Off Campus Site Audit Tool

Abstract

This aim of this workpackage focused on the development of a tool to assess the readiness of sites for e-learning.

Edge Hill University is developing its portfolio of partnerships and collaborative provision, that is, any module, course or programme for which the University holds ultimate responsibility but is delivered, in whole or in part, by another organisation. Edge Hill's partnerships with FE colleges have grown considerably over the past 2 years; students on these programmes (most commonly foundation degrees) are viewed as 'Edge Hill University' students and therefore have full entitlements to learning resources and e-learning as appropriate to their programme. As contemporary education demands greater flexibility and choice, as well as shifting ownership for learning onto the students, e-learning is becoming more commonplace across Edge Hill and its collaborative partners. It is therefore used to support specific programmes in partner institutions but is also viewed as another tool in introducing FE students to the HE experience and developing their confidence. Each partnership is audited before partnership approval, and validated at yearly review audits. Part of these audits focus upon Learning support and IT infrastructure within FE colleges.

There are currently some quality assurance mechanisms in place to assess Off-Campus locations for partnership delivery arrangements. Having liaised with various staff from academic quality, collaborative provision, and Learning Services liaison staff, we identified areas within the processes of the formation of partnership delivery and the consequent annual site audits, that we felt could be developed to provide a greater focus upon e-learning. Most notably a practical ‘test’ of the IT infrastructure of the off campus locations will identify the capabilities of accessing e-learning materials hosted by EHU. Historically, any problems with IT infrastructure/compatibility of systems are flagged when students begin study at FE sites. In other words, students may have problems accessing resources from FE sites that are hosted by Edge Hill (VLE, Library Catalogue etc). As such, the challenge is to identify these problems at an earlier stage i.e. auditing processes to prevent impacting upon the student experience.

You can learn more from the impact study for this workpackage here >>>

If you have a particular interest or if you would just like to learn more about our project, please contact Peter Reed (eQT Pathfinder Project Co-ordinator).

Last updated: 15-Aug-2008