Mlo session 2 the funding landscape

1st December 2010Moving Learning Online: Context of Online Delivery Within the Funding Landscape 1
Moving Learning Online (Session 2)
Context of Online Delivery
Within the Funding Landscape
Ainsley Cheetham – Consultant
Gordon Millner – JISC RSC East Midlands

The Moving Learning Online Series
Series aim - to help you answer the question…
How can online delivery help us meet
our strategic and operational objectives?

Why Change?
• The economic climate
• Changing lifestyles and choice - particularly for adult learners
(including work patterns)
• The removal of Government funding to support some adult
learning
• The Government’s desire to achieve better value for money for
16-18 year olds
• The advancement of technology, its application and use in
everyday life
• Competition from other learning/delivery providers which will
open new opportunities to learners

The Reality
• Colleges will see real-term reductions in funding for all age
groups, type of learners and levels of learning
• The Government funding strategy is changing and the use of
Guided Learning Hours as a measure of efficiency in financial
terms will be less important than achievement of qualifications
and job outcomes
• The QCF has made it easier to study in bite size portions and
uses the Rules of Combination to suit the learner’s job role or
career aspirations
• The cost of delivery needs to fall, whilst the utilisation of staff
needs to increase, in some part achieved by changes to
employee terms and conditions

What Can Be Delivered
Using Technology?
• Online learning
• Online submission of work and marking
• Assessment
• Question-and-answer sessions
• Conference calling and tutorials
• Research papers and background reading before
and after a group classroom or online session

The Advantages to Learners
• Learning to suit students’ own circumstances
• May improve retention and achievement
• Maybe more cost effective in terms of fees and
expenses
• Access to learning and feedback via on-line materials
and research information
• Builds a brand loyalty for the learner

The Financial Case (1)
In view of the rules and the new freedom and
flexibilities introduced by the coalition Government,
how does a college move its curriculum offer to
increase a more demand-driven model, whilst
ensuring financial viability?

College and private training providers’ funding arrangements for
England are based on qualifications which appear on the
Learning Aims Database (LAD). This database provides a
funding rate for all qualifications which both the YPLA and the
‘Agency’ will fund.
The funding rate is applied at either a ‘listed’ or ‘unlisted’ rate,
depending on the data provided by awarding organisations and
delivery analysis of provider returns.

For listed provision, the funding rate is applied irrespective of the
GLH delivery subject to a minimum threshold of 6 direct hours for
Adult learners and 9 direct hours for 16-18 year olds.*
Under Train to Gain and Apprenticeship rules, no minimum
threshold applies.
Therefore if listed provision is delivered either wholly or partially
by technology, the funding rates remain subject to certain
conditions (including value for money).
*YPLA Funding and Guidance 2010/11 Rates and Formula, page 6
paragraphs 11 and 12.

Staff Utilisation Example
A provider with a traditional classroom-delivery-hours contract for
staff delivers 864 hours per annum in 12 lesson/sessions of 2
hours over 36 weeks
By changing the delivery to 12 lessons/sessions of 1 hour for 6
weeks and 2 hours for 30 weeks, then the delivery-hours saving
would be 72 hours in the year.
Learners would be set learning via technology and, for the first 2
years, staff would be given the 72 hours to develop and upload
learning materials to the provider portals for learners to access.

Staff Utilisation Example - Savings
In year 1 and 2, there will be no savings planned, although in
year 2 you may expect to see 30-50% saving against year 3
Based on an average delivery hour cost of £50 per hour,
expected savings after 3 years would be 72 x £50 = £3600 per
staff member
If a provider engages with 100 full time lecturers to utilise new-
technology delivery, then the annual saving in year 3 will be
£300,600.

Staff Utilisation Examples - Costs
Additional IT facilities - costs already in provider’s budget.
Additional out-of-class support (including learning mentors in
open learning centres) estimated at 2 full time staff in open
learning centres at approximately £40k in total.
Development cost and training to support the staff as they
develop resources in year 1 and 2 estimated at £50k for release
from other duties or cover.

Additional Potential Income
• Sales of specific training material to business
• Sale of expertise to industry by up-to-date staff who
developed the materials
• Access to the on-line sale of learning materials
worldwide

Organisational Benefits
• Motivation of staff – they will get something back for the effort
they put in, including changing working patterns for many staff
• Becoming a more responsive provider using technology to
drive change
• Use of internal expertise to expand the local community and
job market via a new learning culture
• Better use of limited Government funding
• Introduction of potential new streams of income

Where to Start? (1)
Start with the converted and current champions.
Recognise what they have achieved but question if it
fits into the new flexibilities and freedoms. Is it cost
effective? What savings have been made to both the
institution and the member of staff?
Undertake a risk assessment of changing the delivery
culture within your organisation.

Where to Start? (2)
Provide time outside of the present teaching time for
discussion and development. You will need to free up
staff from other administrative duties for them to have
time to consider, plan and trial.
Prepare a paper for senior managers and governors
about the opportunities. No doubt this will sit alongside
the strategic papers in your curriculum governors’
packs and, eventually, the proposal to shift the
curriculum delivery methodology should gain full board
approval.

Finally
Many talk about changing delivery styles and patterns
but few as yet have understood the financial
advantages of using technology to improve delivery,
success and the opportunities for new market sales.
Many managers have understood the costs of such an
activity, but failed to effectively implement the change.
The climate of training-and-skills funding is changing.
Do not be left behind or wait for things to happen. We
know that achieving more for less and delivering better
value for money is now key to everything we do.

What Next?
Visit the Moodle course that supports this series at:
http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk/
Book to attend the next session:
Pedagogy and Online Learning (12th
Jan 2010)
http://www.kent.ac.uk/rsc/events/2010/12-01-2011-mlo-
pedagogy-&-online-learning.html
Talk to your RSC about the support available to help your
strategic planning to make moving learning online a reality
JISC RSC East Midlands support@rsc-em.ac.uk
JISC RSC South East support@rsc-southeast.ac.uk

Mlo session 2 the funding landscape

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