Since 1996 Staffordshire University has been developing a new, integrated learning strategy. We are now implementing it. This strategy has been through several discussion processes before being finally agreed at our Academic Board in September 1998. This site contains the learning strategy itself - Building a Learning Community - together with the rationale, projects and personnel involved.
1.1 At Staffordshire University we are committed to providing the best learning experience that we can for our students and our future students. The way in which we deliver our commitment we have called Building a Learning Community. The title acknowledges our commitment to work together as a diverse community of staff, students and friends of the University to create and enjoy learning opportunities that are continuously improving. The "BLC" concept allows us to express our values, goals and the policies and practices necessary to achieve this aim. Throughout its two-year history we have so far seen exciting developments, pioneered by professional and creative staff, committed to our shared student-focussed goals. In a world in which our "clients" come from ever more diverse communities, seeking flexible ways of study, we are discovering innovative ways to achieve our goals. .
1.2 Staffordshire University is committed to the development of a learning strategy that promotes lifelong learning and one of the goals of Building a Learning Community is to achieve greater flexibility in learning provision. This will include greater flexibility in access to learning using the new educational technologies to provide learning resources and activities remotely and asynchronously where appropriate. Increasingly, learners will be able to complete programmes at a time and a place that suits their needs, and at their own pace. All undergraduate students will have the opportunity to achieve academic credit for experiential learning, including work-based learning. All programmes will include learning outcomes related to skills acquisition and the ability to apply the tacit knowledge gained in their studies. A profiling/ record of achievement system will be developed for all awards that will assist the learner in not only reflecting on their learning but also in making career and further study choices.
1.3 Staffordshire University recognises that effective leadership is needed to champion the changes that Building a Learning Community entails. The Executive and the senior management teams at Staffordshire University are committed to this learning strategy and actively support its development and implementation. All Schools have a Project Manager to oversee the implementation of all aspects of Building a Learning Community. The move to resource based and distributed learning with a learner-centred focus also has funding implications. The University has prioritised this initiative and re-allocated substantial funds to support its introduction. The resource needs of the learning strategy will continue to be monitored. There will be extensive evaluation of the various pilot projects to ensure that we are using these funds effectively.
2.1 At the heart of this learning strategy is a re-orientation towards a focus on learning rather than on teaching. We advocate clarity in course and module design with an emphasis on defined learning outcomes supported by appropriate and varied learning activities. The goal is to support effective learning with robust checks to assure standards. We are committed to the promotion and delivery of flexible learning using 'active learning' strategies. Assessment strategies will be employed that generate appropriate learning activities and which provide valuable and timely feedback and a variety of assessment methods will be promoted to realise this goal. At the same time, assessment loading will be reviewed to ensure that staff time is used effectively and that inappropriate pressures are not placed on students.
2.2 Students' independence as learners will be greatly enhanced so that they can do for themselves and for each other as much as possible of what lecturers previously did for them, wherever educational benefits can be achieved. This may involve peer tutoring, peer supervision, mentoring, self and peer assessment, group work, and peer support in learning teams. Developing students' ability to perform these functions will be a central educational goal. All students will experience some form of collaborative learning.
2.3 We have recognised that the quality of learning is not always dependent on the quality of teaching and will continue to address the ways in which we can secure effective learning. To engage with increasing flexibility all awards will adopt, and adapt, varieties of resource-based learning strategies. This may include the use of resource based learning to enhance conventional programmes or the adoption of more active strategies such as problem based and project based learning.
2.4 At Staffordshire University we are developing and introducing human solutions to the challenges that face higher education. We recognise the importance of social interaction to student learning and will develop this aspect of learning as one of the vital elements of the learning strategy. We also recognise the potential benefits of providing technological support for learning. We will seek ways in which these two necessary elements to effective learning can be integrated. All awards will employ 'distributed learning' strategies where they are appropriate. 'Distributed learning' entails the creation of technologically supported learning environments to enhance student learning as well as to widen access to that learning; information technology is used in this way to support the learning strategy, not to drive it. There will be occasions and students for whom a technological solution is seen to be inappropriate and other methods of assuring high quality learning will be used.
3.1 Staffordshire University is committed to the development and fostering of a vibrant academic community of students and staff. We have also recognised the importance and value of developing learning communities regionally, nationally, and internationally. To facilitate and consolidate such wider learning communities we are committed to collaboration and partnership with a variety of organisations and bodies.
3.2 As class sizes have increased and modularity has split both cohorts of students and groups of lecturers, the social coherence of higher education generally has been challenged. At Staffordshire University, it is proposed to take extensive steps to create strong social cohesion between students within groups, both permanent and transitory, and between groups of staff. We are committed to building learning communities, tapping the enormous potential of collaboration and co-operation, between students, between staff, and between students and staff. We recognise that collaboration is getting harder for both tutors and students. Technological and network support will be more important to support collaboration, both synchronously and asynchronously; both on-campus as well as off-campus.
3.3 It is essential that we develop effective dissemination processes to share good practice, learn from each other, and build these into our planning processes. We must also become a community that shares resources and supports the development and use of common materials.
3.4 The University will plan its portfolio of programmes and awards to ensure that the provision we offer is matched to learner needs. Curriculum planning will include a rationalisation of the number of modules offered to students in order to offer the choice of realistically available and accessible modules in a coherent pattern. Similarly, we will review the range of modules to which a tutor can effectively contribute to, and be responsible for, to prevent tutors from being over-stretched and to support the quality of modules offered to students.
To support Schools and Services and the realisation of a Learning Community the following central initiatives will be taken.
4.1 Accompanying the development and implementation of its learning strategy Staffordshire University has recognised the importance of improving the various systems and processes that enable the management of the students learning experience. We have undertaken a major project - the Process Improvement Programme - to review these processes and recommend change. Such processes include the student management information system, enrolment and registration, and student accommodation.
