Collaborating regionally to improve learning

Following the rapid evolution of the use of technology in education in response to the pandemic, the Venn Colleges embraced the opportunity to contribute high quality learning materials to the CCF Project 2020-21. Our specific aim was to improve the quality of teaching, learning and assessment in the delivery of blended learning across several key subject areas by creating digital learning content, accessible across the FE sector through a free to access online platform. 

The project involved 63 subject experts from across all five colleges creating digital content to be shared via an online platform. Additionally, staff from eight partner secondary schools were involved in the creation of digital GCSE maths content for a new virtual maths hub. 

Our focus was on specific priority subjects, including English, maths, health and social care, humanities, psychology, and business. The learning materials would support student catch-up by addressing potential loss of learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as hopefully raising student achievement more generally and improving engagement with digital learning. 

Implementation 

The colleges collaborated on the design of new digital broadcast lessons for priority subjects and agreed on a format for their delivery. Different digital technologies were used to enable creation of digital content that would fully engage students and support independent and teacher-led learning. The new online platform was developed alongside the new Virtual Maths Hub. 

We ran an initial pilot of the work to identify and resolve any issues before rolling out the approach. This proved very useful both in ensuring digital content was developed within timescales and in identifying existing staff strengths and development needs.

The skills required to develop digital content were new to some staff; however, this provided a fantastic opportunity for them to upskill. 

Some challenges the colleges faced were:

• Access to software: As staff were having to work from home they didn’t always have access to the relevant software to produce digital content. This meant that some materials had to be created in different versions of software and then amended later. 
• Quality assurance: With a large volume of digital content being produced by different members of staff, ensuring consistency of quality was an issue. This was addressed by providing quality assurance checklists to each content producer that specified the quality standards that needed to be met. New digital content was then subject to a further two stage quality assurance process by both subject and project leaders.
•  Ensuring accessibility: Ensuring resources were accessible was a challenge due to the limitations of the software being used. To overcome this, staff were upskilled in the development of accessible documents using in-house training we developed using DfE guidance and PowerPoint Accessibility tools, and it is now an expertise that they will take into their future teaching. 
• Student engagement: It was vital that students engaged with the digital content that was produced; therefore, early testing was put in place to capture learner feedback and improve design. 
• Evidencing impact: The initial intention was to use student achievement rates to evaluate the impact of new digital content; however, as a result of COVID-19 the introduction of teacher assessed grades meant we needed to consider alternative data. To address this, supplementary qualitative evidence was gathered from students and teachers. 

Despite these challenges, the impact of the project can be seen in several areas:

• Staff are feeling more confident in producing digital lessons with 94% of teachers reporting increased confidence in creating online lessons
• Students are engaging positively in remote learning with 98% of learners finding digital were effective in delivering content 
• We established a college process for quality assurance of digital content production that we can use again for future resources
• We strengthened partnerships, commitment to collaboration, and increased sharing of good practice, with 69% of teachers reporting it has provided opportunity for sharing in the future 
• The digital content and new platform have positively impacted revision because of increased accessibility for students, and with improved student engagement with the digital resources, we expect this will also support catch up work. 
• The new platform has provided a future proof solution to online learning and laid the foundations for a collaborative approach to continue developing digital learning in the future.

The project delivered the outputs we’d planned for and more: 

• New digital resource bank with 250 digital curriculum resources in 16 key subject areas
• New regional Virtual Maths Hub, Level 2 & 3 maths resources and Year 12 and 13 maths transition toolkit
• A teaching and learning conference for teachers
• New digital Year 11 and FE transition hub
• A virtual careers and progression event attended by 1,147 learners and 73 employers and HE providers 

Overall, the project provided a fantastic learning experience for all the colleges involved. Most importantly, we learned that it is key to do your research and forward planning at the start to understand and address any technical requirements and put in place quality assurance processes. We would also advise seeking support and advice from others in the sector. Some technical aspects of the project provided an initial challenge and highlighted staff skills gaps. In addressing these, our staff have developed expertise that will help them, their students and their institutions in the future. Running pilot work and early stage testing digital content is key to ensure any issues are addressed as early as possible and also to understand how successful your resources are in engaging your students. We found the ‘lessons learnt exercise’ we conducted really helped to identify the key learning points that we will use to both improve how we work and have been able to share with others. 

For other colleges looking to develop digital content, we would strongly recommend taking a collaborative approach with other local institutions. This provides a fantastic opportunity for your staff to learn from one another and share best practice, maximise the expertise available to you, and provide your students with a broad range of accessible materials to support their learning. Finally, we will continue to build on the suite of digital lessons and learning materials so do keep an eye on our website for new digital content we add.

Following on from the success of the 2020-21 CCF Project we will once again be contributing to the 2021-22 Project, this time as part of the Advance College Trust (ACT) which represents Wilberforce, John Leggott and Franklin Sixth Form Colleges.

The project this time round will involve creating nearly 700 digital learning products created by experts at the 3 colleges, partner schools and universities.  The focus this time will be on creating a number of different toolkits for English, Maths and STEM subjects, which will include "bite size" lessons, assessments, resources, how-to videos, and online revision guides which can be used across a variety of exam boards. Alongside this we will also be creating transition and progression toolkits to support learners' journeys from Level 2 to HE/employment, and several toolkits to support students to become independent learners. The learning toolkits will again focus on addressing the problems of lost learning from the impact of COVID-19 and on raising student achievement as measured by value added scores, achievement levels, and progression – do keep an eye on our progress as we strive for continuous improvement, learning from challenges along the way!

Laura Revill is HR & Trainee Finance Manager at Wilberforce College.