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Matthew Boulton College of Further & Higher Education

Year 1: Developing an m learning strategy for Birmingham and the West Midlands (The msb project) 2007/2008  

    

The purpose of the project was to develop a regional centre of excellence for m learning in the West Midlands. 

The main aim was to mainstream and embed m-learning strategy and practice across the consortium, leveraging Matthew Boulton College’s acknowledged expertise in the development of curriculum enhanced by m-learning techniques and technologies. 

The project developed infrastructure to embed the m-learning strategy and practice across the consortium, encouraging sustainability. The focus was on continuing professional development (CPD) to provide teachers with the tools to use m-learning while teaching a cohort consisting of Train to Gain, work-based and Skills for Life learners.

College and Project Background

The purpose of the project was to develop a regional centre of excellence for m learning in the West Midlands. The project consortium consisted of two colleges, Matthew Boulton College and Sutton Coldfield College, with Matthew Boulton College as the lead college. Both colleges have over 100 years experience in providing education and training and both Colleges were judged to be ‘Good – Grade 2’ colleges in their most recent Ofsted inspection visits. 

Over the last year the two colleges have been working together and have entered into the formal process of merging the two institutions to form a new single college which aims to achieve Beacon status as quickly as possible. It was recognised before bidding for the MoLeNET project that the role of e-learning and m-learning and its impact on the experience of the learner would be a key feature in moving towards Beacon status in terms of learner experience and therefore in the judgment of Ofsted. The project partnership then was a very firm one from the project inception and the project aims were closely aligned to strategic aims.

Matthew Boulton College is located in the centre of Birmingham. It attracts students not only from the local area, but also from the West Midlands and the rest of the country as a whole. The College currently teaches some 500 courses to over 7000 students and is widely recognised for the depth and quality of its educational provision and its vocational teaching in particular. It has achieved CoVE (Centre of Vocational Excellence) status in print media and graphics, business and professional services and vocational medical sciences.

The College premises are three years old and the standard of the accommodation is exemplary in the sector. The environment is fully wireless, with connectivity available over the whole main site. In 2002, the College was recognised by the presentation of the most prestigious award for any educational establishment - The Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Further and Higher Education. The Matthew Boulton College vision is to ‘Inspire learning and achieve excellence’. Its mission is ‘To contribute to the economic development and regeneration of the Birmingham conurbation through the provision of high quality education and skills development’.

Sutton Coldfield College also has a reputation for being one of the most successful and popular colleges in Birmingham, again attracting students from all over the West Midlands and overseas. The College has a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE) in integrated manufacturing technology and is a partner in Centre of Vocational Excellence in business and professional services with Matthew Boulton College.

The College offers a comprehensive choice of courses for 16–19 year olds, adult learners and companies, ranging from GCSEs, NVQs, A-levels, Access to HE, HNDs and professional qualifications, among others. College campuses are located across the north side of Birmingham; in Sutton Coldfield, Great Barr and Erdington, plus a dedicated design centre a few minutes walk from Sutton Coldfield Town Centre.

The College’s buildings and facilities include fully-equipped learning centres, a dedicated art & design centre, sports hall, gyms, theatre, TV and radio studios, hairdressing and beauty salons and excellent recreational and student areas.The Sutton Coldfield College mission is ‘To put learners first, improve individual lives and increase prosperity in the West Midlands by providing first-class education and training for all’.

Project aims

• Enhance and enrich the quality teaching and learning – use m-learning devices and flexible, differentiated learning materials to provide alternative teaching strategies that will appeal to a variety of learners and learning styles. This will be achieved by the deployment of m-learning devices and supporting equipment in targeted programmes over the life of the project.
• Increase the quality of assessment – use m-learning devices to deliver formative and summative assessment and integrate the results to generate holistic assessments of a student’s progress and target extra support to students at risk.
• Widen participation – use m-learning devices to address multiple barriers experienced by hard-to-reach learners and learners from non-traditional backgrounds (eg those not in education, employment or training (NEET), older people, people in the workplace, people with low levels of literacy and numeracy). The type of m-learning devices will be appropriate to the client group (eg gaming devices and young people)
• Dissemination – organise a West Midlands regional conference to disseminate the partnership’s experience and expertise in m-learning.

