JISC

Start date: 27 October 2005

End date: 28 February 2006

Funding programme: e-Learning Pedagogy programme

Project website: http://www.e-college.ac/

JISC theme(s): e-Learning

JISC’s e-Learning programme aims to identify how learning might be facilitated by e-learning and to advise on its implementation. It focuses on four areas: e-learning and pedagogy; technical frameworks for e-learning; innovation; and distributed e-learning.

The e-Learning and Pedagogy programme aims to ensure that e-learning as practised in UK further and higher education should be ‘pedagogically sound, learner-focused and accessible’. The general background for this programme is the ongoing need to support practitioners in realising this aim. The programme has two main aims which are driving its objectives and activities:

• To provide the post-16 and higher education community with accurate, up-to-date evidence- and research-based information about effective practice in the use of e-learning applications.
• To promote the application and development of e-learning tools and standards to better support effective practice.

The overarching aim of the JISC e-Learning programme is to identify how e-learning approaches might be used to facilitate learning and to advise on how these approaches might be effectively implemented. 

The aims of the e-Learning and Pedagogy programme are being addressed through a combination of funded projects, evaluations, case studies, reviews and community consultations. The outputs of this work require synthesis and in some cases repurposing for different audiences in the post-16 sectors to ensure that the maximum potential for embedding these outcomes is realised. 

The work of synthesis and embedding outputs began with the practitioner-focused publication and CD-ROM, ‘Effective Practice with e-Learning’. The purpose of the project described here is to evaluate the use made of the publication by the e-learning community and to make recommendations about future dissemination activities.

Aims and Objectives

The broad aim of the project is to evaluate the use made of the publication ‘Effective Practice with e-Learning’ by the recipients of the document and CD ROM, with a view to informing future JISC dissemination activities.

Specific objectives will be to:

• Analyse the publication distribution in terms of role, sector and region
• Create a sampling plan that is representative of all key practitioner groups, organisations and institutional staff
• Gather data from the sample population
• Investigate the usage of the document and resources through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data
• Produce an evaluation report and recommendations about future dissemination activities

Project Methodology

Information will be gathered about the distribution of the publication across the UK post-16 and higher education communities. This will be analysed in terms of role, sector and region for the educational institutions as well as distribution to educational support agencies and other stakeholder groupings.

A sampling strategy will be applied that is representative of all key user groupings. A total of 250 individual recipients of the publication will be selected and will be invited to participate in the evaluation.

From the responses, a minimum of 40 individuals will be selected for telephone interview and 10 selected for face to face interview. The stakeholder mix will be maintained in the final samples. All individuals from the 250 sample who respond positively will be invited to complete an emailed questionnaire about their usage of the materials. The telephone and face to face interviews will be semi-structured in format and will examine in detail the use of the document, the resources on the CD ROM and the downloadable resources from the JISC website.

An evaluative report will be produced that documents the level of usage of the materials, the manner and circumstances in which they were used, the value that was placed on them by the participants and their effectiveness in achieving the users’ expectations. Conclusions will be drawn, based on these outcomes, and recommendations presented.

Deliverables

The project deliverables will be the evaluation report and recommendations, together with all the source data.

Stakeholders

• All recipients of the publication
• The JISC e-Learning Programme team and participants

Final report is now available.