New e-Learning Managers Community of Practice

Allen Crawford Thomas has recently established a West Midlands e-Learning Managers Community of Practice that is open to all of our supported learning providers .

You may be aware, that we already run an e-learning forum for Managers in WBL / ACL, but the idea of this community of practice is not quite the same. In this, the agenda is set by the members and the nice thing is that Allen has built up a small network of like minded people, who are willing to share knowledge, experience and, where they can, paper resources to help others overcome common challenges in the management and integration of e-learning. Subjects they have so far wanted to talk about are developing e-learning strategy, Electronic ILP’s, Safeguarding and staff development. You can also see an overview of what was included in their last meeting here.

Just a quick reminder that Allen is also on hand to advise on such things as e-learning progress reviews, use of the online Generator tool for assessing the impact of e-learning, Moodle development (especially for teaching and learning) and E-learning Strategy development.

Should you wish to join this new Community of Practice or require further information on any of these additional services please contact Allen Crawford Thomas by email at a.crawford-thomas@rsc-wm.ac.uk or telephone 01902 518930.

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Related Wobble links:

Joint E-Learning Forum – Summary of the day...
Help with your E-Learning Strategy Development



To read more of Wobble click here.

RSC Publications and Communication

Over the summer, Kirsty Hill, our regional Information Officer has been busy surveying the sector, to determine your needs, and producing various printed publications to support our communications.

Focus on Senior Management

Our Senior Management Briefings, called SMT Focus, are printed publications addressing some of the issues and challenges currently facing Senior Management within post 16 education and training. The latest issue entitled ‘Value for Money’ was posted out to Managers within our supported learning providers a fortnight ago, and featured a piece on making e-savings (i.e. reducing travel costs, paper, hardware costs etc), open source, and cost effective services from the RSC. If you want to know more about these briefings or request your own copy, please contact Kirsty as per the details below.

For more information on the support available to senior managers and their teams, remember we also have a dedicated area of our website that outlines our work in this area.

E-Learning Case Studies

Kirsty has continued publishing a number of really useful case studies on the Excellence Gateway which offer excellent examples of ways that training providers are using technology and e-learning. What’s more, the Information Officers have now developed a very useful set of Delicious bookmarks which now help facilitate an easier search by case study topic. I’m so glad to see that in action, and I’m sure you’ll agree that as the number of case studies continue to grow this should be increasingly useful.

RSC Newsletter

The last issue of our newsletter was posted out in early summer and Kirsty is currently in the process of modifying the newsletter distribution and working on a new online format. If you have news you’d like to share about your experiences of e-learning within your organisation, we would love to hear from you.

To register your details to receive our publications or enquire about any of the above, please contact Kirsty Hill, Information Officer on 01902 518749 or by e-mail kirsty.hill@rsc-wm.ac.uk

We look forward to keeping you posted!

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Related Wobble links:

Examples of E-Learning in Work Based Learning
More E-Learning Case Studies



To read more of Wobble click here.

Next Generation Learning Award Winners

Last year I told providers about Becta’s Next Generation Learning Awards which intended to reward learning providers who are confident in the use of technology. Winners in six different categories of learning provider were set to receive a cash prize as well as the opportunity to share their practice regionally and nationally.

Winners of these awards have now been announced by Becta at an awards ceremony that took place last week. Winners in each category are now noted on the BECTA website.

In the Work Based Learning sector the award went to Lifetime Health and Fitness Limited for them having achieved efficiency and effectiveness through their use of a Learner Management System and bespoke e-portfolio system.

They noted several improvements to their business processes including:

* “The induction process is shorter and more accurate.
* Progress and performance criteria can be better measured and evaluated.
* Learners can now view their portfolio and see their progress.
* Tutors can plan their visits online … and more.

What’s more, they estimate that… “A cost saving of approximately £20,000 per annum has been estimated by accepting digital signatures and reducing paperwork….and success rates have steadily increased from 30 per cent to 60 per cent over the last two years”.

Sounds impressive and it will be great to see some of the lessons learned shared with the wider community, particularly with so many providers now taking first steps in this area of integrating learning systems with e-portfolios.

Great that the awards were set up for this and congratulations to Lifetime (and the other winners) for their achievements!


To read more of Wobble click here.