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The Manchester College

Year 3: Qualifications going Mobile - taking mobile learning technology into the workplace and community 2009/2010

 

 

 

Project Description

The Manchester College will work with the Adult and Community Learning Provider People’s Voice Media, enabling learners in workplaces and communities to experience mobile learning. The project will use mobile learning technology to support learners who have limited ICT access in their workplaces, with e-portfolios. It aims to prove the efficiency benefits for employers in the current economy. PVM’s “trainees” will use mobile devices to record their experiences, and to deliver its Community Reporters Programme. The project builds upon the successful MoLeNET 1 and 2, which demonstrated how mobile learning motivates and supports learners to develop independence and encourage progression.

Aims;

The project aims to maximise use of mobile learning technologies in order to:
• Engage and motivate learners on work-based learning programmes
• Demonstrate efficiencies of mobile learning, including use of communication technology, in assisting learners to achieve.
• Increase delivery of underpinning knowledge through mobile Moodle and podcasting.
• Enable People’s Voice Media to deliver Community Reporter’s Programmes in the community, and to facilitate a mobile peer support group.
• Engage with employers, demonstrating business benefits mobile learning, to increase competiveness in the current economic climate.
• Up-skill delivery staff in the use of mobile learning technology

Objectives:

It is anticipated that:
• Employers, employees in the workplace and volunteers in the community, will experience learning through mobile technology, for a quicker, more efficient and effective learning experience.
• Through shared good practice and collaborative working with People’s Voice Media, an organisation with extensive experience in using social networking technologies, the college will increase and develop its expertise and capacity to engage with employers and community learning providers.
• The college will support People’s Voice Media in enabling individuals to gain experience, skills and qualifications through participation in the Community Reporters Programme and other community projects.
• By utilising online assessment and mobile learning technology, a large number of students will achieve their target qualification more efficiently and quickly compared with other methods.
• Through reducing paper-based evidence of practical skills, learners will be more motivated to learn and likely to gain their qualifications within the required funding period.
• Learners with limited access to ICT to support their achievement of qualifications will be able to use an electronic portfolio system and communicate more easily with their assessors.
• Online assessment processes will operate more efficiently and effectively; including more flexible opportunities for candidates to present evidence, increased contact with assessors, and opportunities to gain underpinning knowledge through the flexibility of online learning.
• Learners, trainers, assessors and internal verifiers will gain confidence and skills in using e-portfolios and mobile learning technology to record, present and assess evidence.
• Learners and trainers will have opportunities to investigate and trial a range of devices which can be used to record evidence. This will be combined with skills in basic editing software to clearly identify competences being demonstrated.
• There will be increased awareness by employers and community support groups of the opportunities and benefits of training and gaining qualifications through online learning and assessment.
• A number of online courses will be created to enable underpinning knowledge to be delivered through the use of the college’s mobile Moodle and OurTube podcasting services – which were developed and shared with the MoLeNET community during phases 1 and 2.

Target audience:

All learners will be learning in the workplace/ community settings:

Main Target Group:
19+ employed Learners undertaking Train to Gain qualification in Business & Administration Level 2 and 3, Customer Service Level 2 and 3, and ITQ Level 2 and 3, Apprentices in Business Admin Level 2 and 3.
People’s Voice Media Community Reporters; unemployed volunteer community workers; not age restricted

Secondary Target Group:
Learners engaged in Work Based Learning in Construction, to include: 19+ learners in Brickwork, Plumbing, Heating & Ventilation, Painting & Decorating, Scaffolding, Plastering, Wall & Floor Tiling, and Apprentices in Construction Level 2.

Partners:

Burnley College and People's Voice Media

Year 2: Preparing for Independence, Progression and Employability using mobile learning (PIPE) 2008/2009

 

 

 

The project builds upon Phase 1 and is designed to overcome barriers to learner engagement, and to encourage, motivate and sustain progression. It takes as its starting point the need to build a platform of confidence and independence in learning by pre-entry, entry and level 1 learners. The project extends this by taking learners, previously disengaged from learning, and uses mobile technology to progress them to a level 2 qualification. The project tests this further by using mobile technologies to support independent learning and project work by group of Level 3 Diploma learners.

Project Aims

The project will:

• Facilitate independent learning by a range of learners.
• Build learner confidence and encourage active participation in learning process
• Extend learning opportunities beyond the classroom
• Develop communication and social skills of pre-entry learners with more complex learning difficulties
• Develop learners’ literacy and numeracy skills and entry levels 1-3 through the use of multimedia rich practical activities
• Provide learners with appropriate online support and access to resources via mobile technologies for their project work.

Project Objectives:

It is anticipated that:

• A large number of Learners will develop skills to a higher level than they would otherwise in preparation for more advanced study or gaining employment.
• Learners across a range of abilities will have used mobile technologies to gain confidence and increase motivation to learn
• Learners will have gained independent learning skills through selecting and making personal choices within the flexible learning opportunities offered by mobile learning.
• A large number of staff will have the opportunity to directly engage with develop skills in using mobile technologies.
• Learning environments will be adapted and developed to support flexible learning through the availability of a range of mobile devices and learning content
• A range of contextualised learning content will be created for use with mobile devices by learners and staff
• The college will have extended its technological capability to deliver learning and assessment to mobile devices using, OurTube, Mobile Moodle and podcasting
• The college will be able to test mobile learning on a larger scale than the earlier project in order to assess its impact on learner achievement and progression.
• The cost effectiveness of mobile learning will be more fully evaluated in order to inform future ILT strategy and investment.