JISC

Start date: 15 March 2005

End date: 30 September 2006

Funding programme: Exchange for Learning (X4L) programme

JISC theme(s): e-Learning

This project aims to examine the resourcing and support of work-based learning in applied technology, early years, care management and teaching assistant foundation degrees, and deposit learning objects produced in Jorum. Embedding procedures developed in the original X4L project will be used to ensure that policy, procedures, roles and responsibilities for the support of work-based learning are effective.

Aims and Objectives

The focus of the project is to examine the resourcing and support of work-based learning (WBL) for those taking HE courses in FE, and create, by building on available national resources, outputs from JISC programmes and the work of the SURF X4L project, a collection of generic content and subject-specific embedding exemplars for use across the SURF Consortium and deposit in Jorum.

• A prime goal is to build on the embedding work undertaken as part of the SURF X4L project, and the major initiatives on embedding at Staffordshire University, to ensure that policy, procedures, roles and responsibilities for the resourcing and support of WBL (and the consortium’s HE in FE provision more generally) are developed to be effective in articulation and operation. 

The project will concentrate on the repurposing of content for use within MLEs/VLEs and the various phases needed to enable this to take place effectively in WBL for HE in FE. This will involve formulation of the necessary procedures, and subsequent training of both support and teaching staff to enable them to carry out:

• Identification, acquisition and commissioning of content, including its existing metadata where this exists
• The use of tools such as RELOAD and COSE for the packaging of content, employing appropriate international specifications and standards (for example IMS and SCORM), to capture material and add additional metadata to conform to the X4L UK LOM Core profile where required
• Further use of tools to disaggregate and re-aggregate content and create standard content packages, import them into College VLEs for unpackaging and repurposing; and, where the VLE allows, use the VLE for further disaggregation, reaggregation and repurposing to support courses within the VLE.  (This can include the export of VLE content to CD to assist with off-line working)
• The packaging of reused/repurposed content to the required specifications and standards for export to a consortium repository using COSE and to the national Jorum repository. 

The proposed work forms part of the strategic plans of all partners, and as such, must be viewed in that context rather than in isolation. For all partners, the proposed work is something that will be done anyway, and the project will allow progress to be accelerated and to enable the work to be disseminated widely. 

The goals of the work are seen from a series of 'Envisioning' scenarios: 

These are designed to show the sort of outcomes SURF hope to obtain from the project’s work and how they will contribute nationally once deposited in JORUM.

Overall approach

Initially work is focussing on identifying scenarios and developing use cases of the various models of WBL employed in HE in FE provision by working with a wide range of local, regional and national organisations. This should ensure the project is addressing stakeholder needs appropriately.  These use cases will be expanded and broken down to reveal organisational, pedagogic and resourcing aspects to be addressed.  Formal Use Cases are also being developed to drive the supporting (contributed) technical work. 

The actors that will engage with the proposed solutions are:  

• SURF
• Learners
• COSE
• Other University/College VLE
• Tutors
• WBL mentors
• Learning/Education Technology Developers
• eResource Systems
• Learning Support/Resources staff

Each of the actors will be involved in a number of associated use cases and these will be specified through Use Case analysis. The full analysis will be provided, with use case diagrams, as an appendix to the project plan as they are developed. The first stage of the project includes agreeing a range of generic WBL scenarios with available local, regional and national sources of expertise. 

Each use case is being/will be discussed and analysed with project partners and supporting organisations to determine to what extent the approaches and resources already exist (even if only on paper) and what needs to be developed. Similarly, discussions will be held between the partners to identify common development approaches and processes and agree shared development and implementation responsibilities. 

The key issues to be addressed are:  

• Identification of as full a set as possible of models for the implementation and support of WBL in HE in FE
• Identification and/or creation of associated resources
• Resolution of IPR and CP issues
• Formulation of an initial business process for the construction process
• Construction from these models and resources of e-Activities and e-Resources for use with WB learners
• Identification of suitable SURF courses for the creation of specific exemplars
• Ensuring teaching staff commitment for the embedding process
• Formation of an initial business process for the embedding process
• Ensuring all phases have appropriate test and evaluation components to allow for refinement of business process and models
• Embedding of the WBL e-Activities and e-Resources into target exemplars
• Developing a business process for the packaging of outputs for deposit in COSE and JORUM for reuse, including resolution of metadata issues 

The main objectives for the project will be to provide the resourcing and support specified in the use cases as they are developed.  

The critical success features for the project will be:  

• Gaining the support of a sufficient range of local, regional, and national WBL expertise
• Successful identification of WBL models for HE in FE
• Successful acquisition/creation of WBL resources
• A working model for the creation of cross-SURF e-Resources and their deposit in COSE and Jorum for reuse
• Successful embedding of WBL resources into at least 4 exemplar HE in FE courses across SURF

Project outputs

The deliverables of the project are:  

• Practical guide to the resourcing and support of WBL (to be made available in both document and learning object forms)
• Study of policy & organisational implications of resourcing & supporting WBL in a consortium
• Generic Rresources for the support of WBL and subject-specific embedded exemplars (including ones drawn from Applied Technology, Early Years, Care Management and Teaching Assistants) 

The generic resources and exemplars will take the form of learning activities and supporting resources packaged in a form which can be imported into all mainstream VLEs and viewed/disaggregated in RELOAD. These will, of course, all be deposited in Jorum using appropriate metadata.

Project outcomes

This is also a fundamental requirement within SURF itself, where there is a multiplicity of VLEs across the partners. Indeed, the partners from SURF leading this proposal employ no less than FIVE VLEs between them. Hence, ease of reuse and repurposing of any resources created is a local, consortium and national imperative. 

It is expected that the project as a whole will not only add considerably to understanding of the viability of sector-wide collaboration in the development and delivery of e-learning, but it will test the technologies for reuse that need to be in place to support such collaboration. The implementation and evaluation carried out within the diverse institutions involved will allow conclusions to be drawn about its likely effectiveness and utility if applied sector-wide.  The project outcomes should be of value to other collaborative developments in the e-learning community of practice and will, hopefully, inform strategy and policy discussions elsewhere in the UK.

The project was represented at the X4L programme meeting (Birmingham, March 2005). See the introductory presentation