From the Jisc student experience experts group meeting in Birmingham on 29 March 2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/student-experience-experts-group-meeting-29-mar-2017

1. South Eastern Regional College:
A whole college approach to developing digital capabilities
Birmingham
29/03/2017

2. South Eastern Regional College:
A whole college approach to developing
digital capabilities
Paula Philpott
Head of Learning Academy

3. Introducing SERC
Merger of 3
colleges in 2007
Investing in
technology
Strategy
Systems
development
Leadership
Conclusions.
Investing in staff
SERC Learning
Academy
Moodle Mondays and
Webinar Wednesdays
Learning Engine

4. South Eastern Regional College (SERC)
 £46m annual turnover
 4 Main Campuses throughout South
East of Northern Ireland
 1,025 expert and professional staff
 32,000 enrolments per annum
 Over 5,200 business clients
 Partnering with 40+ local schools

5. Imperatives for Change
 In late 2007, following merger - new structure with an in-
build annual deficient of £3m
 Income per student was static and has not risen since
2007
 Disparity between campuses at merger meant significant
differences in access to technology and digital literacies
of staff and students. One College, one Vision.
 Need to improve outcomes for students and businesses
 Needed to balance the books however:
 Increasing fixed and semi-fixed costs
 Increasing staff costs
 Variable cost pressures e.g. Awarding Body fees

6. Our Strategy
1 2
3 4
5 6
1. Establish a Robust Digital Infrastructure
Merger of 3 Colleges – Servers, Communications MIS, VLE
2. Systems Development
Develop Support systems to track performance
3. Management
Reporting, tracking, digital leadership
4. Continuous Professional
Development
Establish a robust method to improve digital skills
of staff and students, Mentors
5. Learning resources
Share best practice on what works best. E-author
Team established
6. Review and Evaluate
Continuously review, evaluate and develop further
enhancements. Share.

7. SERC Systems Development

8. Parallel processing

9. Enterprise, Entrepreneurship and EmploymentLearning Academy
Cloud Services Quality
Systems Development
Systems SERC Staff and Student Support Services
Holistic Overview

10. Digital Skills Gap

11. Leading change

12. Case Conference
 System - integrated all
databases together
 Environment –
communication
 Effective - recurring
problems or trends identified
 Effortless

13. Case Conference Video

14. Invest both in the
technology and
also in its
implementation.

15. SERC Systems
Virtual Learning Environment

16. Whole College Moodle Strategy
 Bottom up and top down approach
 One College, one course
 Templates for consistency and feel (following focus groups with staff and
students)
 Categorisation of Moodle courses – Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze
 Challenge to change the current level of your course
 Curriculum managers as digital leaders taking ownership
 Content reviewed and critiqued by curriculum leaders at ‘Know and Show’
 Curriculum leaders required to teach a virtual class and a lesson using TEL
 Timescale set for full implementation
 Student feedback critical to design and layout

17. SERC Virtual Learning Environment
-
500,000
1,000,000
1,500,000
2,000,000
2,500,000
3,000,000
3,500,000
4,000,000
Numberofaccessviews
Internal Hits External Hits
•4.2 million views
•23% accessed
from outside of
the college

18. Investing in staff

19. Creative and innovative curriculum

20. Collaboration
Leadership &
Management
Early Professional
Development
• Staff induction
• Supportive observations
and tailored support
• PGCE / CIT
Collaboration and
Internationalisation
• Active Learning –
Thailand and Japan
• Whole College
approach to
mentoring and TEL
Continuous Professional
Development
• Mentored support (PBL,
Technology enhanced
learning and pedagogical)
• HE in FE student and tutor
support
• Professional Technical
training
• Learning Engine
• Moodle Mondays / Webinar
Wednesdays / good
practice videos
Leadership and
Management
• Management
Development
Programme
• Management
mentoring programme
Learning Academy - professional learning
OVERVIEW
Early
Professional
Development
Continuous
Professional
Development

21. Pre-mentoring
assessment
Targets Set
Stage 1
Training
Demonstration
Lesson – teaching
mentee’s class
STAGE 2
Training
Team Teach
STAGE 3
Training
Lesson observations
STAGE 4
Post mentoring
review
Signposts for the
way ahead
STAGE 5
The mentors are observed
annually and given formal
feedback:
Demonstration lesson
Delivering training
Quality AssuranceTHE PEER MENTORING
PROCESS

22. Engaging students as partners

23. TitleLearning Academy – informal learning opportunities
Best practice videos

24. Learning Engine – Manager End

25. Pedagogy Modules
The learning engine was
used to deliver pedagogy
training to all lecturing
staff. Especially targeted for
those staff who had been
in the College over 10
years.
Also used to store
College Policies and
Procedures for staff
to read and access
Best practice
videos

26. Leadership
Buy-in from management team
Determination
Supportive consistency
Strive for excellence

27. Investing in
technology
Strategy
Systems
development
LeadershipInvesting in staff
SERC Learning
Academy
Moodle Mondays and
Webinar Wednesdays
Learning Engine

28. Contact details:
Paula Philpott
Head of Learning Academy
pphilpott@serc.ac.uk
www.serc.ac.uk
Thank You.
Any Questions?