Tertiary Education New Zealand » policy

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

Academic performance of first-year bachelors students at university

Tue, 18 May 2010 22:07:52 +0000

The report looked at first-year bachelors-degree students at universities, who had all achieved the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 3 and attained the University Entrance standard.

While academic achievement at school was the strongest predictor of first-year university success for these students, not all higher-achieving school students performed equally well at university, and some who had lower school achievement out-performed students with higher school achievement. The report looks at the factors that might explain these differences.

The study considered a population of first-year bachelors-degree students at university, who had all achieved the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) level 3 and attained the University Entrance standard.

While academic achievement at school was the strongest predictor of first-year university performance for these students, not all higher-achieving school students performed equally well at university, and some who had lower school achievement out-performed students with higher school achievement.

Among higher-achieving school students, those who:

studied part-time or for only part of the year, or
were from the sole-Pasifika¹ ethnic group, or
were low-decile school students from ethnic groups other than sole-European

showed lower levels of university performance than other higher-achieving school students.

Among those with lower school achievement, students who took a year off before starting their tertiary studies—particularly students from low-decile schools—showed higher levels of performance at university than those who progressed directly to tertiary study after leaving school.

But this better performance among those who took a gap year was not seen in European, or sole-Pasifika students.

Lower-achieving students from low-decile schools performed better in their first-year of tertiary studies than similar students from high-decile schools. This suggests that among lower achieving students, NCEA underestimates the ability of those from lower decile schools. And conversely, NCEA overestimates the ability of those from higher decile schools.

View the full report: http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/76374

Benefits of Tertiary Certificates and Diplomas – exploring economic and social outcomes

Tue, 18 May 2010 22:07:26 +0000

This analytical report from the New Zealand Ministry of Education examines the economic and social benefits of tertiary certificates and diplomas and provides new evidence of the value of a significant part of the tertiary education system. It makes use of a range of data to look at the association of tertiary certificates and diplomas to economic outcomes (employment and income) and social outcomes (well-being, social participation and inter-generational benefits).

Key Findings

Level 1 to 3 tertiary certificates are of most benefit to people with no or low school qualifications and are best seen as a pathway to higher levels of study
Level 4 certificates have better economic outcomes than school qualifications, particularly for men. There is some evidence of improved social outcomes for women
The economic outcomes from diplomas are close to those of bachelors degrees. Diplomas are associated with improved social outcomes, more so for women than for men
The clearest evidence of social outcomes from tertiary certificates and diplomas is for greater parental support for children’s learning

View the full report: Benefits of Tertiary Certificates and Diplomas – exploring economic and social outcomes

Trial National Standards Not Our Kids – Public Meeting

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 22:12:10 +0000

Mauri, Bula vinaka, Kia orana, Taloha ni, Talofa lava, Malo e lelei, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Mauriora koutou katoa,

The Dunedin action group petitioning the government for a trial of National Standards is holding a public meeting on Wednesday 31^st March. They would like to invite parents, communities and schools to attend and hear well known and respected leader in education, Lester Flockton speak on this issue. The government has also been invited to respond. Take this opportunity to participate in the discussion about National Standards. The Regent seats 1800 so this venue can cater for a big turnout. Please pass on to your networks, community groups and families.

Trial National Standards, not our kids!

Kia mau ki te whakaako

Visit handsupforlearning to support the campaign

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

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.

E-Learning and small business – lessons from the UK and Europe

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:45:55 +0000

“When planning for a year, plant corn.

When planning for a decade, plant trees.

When planning for life, train and educate people.” Chinese proverb: Guanzi (c. 645BC)

When planning for e-life, empower trainers and learners to engage in e-life.

The small business community in the UK and Europe is a growth sector and collectively the largest employer. European governments and the European Commission have been keen to develop a range of programmes to support this community as many small businesses are vulnerable to market pressures, ‘red tape’ and often suffer from lack of resources and effective business infrastructure. As engine of the European economy their skill assets and continuous up-skilling will be key to economic competitiveness and prosperity, particularly in the context of the knowledge economy. To training and learning providers the small business community represents a potentially huge market, yet one which is difficult to tap into. As a community of dispersed learners VLEs or elearning generally could provide important tools to help engage these potential learners.

