learners also may be isolated from each other – so have no traditional peer group support or social networks which are necessary for effective learning.

Local Initiative
• Loughborough College has undertaken a project for the support of learners with chronic illnesses, and is undergoing development to allow learners from across the UK to study A Levels online - using the College VLE, supported by individual subject tutors employed by the College.