Key objectives

• M-learning champions – the lead partner will produce an in-house continuing professional development (CPD) programme for m-learning champions covering technical production skills as well as the skills needed to analyse and re-model working practices so that m-learning devices can be used effectively

• Re-model working practices – m-learning champions will assist in the re-modelling of working practices in the delivery of NVQs. This will enable m-learning devices to be used to capture evidence and deliver and assess underpinning knowledge

• Maximise use of m-learning techniques and technologies – develop a CPD programme targeted at all teaching staff and assessors to embed m-learning into teaching strategies across the curriculum

• Enable connectivity – enable interaction between m-learning devices and consortium networks through the development and enhancement of wireless networks and infrastructure at consortium college sites.

• To engage learners from the following target groups:

• work-based learners                      
• full-time students
• Entry 1 to Entry 3 and those not in education, employment or training.        

Benefits for participants

Benefits for learners, across all learner groups

Learners gained:

• learning at a location to suit them
• more engaging blended lessons
• ownership of learning journey
• peer-to-peer assessment
• portability.

Benefits for staff

Staff gained:

• increased confidence in using e-learning and m-learning
• more engaged students
• greater access to web materials in non-IT locations
• increased range of formative assessment opportunities
• equipment to enhance their teaching practice.

Benefits for the lead college

The lead college gained:

• enhanced learning infrastructure
• share in learning resources
• increased learner communication
• positive impact on teaching and learning strategy
• e-learning and web-services teams

Benefits for institutions taking part (partners and colleges)

The institutions gained:

• enhanced learning infrastructure
• shared learning resources
• increased learner communication
• positive impact on teaching and learning strategy
• e-learning and web services teams.

Leasons Learned

One of the biggest challenges was to engage enough staff to try out m-learning. The MBC campus already had the benefit of being fully wireless which meant they could use the ultra-mobile PC (UMPC) devices wherever they wanted to. One strategies was to engage early on with tutors in the delivery of materials that fitted the Government’s Every Child Matters agenda. A-level tutors were trained in how to log the devices onto the network and access some materials, which we purchased separately, covering drugs awareness, sexual health and healthy eating. Over 250 students completed these on-line programmes as part of their tutorial and the training provided for staff made them confident in using the devices with groups in locations across the campus. The tutors spanned all delivery directorates and this activity led to the devices being used in other parts of the Directorate and other staff coming forward to enquire about using the devices. This was enhanced by a mailout to all staff before the Christmas break asking them to submit outlines for activities for which they would like to use the devices with their learners. A momentum was established which has gathered pace, particularly since the appointment of the new lead practitioner who had extensive experience of e-learning and m-learning at his previous college.

At Sutton Coldfield there was a more limited wireless network but the net results, given this, were all the more impressive. At Sutton work was done to enable students to make use of their own devices and learners have been using their own mobile phones, etc to download revision materials and complete exercises. One of the most interesting quotes, paraphrased here, from one of the Sutton m-champions was ‘Before I retire I would like to be able to say to students – come on, get your phones out we have work to do’ – which is the exact opposite of what lecturing staff usually say to students. He has achieved this during the lifetime of the project.

Most of the lessons where the mobile devices have been used could best be described as blended learning sessions. The devices have been used for a range of activities to enhance the lesson.  Examples are:

• video streaming
• research (using the internet)
• preparing group presentations (using on board webcams)
• out in the field (plant identification etc.)

This mode proved most popular with staff and students although we did have a considerable number of students using iPods and cameras to complete a creative arts project about what it meant to live in Birmingham, which involved working in other cities such as Manchester for comparative purposes. 

The net outcome was Showreel products that staff could then use to make a more thorough assessment of the student’s ideas. Podcasts were also trialled in several areas.

Tips

• On a project with ambitious targets and comparatively short delivery time have a strategy for making a big impact at the beginning.
• Where staff ‘buy in’ is important try to set up an environment that encourages staff to demand involvement rather than one which relies on coercion
• Be flexible in terms of engagement and allow ideas to come through that you had not planned for or anticipated – let the outcomes be wherever possible demand led
• Be prepared to re-negotiate your outcomes, where possible, as the new ideas take shape and prove successful – don’t be over precious about your initial ideas particularly when trying out something new