Concepts and methodologies of elearning will have to take into account the needs of the small business environment and its learners in order to achieve a wider learning application. A learner driven pedagogy rather than a product driven one could be experienced as the real challenge as it may confront equal opportunities and the democratisation of learning environments, be it blended learning approaches or others.

A) When talking about learning it will be useful to describe learning and elearning to provide a better basis for analysis. What forms of learning takes place involving small businesses?

B) Before assessing how small businesses can be engaged in elearning one has to assess how they can be engaged in learning. What are the conditions under which small businesses engage in learning?

C) When talking about learning in small businesses it is appropriate to describe the wider context as this should inform the business decisions of those wishing to provide learning products and services to small businesses. What is the political and economic context?

Small businesses can be defined as having between 1 and 50 employees and are financially independent, that is it is not owned by a larger company.

Many small businesses engage in formal learning activities because of legal requirements, links to supply chains, new products, machinery or processes, customer demand, standards. Most of them don’t include learning in their business planning, should the latter exist. However, all small businesses engage in some kind of informal ad hoc learning activities and if a learning provider wishes to engage with small businesses than he needs to address one or both scenarios.

From research assessing the possibilities of engaging small business in HE learning environments (Uwe Derksen, Leonardo project Euromanager report, 2001) we know

· the majority of small business managers perform a ‘hands on’ role (93%);

· their primary learning methods are informal, experiential and/or through peer groups (88%);

· academic/professional qualifications are not valued highly (68%) as their relevance is a primary issue;

· issues such as limited time and resources, and short-termism within small businesses contribute to the lack of overall formal planning, including staff develop planning, and the poor take-up of training;

· identified barriers to learning include lack of perceived benefits and lack of appropriate training solutions targeted at small businesses;

· management training is a recognised need within small businesses as a means to improve effectiveness (65%) and/or to expand the business (66%), in particular into European markets (58%);

· access to the internet has increased rapidly (76%);

· cultural issues and preconceptions inhibit the relationship between small businesses and HEIs.

During our work with small businesses we also noticed through a process of formative evaluation that many small business managers and employees required

· extensive pedagogical support and guidance (learning how to learn, particularly independently);

· a learner’s and business needs assessment;

· support in basic and key skills; especially report writing (expressing ideas and concepts) and ICT skills (using the internet as resource and working and communicating in an virtual environment);

· the use of peer groups and “fellow champions” to facilitate learning, translate academic learning concept and provide additional transfer of experiential business knowledge and information.

· a “long” acclimatisation period into an academic learning environment;

· “gate-keepers” to build up trust and mutual understanding between the learner and the training provider;

· in the beginning applicable and relevant knowledge that can be used in the business almost instantly;

· the provision of additional access to resources useful to the business (e.g. unlimited access to the internet at the campus and learning centres) and information provided by guest speakers (real or virtual);

· regular face-to-face meetings;

· the use of peer-group language and cultural values;

· a blend between online and “traditional” learning and formal and informal learning, work based and college-based;

· personal tutors;

· learning content and methodologies that were structured around the business and less around subject areas (i.e. the business is the practical extension of the learner, this is particularly the case with owner managers)

· a flexible learner centred curriculum;

· negotiated learning: the solutions to problems are explored in partnership with the tutor/lecturer and peer group members;

· a learning situation that was a local social experience and process;

· general business support as added value;

· a demonstration of tangible benefits;

· to be valued for their aims and ideas: (the business often being the extension of their personality and life);

· to build capacity to learn and learn to learn, this would include the capacity of the business itself as the development of the learner effects the relationship with his or her colleagues in the business testing their own expertise and knowledge.

Some of these findings have been borne out by other research: “Professor Ian Draffan, Head of e-Learning Services at UfI, highlighted the importance of developing a sense of community amongst online learners. To achieve the UfI ideal of flexible, ‘roll-on, roll-off’ access for learners and to add value to the learning experience, creating tutor groups in stable learning communities are key to retaining learners by active tutoring”.

