The Blended Learning Consortium: democratic, collaborative development of high quality interactive learning content Speaker: Peter Kilcoyne, ILT director, Heart of Worcestershire College. Immersive learning Speakers: Reza Mosavian, head of learning technologies and open access and Tom Davies, learning technologist, both from Solihull College and University Centre. An insight into a spearheaded campaign to extend learner experiences by bringing in and embedding immersive experiences within the curriculum. There'll be an opportunity to discuss and share best practice around the adoption of virtual and augmented reality to enhance learner experience.

1. The Blended Learning Consortium:
democratic, collaborative development
of high quality interactive learning
content
Peter Kilcoyne, ILT director, Heart of Worcestershire College
6 March 2018 | ICC, Birmingham

2. Teaching and learning
excellence in a digital age
Blended learning consortium
Peter Kilcoyne, ILT Director
Heart of Worcestershire College
pkilcoyne@howcollege.ac.uk
6 March 2018 | ICC, Birmingham

3. Blended Learning Consortium
• Benefits of Blended Learning
• How the consortium works
• BLC Content
• Benefits of working as a consortium
• Future plans, international and HE BLCs

4. Why Blended Learning?
• Independent learning
• Digital literacy
• Flexibility
• Efficiency

5. SOLA Statistics
Level 3 Subsidiary Diploma in Health and Social Care 2016 - 2017
0.00
50.00
100.00
150.00
200.00
250.00
300.00
350.00
400.00
450.00
D* (30) D (9) M (5) P (8)
InteractionswithSOLAcourse
(Mean)
Grade Achieved
Interactions with SOLA Moodle Course
Grade Number Hits Total Hits Mean
Distinction * 30 11979 399.30
Distinction 9 2448 272.00
Merit 5 1392 278.40
Pass 8 2022 252.75

6. SOLA Statistics
Level 3 Extended Diploma in Creative Media Production 2016 - 2017
Interactions with SOLA Moodle Course by Grade Average
Grade Average Logged interactions total Mean Logged Interactions
Average of Distinction* 266 266
Average of Distinction 1173 234.6
Average of Merit 1136 227.2
Average of Pass 673 134.6
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Average of
Distinction*
Average of
Distinction
Average of
Merit
Average of
Pass
InteractionswithSOLAcourse
(Mean)
Student Grade Average

7. SOLA Statistics
Level 3 Extended Diploma in Applied Science 2016 - 2017
Interactions with SOLA Moodle Course by Grade Average
Grade Average
Logged interactions
total
Mean Logged
Interactions
Average of Distinction* 11791 907
Average of Distinction 4889 815
Average of Merit 1879 469.75
Average of Pass 538 538
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
900
1000
Distinction * Distinction Merit Pass
InteractionswithSOLAcourse
(Mean)
Student Grade Average

8. SOLA Statistics
Level 3 Extended Diploma in Business 2016 - 2017
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
140
160
180
200
Distinction *
(6)
Distinction
(8)
Merit (7) Pass (0)
InteractionswithSOLAcourse
(Mean)
Student Grade Average
Interactions with SOLA Moodle Course by Grade Average
Grade Average Logged interactions total Mean Logged Interactions
Distinction * 1125 187.5
Distinction 1265 158
Merit 682 97.4
Pass 0 0

9. Why a consortium?
• Lessons learnt at HOW College, issues with
commercial, free and homemade content
• Costs of developing high quality content is
too high for individual colleges
• We all have much the same content needs
• Benefits of sharing costs
• Developing capacity
• “For the sector by the sector”

10. Blended Learning Consortium- FE
How it works
• Open democratic partnership led by HoW College with democratic
decision making on content developed
• Annual membership fee of £5K, free to Specialist Colleges
• Members vote on content to be developed
• Staff in member colleges paid to write and develop content
(Involvement in this is optional)
• Sharing existing quality content with other members
• Members get all content developed, source files and later updates

11. Progress to date
• 97 learning providers have joined. This is nearly 50% of all UK Colleges
plus some ACLs, WBL, Specialist Colleges and 6 FCs
• Six rounds of content development completed or underway. Making up
over 1500 hours in 43 subject areas. 1100 hours developed, 400 hours
in development
• Members get all content plus source files – can repurpose and adapt
• 300 hours of existing college content being shared

12. About the Content
• Interactive learning objects
• Any device and platform
• Thirty one hour objects per subject
• Formative assessments in all
• HTML5 and SCORM
• Source files provided
• Customisable
• Not specification specific
• Stand alone (can be used in any order)

13. Benefits of this model of content
development
• Flexible usage – can used to fit in with individual
organisation, course and teacher approaches
• Accessibility
• Interactive and engaging
• Updated (not like milk)
• Tracking progress, attainment and completiom (Ofsted)

