Driving e-learning, e-assessment and e-portfolio innovations in the higher

education and vocational education and training sectors: Challenges and solutions

a3 November 2010

Professor Victor J CallanUniversity of Queensland Business School

Overview

1. Innovation, Growth and Sustainability

2. Some Exemplars

3. E-portfolios - how they are being used as a place for purposeful aggregation of digital items, promoting a student's learning and abilities

4. Challenges in this “e” arena, and strategies to promote greater acceptance of these technological innovations

1. Innovation, growth and sustainability

• Innovation is the generation and execution of new ideas that have economic value – “good ideas put to work”

• It is experimental and disruptive

• It is associated with connectedness and collaboration

• For each innovative success there will be multiple unsuccessful attempts

The innovation cycle

Growth

• The Australian Flexible Learning Centre Framework’s 2009 E-learning Benchmarking Survey

• 46% of registered training organisations (RTOs) were using e-learning for assessment

• Among teachers and trainers delivering units using e-learning, 62% are using online assessment activities

Changing learning environment

• Technological change impacting on teachers and learners: pedagogy, curriculum, policy, infrastructure, governance

• Growth in the E-business model – enrolments, learning, assessment, business

• Increasing convergence between curriculum materials and support materials such as library resources, via e-Journals, e-Books and websites

Digital Natives • “Digital Natives”, or the “Net

Generation” are commonly said to:

• Prefer receiving information quickly

• Prefer multi-tasking • Have a low tolerance for lectures• Prefer active rather than passive

learning

• Rely heavily on communications technologies to access information and to carry out social and professional interactions

But Challenges

• Progress hampered by examples of poor quality e-learning and e-assessment

• Validity – does not validly assess the skills being tested and does not address intended learning outcomes

• Authentication – unreliable infrastructure, assessment, accessibility, ease of use, poor security

• Online quizzes – poorly constructed, limited validity and reliability, teachers have little understanding of how to design valid and fair quizzes

• Professional development of teachers and others (e.g. auditors)

E-assessment currently in the VET sector

Online Quizzes

VET practitioners would like to be more confident using

E-Portfolios

All Forms

More on E-Portfolios

later . . .

Australian e-Portfolio Project Report 2008

• Used mostly by Coursework University students

• Subject-specific or program-based contexts

• Faculty-wide or university-wide use is rare

Use by University research students

• E-Portfolios not yet widely used by the research student context

2. Examples of innovative “e” practices

• My Profiling meets Hairdressing – Tasmanian Skills Institute

• Smart Notes and Nuggets – Tasmanian Polytechnic

Examples

• Forklifts getting mobile – SA Plant Operator Training

• Indigenous writer's network – Adelaide College of the Arts

• E-portfolios in nursing – Carer's Training Centre

Examples

• Your Beach – Surf Life Saving Western Australia

• The virtually safe workshop – Durack Institute of Technology

Bakery apprentices at Hunter Institute

Issues: Block release, small enterprises, regional, casual employees

Responses • Gary Sewell and his team - Bakers Delight and Tip Top • Video games, photostories, blogs for use with assessments,

text to explain the processes behind bread making, accessed through computers, laptops, personal digital assistants or mobile phones

• Strong use of regular forums and chat rooms to back up the learning

Lessons to date• Value of incorporating high quality materials and detailed

industry knowledge

Blue Dog Training

Issues: 60% outside SE Qld, travel costs, recognise work based learning

Responses• E learning tools allow more self-paced and self-directed

learning, while each learner is assigned a course trainer for support

• Use online bite-sized 'chunks of learning’ that require 10 to 30 min

Lessons • Commitment to the apprentice and employer• Must continually develop and modify systems

E-learning VET business partnerships

• One Steel Ltd Whyalla • Real Estate Institute WA• Royal Adelaide Hospital• Australian Stainless Steel Development Association• City of Boroondara Vic• Department of Health and Human Services Tas

mania. • Federal Group Tasmania • HJ Heinz Australia Ltd • IMP Printed Circuits • NSW Department of Lands • The Good Guys• Tradelink

• Australian Broadcasting Corporation

• BHP Billiton • City of Mandurah WA • Connex Melbourne• John Holland Pty Ltd • Lifeline Australia • NSW Motor Traders Association • North Coast Area Health Service

NSW• NSW Farmers' Association• Department of Defense

Innovative e-Portfolio practice

• In 2003, Queensland University of Technology (QUT) commenced the development of an e-Portfolio system

• Central to the design of the Student e-Portfolio was the development of the Employability Skill Set

• Progressive take-up of E-Portfolio. Today more than 40,000 QUT students have developed their own e-Portfolio

Innovative e-Portfolio practice

• University of Melbourne has an E-Portfolio project under development that aims to provide structured support for PhD candidates

• It provides access to online transition programs for new research students, “Postgraduate Essentials” (currently being updated to “Graduate Research Essentials”)

• The purpose of the E-Portfolio is to scaffold PhD student progress towards thesis completion, and to support them in the transition into employment, and also to assist in developing a public profile