And “if the benefits of technology are to be realised in terms of improved learner motivation, achievement and retention, as well as widening access to non-traditional learners, then effective learner support strategies must be at centre stage. Research shows that the quality of support for learners is key to their recruitment, retention and achievement, particularly for those non-traditional learners who may lack motivation and experience of learning.

To underpin online provision in the ‘roll-on, roll-off’ model envisaged by the University for Industry, learner support is even more important: to overcome isolation, provide personal feedback, help with technical problems, and permit the social interactions so important to effective adult learning” (Marchmont Observatory, December 2000).

If one accepts that many small businesses don’t have a formal learning culture than it is understandable that the introduction to a learning environment can be an initial daunting experience. Building self-confidence and empowering the learner are key to creating an appropriate learning environment.

In terms of the elearning and small businesses the challenge is the ability to support an environment of “blended learning “ where “blended” means the support for formal and informal learning, to facilitate the exchange of practical information and knowledge, peer group and negotiated learning, on- and off-line learning, empowerment to contribute to ones own learning environment and to challenge existing provisions. The tendency was to move away from consumer-orientated and supply-led learning environment towards a democratically orientated and need-based learning environment.

Interestingly the questions that need to be answered by businesses when engaging in learning and elearning: Which competencies do our staff need in order to ensure continued success in the market place?, What kind of knowledge do we require for such success?, How can the internet be utilised to access relevant learning content?, How do and can we need to organise work based learning?, Which partners and programmes are available? and Which media competencies do our staff require? (see Web Based Training in Kleinen und Mittleren Unternehmen, 2001), also need to be addressed by the learning providers themselves.

“Give a man a fish and you can feed her for a day. Give a man a fishing rod and teach her how to fish, and you can feed her until the fishing rod breaks. Teach a man to fish, and then how to make a fishing rod from locally available materials, then she will eat for as long as there are fish to be caught. Organise the man and her neighbours into a common property resource management scheme and they will be able to fish at sustainable levels. Support them in organising themselves, and they will be able to decide if they wish to earn their livelihood by fishing, or by some other means”

could translate into

“Give a man some learning content and she will learn for a day. Give a man the source of learning content and teach her how to work with it together with some learning provisions and she will be able to benefit from it as long as it remains relevant. Teach a man how to access learning content and learning provisions generally, then how to find appropriate resources relevant to her need, and she will benefit as long as the resources are available. Organise the man and her neighbours into a managed learning network and they will be able to learn at sustainable levels. Support them in organising themselves, and they will be able to decide which learning environment and which learning content is most appropriate”.

SOURCE: http://www.solt.info/forum_posts.asp?TID=6

E-learning for organisation and people development

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:45:05 +0000

Learning is critical to organisation and people development in any sector. Elearning provides improved and innovative ways to contribute to this vital function. This is a broad and complicated subject, but let’s consider it in simple terms and link elearning with organisation development in plain english.

Thorn and Mackey proposed the following checklist for developing people and organisations:

Examine very critically the current roles and skill sets within your team.
Identify the overall direction of your organisation. What are its mission or vision, values and business objectives?
Have standards of performance been set? How are these standards being measured?
Hw are people being encouraged to develop these standards?
What learning processes are in place?
What are the blockages? What is stopping the organisation from developing?
Who are the competitors? What role does their HR/OD/L&D/Training function perform?
Network with other training professionals. Find out how different organisations are approaching their current business issues.
Meet with other functions in your organisation. Identify what they want from HR/OD/L&D/Training. Put yourself in their shoes. How well are you meeting their needs?
Identify the important measures, for example: speed of response, quality of advice, trainer knowledge, creativity and innovation, will work in partnership, value for money when benchmarked.
Critically evaluate the performance of your HR/OD/L&D/Training.
Set standards and establish an ongoing method of measuring the achievement of standards.
Constantly update within the function, encourage visits, secondmentsm and the exchange of information.
Work towards training excellence, to be the organisation that acts as a benchmark for others.
Ask yourself and your team, ‘How effective are we as a business partner?’