4.2 The shift in focus from teaching to learning using a range of methods and media necessitates a review of our learning environments. The current service standard for classrooms, introduced in 1992, was appropriate for a higher education culture that is quickly being superseded by new methods, new media and students from a wider range of backgrounds. The need for lecture and seminar rooms that meet the agreed service standard will continue for those classes and occasions where lectures and seminars continue to be appropriate. However, there is a need to develop a new service standard that is appropriate for new methods. This will address the appropriate standard for learning environments to support networked and distributed learning; it will address the need to allow students space in which they can undertake collaborative and autonomous learning; it will address the need to support resource-based learning. Progress is already being made through the work being undertaken by IT Services and such pilots as the development of a 'collaboratory' in the School of Engineering. Accompanying the development of new learning environments there will be activities undertaken by the new Learning Development Centre to promote and support colleagues who engage with new learning methods and learning innovation.
4.3 Both within the University and externally, the University's Information Strategy will be aligned to its Learning Strategy and the Information Strategy Group will continue to seek industry and local authority partners to create and support projects that satisfy lifelong learning needs across the region, nationally, and internationally. The University's IT infrastructure will be enhanced to support networked and distributed learning. New service level agreements will be identified to support users. The University recognises that the effective delivery of IT will play a vital role in the successful realisation of its learning strategy. The availability and use of IT, therefore, will continuously be monitored and reviewed.
4.4 The changes taking place in higher education and the University's response to those changes through Building a Learning Community have significant implications for all staff and there are clear implications in relation to human resources and professional development. The University recognises a need to review all human resources policies and practices. There are a number of specific goals that are already identified, including The need to review the University's policies for rewarding staff who are innovative in teaching and learning The need to establish agreed performance standards in teaching and learning activities to support reward policies The need to ensure that training and staff development activities match the goals of the University with those of individuals in order to enhance continuously the professionalism of staff. Staffordshire University welcomes the proposals of the Booth Report and responded positively to the idea of a national Institute for Learning and Teaching. As soon as practicable a Teaching Portfolio to recognise and support continuing professional development will be introduced as will the requirement that all newly appointed staff should obtain a professional qualification in teaching in higher education. It is expected that all staff will engage with appropriate continued professional development. It is recognised that learning and staff development have a crucial role in enabling tutors to increase their knowledge, understanding, and competence in relation to new learning models. Similarly, it is recognised that personal and professional management skills will need to be developed by many staff to support the transformations that are taking place.
4.5 Staffordshire University recognises the importance of research to a scholarly community and to effective learning and teaching. The introduction of the new Graduate School from September 1 1997 has given a fillip to the University's research activity and to its taught postgraduate provision. At Staffordshire University, we believe that it is vitally important that research activity and teaching and learning development are integrated and that the innovatory features contained within the learning strategy are recognised as important and valid subjects for research and publication. Examples of the proposed integration of research with learning and teaching, therefore, include Submission in the RAE 2001 under unit of assessment 71 Training in learning and teaching for postgraduate part-time tutors, teaching assistants and all other part-time tutors Support for publications in appropriate education development media Support for research scholarships in learning and teaching
4.6 Learning Development has an essential role in the realisation of the goals of a Building a Learning Community. To support this role and to acknowledge the importance of education technology to support learning, a Learning Development Centre has been established, with sites in both Stoke and Stafford. The Learning Development Centre will: Be the focus for innovation in teaching and learning and the centre of a network of expert colleagues within the university and in our partner organisations Guide and disseminate research and development internally and externally in relation to effective learning and technologically supported learning Provide and manage a central facility to assist in the technological support of the creation and transformation of learning materials, including, as appropriate, development expertise, training and evaluation services Take responsibility for the development of core materials and resources that have the potential for university-wide application Exploit external funding and consultancy opportunities arising from internal innovation and development
4.7 Maintaining and enhancing the quality of students' learning experiences is as vital to the success of Building a Learning Community as all of the other elements in this integrated learning strategy. There will be a review of all of the University's quality assurance and control processes with the goal of preserving those processes that can be seen to maintain and improve quality and replacing those elements of quality assurance that can be demonstrated to be no longer appropriate. There will be a new quality assurance system for resource based and distributed learning which will be pilot-based. There will be new measures to ensure the successful outcome of Subject Reviews and there will be new measures to ensure success in the QAA Programme Specification initiative in relation to graduate standards. Staffordshire University is committed to streamlining the administration of programme approval and management. The preparation of a student handbook will become the focus for programme approval. This will have the added benefit of communicating more to students about their courses. Minimum requirements for such handbooks will be specified.
4.8 Good communication is an essential element in the development and implementation of Building a Learning Community for students, for staff and externally. The following activities will be introduced to satisfy the needs for information, publicity, dissemination, reporting, and publication. All staff and all students will have electronic mail accounts and there will be training and induction workshops to ensure their effective use. All award handbooks will be available electronically as well as print-based All modules will have a module handbook All Schools will publish learning and teaching newsletters, available electronically as well as print-based There will be a Building a Learning Community web-site, maintained by The Learning Development Centre There will be annual dissemination events throughout the University focused on learning and teaching. There will be a strategy for co-ordinating research, evaluation, and publication in relation to the introduction of the new learning strategy.
A considerable amount has already been achieved in the realisation of this strategy. Much still needs to be done. To ensure the success of this initiative there will be an annual statement of specific policies for the following year, available not later than July of each year. There will be an annual review of the learning strategy including the evaluation of its success in the previous year with an annual report, which will be submitted to Academic Board. Where appropriate, external evaluation of the initiative, or specific elements of it, will be invited.
