ULCC 25th November 2011

ULCC E-ILP2 focus group: What drives e-ILPs?

Improving Quality: Inspection

Ensure each learner has:

o Initial assessments

o An individual learning plan

o Mapped route for achievement of goals

QIA – Excellence Gateway

‘Encourage all organisations to support a personal online learning space for learners.’

DFES – Harnessing Technology, e-Strategy

• Provides support for the process of learning through mapped routes from a starting point to the achievement of individual goals, for example completing frameworks, or gaining sustainable employment.

Personalised Learning Plans

For learners?

For staff?

For organisations?

What Drives e-ILPs?

Impact of e-ILPs

Within the 1st year retention grew from 62% to 92% and achievement from 69% to 73%

For students, the most popular and motivating tool has been the instantaneous access to their timetables, attendance and punctuality reports. This has also resulted in significant cost savings.

Lewisham College (Link to report)

Impact of e-ILPs

"It works for me because it focuses on my individual needs and is delivered on my terms rather than forcing me into a classroom to do something I'm not interested in.“

Foyer Federation

http://www.foyer.net/level2.asp?level2id=15

Interest in ILPs

‘ILPs remain a central nexus of practice – they exist where a number of discourses and policy meet, are highly contentious among practitioners, and rhetorically support personalised learning opportunities’.

- Hamilton (2009)

Learning Management

Learning Skills

Transition Guidance

Pupil Management

Focus of ILPs

Pupil Management

•Micro-targets

•Behavioural Change

Focus•Improv

e learner success

•Progress towards curricula goals

Goals

•Often judged in relation to achievement and retention

Evaluation

•Curricula/funding goals may be different to learners’ goals

•Learners perceive them as irrelevant and refrain from reflection on identity and goals

Issues

Transition Guidance

•Macro-targets

•Transition stages

Focus

•Support learner progression

Goals

•Assessed retrospectively through progression routes

Evaluation

•Learners often see the process as career planning rather than action planning

Issues

Learning Skills

•Lifelong learning skills

•Reflection on learning

Focus

•Planning itself is seen as a valuable exercise to teach, with complex skills and qualities developed by learners

Goals

•Qualitative improvements of the learners’ perception of self where effort is rewarded as well as ability

Evaluation

•Learners may not value literacies of lifelong learning and so we are influencing behaviour rather than developing skills

Issues

Learning Management

There’s probably a long way to go with learners generally to get them to perceive education as something they’re participants in rather than recipients of ... I think it’s simply that we haven’t got far enough down the line yet with the whole situation.

ILPs & e-Learning

‘e-learning is ideally centred on the set of student tasks’- Carr-Chellman & Duchastel, 2000

Learning activities can be classified by who is principally

directing the activity:Self-directed

Peer-directedTeacher-directed

- Biggs, 2003

Ownership

Developing empowering cultures requires skill, thought and a commitment to valuing and exploring processes,not just focusing on the ‘product’- Haigh, 1999

Attachment (belonging)

Containment (safety)

Communication (openness)

Involvement (citizenship)

Agency (participation)

Individual Learning Plan (ILP)

Formative assessment tool providing scaffolding to heighten learner awareness. Dialogue creates shared vision for future development which can only be judged in relation to that vision. Adaptive customisation affords learners standard tools (e.g. target setting, progress review, etc.) to create a unique learning path.

Why new ILP?

Shared Service

Popular module

Improved success

Moodle 2.0

Issue

•Not compatible with Moodle 2.0

Solution

•Rewrite module - display, database, integration

•Github source control

Future

•Forward compatibility

Functional Programming

Issue

•Inconsistent behaviour

•Expensive developments

Solution

•Object-oriented programming

•Extensible plug-ins

Future

•Unlimited possibilities

Hard-coded form designs

Issue

•Impossible to change

•Hard limit of 4 reports

Solution

•Form design GUI

•Optional field types

Future

•Customise forms for individuals

HTML Templates

Issue

•Poor accessibility

•Not supported on all platforms

Solution

•Standards based forms

•Cross-browser compatibility

Future

•Cross-platform compatibility

ILP View

Issue

•Single hierarchical view

•Hard-coded templates

Solution

•Dashboard template

•Configurable page areas

Future

•Cross-platform compatibility

•User designed page

Textual display

Issue

•ILP is text dominated

Solution

•New form field types

•Display plug-ins

Future

•Multiple views

•Visualisations

Reporting

Issue

•Reporting is limited

Solution

•Field filters

•Tutor Dashboard

Future

•Advanced report options

Fixed this week

Latest Updates

• Deadlines added to calendar• Visual indicator of states• Super-user capability• Overdue targets flagged• Targets send email reminders

Summary

Roadmap

New opportunities How to manage development?

Features

New feature set Did all features migrate?

Redesign

Entirely new ILP Do we need new practice?