What do you regularly use the VLE for?

The learning platform is universally used for uploading and accessing course materials and considered a critical tool for the delivery of all courses. In addition most staff use the learning platform to contact students and provide opportunities for directed research and extended learning beyond face to face sessions.

To a lesser extent and to varying degrees assessment tools are deployed (with support from learning technologists), discussion forums used and supported, multimedia resources included, exemplar materials uploaded and course descriptors provided.

It’s worth noting too that:

Resources comprise mainly of Office documents and also some web based learning packages e.g. psychology.
Adding resources before a face to face class can save time as students can prepare.
The learning platform has been used in the past to provide grades to students (manually entered).

What functions of the VLE can you not do without?

Despite some staff not using Quiz function they can see their potential.

Tools for tracking student activity are important so that students can be monitored and made aware that “non” activity is tracked especially at the beginning of the courses.

The accessibility advantages of using electronic resources within a learning platform.

E-mailing function is vital - especially since students are adopting mobile technologies for accessing emails so communication is much more timely. The ability to send group emails and announcements are important but does impact on time for lecturer to respond to individuals.

The learning platform serves as a critical back up for course materials needed in class as the network drive is not always available.

Are there elements of the VLE or functions that you do not like?

Forums require moderation which is time consuming and some staff felt that there is a general misunderstanding that putting materials online is all that’s required and that the other aspects e.g. checking links, updating materials, supporting and responding to students are not considered an overhead.

Students are unable to upload to Moodle unless they get admin status (solution might be to use an ePortfolio system). Some staff felt it would be good to be enable students to do this to encourage a feeling of ownership of the site rather that using it as reader only.

Students emailing assessments can be problematic as the lecturer then has to print them out for marking. Although accepted for a deadline students, in some courses students are asked to provide hard copy too and some students have expressed a desire to receive paper based materials. In this instant using the learning platform is perceived to be counter productive.

Equations are not handled well in terms of being able to create self assessed tests that have equations as answers.

Are there institutional barriers that affect your use of the VLE ?

Making time to develop materials and keep materials up to date is difficult and, depending on the subject, materials can become out of date very quickly. Opportunities to up-skill appropriately to take advantage of new technologies for e.g. eAssessment or Peer Assessment techniques are limited as well as opportunities to share effective practice among colleagues which can promote knowledge exchange and provide inspiration. 

Quality control is an issue which is highlighted when resources are uploaded and made available on the learning platform. On one campus materials are put on a test server by staff to await vetting before uploading to the learning platform. Responsibility for this rests with one person and there can be significant time lapse before the process is complete. Some staff recorded that responsibility for too many aspects of the technology rests with the lecturer e.g. accessibility, copyright and there needs to be institutional, user friendly quality guidelines. Templates for staff to use would be useful with quality standards outlining a base line for all courses.

Use of technology needs to be formalized – i.e. strategically planned and understood to be a necessary skill and a formal requirement of professional teaching staff.

There is little or no planning at course level in terms of teaching strategies for the role of technology and the learning platform use. It’s use is very variable and depends very much on the individual lecturer. Some staff indicated that the use of the learning platform for assignment and assessment purposes is perceived as high risk unless a more strategic approach is taken. The assessment driven nature of courses and culture of institutions e.g. expectations of length and nature of face to face time is counter productive in terms of innovation and course redesign.

Some staff felt that there is a general misunderstanding that putting materials online is all that’s required and that the other aspects e.g. checking links, updating materials, supporting students online are not considered an institutional overhead.

Access to computing facilities can present problems especially if they are required on an occasional basis.

Are there aspects of technologies that you use for personal activities that you would like to see incorporated into the learning platform?

It is recognised by all staff that social media is the preferred and most popular method of communication for a large proportion of students – particularly Face Book. There was general consensus that social media should be incorporated to meet learner preferences but raising awareness of eSafety issues related to their use requires to be addressed. There are also concerns that using these types of technology can trivialise the learning experience and that they are not an appropriate place for learning materials.

Some staff are keen to see “Box of Broadcasts” integrated into the learning platform.

Is support for the using the VLE adequate? If not - How could institutional support for using the VLE be improved?

It was universally felt that availability of learning technologists is very good across all campuses and they are very supportive with good training and on hand to respond to queries. The drop in system works well but seems limited to staff who are already engaged in using technologies and there are concerns about the impact on support if uptake was higher by staff and students meaning current support systems would be inadequate. Access to learning technologists is critical for supporting lecturing staff.

Training is good but the opportunity to share effective practice and see inspirational examples is limited. Training and online staff development resources on the learning platform would be good but some staff are not confident that they would be used unless organised officially/traditionally rather than leaving it up to the individual to use and explore. Dedicated staff development slots e.g. “Workshop Wednesdays” would be useful.

VLE training should be part of the induction of all new staff. Video tutorials and a mechanism for exchanging effective practice and exemplar courses would be useful along with an FAQs section.

It was suggested that administrative staff have training in the preparation of learning materials (which is vey labour intensive) for the VLE which might help to overcome some of the time pressures on teaching staff.

General Comments

There are some concerns that students attendance is affected detrimentally by giving access to all the course materials through the learning platform. In response to that 1 lecturer has arranged for poor attendees to be “white listed” and access to resources blocked until attendance improves. In addition mature students may be less keen to use social media and technology in general.

Lecturers should not be put under pressure by students to use the technology. Some staff feel that coping with a variety of teaching styles is a good discipline for students to develop although there should be a common understanding that technology has a part in every course.

Staff are directed to use the VLE but at course level teaching and learning strategies are discussed but not specifically in the context of ICT. Staff recognise the need for staff and the college more generally to be prepared to respond to learners coming through tot FE with more and more experience of using technology. An audit of usage statistics by course or subject was suggested to enable the college to fully understand where efforts needs to be focused.

There is concern that adequate provision is made for people with barriers to learning and a recognition that using electronic resources can go some way to resolving the issue – e.g. CALM Templates could be made available centrally.

There is some experience that part time staff use more technology than full time staff.

Consider a new role of course creator in the system chosen to enable lecturing staff to create their own courses rather than issuing full admin rights as is currently necessary (in Moodle).