the university for business and the professions neal sumner instructional designer e learning unit...

The University for businessand the professions

Neal Sumner Instructional Designer E Learning Unit City University

WebCT Regional Users Group meeting 09.03.05

Staff Development for WebCT Vista: Meeting Staff Needs


In the Beginning….

• The ELU was established at City in June 2003 with 5 members of staff

• 2 Instructional Designers on the team were charged with creating and delivering

a staff development programme with an initial target of 40 online modules by

September 2003.

• The aim of this presentation is to describe the initial programme, the changes

that were made for the 2004-5 academic year and to discuss some of the

reasons for the changes.


City Online Staff Development 2003-4

The “quick and dirty” solution to the initial challenge was to implement a two-day training programme for staff.

The first of these days – Introduction to E Learning - was devoted to introducing some of the underlying pedagogy of E Learning, giving staff an opportunity to discuss how to map their courses onto WebCt and to become familiar with some of Vista’s tools and functionality.

The second day – Course Design – covered the roles of Designer and Instructor, together with hands-on practice at building courses.

These sessions were supported with additional workshops on specific tools such as assignments and assessments, using and facilitating online discussions as well on wider issues of E Learning.

The Instructional Designers continued to offer face to face and telephone/email support for users following on from these sessions.

City Online Staff Development 2003-4


Who came?

In the academic year 2003-2004 the ELU trained over 250 staff on how to use the

system.

Although not all these staff developed online courses, by the end of the year there were

more than 200 online modules.

About half of these staff had some prior experience of online teaching and learning.

Perhaps inevitably these ‘early adopters’ tended to be confident users of ICT and were

keen to champion E Learning as part of their teaching provision.

The sessions were generic – brought staff together form many different schools with

different e learning goals


Was the 2003-4 programme a success?

In terms of numbers of staff trained, online courses created and impact of E

Learning across the institution the initial programme of staff development

must be counted a success.

However in the course of the year it became apparent that it was difficult for

many interested staff to take 2 full days out of their busy schedules to

attend the staff development sessions.

The sessions themselves covered a lot of skills and knowledge, not all of

which ‘stuck’.


Why change?

Need to reach out beyond the self selected audience of early adopters

Need to provide a more flexible and comprehensive programme that would

better meet the diversity of staff needs

Need to anticipate increased demand for our programme due to policy

changes to the university’s ‘e’ presence

Need to provide shorter sessions that would not require staff to give up 2

whole days

Need to ‘practice what we preach’ – use the e learning platform itself to

provide a more hands-on staff development experience


Staff Development 2004-5

The new programme consists of 6 strands.

These strands are each designed to be delivered over lunchtime and last 1

1/2 hours.

These strands are offered as generic sessions ‘open to all’ and each is run

twice during the academic year.

The strands are also available to departments to book bespoke sessions.

We continue to support staff with individual consultations as required.


The Six Strands

Getting Started: an online induction for staff to work through at their own pace.

Designing Online Courses

E Assessment and Evaluation

Legal and Administrative Framework

Building Online Communities

E Learning Futures


How the strands are organised and delivered

Each strand is introduced with a face-to-face workshop.

The presentations that frame each strand are made available in our

Teaching and Learning Online staff development module.

Each strand is supported with Guidance Notes on technical as well as

pedagogic aspects.

An online discussion forum is made available within each strand where staff

are encouraged to follow up issues raised in the workshops/presentations


An example: Building Online Communities


Guidance Notes


Other aspects of our staff development programme

• The E Learning Champions scheme

• The Open and Distance Learning Group

• E Learning Resource Centre

• Developing the E Learning Unit website to support staff

• Accreditation?


The story so far….

This year we have already doubled the number of staff who have completed

an online induction – more than 500 in total

There are now more than 400 online modules – the largest deployment of

WebCT Vista in Europe?

the university for business and the professions neal sumner instructional designer e learning unit...

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