Institutional Innovation

I recently attended this seminar which is a good example of wider benefits realisation, and clearly demonstrates the success of wider engagement.

TAG HEA Evidence-based Practice Seminar – March 4, 2010

The seminar was funded under the HEA Seminar series[1] and considered issues of student retention and motivating student learning in relation to the TAG[2] Project at the University of Central Lancashire. 

The seminar was attended by around 15 people including interested participants from University of Cumbria, Manchester Metropolitan University, The Open University, Salford University and University of Central Lancashire.

Richard Brawn, senior advisor at the HEA, provided a welcome, highlighted the other forthcoming seminars running from Feb to June 2010 around Assessment and Feedback, Employability and Employee Learning,  and Professional Learning and Teaching Practice. 

Personalisation of the Learner Experience

John O’Donoghue set the scene with a presentation on Personalisation of the Learner Experience (web ref to podcast). He focused on how personalising the environment for learners can improve retention through motivating learners. The presentation explored the tools and techniques required to change institutional culture and strategies to encourage a change towards personalisation of the learning experience.  He explored different motivations for the personalisation of learning from government policy to pedagogical benefits. A reference provided from Chris Yapp (2006) stating that learning is a personal experience; and the technology is used to achieve this at scale provided a useful reminder of  how Higher Education has been adjusting the increase in student numbers over the past 20+ years and technology has been used in an attempt to maintain the personal learning experience.

John’s presentation considered the different factors that needed to be considered, balancing faculty, teacher and student centred requirements. He highlighted the need for changes to technology, the organisation and culture (people), and recognised that technology can be the easiest of these to implement.

Technology supported personalised learning can provide a shift in the learning paradigm from institutional focussed to learner focussed, removing the boundaries of traditional learning or maybe returning us to a more personal learning experience that can be delivered to a larger cohort.

The seminar discussed the need to change culture to adopt new processes and systems, for example introducing technologies.

 The Alternative Guide to UCLAN

John O’Donoghue was followed by a presentation and demonstration of The Alternative Guide to UCLAN by Lucy Warman, exploring retention issues in the institution. TAG focussed on the student application process, through induction and the first 6 months at University.

TAG identified several issues that relate to supporting learners –

• Manage life
• Learn to learn
• Find the way
• Making friends

 SLOs (student liaison officers) at UCLAN  undertook an initial review and concluded that University web sites were marketing related and provided poor information for supporting students coming to UCLAN.

 So TAG was developed to support student life at University. The site involves students producing content for TAG and sharing their experiences,  for example  videos of interviews with students on why they should pick a course. Student participation has been critical to content development and has been integrated with student assignments, employed placement students and provided incentives for students to contribute materials.

 These learner generated resources and materials have made TAG an integrated and sustainable resource at UCLAN.  The project has also developed institutional policy around the positioning of TAG at UCLAN as a University owned and managed resource that links to other services including the Students’ Union.  However, more of a challenge has been to engage staff and to promote TAG externally, for example, raising awareness via UCAS, schools, colleges and other recruitment routes.

UCLAN TAG are looking to use mentors to support social networks, building on the success of the Hello Project (Leicester College) and DevelopMe Project (University of Bradford) who have been using student mentors to support learners through transition..

 TAG provides an opportunity to improve retention through support and engaging learners pre entry, but also through their courses of study in the  generation of new resources. The implementation of TAG within an institution can provide a focus for student retention policies that may already be in place but are currently not being implemented.

 TAG is not so much about the content as about the approach the TAG team have used at UCLAN to develop the materials and how this has been integrated into institutional practice. The TAG team are producing a guide for institutions which will provide more information.

 Representatives at the seminar expressed a keen interest in working with TAG to develop similar resources at their institutions.

 It was suggested that a reserved domain name could exist i.e. http:// tag..ac.uk  being reserved for “The Alternative Guide” for a university  and college in the UK.

 Seminar Discussion

 The  group highlighted issues around student retention and considered how these could be supported by TAG. The issues included:

•  Course Choice
• Finance
• Managing expectations
• Experiences of assessment from school/FE
• Coping with levels of independence
• Students used to being able to re-sit exams if fail
• Personal issues/home sickness/child care, etc.
• International students – language skills, time to undertake tasks, etc.
• Lack of peer support network (making friends through social networks)

 The following barriers to introducing TAG into an institution were discussed

•  ‘Not invented here’ syndrome for content. The TAG content is being made freely available, but some institutions felt that they would want to develop their own. This highlights the importance of process over product for TAG
• Student voice is important  and TAG will allow student voice to be heard. However, UCLAN has decided to maintain ownership rather than hand over to students
• Engaging students in developing TAG is crucial to its success and the approaches used at UCLAN may not be as easy to implement at other institutions
• TAG won’t fix the problem but will help the institution engage with the issues
• The need for a champion at a high strategic level within the institution, who can engage with senior management.
• Funding; developing TAG needs allocation of staffing to support this, although it was felt that existing staffing could be used and once in place  the student-generated materials would make it cost effective. Institutions need to also consider the potential benefits in improving retention
• Ownership of TAG within the institution –an institutional policy and agreement is needed
• Timing – numbers and evidence would be helpful to convince senior managers

 Seminar representatives then worked to develop actions plans to make TAG work in their institution and to feedback to the TAG team their requirements and how TAG could support them.

 Conclusion

 The seminar provided a useful opportunity for interested institutions to learn about the TAG project and consider the benefits of adopting a similar approach within their own institutions. From discussions with the seminar participants there are several institutions that are prepared to develop an alternative guide for their own institution and are interested in working with the team from UCLAN and learning from their approach and experience.

 The future TAG project activities under Benefits Realisation should provide an opportunity to support these interested institutions and also to provide the necessary information and evidence for institutions to  be able to take this forward on their own.

 The benefits of external evidence were discussed in the seminar and it would be useful to have some tangible evidence of costs and retention from TAG. It was also noted that as well as the team, JISC and the HEA could provide an advocate role in working senior managers on other institutions.

 The TAG team are also undertaking a study on supporting international students and students from ethnic backgrounds and considering the potential for support at other transition points i.e. research students.

 Further information on the seminar outcomes can be found at http://www.uclan.ac.uk/information/services/lis/tag/tag_hea_seminar.php

[1] HEA Evidence-based Practice Seminar Series http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/teachingandlearning/alldisplay?type=resources&newid=events/seminar_series_2010_dates_and_host_institutions&site=york

[2] JISC funded project The Alternative Guide  to  UCLAN http://www.taguclan.org.uk/