Institutional Transformation Through the Use of ICT

Institutional Transformation through the use of ICT -

Where have we been, where are we going and what is holding us back?

By Dr John Guy and Dr Mike Docker, the Sixth Form College, Farnborough

Introduction

The further education sector in the UK operates in a more regulated environment than higher education. Most institutions in England will be inspected by Ofsted1 every few years and the vast majority of qualifications offered by FE institutions in the UK are provided by large examination boards operating under a national regulatory framework2. This environment naturally has an effect on how easily innovations, particularly in e-Assessment, can be introduced.

In this paper we look backwards at some of the initiatives involving the innovative use of ICT we now see to have been transformational in our institution and forwards to other ICT-based initiatives we are in the process of implementing in the hope of achieving further transformation. We attempt to draw lessons from our successes (and failures) that may help to explain why the College was recently rated by Ofsted as being “outstanding” and which we hope will be of relevance to other institutions as they seek to achieve institutional transformation themselves.

About the College

The Sixth Form College, Farnborough is a specialist sixth form college catering primarily for students in the 16-19 age range and offering a programme of study mainly consisting of academic courses with a smaller component of vocational courses3. The College has undergone considerable change since it was incorporated in 1992. Student numbers have grown from just over a thousand to close on three thousand and the number of staff and the number of buildings on the campus have expanded in proportion. During this time ICT has evolved from a fringe activity confined to the Computing department and the Library to something that impacts on virtually every lesson delivered in the College.

JISC Innovating e-Learning 2007: Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning 1 A strategic decision

In 1999 the senior management of the College took the strategic decision to appoint a Director of Information, Communication and Learning Technology (one of the authors of this paper) and charged him with expanding the College network from its then current state (200 computers in one building) to provide a computer in every classroom (about 80 at the time spread over 6 buildings) and a computer for every member of staff (about 150 at the time). The initial aim of this expansion was to allow the development of an in-house system (“Cristal”) for taking registers electronically during every lesson and to provide an improved means of sharing information on student absences, study problems and related matters.

A secondary aim was to encourage the use of ICT by staff by providing them with ready access to modern equipment. The hope was that by requiring colleagues to log on to a network and use a computer to take a register as part of every lesson that their confidence in using computers would improve and that this in turn would lead to a more general improvement in their ICT skills.

We provided training in using the new electronic register and in many instances with how to log on to the College network and even in some instances how to use a mouse.

Creating the right culture

In January 2000 the College dedicated a whole day from its training schedule to sending the entire teaching staff to the BETT Educational Technology Show4 at Olympia. This was a consciousness raising exercise to widen the horizons of teaching staff and to encourage them to request access to new technology rather than simply thrusting it upon them. Some colleagues lobbied hard for Interactive Whiteboards and multi-media projectors and two Physics labs and a Biology lab were the first rooms in the College to be equipped. Subsequently, we put forward an explicit target that every classroom in the College would be provided with an Interactive Whiteboard as soon as possible. This target has now effectively been achieved.

An unspoken assumption behind our introduction of computers in every classroom and of the large scale deployment of Interactive Whiteboards was that colleagues would use the new technology and not leave it to rust in the corner of the room. On reflection our confidence in this assumption stemmed from an unspoken recognition that the College had evolved a culture where colleagues generally embrace change and are open to trying new ideas. How this culture was developed is perhaps worthy of further comment.

JISC Innovating e-Learning 2007: Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning 2 The College’s current principal was appointed in 1992 and initiated at that time a major restructuring of the College. A number of older colleagues opted to take early retirement at this time. Over subsequent years and aided by the significant expansion of the College numerous new colleagues have been appointed and, as far as possible, these have been selected for their ability to fit into and contribute to the evolving culture of the College. Other colleagues who found themselves at odds with the new culture have opted to move on. As a consequence we are in the fortunate position of having very few, if any, Luddites remaining on the staff. This makes the process of institutional transformation considerably easier than it might otherwise have been.

The evolution of Cristal – Providing the services that people want

From its initial stages as a means to take registers electronically, Cristal has continued to develop year by year. New features have been added at the request of teaching staff and Cristal has become an essential tool for the smooth running of the College. One of the most valuable sources of suggestions for new features within Cristal has been the annual influx of new staff arriving at the College. All new colleagues are trained in the use of Cristal early in their induction to the College and told that we would value their opinions and suggestions. Many are happy to offer a fresh insight and as a consequence our systems continue to develop and accumulate features adapted from good practice in other institutions.