You will see that this list bundles together a range of topics including business case, return on investment, benchmarking, needs analysis and the like, but we’ll keep it simple by linking each of those points to e-learning ideas and applications.

1. Examine very critically the current roles and skill sets within your team.

Use elearning to develop the skills and capability of your management to analyse skill sets. Elearning providers can conduct this examination for you and customise solutions. Collaborative elearning can be used to enable effective self evalaution.

2. Identify the overall direction of your organisation.What are its mission or vision, values and business objectives?

Use elearning to develop the ability to do this and learn how to develop this strategic alignment. Induction through elearning can ensure that all staff understand and apply these critical elements of your business. Elearning can be crafted to be consistent with and therefore contribute directly to vision, mission, values and business objectives.

3. Have standards of performance been set? How are these standards being measured?

Develop people management skills through elearning and better understand performance management techniques. Collaboratively develop effective responses to performance issues by working together on challenging scenarios and team tasks in elearning programmes.

4. How are people being encouraged to develop these standards?

Elearning helps develop skills in collaboration. E-learning programmes can encourage development of real-world appraoches to achieveing results and meeting other perofrmance standards. This can occur through developing both managers and the personnel they lead.

5. What learning processes are in place?

Learning processes need to fully integrate elearning for maximum efficacy. Contracting in elearning expertise can ensure best practise appraoches are fully integrated from strategy through to implementation in practise. E-learning also offers learning processes that differ considerabley from conventional appraoches, and can add considerable benefits while reducing costs. Innovative approaches are able to be explored as a result.

6.What are the blockages? What is stopping the organisation from developing?

Use elearning to develop the ability of your organisation to identify and elininate bloackges to development. Elearning is also an ideal way to embed a culture throughout the organisation which will encourage development. Elearning can also reduce development limitations through lower cost, greater flexibility and more pertinent training provision.

7. Who are the competitors? What role does their HR/OD/L&D/Training function perform?

Pay particular attention to your competitors use of technology. Look for elearning use both in-house and contracted in expertise, be aware of web 2.0 elements, informal learning and personal learning environments. There can be a lot going on without it being readily apparent if you restrict yourself to analysing conventional functions.

8. Network with other training professionals. Find out how different organisations are approaching their current business issues.

Participate in elearning with personnel from other organisations that are not direct competitors, but perhaps providing the same product or service in geographic locations other than your own. Champion elearning in your industry and create opportunities through collaborative online programmes to learn from others. Elearning scenarios designed around current business issues let’s you share the expertise of others and foster effective solutions.

9. Meet with other functions in your organisation. Identify what they want from HR/OD/L&D/Training. Put yourself in their shoes. How well are you meeting their needs?

Best practise elearning will help to ensure those needs are better met. Sound instructional design prinicples will keep learning opportunities on target. E-learning also enables flexible and rapid responses which provide a service more responsive to the needs of other functions in your organisation.

10. Identify the important measures, for example: speed of response, quality of advice, trainer knowledge, creativity and innovation, will work in partnership, value for money when benchmarked.

Recognise that e-learning which is designed and delivered to a high standard will almost always perform better than conventional training against all these measures and any others which have been identified as important.

11. Critically evaluate the performance of your HR/OD/L&D/Training.

Best practise appraoches to elearning pplace considerable emphasis on evaluation of programme design and delivery and improvement based on that evaluation. Where existing performance is lacking elearning can often provide the solution to your problems.

12. Set standards and establish an ongoing method of measuring the achievement of standards.

Many elearning systems integrate standard setting and ways of measuring achievement of identified standards through technology. Integrating elearning with your organisation development strategy ensures that appropriate standards are set and achieved. E-learning can ehance your ability to meet existing standards.

13. Constantly update within the function, encourage visits, secondmentsm and the exchange of information.

The advantages of elearning align well with this consideration. The integration of collaborative interaction within programme design, the ability to deliver over distance, and the ease with which elearning can be updated all contribute directly to this aspect.

