Meetings and Issues

Had an interesting week that has involved a get together at Birmingham for those involved in JISC projects (see http://cetisllg.ning.com/) and a project meeting within two days of each other. Found that some of the same issues in our project are reflected in the community around work based learning including:

• Although Fds follow fdf models during validation by delivery they have changed, including the loss of the mentor role due to the nature of the learner and/or employer
• Learners can get conflicting information due to being part of a FE and a HE institution
• Learners & Tutors are confused about resources and support tools available to them from the validating institution
• Employers don't like other employers to know they are engaged with WBL
• Employers only want limited involvement in WBL
• Applications supporting learner administration are often not linked and involve duplication of work
• Good practice can only be replicated where all the conditions are the same, and therefore often needs modifying to fit the new purpose (audience, delivery method etc)
• Learners don't have access to similar technologies in the work place
• Course descriptors are often modified immediate need
• Course support documentation created to support validation and not the stakeholders involved in the award.
• Access and Authentication a big problem, not just across consortium's but with mentors, employers etc needing to access materials/ data

So its a list, a long one and most need some serious thought to being addressed. In most cases there needs to be a change in Business processes, and a change in policy (and to quote from Mark Stiles, there needs to be a change in perspective from restricting to enabling).

On a lighter note it is good to see the ning group grow and some of the inputs have been very interesting.