Compulsory targets – What not to do

The College recognised in the early 2000s that being able to create web pages would be a valuable skill for colleagues to acquire. In an attempt to hasten the development of such skills the College set targets, at the urging of its Director of ICLT and with the unanimous endorsement of the senior management team, for staff to develop the skills needed to create simple web pages.

The initiative was not a great success as many colleagues objected to the element of compulsion and simply ignored the targets, citing lack of time or lack of skills. Over time, a number of colleagues did develop the requisite skills and have gone on to produce excellent web sites but with hindsight it would have been better to encourage colleagues by providing training opportunities, making appropriate software readily available and being supportive of their efforts rather than by setting targets. Unless required to do so by outside agencies, the College has avoided setting compulsory targets in this manner again.

JISC Innovating e-Learning 2007: Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning 3 A culture of innovation

Although not directly related to the use of ICT, the College is involved in a number of other innovative projects in pursuit of its single corporate objective, “improving students’ achievements”, including the Extended Project5. These projects highlight the continuing evolution of the College’s open, reflective and experimental culture and further details can be found on the web site available from reference 5.

Formative assessment

The College has pursued innovative methods of formative assessment using ICT for a number of years including a project in Chemistry that resulted in the award of a Beacon Prize in 20006. We are currently investigating the use of certainty-based marking7 and objective questions aimed at assessing higher level skills such as application and analysis8. For the remainder of this paper, however, we focus on the role of ICT in summative assessment and how we are attempting to transform our institution to take advantage of the considerable opportunities we believe will be available in this area.

The College’s new e-Assessment and e-Learning Centre

As part of its continuing expansion the College had planned a pair of new buildings beginning in March 2003. Subsequently it was decided that the second of these two buildings would be a Learning Resource Centre containing an open access area with about 140 computers, however, during its construction it was re-branded as an e-Assessment Centre to reflect our recent recognition of the evolving importance of this subject.

Having recognised the importance that e-Assessment was likely to play in future developments within the sixth form sector, the College decided to take every opportunity to become involved in pilot schemes for developing e-Assessment in order to be better able to influence how such assessments evolved. We took part in some of the early trials of level 2 key skills on-screen tests and now use such tests9 as part of our normal operations recently running 3 consecutive on-screen tests in one day with about 80 candidates in each session.

Privacy filters

One issue that emerged from early considerations of how a Learning Resource Centre (or e- Learning Centre) could be transformed into an e-Assessment Centre at certain times of year was the arrangement of the furniture. At this time the College became aware of the privacy filters being

JISC Innovating e-Learning 2007: Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning 4 produced by 3M for use by business travellers to protect confidential information on the displays of their laptop computers10.

We approached 3M with a view to obtaining some sample filters and discovered that the e- Assessment market was only just coming into their field of view. 3M were keen to develop this market and were happy to collaborate with the College in running some pilot on-screen examinations for which they provided the privacy filters for free. In return the College ran a number of high-profile examination sessions and invited representatives from awarding bodies and the education press to these events. 3M were happy that the publicity they received from these events and the contacts they made with key decision makers in the assessment sector more than justified the cost of providing sufficient privacy filters for our large scale assessment sessions.

Invigilator Pro

Some recent A level syllabuses allow centres to conduct supervised coursework examinations during normal lesson time under comparatively relaxed examination regulations. Examples include, the AQA Philosophy A level11 (see section 15.9 of the specification for course 6171) and the Edexcel A level in Art: Critical and Contextual Studies.

During these examinations candidates are allowed to use normal word processing programs such as Microsoft Word. Examination centres have a choice as to how they go about securing supervised coursework examinations to prevent candidates smuggling in previously prepared work. One approach (with many possible variations) would be to provide an isolated, secure, network separate from the main curriculum network. Such an approach could potentially be labour intensive to set up (and take down again) for each examination session.

Invigilator Pro12 adopts a radically different approach. It uses the normal curriculum network with very few restrictions but is does log a great deal of information about what the candidates are doing. The candidates are informed that extensive logging is being conducted and this is intended to serve as a deterrent against cheating and a source of data if an investigation needs to be conducted into an allegation of cheating.

