Committee of Inquiry into the Changing Learner Experience

 

Documents

 

 

 

Context, Terms of Reference and Membership

 

Meeting: 29/02/08                                   

Agenda Item: 1                     

Paper No: CLex/01/01  

 

Introduction

 

This paper provides a brief outline of the context in which the Committee has come into being, presents its terms of reference and sets out its membership.

 

Recommendations

 

The Committee is invited to:

 

 (a)  note and comment on the context in which it has been established;

 (b)  consider and agree its terms of reference;

 (c)  note its membership.

 

Context

 

Essentially, the context of the Inquiry is the current generation’s normalisation of the use of digital technology and its integration into their daily lives.  The past few years in particular have seen rapid growth in the development and availability of personal communications and information tools and technologies.  Convenient, high quality and affordable, such tools include mobile phones, laptops, PDAs, digital audio players – iPods and the like – and software that supports messaging in real time.

In parallel, there has been rapid exploitation of the dynamic, interactive capacity of the internet.  New services have been developed that enable users readily to share information and create their own content on the web.  Such services, typed as ‘Web 2’, or alternatively, as social software or social media, are working to bring about a culture of participation and collaboration.  Users, most notably young people, are shaping their lives and their behaviours, attitudes and approaches in line with the features of the technologies they use every day.

 

The developments in tools and technologies have been documented; those in the behaviours of  learners - especially young learners - in schools, colleges and universities, have been noted informally and researched to varying degrees through focused projects and surveys, some particular to institutions and others national.  The projects in HE have tended to be small scale; and they have also been relatively few in number compared with those on practitioner use of technology in learning. Led by specialists in e-learning, all projects, irrespective of their focus, have tended to attract an audience that is predominantly one of peer practitioners.

 

The change in learner experience that is in process, and what flows from it, properly demands more widespread attention and a higher profile than it has attracted to date.  The Inquiry in intended to achieve that and to serve to inform the further consideration of responses at the policy and strategic levels by both institutions and policy makers.

 

 

Terms of Reference

 

The Committee’s terms of reference are as follows:

In the interests of informing ongoing policy and strategic level responses to changing learner expectations and experiences of the newest technologies, to inquire into how learners approaching and recently entered full-time higher education, envisage drawing on such experiences and technologies in their HE experience and, taking account of experience gained with learners already on course, to identify and explore the key consequent issues for HEIs.

 

The Inquiry will have regard to:

 

*  the extent, nature and purpose of these groups’ use of social networking and other new learning practices;

*  their expectations of HEIs in respect of the use of these technologies;

*  potential differences in the use of technologies according to the user’s gender, class and age;

*  range of other changing learner experiences, including enrolment, timetabling, module choice,

*  communication with tutors, and the rising use of virtual learning environments;

*  implications including ICT services, marketing, recruitment, induction, approaches to learning and teaching (pedagogy), outreach and widening participation, guidance, staff

*  development, quality in all dimensions  (from the perspective of accessing the learner voice), and physical space;

*  the implications for provision for other groups of learners, e.g. those in workplace learning, those from overseas, mature learners, part-time learners;

*  international comparisons;

*  relevant current and ongoing work in related areas.

 

In broad terms, the Inquiry is to address the implications for higher education institutions of the experience and expectations of learners, both those approaching and those recently entered full-time higher education, in the light of their increasing use of the newest technologies - including as these impact on such matters as social networking - and other factors affecting the learner experience.  The Inquiry will be concerned with learners of all ages, but the experience and expectation of young learners, as yardsticks for the future, will provide its baseline.

 

 

The Inquiry is to extend over a period of approximately 9 to 12 months, and its findings are intended to inform policy makers and senior managers of higher education institutions in their discussions at the level of policy and strategy.

 

 

Membership

 

Membership is ad hominem. Members have been appointed with a view to securing an appropriate range of perspectives rather than representation of any particular agency, body or organisation.

The Inquiry is supported by the four UK HE funding bodies (DEL(NI), HEFCE, HEFCW and SFC),  the LSC, UUK, HEA, and JISC.  Officers of these bodies will receive papers and may comment outside of meetings if they choose. The membership is small in number but members may invite specialist advice or ad hoc membership to support discussion of particular issues.

 

 

 

 

 

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