Blended Learning Consortium

Peter Kilcoyne

ILT Director

Heart of Worcestershire College

pkilcoyne@howcollege.ac.uk

A quick look

Why Blended Learning?

• Independent

learning

• Digital literacy

• Flexibility

• Efficiency

SOLA StatisticsLevel 3 Subsidiary Diploma in Health and Social Care 2016 - 2017

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50.00

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D* (30) D (9) M (5) P (8)

Inte

ractions w

ith S

OLA

cours

e (

Mean)

Grade Achieved

Interactions with SOLA Moodle Course

Grade Number Hits Total Hits Mean

Distinction * 30 11979 399.30

Distinction 9 2448 272.00

Merit 5 1392 278.40

Pass 8 2022 252.75

SOLA StatisticsLevel 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production 2016 - 2017

Interactions with SOLA Moodle Course by Grade Average

Grade Average Logged interactions total Mean Logged Interactions

Average of Distinction* 266 266

Average of Distinction 1173 234.6

Average of Merit 1136 227.2

Average of Pass 673 134.6

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100

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300

Average ofDistinction*

Average ofDistinction

Average of Merit Average of Pass

Inte

ractions w

ith S

OLA

cours

e (

Mean)

Student Grade Average

SOLA StatisticsLevel 3 Extended Diploma in Applied Science 2016 - 2017

Interactions with SOLA Moodle Course by Grade Average

Grade AverageLogged interactions

total

Mean Logged

Interactions

Average of Distinction* 11791 907

Average of Distinction 4889 815

Average of Merit 1879 469.75

Average of Pass 538 538

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Distinction * Distinction Merit Pass

Inte

ractions w

ith S

OLA

cours

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Mean)

Student Grade Average

SOLA StatisticsLevel 3 Extended Diploma in Business 2016 - 2017

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Distinction * (6) Distinction (8) Merit (7) Pass (0)

Inte

ractions w

ith S

OLA

cours

e (

Mean)

Student Grade Average

Interactions with SOLA Moodle Course by Grade Average

Grade Average Logged interactions total Mean Logged Interactions

Distinction * 1125 187.5

Distinction 1265 158

Merit 682 97.4

Pass 0 0

Why a consortium?

• Lessons learnt at HOW College,

issues with commercial, free and

homemade content

• High costs of developing quality

content

• Similar content needs

• Benefits of sharing costs

• Developing capacity

• “For the sector by the sector”

Blended Learning Consortium- FE

How it works• Open democratic partnership led by HoW College with

democratic decision making on content developed

• Annual membership fee of £5K, free to Specialist

Colleges

• Members vote on content to be developed

• Staff in member colleges paid to write and develop

content (Involvement in this is optional)

• Sharing existing quality content with other members

• Members get all content developed, source files and

later updates

Progress to date• 118 learning providers have joined. (9 from Wales)

This is over 50% of all UK Colleges plus some ACLs,

WBL, Specialist Colleges and 6 FCs

• Over 1500 hours in 50 subject areas.

• Over 100 5 min videos

• Members get all content plus source files – can

repurpose and adapt

• 300 hours of existing college content being shared

About the Content

• Interactive learning objects

• Any device and platform

• Thirty one hour objects per subject

• Formative assessments in all

• HTML5 and SCORM

• Source files provided

• Customisable

• Not specification specific

• Stand alone (can be used in any

order)

Repositories

• Planet eStream

• Clickview

• Moodle

• Google

• Canvas – we’re working on it.

AccessibilityTo date

• Accessible templates

• Sound

• Source files for reasonable adjustments

Next Steps

• EU Accessibility Directive

• Accessible word documents for all learning

objects. Catering, ICT, Motor Vehicle Get

involved?

• Blackboard Ally?

Voting ConsultationCurriculum

writing EditingE-learning production

QA & user testing

Development Process

Content Developed

Blended Learning Consortium – current members

118 Learning Providers and counting…

BLC in Wales

• Llandrillo

• Cambria

• Gwent

• Pembrokeshire

• Bridgend

• Gower

• Cardiff and Vale

• NPTC

• Adult Learning Wales

• Wales BLC meetings

twice a year

• Bilingual content?

• Welsh Voices

• Benefits of UK BLC

Feedback from members

“The quality and the content of the BLC learning

objects as well as the ability to quickly install them

into our SOLA courses has made them an

invaluable resource for the Grimsby Institute. They

save us huge amounts of time and are an

incredibly cost-effective way of having consistent

and well-constructed activities.”

Graham Raddings, Learning Innovation

Manager, Grimsby College

Learner Feedback

0 10 20 30 40 50 60

Ease of use

Easy to Understand

Helpful with Studies

Poor

Satisfactory

Good

Excellent

Learner Feedback

• “they are easy to understand”

• “Easy to read, contain key information and

include plenty of detail”

• “very effective for learning”

• “it was very informative”

• “making ron disappear”

• “its going to help my career”

The Power of the Consortium

Digital Economics or Buns vs Bytes

• Each college getting £500K+

of content development for

£5K

• Leveraged efficiency saving of

over £500k per college per

year

BLC Community• Community as important as content

• Regional ambassadors

• Monthly webinars

• Termly regional meetings

• Annual conference

• Annual democratic learning impact

award

• Sponsor funded training and

research into impact and best

practice

The Power of the Consortium

Collective Buying Power

Including

• 70% off Articulate Storyline

• Over 50% off Blackboard Ally (EU Accessibility Directive)

• 20% off ALT Membership and CMALT

• VLEs: Canvas, Moodle, ItsLearning

• Click view, Planet Estream

• Dolphin accessibility softwear

• 40% off Cengage e-books and textbooks

• Virtual College and many others

• £25K Sponsorship from Canvas

Any Questions?

For more info -

pkilcoyne@howcollege.ac.uk

http://blc-fe.org/