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Building Capacity and Communities of Practice for HE in FE

Mark Stone, HELP CETL Director Higher Education Learning Partnerships Centre for Excellence in Teaching & Learningm2stone@plymouth.ac.uk

Supporting & Developing HE in FE ContextsInstitute of Historical Research, London 27th June 2006

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The University of Plymouth Colleges [UPC] context• 15 yrs growth and achievement

• Largest UK HE/FE partnership [19 Colleges & 7,000 HE students]

• Excellent quality reviews

• Strong student retention & planned progression record

• Major Widening Participation successes

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The UNIVERSITY and its Partner Colleges

PLYMOUTH

Exeter

Camborne

Barnstaple Taunton

Torbay

ExmouthNewton Abbot

Jersey

Bridgwater

Brixham

Truro

Helston

Penzance

Cannington

Tiverton

Minehead

Culdrose

Falmouth

Liskeard

Bodmin

Dartmouth

Dartington

OkehamptonBicton

Saltash

Sidmouth

Schumacher

Duchy

Redruth

Weymouth

Bristol

Bude

St. Austell

CORNWALL COLLEGE

ST AUSTELL COLLEGE

DUCHY COLLEGE

TRURO COLLEGE

PENWITH COLLEGE

RN SCHOOL OF METEOROLOGYAND OCEANOGRAPHY RNAS CULDROSE

HIGHLANDS COLLEGE - JERSEY

NORTH DEVON COLLEGE EAST DEVON COLLEGE

PLYMOUTH COLLEGE of ART & DESIGN

PLYMOUTH COLLEGE OF FE

ESTOVER COMMUNITY COLLEGE

RN HYDROGAPHIC SCHOOLHMS DRAKE

SCHUMACHER COLLEGE

DARTINGTON COLLEGE of ARTS

BRITANNIA ROYAL NAVALCOLLEGESOUTH DEVON COLLEGE

EXETER COLLEGE

BICTON COLLEGE

SCHOOL of MARITIME OPERATIONSHMS DRYAD

SOMERSET COLLEGE of ARTS & TECHNOLOGY

CITY of BRISTOL COLLEGE

FALMOUTH COLLEGE of ARTS

Associated Partner College

Accredited Partner College

WEYMOUTH COLLEGE

JOHN KITTO COMMUNITY COLLEGE

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Capacity building approaches

Working together to improve the student experience by:

• developing and recognising staff• enhancing infrastructure and resources

• sharing good practice, through: – dissemination– collaborative research & development – promoting scholarship and research

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Key participation opportunities

1. Staff secondments

2. Student involvement

3. CPD & Fellowship Awards

4. Development Activities

5. Communities of Practice

6. External collaboration

7. Dissemination & recognition

8. Knowledge Management

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1. Staff secondments

• 4 x College & 5 x UPC/ University secondments so far

• e.g. Barry Smith Curriculum Area Manager for Leisure, Tourism & Sport at Cornwall Business School within Cornwall College is working as a CETL Community of Practice Developer

• Learning from College perspective and experience/s

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2. Student involvement

• Student Union links inc Management Board

• Working with CETL Award holders

• Participation in Development Activity or CoP work as paid researchers and evaluators

• Working in publication and dissemination teams e.g. targeting the NUS conference or providing advice on ‘student friendly’ dissemination strategies

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3. CPD & Fellowship Awards

• 20% of the annual budget• Continuing Professional Development

Awards [CPD] - £3,000• Fellowship Awards - £10,000• 21 Holders from 1st round 2005-6• 16 Holders from 2nd round 2006-7 • Building a cohort and cadre• Bidding for other awards

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CPD Awards

• Awards to facilitate academic and support staff in work that will enhance their professional development

• The majority of the CPD Award should be spent on personal development

• Work done should be aligned to UPC Communities or Development Activities

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Fellowship Awards

• Enhance the quality of learning and teaching for a Subject Forum

• Develop materials or ideas that can be applied by colleagues more widely to enhance the student experience

• Result in scholarly outcomes including publications or conference presentations

• < 20% of the Award should be used for personal development

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4. Development Activities

• The Development Activities [DAs] are work packages targeted at taking forward the strategic mission of UPC

• Development Activities along with the work of CETL Award holders have been grouped within a Community of Practice [CoP] framework

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5. Communities of Practice - CoP

• The CETL is working to support new and emerging communities to research their practices and to share & disseminate activities & learning materials within the region and beyond

• The aim is facilitate both groups and networks to become more effective physical and virtual communities

• Technological tools

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Emerging subject & thematic CoPs

HELP CETL Award Holders Subject Forums [x 8] - scheduled Infrastructure support Blended Learning Work Based Learning Theory into Practice Interdisciplinary Trading Zone Partnership Management & Leadership

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Alison Banks - Fellowship Award

• Examining the potential for part time FD provision in hospitality in the real life work place context through employer engagement [building on the experience of Barry Smith at Cornwall College & linked to the Blended Learning CoP]

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Blended Learning CoP activity

• Collaborative Curriculum Design in Tourism and Hospitality: A shared development activity covering FD and University stage 1/2 collaborative flexible curriculum design

• Subject Convener in Sport: a trial to take forward the working of regional partnership Subject Forums - RLOs

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Pedagogic underpinnings of CoPs

• Schulman, Wenger and Huber in developing communities of practice

• University of Wisconsin Colleges approach

• Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

• Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

• Boyer and the Scholarship of

Teaching & Learning

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6. External collaboration • Other HE/HE consortia in• HE Academy [HEA] Subject Centres

e.g. HLST / Escalate / ADM + [event]

• Foundation Degree Forward

• Other national / international projects e.g. Enhancing Teaching-Learning Project [ETL]

• Other CETLs - e.g. RLO

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7. Dissemination & recognition

• Recognising existing and developing expertise & excellence

• Building capacity in educational research and scholarship

• Facilitating the sharing and dissemination of knowledge, experience and outputs

• Redress problems of providing appropriate rewards and recognition for HE in FE

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8. Knowledge Management

• Design & build

• The specification

• The available technology

• Comparisons

• Purchase and customise

• Tomoye Ecco

• Microsoft SharePoint

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Key Contact

• Chris SmartHELP CETL Operations Managercjsmart@plymouth.ac.uk