ELearning at Redbridge Institute of Adult Education

1
E-Learning at Redbridge Institute of Adult
Education

• Martin Sepion
• Head of MI ICT Services

2
Redbridge Institute a typical Adult Education
provider?

• Has a mixture of ACL, FE and project funded
  provision (NLDC, Family Learning, FLLN etc)
• Many centre's across the borough (63)
• A long tradition of delivering evening classes
  cost effectively
• Part of local authority but with some autonomy
• Until recently largely unqualified workforce
• Many older staff and learners (77 students
  female)

3
When did we begin our e-learning adventure?

• Five years ago the Institute leased computers
  and had a support contract with an IT firm
• Upon appointment I decided to in-source IT
• We used the money set aside for leasing the
  computers to build a fund to purchase our own
  equipment (leasing was very expensive)
• IT support contract expensive so exchanged for
  a full time IT technician
• Decided to get out of the leasing and support
  contracts as soon as possible

4
Infrastructure base

• Created a three year equipment replacement
  program
• Built high ability IT MIS staff teams
  recruitment and staff development
• Having knowledgeable in house staff has
  enabled us to get good specification equipment at
  reasonable prices
• Cost efficient Microsoft Campus license
• Keeping systems simple All computers with
  same build, all XP, no Macs
• Centrally managed systems e.g. standard
  images rolled out from the servers
• Excellent Premises team enables us to do our
  own cabling
• The infrastructure here at our main site is
  second to none
• Lowest specification is now Athlon 64 bit, 1
  gig RAM, 17 TFT monitor, SATA HD
• Servers are 64 bit 2003 R2
• Smartboards and computers in all rooms except
  mobiles, CDT and pottery

5
Staff

• Staff profile indicates large number of people
  who would not naturally be described as whiz kids
• Many staff older
• Many staff have been in post since before the
  age of the PC
• Until introduction of the ALI inspection
  regime in the last few years many teaching
  methods unchanged since the early 20th century

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Number of Computers
7
building IT capability

• MIS and IT teams have grown in line with the
  growth in both the number and the reliance on
  computer based systems
• We have successfully acquired the capability to
  maintain our own IT systems and develop our own
  applications
• Everything is in house and delivered to a high
  standards we compare very favourably with
  industry standards
• This capability gives us the platform to
  successfully take on e-learning projects

8
Staff Development

• Organisational support for staff development in
  general Commitment to investing in staff a big
  advantage when we were presented with the
  challenge of developing e-learning
• Resulted in a continuous offer of e-learning
  related training sometimes with inducements
  like 150 bonus for passing ECDL to memory sticks
  for attendance on courses
• Creation of the expectation that IT competence is
  a requirement of all staff

9
Vision

• To transform learning using the tools of 21st
  century
• Detailed in our e-learning strategy
• Support from JISC, CEL, UKERNA NIACE with
  some input from LSC, BECTA, LMN
• Also very good ideas from networking and
  visits to other providers
• Some useful information from IT firms e.g.
  Microsoft and Evesham (our main suppliers)

10
Support from SMT and externally

• Being a member of SMT makes the development of
  IT e-learning much easier for me
• SMT are not always fully conversant with IT
  issues but are committed to improving standards
  in teaching and recognise that e-learning is an
  effective way to achieve this
• In IT at the Institute we have been successful
  and this has led to further support both
  internally and externally

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Where we have got to so far

• Pottery use digital images to record student
  work and the internet for design ideas
• ESOL use many web based exercises and
  resources in the their teaching
• Care are great advocates of e-learning and
  embed IT skills as part of their childcare
  programmes
• Art department are using IT more now with all
  the facilities available on line for art
• We now have the capability for both chemical
  and digital image processing and so can offer
  both types of photography to our learners
• Languages department use language software
  and on line resources
• Basic Education have found use of smartboards
  made a real difference during Inspection as
  learners are stimulated by the possibilities of
  interactive tasks
• Examples include videos of drawing techniques
  and yoga exercises

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The challenges ahead

• Review what we teach and the way we teach it
• Maintaining investment in the context of
  reduced funding
• Developing effective teaching resources
• Taking e-learning to our out centres further
  developing infrastructure and exploring potential
  of mobile devices
• Continuing to develop our staff
• Embed use of our learning platform
• Enable remote access to staff network via
  sharepoint

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Conclusion

• This is how we have approached e-learning. It
  is largely tailored to our situation
• We have tried to develop our infrastructure,
  staff and teaching content in parallel
• We have many challenges ahead but have had
  enough success to give us confidence for the
  future
• I hope you have found some of the ideas
  useful.