Tertiary Education New Zealand » new zealand

E-Learning Provision and Participation: Trends, Patterns and Highlights

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:19:02 +0000

Published April 2011: This report analyses tertiary sector e-learning provision at a system, sub-sector and course level from 2004 to 2008. The sub-sectors focused on in the report are universities and polytechnics and the course levels bachelors degrees and certificates (Levels 1-4). Participation in e-learning course at these levels over the same time period is analysed by focusing on the following learner groups: 18-19 year olds, the 40+ age group, Māori, Pasifika and European and females and males.

http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ict/e-learning-provision-and-participation-trends,-patterns-and-highlights

NZ Report: E-learning for adult literacy, language and numeracy

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 01:42:46 +0000

Source: Ministry of Education (NZ) – Education Counts. The full report is available here: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/76972

Executive Summary

This research provides readers with a greater understanding of the potential of e-learning for adult literacy, language and numeracy. It investigates how e-learning can be employed as a means of reaching greater numbers of adult learners and how to better meet their learning needs.

Our overarching research question was:

What characteristics of programmes, such as e-learning, mixed mode, and distance learning, have been successful in raising the literacy, language and numeracy skills (LLN) of adult learners and could be used to supplement workplace training?

The main message that we drew from our work is that e-learning is relevant to and useful for most adults with literacy, language and/or numeracy (LLN) learning needs. However, these benefits rely on a learning programme that is carefully designed to fit each individual’s needs and lifestyle, his or her proficiency with digital technologies, and his or her level of reading literacy.

This distance e-learning, especially when blended with face-to-face support, can provide an effective way of developing the LLN skills of learners currently at Level 2 of the New Zealand Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (2006). In this report, we refer to this level as the intermediate level of literacy.

The 10 main findings to emerge from our research are as follows:

Literacy, language and numeracy skills in the 21st century include proficiency with digital technologies and practices, including e-learning.
E-learning for LLN is largely a recent development in New Zealand: very few well-established programmes exist.
E-learning is more effective if it is part of face-to-face training.
Māori approaches to e-learning can be used to build skills and knowledge within the Māori community.
As long as adequate support is in place, e-learning provides a good source of practice and motivation for second-language learners.
The diverse Pasifika peoples benefit from e-learning that fits their respective cultures and lives and is accompanied by induction activities.
Many of the e-learning strategies used for building reading and writing skills can also be successfully used for and by adults with disabilities that limit their ability to learn and/or access learning.
Using mobile digital technologies in e-learning contexts increases the flexibility of LLN provision.
Tutors and support staff require specific professional development in e-learning, and organisations need to develop so that they can successfully accommodate this type of learning.
Communities of practice can provide a supplementary means of professional development for tutors engaged in e-learning and can lead to the development of relevant resource banks.

Blending face-to-face LLN training with e-learning for individuals and groups has the greatest chance of addressing needs, but these types of provision must be accompanied by professional and organisational development within and across organisations. We therefore conclude our report with nine recommendations for action:

Provide e-learning-related professional development for tutor educators and workplace assessors who work in adult education.
Ensure that the quality assurance measures used in relation to LLN programmes include regular assessment and updating of e-learning provisions.
Partnerships between and among key stakeholders are essential for the effective development and integration of sustained e-learning opportunities. These partnerships should include web-based facilities that offer access to e-learning content, tutors and professional development.
Increase the capacity for e-learning in all New Zealand contexts, including e-learning on marae in collaboration with Māori institutions and communities.
Research and develop e-learning in partnership with rural and remote communities. Immigrants’ home countries can be party to this provision, but only if the e-learning infrastructure in these places is sufficiently developed to provide immigrant and transient populations with the opportunity to develop their LLN skills.
Establish banks of appropriate activities and resources for use by tutors and assessors, and support these people in a way that allows them to help develop and update those banks as part of their professional development activities. The scale of need in New Zealand suggests this approach could be a cost-effective one. However, achieving this aim would need centralised coordination (a national hub).
Support projects designed to investigate the potential that more recent digital technologies might offer learners with LLN needs. This potential could include, within workplaces, for example, mobile learning via mobile phones, simulations with game-like interfaces, and e-learning on hand-held computers.
Encourage continuing research in e-learning that is sufficiently complex to aid the evolution of pedagogical practice. How digital technologies can be used to advance learning and how the e-learning professional development needs of professionals and organisations can best be served are issues particularly in need of sustained research.
Collaborate internationally to continue to review research and development worldwide, and to disseminate the findings of this research to the New Zealand tertiary sector.

