Research in Distance Education: from present findings to future agendas. Evaluation and assessment strand presentation.

1. Benchmarking eLearning at the University of London Presented by Ayona Silva-Fletcher BVSc, PhD The Royal Veterinary College

2. Who led the project? Brian Sayer Liz Kemp Peter Marsden Stephanie Wilson Jay Reid - Visiting Scholar from Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand

3. Project background During 2007 the University of London participated in a UK initiative to develop benchmarks for eLearning (or eBenchmarking’), managed by the Higher Education Academy (HEA) on behalf of the Higher Education Funding Council. University used eMaturity Model http://www.utdc.vuw.ac.nz/research/emm/ Dr Stephen Marshall http://www.utdc.vuw.ac.nz/about/staff/stephen.shtml

4. RVC 141107.xls

5. ‘ Learning objectives guide the design and implementation of courses’: • in Delivery, this would require that learning objectives are stated explicitly to students both before and after enrolment; • in Planning, the learning objectives would determine the nature of learning activities, the provision of resources and methods of assessment; • for Policy Definition, there would be an institutional requirement for the use of learning objectives in curricula; • in terms of Management, the institution would assess student achievement against the stated learning outcomes; • for Optimisation, there would be evidence that information on student achievement is used to inform the design and redesign of programmes.

6. What is eBenchmarking? a standard by which something can be measured or judged; "his painting sets the benchmark of quality" Self-improving tool uses a common frame of reference against which practice may be assessed . Should define current performance with indicators of Strengths and weaknesses

7. Who participated in the project • MSc programmes in Veterinary Sciences (Royal Veterinary College) • MSc International Primary Health Care (UCL) • Undergraduate Laws (a consortium of Colleges) • MA Applied Educational Leadership and Management (Institute of Education) • MSc Information Security (Royal Holloway) • Undergraduate Economics, Management, Finance and Social Sciences (LSE).

8. The Steering Group Jonathan Kydd - Dean of the External System (CHAIR) John Dickens - Director of Learning and Development, EISA Rosemary Cardell - Director of Corporate Performance and Quality, EISA Anne Hamblin - Head of Graduate School, Royal Veterinary College Patricia Reynolds – Director, Centre of Flexible Learning in Dentistry, King’s College Hilary Ganley - Director, MSc Information Security, Royal Holloway Magdalena Jara - Learning Technology Fellow, Institute of Education David Pearson - Director, University of London Research Library Services Jill Russell - Senior Lecturer, MSc International Primary Health Care, UCL Sarah Sherman - VLE Service Manager, Royal Veterinary College Morag Shiach - Vice‐Principal for Teaching and Learning, Queen Mary College Ian Snowley - Director of Academic Services, University of London Research Library Services

9. • promoting reflection on teaching and learning practice • reviewing whether the University is fully exploiting the potential of learning technologies • providing a point of reference for the formative development of provision in this area. WHY DID THE UNIVERSITY DO IT?

10. How was it done? ..BenckmarkingVC 141107.xls

11. Results ..Benckmarkingndergraduate laws.pdf ..Benckmarkingndergraduate LSE.pdf ..Benckmarkingostgraduate UCL.pdf ..Benckmarkingostgraduate RVC.pdf ..Benckmarkingostgraduate Royal Holloway.pdf ..Benckmarkingostgraduate IoE.pdf

12. Final report at: http://www.londonexternal.ac.uk/quality/comte_zone/sys_tech_sub/stsc2/documents/stsc2_3.pdf

13. Conclusions: 8 Conclusions ..Benckmarkingonclusions.pdf Lack of eLlearning strategy Taken together, the results from these six programmes show that eBenchmarking can produce evidence to inform the development of strategy.