Bournville College of Further Education

Year 1: Mobile learning for those who care 2007/2008

Literature on the subject of retention and achievement for work-based health and social care students indicates that student retention and achievement are poor in contrast to traditional classroom-based learning. Even when there are interventions they tend to fall short. The same applies to health and care students studying the open and distance learning (ODL) model with Bournville College.

By providing learners with mobile technologies, the project aimed to overcome learner isolation and give ready access to other learners. The mobile devices would provide communication ‘tools’ between learners and their tutors/assessors so that learners would be supported and their progress monitored.

The project also planned to improve the success rates of learners by providing the ‘tools’ – for example camera and voice recording technology. That technology was used to collect evidence of competency in the workplace and subsequent storage in a third-party e-portfolio (Learning Assistant). Without this initiative, learners would be at risk of late completion of their qualification or non-achievement due in part to the lack of access to resources.

To summarise, the project can be encapsulated in two discrete areas: first, to provide distance learners with appropriate mobile technologies to facilitate improved lines of communication between the college, learners and the employer; second, to provide the ‘bridge’ required to drive up standards and achievement.

College and Project Background

Bournville College is a large general further education (FE) college located in south-west Birmingham. Just under 90% of the college’s learners are from Birmingham and most of the rest are drawn from the neighbouring boroughs, cities and counties of the West Midlands. The college offers courses in all sector-subject areas (with the highest number of learners in: health, public services and social care; preparation for life and work; information and communication technology – ICT; business, administration and law; arts, media and publishing, and retail and commercial enterprise) and also provides programmes which cover work-based learning, Entry to Employment, Train to Gain and Learndirect.

This project was a single college project with connected stakeholders that comprised employers with staff enrolled on a variety of health and social care qualifications at the college, including a number of organisations from the education sector, a Primary Care Trust and a community drugs project.

The participants in the project were primarily Train to Gain and work-based assessed and internal verification (IV) only, and were working towards NVQ Levels 2, 3 and 4 in health and social care awards, NVQ Levels 2 and 3 teaching assistants, and Levels 2 and 3 children’s care learning and development (CCLD).

The learner profile comprised non-traditional adult learners who either had no formal qualifications or were progressing to a higher-level qualification. They typically had low levels of confidence and had difficulties in accessing college- based courses due in part to their employers being unable or reluctant to release their staff during work time. Support at a distance had been provided for this group via the college’s virtual learning environment (VLE) and the implementation of an e-portfolio, but many still had difficulties in accessing this support due to a lack of ICT in the workplace and at home. The project sought to overcome these barriers and overcome learner isolation by providing the learners with mobile learning devices.

Employer involvement in student learning plays a critical role and key to this is their understanding of programme requirements in terms of effective learning and employer contribution to learner success. The use of m-learning extends opportunities for the college to link with employers and improve their understanding. A particular aspect is the timely identification of students at risk of failure because their individual learning needs are not being met or the work-base does not provide the range of opportunities required.

Project aims

Establish a technology-based mobile learning network to improve social networking and learning opportunities and to increase the effectiveness of employer engagement.
Provide an effective and sustainable bridge between the needs of employers, the learners and the college in driving up standards and achievement.
Widen access to, and participation in, learning to learners from all socio-economic arenas.

Key objectives

To extend the learning platform that the college provides to improve student success and make a contribution to the skills base of the health and social care sector in the West Midlands.
To further develop employer understanding of programme requirements in terms of what constitutes effective learning and of employer contribution to learner success
To identify students at risk of failure due to their individual learning needs not being met or where the work-base does not provide the range of opportunities required
To improve access to learning resources and tutor support through the provision of Palm technology without traditional barriers of attendance at college or access to tutors
To improve opportunities for monitoring student progress to ensure timely intervention when students are identified as at risk of failing
To introduce efficient and timely work-based paperless assessments with the extended use of digital processing, as well as downloading digital documentation
To improve the andragogy of adult learning by creating a social network where learners can provide peer support through informal networks or through the provision of theme-based, tutor-led conferencing
To implement real-time assessment of learner progress and needs, including the identification of at-risk students and provision of support.

Benefits

Benefits for learners (across all learner groups)

Learners gained:

a personalised curriculum
independent learning opportunities
collaborative learning opportunities
improved communication channels with teacher/assessor and peer group
accessible ‘bite-sized’ knowledge-based resources.

Benefits for staff

Staff gained:

increased retention of learners
increased rate of completion for some learners
new, high-quality resources developed to target difficult learning points for the majority of learners
improved channels of communication between teachers/assessors/learners to highlight issues of concern
development of teacher/assessor /learner ICT skills.

Benefits for the lead college

The lead college gained:

the opportunity to raise the profile of information and learning technology (ILT) across the college and to demonstrate the benefits for both learners and staff
the development of the skill base of teaching and support staff in line with the College ILT strategy 2006/09
the extension of teaching and learning delivery methodologies with the potential to improve success rates
an effective marketing tool to potential Train to Gain employers in the form of mobile technologies
consolidation of mobile learning expertise within the college skill base.

Lessons learned

The project identified early on the need to differentiate the approach used to teaching and learning across all learners’ groups. To achieve this, close collaboration with the curriculum was essential. A strategy was developed to identify the most appropriate content of the learning resources to be developed and the most appropriate format for delivery of these (via the mobile device).

Assessment for learning was given high priority as the project recognised that when this is incorporated into the learning experience the quality of learning will improve. Learners need to know and understand the aim of the learning and why they need to learn it. All the teaching and learning resources were structured to provide this information to the learner and many included self-assessment opportunities. The project also developed an instance of the VLE (Moodle) that incorporated all the learning resources distributed to the learners via the mobile device and included assessment and feedback opportunities through the use of quizzes and forums.

The delivery strategy implemented by the project team also reflected this approach. Learners were contacted, using email, at the start and end of each week to reinforce the learning content just received and what to expect in the following week. This meant that learners were aware of the ‘big picture’ and knew when to check for new resources on their mobile devices that would assist them with their studies.

The time commitment for developing these resources needs to be closely monitored by projects, as it is very intensive, especially when there is a tight timeframe allocated to this aspect of the project. Where curriculum teams are unable to provide this level of resource, the project team will need to be able to take on the extra responsibility.

The need to engage staff quickly in the project is paramount. Where this happens staff recognise the benefits for both themselves and their learners. For example, one assessor’s feedback revealed that previously, when tasks had been set for between meetings, they were sometimes not completed because learners were uncertain of what they were being asked to do. With MoLeNET regular and instant communication ensured all learners understood the requirements, which meant that they did more work between meetings.

A detailed evaluation of the MoLeNET project indicates that if a further project were undertaken, the curriculum area(s) should be involved by invitation rather obligation.