The full report is avaliable here: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/76972

Minister releases NZ tertiary education briefings

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:31:12 +0000

From the the Beehive website: www.beehive.govt.nz

Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce has released the Briefings to the Incoming Minister from the Ministry of Education, the Tertiary Education Commission and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

These documents are available below in pdf format.

Minister Steven Joyce: Speech on the Direction of NZ Tertiary Education (full text)

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 22:07:00 +0000

Speech to the Wellington Chamber of Commerce

9 March 2010

Good morning – it’s a real pleasure to be here.

This is my first speech as Minister of Tertiary Education – I’m going to give you an overview of where we’re coming from, and focus in on one or two areas of particular interest right now.

First I’ll take you through where tertiary sector fits into our wider plan for growth.

The John Key National-led government was elected at the end of 2008 with a clear mandate. A mandate to secure a brighter future for New Zealand by creating the conditions that allow our country to grow faster so that we can successfully compete in the wider world and afford the sort of first-world services that our people depend on.

We live in very challenging economic times.

As a country we are hauling our way out of a recession that started here before the global financial crisis hit the rest of the world – and came at the end of some pretty anaemic growth before then that was built on large increases in government spending.

The John Key-led government is acutely aware of how important better educational outcomes for our young people are to strengthening our economy for the future.

The questions we have to continually ask ourselves are:
Firstly, does our tertiary education sector produce all the skilled people we need for our economic well being?

And secondly, is the sector able to compete internationally for the high quality staff and students we need in order to keep delivering?

As a government we are very keen to ensure that New Zealanders from all educational backgrounds have the right opportunities to gain – at a level that suits them – world-class skills and knowledge to allow them to get ahead in life.

In order to achieve that, we must get the balance right between having much-needed certainty about overall levels of spending, while at the same time freeing up education providers to be able to come up with innovative initiatives and respond to economic and community needs.

As a country we spend about $4 billion each year on tertiary education – including student support. That’s about 1.6% of GDP.

In Australia it’s 1.1% of GDP and the OECD average is 1.3%.

So alongside comparable countries we certainly aren’t tight in the tertiary area. That’s a relief because it is highly unlikely that there will be any significant cash injections in the foreseeable future.

That’s just economic reality – additional money simply isn’t available.

Putting on my Associate Finance Ministers’ hat for a second – borrowing even more money as a country than we are already doing to spend even more on tertiary or anything else will simply lead to higher interest rates and higher exchange rates.

This will serve only to choke any benefits we’re trying to get for the higher borrowing.

Therefore, my focus as Minister for Tertiary Education will be on improving the quality of expenditure and getting more bang for the taxpayers’ buck.

That’s what boosting productivity is all about and we’re going to be all about that in tertiary over the next little while.

I’m not talking massive change – just lots questions asked (and answered), research checked, more questions asked.

We need to ensure that we have kicked the tyres on everything we do across the whole tertiary sector to make sure we are getting the best overall results we can.

And of course tertiary education is a diverse sector and one size doesn’t fit all. That applies to both students and institutions – whether they are universities, wananga, Polytechs, PTEs, ITOs or OTEPS. (Acronym city)

Our guiding influence is the Tertiary Education Strategy which cabinet signed off on late last year.

That signalled a focus on a number of key areas:

Increasing the number of young people achieving degrees
Increasing the success rate of Maori and Pasifika students
Increasing the number of young people successfully moving from schools to tertiary
Improving the outcomes of level one to three study
Improving the educational and financial strength of providers, and strengthening the research outcomes.

