3 July 2002The Sheffield College1 Online distance learning in FE What are the critical success factors? (using the Learning To Teach On-Line course - LeTTOL - as the exemplar) Seb Schmoller The Sheffield College

3 July 2002The Sheffield College2 Summary About LeTTOL Main features Successes Management and organisation Content and technology Tutoring Conclusions

3 July 2002The Sheffield College3 About LeTTOL 1996 South Yorkshire FE Consortium initiative to train own staff in e-learning Now delivered very widely –> 600 learners per year –~20 tutors in the team (1 in Au and 1 in Ca) –Adapted by CIPD as its COL course Identified by Ufi, TUC, Scottish Enterprise, as suitable training for online tutors 4% non UK19% Other7% Private Sector 15% HE59% FE

3 July 2002The Sheffield College4 Main features Wholly online – no face to face – not “blended” 120 study hours over ~20 weeks Thin, flat content, + asynchronous conferencing - not run in VLE Collaborative in tone and content Challenging Accredited (only!) at Level 3

3 July 2002The Sheffield College5 Successes 80% of learners obtain the qualification External Moderation reports consistently positive 42% of completers active in e-learning 24% of completers attribute employment changes to LeTTOL >15% of learners referred by friend or colleague >15% referred by their employer

3 July 2002The Sheffield College6 Management and organisation Strong senior management commitment right from the start Dedicated and trained administrative support Cohorts and learning sets Deadlines! Pre-course assessment process Learner and tutor guides

3 July 2002The Sheffield College7 Content and technology Simple, quick to load, cheap and quick to update Easy to navigate Challenging to the learners not our own or the learners’ infrastructure! Content regularly updated and improved Content owned and maintained by the tutor- team

3 July 2002The Sheffield College8 Tutoring Active and committed tutors – adequately paid in time or money Tutors focused on individual and learning-set progress Team managed/led with extensive support for –new tutors –the tutor team “Tracking tools” to enable efficient handover between tutors

3 July 2002The Sheffield College9 Conclusions Separation of content creation from delivery is risky (but commonly advocated) VLEs with good learner tracking tools will succeed Learning at a time [yes], place [yes], and pace [NO!] to suit you Thin flat content vs. media rich content – community and communication are more important than slick presentation Managers (who have not experienced online learning) may have trouble getting to grips with it

3 July 2002The Sheffield College10 References and contact details / JISC Effective Online Tutoring Guidelines: by Julia Duggleby, Joanna Howard, Kate Butler, Les Williams, Martin Cooke, Carol Cotton, Seb Schmoller. The University of Southampton's evaluation of the LeTTOL course, published in February (Interim Evaluation Report by University of Sheffield School of Education on the GCSE English Online Course, Sheffield College - February 2002)