Implementation Strategy (version 2)
FRONTER
Virtual Learning Environment (VLE)
Joanna Maclean
April 2012
Index
1. CONTEXT 1
BACKGROUND 1
RATIONALE 1
VLE – BENEFITS TO THE SCHOOL 2
CHALLENGES TO CHANGE 3
2. IMPLEMENTATION 4
MANAGEMENT – VISION AND SHARING AWARENESS 4
STAFF VOICE 4
TRAINING AND SUPPORT 4
OPPORTUNITIES 4
POLICY 4
3. DEVELOPMENT PLAN 6
TIMESCALES OVERVIEW 6
DETAILED SHEDULE 6
4. ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES - DECISION MAKING PROCESS 13
OVERVIEW OF VLE GROUP STRUCTURE 13
DETAILED RESPONSIBILITY OF INDIVIDUALS 14
5. MEASURING SUCCESS 17
KEY GOAL 17
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS 17
MONITORING AND EVALUATING 17
6. DEVELOPING THE STRATEGY / NEXT STEPS 18
SLT/BOARDAPPROVAL 18
SLT VISION AND DISSEMMINATION 18
ADDITIONAL SOFTWARE 18
RE-EVALUATE VLE CO-ORDINATOR ROLE 19
7. SUMMARY 19
1. CONTEXT
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Advances in technology together with changes in educational methodologies have seen many educational institutions around the world invest in implementing virtual learning environments (VLE) to support the teaching and learning process. A VLE provides school communities with a unified platform for content delivery, communication, assessment, and course management. It also helps to improve students’ skills through engaging them in online learning activities and communication. It was in recognition of these benefits that a VLE Working Party was created in session 2010-2011 (Jim Cuthbertson, Ben Fitzgerald, Neil Fischbacher, Joanna Maclean). Following the recommendations of the working party the school decided to purchase (Nov 2011) a VLE by the name of Fronter (It is owned by Pearson, who run our database system, E1). It is one of the largest digital learning platforms available to schools with over 10 million students and teachers using it around the world.
It has been identified from previous ‘whole school system changes’ e.g. E1, case studies from other schools, The High School of Glasgow, that without an effective implementation strategy, many objectives and advantages of the VLE may remain unachieved. Therefore, it is vital to the success of an effective implementation that a considered strategy should be put in place. To this end, Joanna Maclean was appointed to the role of VLE co-ordinator / administrator (Nov 2011) with the specific remit of preparing an initial strategy to deliver a working VLE in August 2012. This document is intended to provide the School’s Senior Leadership Team and Board of Governors with an overview of that strategy. Its intention is to ensure appropriate consideration is given to the deployment of the VLE and should be seen as a working document which will continually evolve as matters are further evaluated.
RATIONALE
The government’s announcement that every school was to be using a VLE by 2008, led to many UK schools and local authorities rushing to implement one. Kelvinside has been more considered in its approach, hoping to ensure that not only do we get the correct platform but that it is implemented and utilised successfully. The addition of a VLE within the school has the potential to bring a plethora of benefits and these will be outlined below. However it is also recognised that to introduce such a large project, which is woven into the fabric of every aspect of school life, it will inevitable be met with some resistance. Therefore examining why staff resist change, and what steps we can do to minimise this, will also be examined in more detail before any implementation plan is formulated. The benefits of the VLE will only be realised if staff have been appropriately trained, understand those benefits and are encouraged to embrace its use. Therefore, a well-designed programme of change management is required to prepare the KA community for the VLE, reduce their resistance and gain their acceptance and involvement. This paper outlines such a framework and has been derived from various sources commenting on the issues arising from developing ICT initiatives in educational institutions.
VLE - BENEFITS TO THE SCHOOL
A VLE could make a significant contribution to many areas within Kelvinside by enhancing student learning and improving the student’s school experience. Some of the main benefits it is capable of delivering include:
§ An ‘any time, any where’ ethos, which better meet the needs of Kelvinside’s community.
§ Increasing range of options for staff in terms of teaching, learning and assessment approaches, which in turn better support the diversity of student learning approaches.
§ Facilitating online learning experiences which encourage student-centred learning, flexibility and choice.