The wider context

Whilst the e-Assessment environment in UK education is undergoing significant change, from the introduction of the national ICT test at Key Stage three13, widespread adoption of on-screen testing for many vocational courses in further education (see figure 1)14 and many exciting developments

JISC Innovating e-Learning 2007: Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning 5 in higher education15, summative assessment at A level in England and Wales has remained largely unchanged for decades, at least from the perspective of the candidates.

The exam boards have made significant changes in recent years in the way they use ICT to digitise candidates’ scripts and transmit work to examiners. Such changes offer opportunities for cost savings and improvements in quality control with simple questions being marked by clerical staff and more complicated ones being divided between expert examiners. Monitoring of accuracy and speed of working is now straightforward and it should also be possible to test whether suggestions are correct that marking done whilst watching television slows down during major sporting events.

However, from the candidates perspective things have not changed as much. Despite exciting progress in Scotland with the SCHOLAR programme16 and ambitious targets set by the QCA17, the impact of ICT on what goes on in the examination hall has been limited.

What is holding us back?

One of the main barriers to the more innovative use of e-Assessment at A Level is the perceived need to maintain comparability between paper-based and on-screen testing during any transitional period between conventional testing and e-Assessment and thus to preserve the “gold standard” of the A level. How much comparability of standards matters is open to debate but whilst exam boards continue to err on the side of caution, innovations are likely to be confined to new qualifications that can begin life with a “clean slate”.

A further significant factor contributing to the cautious approach being adopted by the examination boards is the likely response of the national media in the event of a problem. None of the exam boards would want to be in the glare of media attention following the high profile failure or even the justifiable teething problems of a new e-Assessment system.

Expectations of learners

It is interesting to reflect on what the expectations of those learners who took the Key Stage 3 ICT on-screen test will be by the time they reach 16-19 education. Will e-Assessment have evolved rapidly enough to keep pace with their expectations? On current evidence, we fear not.

Given the widespread use of ICT in modern life, its regular use in the delivery of many lessons in schools and colleges and its extensive use in the back-end processing of examinations, it is

JISC Innovating e-Learning 2007: Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning 6 frustrating that many examinations continue to be written on paper and dispatched to the examination boards by post. We would hope that this will change significantly over the next several years.

Points for discussion

Reflecting on our presentation, we identified several questions on which others might like to comment.  Is the national regulatory framework in which sixth form colleges and FE colleges currently operate too rigid or a necessary guardian of standards?  Should there be more opportunities for institutions to innovate within the curriculum using ICT to stretch and support 16-19 year olds and promote more meaningful learning?  Is it time to revisit the targets set by QCA in 2004 for the use of e-assessment in the English examination system and review the progress in the Scottish educational system to draw up a new Blueprint?  How can computer-based/assisted assessment promote deeper and more reflective learning and more accurate assessment of the standard achieved by candidates in further as well as higher education?  Finally, our experience of transformative change through the introduction of ICT into curriculum delivery has been a positive one. We know we still have more to achieve but what form should colleges’ priorities for ICT take for the next decade?

JISC Innovating e-Learning 2007: Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning 7 References

1 Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, www.ofsted.org.uk 2 The Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, QCA, in England, www.qca.org.uk and other comparable bodies in Scotland, Wales and Northern Island 3 See www.farnboroughsfc.ac.uk 4 See www.bettshow.com 5 See www.farnboroughsfc2.ac.uk/research 6 See www.mp-docker.demon.co.uk 7 See www.ucl.ac.uk/lapt 8 See Elliott,B unpublished (contact [email protected] for further details) 9 See www.ocr.org.uk/eassessment/etesting/intro.html 10 See www. 3m .com/ 3mprivacyfilter s 11 See http://www.aqa.org.uk/qual/gceasa/phi.html 12 See www.farnboroughsfc.ac.uk/ip 13 See www.qca.org.uk/7280.html 14 Slide kindly provided by Mike Dawe, City and Guilds 15 “Effective Practice with e-Assessment”, see www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/publications/pub_eassesspracticeguide.aspx 16 See scholar.hw.ac.uk 17 See www.qca.org.uk/7192.html

JISC Innovating e-Learning 2007: Institutional Transformation and Supporting Lifelong Learning 8