To make these improvements within the confines of the money we have, we’re going to have to be pretty tight – as a sector we are going to have to do constant head checks on everything we are doing

We are going to have to make sure we minimise the friction in the system by making our funding approach as simple as we can while achieving the best results;

We are going to have to strengthen our focus on results rather than inputs;

We are going to have to make sure that students get the best information we can give them about what to study and what sort of job they can expect at the end of it;

We are going to have to ensure student support works well, and gives students the right incentives to get ahead;

We are going to have to get our investment in export education working as efficiently as possible; so we stand tall with the other countries we compete with for those international students.

We are going to ensure our skills training is matched to the needs of industry; and industry has fully bought in to the benefits of up-skilling staff.

This will all take time – but I for one am up for it – today’s students are the future of our economy and we can’t afford to get this wrong.

My three first priorities for action in the short term are:

Tackling course completion rates – because we’re concerned that, as a consequence of previous ad-hoc policy changes, there are a large number of tertiary programmes, particularly below degree-level, that have course pass rates as low as 30 percent, and that some of these programmes fail to properly equip students for the jobs they seek.
Ensuring qualifications are meaningful and recognisable – for both students and employers (here and abroad)
Ensuring Value for money from student support

As a first step, in terms of ensuring our qualifications are meaningful, before I took over the portfolio, Anne asked the New Zealand Qualifications Authority to carry out a targeted review of qualifications.

We currently have around 6,000 qualifications on the books – I can’t believe that all of them are uniquely relevant and accepted by the people we want to recognise them – employers and students.

For example it’s hard to see that, despite the obvious importance of the tourism industry to this country, there needs to be 123 different certificate and diploma qualifications in Tourism studies. But that’s what we have currently.

This is the first significant look at our qualifications framework for more than a decade.

Since that time there has been an ongoing proliferation of qualifications. And now we have about 6,000 on the NZ Register of Qualifications- a significant number of which are unused or used only by the provider that set them up.

Finland – which has a population slightly larger (5.3 million) than ours – has about 500 qualifications on offer.

I don’t think we need to get it that low, but 6,000 certainly seems too high for a country of our size.

The goal is to cut out duplication, up the quality and reduce the number of new qualifications being added to the system unnecessarily.

I also want to see tougher pre-assessment of proposed qualifications before these go through the process of being added to the New Zealand Qualifications Framework.

Central to this will be questions about whether or not the qualifications have the support of the industry or the sector they’re set up to support.

I’m also announcing today that tertiary institutions will soon receive some of their current funding based on how well they perform academically by preparing their students for life after study.

In short, starting in two years time, we are planning to move from a system that funds purely on enrolments to one that funds both on enrolments and results.

The performance-linked funding model will provide financial incentives for institutions to continually work to improve the educational performance of their students.

Educational performance will be measured using indicators like successful course completion, qualification completion and student progression.

The details of how each measure is applied for each institution and each type of institution will be worked through by the TEC, the Ministry and myself over the next while.

The proportions of funding linked to performance will be low to start with so everyone has time to adjust, but linking some funding directly to academic performance is on its way.

I’m confident that this approach will encourage institutions to provide more support for their students and achieve better results for individual students and for the country. Most institutions are doing that now but there is nothing wrong with stretching it a bit further.

So that’s a couple of starters for ten, but there will be more fine-tuning of the system over the coming months as we seek to maximise the return from our country’s investment in tertiary education.

For example, it’s been well-signalled that we’re looking to make some changes around the edges of the current student support package.

New Zealand is unique in that we provide a very considerable amount of our total tertiary spend in assisting students directly in their studies.

If we take into account student allowances and the student loans we lend to students to pay for fees and living costs, we spend a total of 42% of our total tertiary budget on student support.

That makes us a pretty big outlier in the overall scheme of things.

In comparison, Australia spends about 31% of its tertiary budget that way and the OECD average is 19%.

A big reason is the way we handle our student loans. With the current policy settings, when you take into account interest write-off, bad debts and administration costs, taxpayers are currently writing off about 48 cents in every dollar that is advanced on a student loan.

Given that fact – and we’ve all accepted that this is the policy – we need to be sure that taxpayers’ generosity is not being taken for granted by people who don’t take their tertiary studies seriously, or who show little inclination to transition from tertiary training into work.

Let me be clear that we are committed to the interest free loans scheme but at that sort of cost it can’t be a blank cheque – we need to check that we aren’t setting up any perverse incentives that increases student and taxpayer exposure to debt, without getting a positive education outcome for individual students or for New Zealand.