§ Allowing staff to provide instant and personalised feedback, as well as online self-assessment as a means to aid learning.
§ Encouraging development of the independent, self-motivated learner as well as engaging pupils in collaborative, creative multimedia group projects.
§ Creating online communities which can provide a supportive environment for students through peer-to-peer interaction, peer review and assessment, group activities; which in turn help build student confidence in their own learning capabilities.
§ Supporting learning through an increased provision of, and access to, study materials.
§ Improving transparency and communication throughout the school community.
§ Reducing the school’s carbon footprint.
§ Developing an integrated information system, providing enhanced user functionality and resulting in increased efficiency.
§ Allowing pupils, parents, and staff to track progress.
§ Standardising protocols resulting in a consistent, high quality approach to learning materials.
§ Giving a single access point for timetables / school and pupil information / calendars / e-mail / grade books etc.
§ Allowing staff to use e-learning materials to support knowledge-based activities thus ensuring class contact time is more focused on active, student-centred learning activities.
§ Giving pupils access to their own e-portfolios to record their skills development, goal setting, plans and achievements - effectively collecting evidence of their learning journey through Kelvinside (ensuring continuity of learning from year to year, particularly at transition stages i.e. Nursery, Senior Prep and University).
CHALLENGES TO CHANGE
Before any plan can be devised it would be prudent to be aware of the inevitable resistance to change that will be encountered, this is due to the fact that most organisational changes are unsuccessful because of different forms of resistance. People are the most important asset in any organisation, particularly schools, and their commitment and acceptance will be the main factor in determining effective implementation. Therefore it is important to be aware of the reasons behind resistance so that these issues can be overcome.
Staff resistance to e-learning change include fear of:
Less control in their working life than they had before / Change in their teaching practicesLowering the quality of their courses / Lack of official recognition for work with new technologies
Limited access to ICT / Lack of time
Their limited IT skills / Doing more than their job remit
Migrating to new pedagogical approaches / An increase in their workload
Intellectual property rights and ownership of materials produced
Some of the key recommendations to minimise staff resistance include:
· Prepare to make gradual changes and keep staff informed along the way, so they feel part of the process and ‘in the loop’.
· Involve staff in the design, development and understanding of the need for change.
· Discuss with staff their new roles which will ensure their involvement and commitment.
· Ensure adequate training at a variety of levels.
· Share good practice among colleagues.
In summary, resistance to change is behind the failure of most IT based projects. Therefore, addressing and realising the factors behind the resistance and building them into our strategy will increase significantly our chances of a successful implementation.
2. IMPLEMENTATION
From reading the literature available for successful change management within educational systems as well as identifying possible strategies to deal with resistance to change, it would appear there are a number of steps that we have to integrate into the framework to ensure full utilisation:
MANAGEMENT - VISION AND SHARING AWARENESS
· SLT need to have a clear vision of what they hope to achieve and share this fully and regularly with staff.
· Realisation that nothing will happen without ‘people’ on board, i.e. staff, pupils and parents.
· Gradually raise the awareness of the impending changes.
STAFF VOICE
· Identify the staffs perceived strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT analysis) of developing a VLE – give them a voice.
· Staff given opportunities to voice and challenge their beliefs about e-learning.
· Identify staffs needs and how the VLE can be used to assist them.
· Evaluative feedback procedures – lead to a realistic and effective approach to change management.
TRAINING & SUPPORT
Stiles and Yorke[1] stated that the level of training and support available to academic staff has been crucial to the success of such projects, a factor often underemphasised in change, and one that has previously undermined the success of many e-learning projects. A good example being the underutilised E1 where negligible training was given to the KA staff on its launch.
· Ensure there is a programme devised for on-going training and development.
· Train staff showing them examples of changing teaching methods to help embed.
· Ensure there is substantial development time given to staff.
OPPORTUNITIES
· Allow staff the opportunity to get involved with the process e.g. VLE working party, resource manager, pioneer, trainer.
· Devise a scalable developmental program with varying levels of opportunities to account for varying skill levels and adoption rates.
POLICY
· Ensure the pace of change is controlled so as not to overwhelm staff e.g. phased implementation.
