Tertiary Education New Zealand » tertiary education

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: 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

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.

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Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:55:12 +0000

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Reports released: Employment outcomes of tertiary education

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:47:33 +0000

Two reports have been released today from the employment outcomes of tertiary education project.

These reports form part of the initial outputs from the project, managed by the Ministry of Education, the Department of Labour and Statistics New Zealand.

Information about the EOTE project, the data it uses, and other publications from this project can be found on the Statistics New Zealand website.

What do students earn after their tertiary education? This report looks at the group of nearly 30,000 young domestic students who last enrolled in a tertiary education provider in 2003, and examines the influence of their tertiary education on their earnings in the first year following study and three years post-study. Author: David Scott, Ministry of Education and Statistics New Zealand

Does workplace-based industry training improve earnings? This report examines the labour market outcomes of employees who left industry training during 2003–05, by comparing earnings and employment post training with earnings and employment prior to and during training. Author: Sarah Crichton, Department of Labour and Statistics New Zealand

Accessing these reports: These reports are available on the Statistics New Zealand website in pdf format. You can access the reports by clicking on the link in the headings. These report are only published electronically.

Draft Tertiary Education Strategy

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 18:05:55 +0000

The Draft New Zealand Tertiary Education Strategy (for 2011 to 2014) has been released for consultation.

Full press release

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.