For example I’d like to see the continued provision of student loans linked to academic progress and I make no apologies for that.

So yes, there will be some fine-tuning of the student loan scheme but hard-working Kiwi students who continue to advance their studies will not notice significant changes.

There is much more to do than the three things I have just mentioned.

Another big focus is to work alongside the Education Minister on the roll out of our Youth Guarantee scheme.

This acknowledges that academic study isn’t for all young people and aims to deliver a range of alternative educational pathways for 16 and 17 year olds in tertiary education.

For the Youth Guarantee, we will be looking for a wide geographical spread, good community support and high-performing tertiary education providers to give students the best outcomes.

You’ll hear more about this in the coming months.

So that’s a quick overview of where we’re at with tertiary education – an area we see as critical to lifting living standards and delivering a brighter future for all New Zealanders.

By necessity of time this is a broad brush picture – I look forward to getting into more of the detail with the sector, students and employers over the coming months.

My observation so far is that we have a dedicated and passionate tertiary education sector that is determined to prepare all of our tertiary students for the challenges of tomorrow.

I don’t see radical change on the cards. What we need is a continued evolution to a more effective and efficient tertiary system that makes the very best use of the $4 billion we taxpayers contribute to it.

I know there are a number of other issues that you’re interested in so I’m happy to take any questions.

From: http://www.beehive.govt.nz/speech/speech+wellington+chamber+commerce+4

Download:E-Learner Profiles: Identifying Trends and diversity in student needs, orientations and aspirations

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:51:14 +0000

From the Education Counts website of the New Zealand Ministry of Education:

This report was commissioned by the Ministry and undertaken by Massey University in collaboration with the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology, The Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and Otago Polytechnic.

The report provides a framework of the diverse e-Learner profiles found throughout the tertiary sector, taking into account:

Demographics.
Learning orientations (learning styles).
Readiness for e-Learning, and;
Experience of and attitudes to e-Learning.

It identified structural trends in the tertiary student body in recent years and changes in the students themselves in terms of attitudes, approaches to study, needs and aspirations.

Author: Lynn M Jeffrey, Clare Atkins, Axel Laurs, Samuel Mann
Date Published: October 2006
Released on Education Counts: 16 November 2009

View the Executive Summary online: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ict/57985

Download the full report (.pdf): E-Learner Profiles: Identifying Trends and diversity in student needs, orientations and aspirations

The 5 Ds of e-Learning in Industry

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 07:25:01 +0000

Graphic showing the 5 D’s of e-learning in industry. See Figure 1.1

http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/ict/58148

Download: Using e-Learning to build workforce capability: A review of activities

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 02:33:37 +0000

This report was commissioned by the Ministry and undertaken by the Waikato Institute of Technology in collaboration with the Industry Training Federation. The report’s main objectives were to:

Identify how e-Learning is employed in work-based and work-placed learning both internationally and nationally.
Describe the impact of e-Learning on building workforce capability globally and nationally.
Assess the demand from employers, providers and learners for e-Learning in improving individual and organisational capability.
Demonstrate how, and in what ways, e-Learning can aid particular industry sectors in building workforce capability.
Examine reasons why e-Learning is not being used in particular industry sectors to support work-based and work-placed learning.
Recommend further activities that could be taken to promote and embed the effective use of e-Learning in work-based and work-placed e-Learning.

Download the full report: Using e-Learning to build workforce capability: A review of activities (.pdf 1.2MB)

Author: John Clayton, Richard Elliott, Sarah-Jane Saravani, Nicholas Huntington, Nicholas Greene
Date Published: October 2008
Released on Education Counts: 16 November 2009

DIY – Use e-learning courses to address your skill shortages

Tue, 29 Dec 2009 02:00:16 +0000

Once again we hear the familiar cry of industry lamenting the “skill shortage” that seems to be a constant burden for many New Zealand employers. TVNZ Business reported on Monday:

A recruitment specialist says skills shortages in the job market are expected to again come to the fore next year.

Recruitment company Hays has issued a report on its expectations for 2010.

