The BLU and the HEA/JISC Benchmarking Pilot

1. The BLU and the HEA/JISC Benchmarking Pilot • The Higher Education Academy (HEA)/JISC Benchmarking Exercise • The HEA is working with the JISC on a major Benchmarking Exercise that will enable institutions to ‘understand more about their own and the sector’s progress in e-Learning’ • The Benchmarking Exercise’s aims are to: • Provide institutions with the information to make informed plans for future development • Allow institutions providing HE to identify their current progress on embedding e-learning, in relation to similar • institutions • Provide a picture of the sector as a whole in order to identify areas of strategic importance to inform the work of the • JISC, the HE Academy and the Funding Councils • As part of the first phase of the Benchmarking Exercise, 54 institutions applied to take part in the Benchmarking Pilot. The HEA selected just 12 institutions, diverse geographically and in ethos, to participate. This diversity will make sure a range of approaches to, and experiences of, e-Learning will be explored. A team based in the Blended Learning Unit (BLU)was successful in ensuring the University of Hertfordshire (UH)is one of these pilot institutions. • The UH Benchmarking Pilot • The core team running the UHBenchmarking Pilot is: • Jon Alltree • Peter Bullen • Amanda Jefferies • Diana Kornbrot (coordinator) • Our priorities are to: • Provide a thorough overview of the relevant structure, processes and resources • Identify areas for development • Reflect the impact of our e-learning provision upon students • Provide baseline data for comparison longitudinally and with other HEI’s • The ELTI audit tool • We are using the ELTI audit tool, which was developed as a JISC CALT project. We chose the ELTI because it appeared to be broadly relevant to our situation and its processes permit further development to meet local needs. It explores: • Institutional factors • Culture • Infrastructure • Expertise • A variety of data sources are used, including individual auditors (typically the core team), interviews with key stakeholders, focus groups and surveys. • Our progress to date • So far we have: • Refined the ELTI tool for local use by amending it or adding locally pertinent questions • Conducted interviews with key stakeholders (eg PVC, Director of Learning and Teaching, Director of Learning • Technology, Heads of School, Faculty Champions) • Conducted focus groups with key groups (BLU group, Academic staff, Students) • Begun our analysis of the considerable volume of data collected • In addition, we have: • Worked with our HEA consultant (Peter Chatterton), sharing our emergent findings and impressions of the ELTI • tool • Run our own BLOG, available at http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/weblogs/pilot1/ • Contributed to the HEA’s meta BLOG, available at: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/weblogs/benchmarking/ • Early findings and the way forward • Preliminary analysis suggests that the following areas are generally scoring well: • Profile of learning and teaching • Recognition and reward • Research and development • ICT infrastructure • However, even these areas have potential for development – for example, although there are a variety of reward and recognition initiatives in place, they aren’t necessarily geared to the ambitions of all staff. • Sections/areas where findings are more variable include: • Staff and student ICT skills • Support for digital multimedia • Networks and collaboration • These are likely areas for further development in the HE Academy’s Pathfinder Programme, which will enable institutions to bid for substantial grants (eg £170K) to further embed e-Learning.