14. Work towards training excellence, to be the organisation that acts as a benchmark for others.

In the current environment signs of excellence include adoption of best practise elearning and innovative design and delivery techniques. If e-learning has become standard in your part of the world then cutting edge approaches and specialised expertise help establish leadership. If e-learning is new in your sector , then widespread use of elearning will establish you as a leader in your field.

15. Ask yourself and your team, ‘How effective are we as a business partner?’

Your effectiveness is likely ot be directly tied to your efective use of e-learning. Development through participation in elearning will also add to the effectiveness of your team.

In conclusion, elearning has a role to play in all aspects of developing your organisation. Embrace the opportunities it provides to build capability. By bringing in a elearning specialist you can start on this immediately – the sooner you start, the sooner you reap the rewards!

Reference: Thorne K, and Mackey, D. Everything you needed to know about training, Kogan Page Ltd, 2007.

Download NZ Draft Tertiary Education Strategy

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:44:27 +0000

Tertiary Education Minister Anne Tolley has today released the Government’s draft Tertiary Education Strategy 2010-2015 for consultation.

“We need the tertiary system to deliver for our young people, to improve education outcomes and achievement and to build a skilled and innovative workforce,” said Mrs Tolley.

“The draft strategy sets out the direction the Government wants tertiary education to take in the next five years. With a growth in demand we need to ensure the best return on the public’s investment.

“It also sets out the improvements Government is seeking in the performance of the system. In particular, providers need to be more responsive to students and industry and make better use of resources.”

The Government priorities for tertiary education are to:

increase the number of young people (aged under 25) achieving at Levels Four and above, in particular completing degree-level qualifications
assist Māori and Pasifika students to achieve at higher levels
increase the number of young people moving successfully from school into tertiary education
continue to assist adult learners to gain literacy, language, and numeracy skills that lead to higher level study or skilled employment
improve the educational and financial performance of providers
strengthen research outcomes.

“We are seeking feedback on how we can achieve our priorities,” said Mrs Tolley.

“We want to hear from tertiary providers, students, employers and communities on how the tertiary education system can boost New Zealand’s economic prosperity and build a strong society for the future.”

Submissions close on 6 November 2009. The draft strategy is available at:

www.minedu.govt.nz/TertiaryEducationStrategyConsultation

Questions and Answers

What is the Tertiary Education Strategy?

The document that sets outs the Government’s long-term direction and medium-term priorities for tertiary education
The Education Act 1989 requires the Minister responsible for Tertiary Education to release a tertiary education strategy
The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) is required to give effect to the strategy through its funding decisions
The final strategy will go to Cabinet for approval by the end of 2009.

Why release a new strategy now?

This Government is committed to:

simplifying the tertiary education funding system
reducing central bureaucracy
strengthening quality and requiring accountability
supporting and encouraging students
improving the interface between schools and tertiary education institutions

The current funding agreements that organisations have with the TEC expire at the end of next year. The new strategy will guide the TEC’s decisions about what tertiary education programmes to fund between 2011 and 2014.

How does the approach to this new draft strategy differ from the last strategy?

The new draft is shorter and sharper than the previous strategy. It focuses on the changes that need to take place so that tertiary education is relevant and efficient and meets student and labour market needs.

The economic situation now is very different than in 2006 when the last strategy was released. The Government is facing significant deficits. The priorities in this strategy will help us make hard decisions about how to fund tertiary education over the next five years.

Who is the strategy aimed at?

The strategy is aimed at anyone involved in tertiary education. It is directly relevant to tertiary providers, students and staff, but also to prospective students, their families and the people who benefit from tertiary education such as employers.

What is the process for the consultation?

The Ministry of Education will meet organisations with a direct stake in tertiary education to discuss the draft strategy. The draft strategy is on the Ministry of Education’s website. Submissions can be made online or by mail until 6 November 2009.

The Ministry will consider the submissions it receives and revise the strategy for Cabinet’s approval at the end of 2009.

What will happen once the final strategy is released?

The TEC will prepare its investment guidance based on the Government’s priorities in the strategy. The investment guidance helps tertiary education organisations prepare their three-year plans. The plans will be finalised and approved during 2010 and will take effect in January 2011.