Innovative e-Portfolio practice

• The University of New England (UNE) uses an e-Portfolio (the UNE-Portfolio) to support its New England Award (NEA), which recognises student achievement through extracurricular activity

• The primary objective of the award is the enhancement of the Graduate Attributes through involvement in local and university communities, voluntary work, leadership activities and extracurricular learning and training

• Participating students gather evidence of their skill development through a variety of activities that fall into the categories of extracurricular learning or training, professional development and contribution to the university or wider community

Sustaining technological innovations

1. GippsTAFE, Victoria

2. Queensland Ambulance Service, Enterprise RTO

3. Tabor Adelaide, SA, Private RTO

4. NSW North Coast Institute of TAFE

5. Challenger TAFE, WA

6. Tasmanian Polytechnic

7. The Federal Group Tasmania, Enterprise RTO

Be strategic• An ambition to improve upon the student and employer

experience in how training is being delivered• North Coast TAFE - seamless approach to e-learning, teaching

and assessment• Challenger - aims to provide a wider range of delivery options

for workforce skills development using its Industry Training Centres

• GippsTAFE - an adaptive learning strategy where e-learning is a major component in its current and future plans

• Collaboration Online at the Queensland Ambulance Service is their organisation-wide e-learning strategy that it progressively develops as e-learning capabilities grow

• Tabor College - an effective e-learning strategy created rapid growth of its online and virtual learning capacity

Senior leadership support• GippsTAFE - senior leaders supported the

establishment of the Innovation Department • Queensland Ambulance Service - the large

investment required to introduce and to sustain its e-learning strategy

• Challenger Institute leaders - support its Systems Steering Committee to explore quality and flexible training solutions

• North Coast Institute of TAFE – leaders support the recent development and pushed for the acceptance of the e-learning strategy

• Tabor College - leaders agreed to commit scarce funds to create a full time role dedicated to growing and developing their e-learning capacity

Make the business case• Federal Group - numerous cost efficiencies in

managing complex issues around staff induction and training in remote and regional locations, and across a diversified business

• GippsTAFE – provides numerous industry partners with the means to meet compliance requirements for staff in health, insurance, community services, and the energy and electrical sectors

• NSW North Coast Institute of TAFE, and Challenger at Western Australia - the regional nature of their campuses, and savings in staff and learner time and greater cost effectiveness

3. The next big thing: E-portfolios

Purposes- developmental, reflective showcase

Potential benefits to students

Consistent findings across research:

• More personal control• Increased learning effectiveness

• Enabling an archive of one’s artefacts and reflections

• Enhancing information technology skills• Enabling connections among formal and

informal learning experience

The role in enabling “Connections”

Between individual’s life, work or learning

(Barrett, 2008)

For institutions

Potential benefits to institutions

1. Creating a system of tracking student work over time

2. Aggregating many students’ work in a particular course to see how the students as a whole are progressing

3. Assessing many courses in similar ways that are all part of one major and thus, by extension, assessing the entire program of study

4. Encouraging continuity of student work from semester to semester in linked courses

5. Having a more fully informed and constantly updated view of student progress in a program

(Batson, 2002)

4. Challenges and strategies

tra

Australian e-Portfolio Project Final Report

• Considerable exploratory interest in e-Portfolios • For successful practice – need to embed or

integrate e-Portfolio activities into curriculum• Get a clear commitment and buy-in from

academic staff• Have sound ICT infrastructure• Adequate funding and overt support from high

level champions• Have strong linkages with university strategies

and policies• Express desire to draw on best practice to share

ideas, knowledge and experiences across the institution and across the sector

The “RIPPLES” model Resources Continuing budget and other resources for e-learning so it

lives on beyond special seed funding

Infrastructure Hardware and software and reliable robust network facilities

People Shared understanding and decision making about the why and how of e-learning

Policies That support innovation

Learning That the use of technology enhances the achievement of training goals

Evaluation Continuous assessment of e-learning innovations to achieve improvements

Support Committed management leadership with vision Teacher: time to experiment with e-learning & opportunities to share & collaborateTechnical: access to competent, service oriented IT staff

Tools to promote “e” innovation• Strategy • Environmental scanning • Innovation roles • People and training • Resources • Innovation teams • Innovation values • Competitions and prizes • Innovation markets • Calling for ideas, ideas

management systems, innovation tournaments

• Engagement and collaboration • Experimental spaces

Have a plan and give it a go1. Define – Which tools, systems or approaches should

we adopt?

2. Understand – What kind of learning outcomes do we require from the e-portfolio initiative and what implications will this have for our practitioners, administrative and technical staff?

3. Prepare – Who will prepare the ground?

4. Engage – What are the most effective strategies for engaging and sustaining the commitment of learners, and those involved in supporting learners’ use of e-portfolios?

5. Implement – What are the lessons learnt from the pilots we have run? What are the factors, such as timing or involvement of e-portfolio champions, that might influence the outcomes?

6. Review – How will we evidence and evaluate the outcomes?

v.callan@business.uq.edu.au

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