· Establish a robust yet flexible policy, with clearly defined protocols and processes.
· Set clearly defined goals and targets that everyone is aware of.
· Clear protocols identified for accessing support.
Interestingly all of the suggestions above tend to also encapsulate the issues raised in staff resistance to change and would suggest if we develop our framework around these aspects we are maximising our VLE’s success rate.
It should be mentioned here that an implementation plan can only take the VLE so far. It is imperative that our Governors and SLT take an active role in not only seeing the vision but in positively disseminating this to staff, parents and pupils. Oliver[2] argued that for implementation to be successful, it needs to be driven by the bottom-up forces, by the teachers and students themselves. This was evidenced by a 4-year VLE pilot study at the University of York which showed that successful change management relies on not only a clear strategic ‘top down’ management but it is essential that this is combined with ‘bottom up’ active involvement in order to successfully implement sustainable change that is clearly focus on the needs of the students.
From historical evidence of implementing VLE’s within the educational sector, a devolved system of management, particularly of management of resources was deemed to be more successful. In such a system it would be beneficial to set up a VLE Strategic Group which would meet periodically, to monitor individual initiatives, gauge overall development progress and make decisions with respect to maintaining an overall cohesive look at the VLE. There would also be a need for VLE Working Party which would be more concerned with the actual learning and teaching aspects of the VLE i.e. methodology, pedagogy, resources and assessment. It would also be important to have identified VLE pioneers who help resource and showcase good practices.
From the evidence collected it has been decided to have a phased roll-out of Fronter. This is a ‘safer’ implementation option, allowing us to train, reflect, refine and adjust as we go. However with the flexible training sessions in place this does not restrict interested, passionate staff from ‘jumping the gun’ so to speak (It is hoped is that as staff in the Senior School become familiar with using Fronter for administrative tasks, they will begin to realise the vision and subsequent benefits to their learning and teaching processes and that many of them will choose to adopt at a faster rate than is currently anticipated).
3. DEVELOPMENT PLAN
TIMESCALES OVERVIEW
A brief overview:
§ Introduced and used by all staff for the beginning of session 2012-2013 as a means of daily administrative functions e.g. calendar/email/notifications/information
§ All Junior School (& Nursery) staff, pupils and parents will be involved in using ‘Class Pages’ for learning and teaching opportunities as well as a means of communication.
§ The following session (2013-2014) the Senior School Departments will begin using ‘Class Pages’.
§ Full school Implementation by 2014 at the latest.
DEVELOPMENT PLAN AND DETAILED SCHEDULE:
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
/ ACTION PLAN / TIME- SCALE / PERSONNEL /ACHIEVED
/Phase 1
Procurement of a VLE / Specify, select and purchase a VLE platform / 2010-2011 / VLE working party (JSM, JC, BF, NF), SMT, Board of governors / √
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
/ ACTION PLAN / TIME- SCALE / PERSONNEL /ACHIEVED
Phase 2Preparation and
Installation of VLE / Key staff for Fronter training identified and trained / Nov 2011 / SMT / √
Produce Implementation strategy (draft) / Jan 2012 / JSM / √
VLE presentation to SMT & Governors / Jan 26th 2012 / JSM / √
Staff awareness from SLT & Staff Swot Analysis of VLE / Inset Feb 10th 2012 / SLT & all staff / √
Continual staff awareness raising sessions / Feb 2012 -> / SLT / ongoing
Develop organisational structure
§ Corridors / rooms
§ Groups / contacts
§ Page / room layouts and contents
§ Resource structure
§ Rights / roles
§ Global / local settings
§ User defined tools / Jan 2012 -> / JSM / ongoing
Identify necessary ‘bolt-on’s’ required and costing / Jan / Feb 2012 / Attendance √
Others ongoing
Questionnaire / survey to staff members – needs / hopes / suggestions / Mar 2012 / JSM / √
Training timetable identified and levels of development. / Mar 2012 / JSM / ongoing
Develop and produce a series of protocols, guidelines and Codes of Practice which will inform the development of e-learning activities and will document, and provide a framework for responding to, good practice initiatives. / Mar 2012 -> / JSM / ongoing