Resources

The use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in universities to enhance or support learning and teaching is increasing. Information Services at the University of Nottingham suggest:

‘Any use of ICT to enhance teaching and learning (e.g. computer-aided learning, virtual classrooms, online discussion forums) can be called e-learning. Typical aims are:

• to broaden the range of teaching activities for your students
• to encourage self-directed learning
• to provide self-test opportunities
• to improve student-staff or student-student communication
• to address the diverse needs of your students
• to address specific teaching issues (visual analysis etc.)
• to help cope with increasing student numbers
• to encourage collaborative learning
• to provide core material online, allowing more focused student-staff contact time’

(www.nottingham.ac.uk/about/administrative/is/services/elearning.php)

The term ‘technology enhanced learning’ is now often used to describe the use of ICT in education because this is reflects technology’s potential to add value to learning.

Although written in 2005, a policy brief by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) provides a good insight into the use of ICT in higher education. This brief identifies four ways in which e-learning is adopted within academic programmes:

‘Web-supplemented courses focus on classroom-based teaching but include elements such as putting a course outline and lecture notes on line, use of e-mail and links to online resources.

Web-dependent courses require students to use the Internet for key elements of the programme such as online discussions, assessment, or online project / collaborative work, but without significant reduction in classroom time.

In mixed mode courses, the e-learning element begins to replace classroom time. Online discussions, assessment, or project and collaborative work replace some face-to-face teaching and learning. But significant campus attendance remains part of the mix.

And when courses are offered fully online, students can follow courses offered by a university in one city from another town, country or time zone’ (p.2).

Options for including e-learning within programmes will largely be dependent on services provided by the institution.

JISC has published a guide to ‘Effective practice in a digital age.’ This offers a good insight into the pedagogy of e-learning and case study examples. It can be downloaded from the JISC Website. 

For further examples of e-learning in the A-Z Directory see:

• Computer aided assessment
• Open educational resources
• Podcasting

JoHLSTE also has a good number of articles that discuss technology enhanced learning in HLST subjects

See for example:

• The value of staying connected with technology: an analysis exploring the impact of using a course management system on student learning
• Issues in the development of an inclusive curriculum: listening to student voices in the evaluation of reusable learning objects in the subject area of sport, leisure and outdoor adventure
• E-learning in tourism and hospitality: a map
• Towards a Theory of e-Learning: Experiential Learning
• An evaluation of learner-generated content and podcasting
• Strategies for using podcasting to support student learning
• Learnin technology and its potential to support student placements in hospitality and tourism education
• 'Carry on talking': Developing ways to enhance students' use of online discussion forums
• Virtual Learning Environments in HLST: A review
• How useful are course websites? A study of students' perceptions
• Asynchronous computer mediated conferencing to support learning and teaching: An action research approach
• Online learning and teaching in HLST: Myths, opportunities and challenges
• Web page implementation and cultural change within a first year undergraduate module
• The evolution of internet pedagogy: Benefits of tourism and hospitality education

JISC has produced an online guide Effective Assessment in a Digital Age which features 10 extended case studies of on the use of digital assessment. It is also available to puchase in printed form.

HEFCE has published a study Student Perspectives on Technology - Demand, Perceptions and Training Needs that looks at the demands, perceptions and needs of new and potential higher education students regarding online learning at universities and colleges.

HEFCE has also commissioned the Study of UK Online Learning. The study was carried out by Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning team at the University of Oxford and examines the current UK provision of higher education-level online distance learning. The study highlights the difficulties in finding information about online courses on institutions' web-sites, and the lack of clarity in the terminology institutions use to describe their online programmes. It makes recommendations concerning terminology, discoverability, sharing of best practice and improving market intelligence, which are outlined in the executive summary.

HEFCEs has also produced a series of Case Studies that look at 14 UK HEIs who demonstrate a highly effective online learning provision.

A HLST funded project produced a number of re-usable learning objects on various topics and evaluated their potential benefits, for further details of the project and a link to the learning objects see the Project Page.

Peter Jarrett has produced a position paper for HLST that examines the Delivery of Open Educational Resources through a Specific Subject-cloud.

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