14. How is content being used?
• Blended Learning onsite
• Main qual, tutorial, maths and English
• Online learning
• Classroom
• Absence Cover
• Additionality
• Tasters
And many others

23. Voting Consultation
Curriculum
writing Editing
E-learning
production
QA & user
testing
Development Process

24. 97 Learning Providers and counting…

25. Blended Learning Consortium – current members

26. and some more…

27. BLC Community
• Termly meetings
• Annual Conference
• Sharing good practice
• Building capacity
• Niche collaborative projects
• Democratic “learning impact
award”
• Elearning industry
partnerships

28. Feedback from members
“The quality and the content of the BLC learning objects as well
as the ability to quickly install them into our SOLA courses has
made them an invaluable resource for the Grimsby Institute. They
save us huge amounts of time and are an incredibly cost-effective
way of having consistent and well-constructed activities.”
Graham Raddings, Learning Innovation Manager, Grimsby
College

29. Learner Feedback
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Ease of use
Easy to
Understand
Helpful with
Studies
Poor
Satisfactory
Good
Excellent

30. Learner Feedback
• “they are easy to understand”
• “Easy to read, contain key information and include plenty
of detail”
• “very effective for learning”
• “it was very informative”
• “making ron disappear”
• “its going to help my career”

31. Content Development
2015/2016

32. First round of development
• Digital Literacy L2
• Employability L2
• Employability L3
• English L2
• Engineering L2
• Engineering L3
• Health and Safety in Social
Care L2

33. Second round of development
• British Values and Prevent
• Health and Social Care L3
• Business Studies L3
• Sports L2
• Sports L3
• E-safety – Anti Bullying
• Beauty L3
• Travel and Tourism L2
• Enterprise L2

34. Third Round of Development
• Study Skills
• Public Services L2
• Hair and Beauty L2
• Travel and Tourism L3
• Early Years Childcare L3
• Interview Preparation
• Maths Contextualised for Vocational Areas
• Hospitality and Catering (L2)
• Hospitality and Catering (L3)
• Health and Care (L2)

35. Content Development
2016/2017
Higher Specification

36. Phase 1
• Plumbing L2
• Maths, FS L2
• Site Carpentry and Joinery L2
• Numeracy L3
• Public Services L3
• Brickwork L2

37. Video Content
• Sport
• Construction
• Public Services
• Motor Vehicle

38. Phase 2
• Computing L3
• Numeracy L1
• Sport L3
• Digital Technologies L3
• IT/Software Development L3
• Art and Design L2

39. Video Content
• Sport L3
• Engineering L3
• Maths L2

40. Content Development
2017/2018
Higher Specification

41. Phase 1
• Catering L3 – Tier 3
• ICT L2 – Tier 2
• Motor Vehicle L2 – Tier 2
• Health and Care L3 – Tier 3
• Plumbing and Gas L3 – Tier 3
• Engineering L3 – Tier 2

42. Video Content
• Early Years
• Plumbing L2
• Plumbing L3

43. Content Upgrades and Refresh
• New colleges join can get previous years content by
“back paying”
• Will be used to refresh and possibly upgrade content as
and when needed

44. The Power of the Consortium
Digital Economics or Buns vs Bytes
• Each college getting £485K+ of
content development for £5K
• Leveraged efficiency saving of £480K
per college
• Approximate Cost
– £7 per learning object tier 1
– £12 per learning object tier 2
– £14 per learning object tier 3

45. The Power of the Consortium
Collective Buying Power
Including
• 70% off Articulate Storyline
• 20% off ALT Membership and CMALT
• VLEs: Canvas, Moodle, ItsLearning
• 40% off Cengage e-books and textbooks
• 25% off Skills2Learn resources
• 20% off Lumici Slate learning platform
• Virtual College
• £15K Sponsorship from City and Guilds

46. Benefits to Colleges in the BLC
• Access to a large and growing collection of outstanding
vocational learning content at a small cost to help move blended
learning forward
• Developing capacity in content development if they chose to get
involved in this
• Sharing best practice across BLC community
• Savings though collaborative buying power on a range of digital
products and services

47. Moving Forward
• Continued growth
• New areas of development
• Different kinds of content?
• US, Australian and South
African BLCs?
• HE Consortium

48. International BLCs sharing content

49. Any Questions?
For more info -
pkilcoyne@howcollege.ac.uk
http://blc-fe.org/

50. Thank you!

51. Teaching and learning
excellence in a digital age
Teaching and learning excellence in a
digital age session title
Teaching and learning excellence in a digital age session subtitle
6 March 2018 | ICC, Birmingham

62. Thank you!
Any questions?