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Toolkit to harness students’ digital capabilities to support teaching, learning and assessment launched

Vikki Liogier, the ETF’s Head of Learning Technologies

A new toolkit to help providers harness students’ digital capabilities to support teaching, learning and assessment has been published by the Education and Training Foundation (ETF).

The toolkit offers a step-by-step guide to creating staff-student partnerships for use by providers and reflects the key findings from four pilots that took place earlier this year. It includes downloadable models and approaches, case studies, examples and tools, and is available free of charge.

The pilots, which were overseen for the ETF by the Strategic Development Network, were led by Basingstoke College of Technology, Bishop Auckland College, City Lit and Heart of Worcestershire College. They provided an opportunity for providers to test specific models of student-staff partnership, measure which are most effective in enhancing learning, and share the findings with the wider sector. The pilots were considered a success by staff and students alike, with feedback showing both a higher awareness of learning technologies amongst the teachers and how these might be used to enhance learning, as well as increased confidence and engagement amongst the learners.

Vikki Liogier, the ETF’s Head of Learning Technologies, said:

“We know, from listening to the FE workforce, that support to more effectively utilise new technologies in teaching, learning and assessment is a priority for many colleagues. We also know that many learners have high levels of technological sophistication. The programme gave providers the space to harness this, test different partnerships and approaches, and share this in a practical way with the rest of the sector.”

This work was carried out under the auspices of the ETF’s Outstanding Teaching, Learning and Assessment (OTLA) programme. It responds to the need to use digital and new technologies more effectively in teaching and learning, a training priority identified by the ETF-published Training Needs Analysis report. It also builds on the foundations of the ETF-published Professional Standards and Digital Teaching Professional Framework.

The toolkit and report (including an accessible version of each) can be downloaded from the ETF Excellence Gateway website. The report sets out the full practitioner research findings, allowing providers to delve into the detail of each project.


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