Managing director Jason Walker says as New Zealand emerges from the economic downturn, the challenge for talent will again rear its head.

He says financial and commercial analysts, and technical IT specialists will be in particular demand.

Walker says employers are looking for experienced workers who have a background in the New Zealand marketplace.

He says many employers are sensing a new optimism in the market and are planning for recruitment in 2010.

(http://tvnz.co.nz/business-news/skills-shortages-expected-in-2010-3319505)

Now, more than ever, industry has an opportunity to develop the people they already have in a way that is cost effective, and highly customised. But e-learning also provides an ideal means of addressing specific skill shortages when you do not already have potential candidates on hand

Many skill shortages, both short and long term, are notoriously difficult to address. One of the often cited reasons for this is a lack of interest from potential candidates. This is often not the problem in of itself. Instead it creates a problem for traditional education and training models which require a certain ‘critical mass’ before programmes are sustainable under existing funding mechanisms.

If an industry requires candidates for training and there are a dozen scattered throughout the country, this is not going to be sufficient for any conventional ‘face-to-face’ delivery to be financially viable – a key consideration for ALL education organisations including not-for-profits.

Using an e-learning model for delivery, however, enables those 12 people to be brought together and learn together in a way that is equally effective – even while continuing to gain experience – the other great shortage employers often seek.

Employers who are serious about taking charge of their own future, and proactively addressing the barriers which are preventing profitability and growth without waiting for others to act, should be grabbing e-learning with both hands.

Using e-Learning to build workforce capability: A review of activities

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 01:18:56 +0000

Recommended reading, this webpage from the Ministry of Education (New Zealand) summarises key issues and findings from the full report (also available for download). The content is succinct and includes some excellent graphics clearly depicting the process of elearning industry, elearning as it occurs in large companies, and in small or medium businesses, and a model for examining elearning effectiveness.

This is an excellent summary of key e-learning issues in the New Zealand workplace, but many of these factors have wider relevance. It also glances towards the future and identifies the following future trends:

Blended: Despite the growing focus in industry on e-learning, traditional approaches continue to remain important. A blended approach, incorporating e-learning with traditional formats, has already been identified by some as the way to proceed. It is envisaged that this will be a significant approach in the future.

Collaborative: To achieve cost reduction and to increase the quality of elearning resources developed, many organisations will increasingly collaborate with the producers whose goods they sell and with other organisations in the same sector.

In-House: Increasingly, the benefits of tracking the training undertaken by employees, ensuring all employees are conversant with company policies and compliant with appropriate legislative requirements, is being recognised. This will be monitored by e-administration tools managed by inhouse staff.

Mobile: Mobile technologies (such as phones, PDAs and cameras) are readily available and enable information to be accessed remotely and for data transfer from those “on-site” back to the central office and conversely for the central office to provide advice or training to those “on-site”. A number of firms indicated in this study that the use of mobile technologies was a key component of future e-learning offering

This page summarises one of the most current and useful current reviews of e-learning in the New Zealand workplace: Using e-Learning to build workforce capability: A review of activities

Education by Brash and the 2025 Taskforce

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:12:55 +0000

Recommendation 11 from the 2025 Taskforce chaired by Don Brash deals specifically with education.

11. Education:

a. The substantial increases in subsidies since 2005 for early childhood education and day-care should be reversed.

b. A funder-provider model should be adopted for the school sector, allowing new providers to enter, with all-up per student funding equivalent to that for existing state schools.

c. In the meantime, governance and accountability structures in the school sector need to be reformed to provide better incentives for stronger performance and greater accountability for teachers, principals and schools.

d. Government-imposed fee caps on university fees should be abolished.

e. Market-based interest rates should be reintroduced for student loans.

f. Governance of the public tertiary sector should be reformed, including exploring the rationalisation of the non-university sector and the establishment of universities as independent foundations.

g. A full review should be undertaken to identify, and recommend reform of, those areas in which various government education agencies (Tertiary Education Commission, Education Review Office, Ministry of Education) have become overly prescriptive, and to explore other, less intrusive, monitoring and accountability options to achieve policy ends that pass a cost-benefit test.

For further information see the full reports and supporting information from the 2025 Taskforce.