9.1 Higher education

The first phase in our higher education e-learning programme consists of projects and initiatives in support of the new honours degree in social work. Sixty-six universities in England can now offer the new degree-level professional qualification in social work, in a phased development that started in autumn 2003. Individual HEIs each have their own strategic approaches to e-learning, which will be the primary influence/driver for social work departments. Our initiatives therefore need to build on existing provision and provide resources compatible with existing approaches.
Our programmes in support of the degree will focus on three action areas:
- content development
- skills development
- delivery platforms and systems.
Our work will take account of the work of HEFCE and its associated programmes in this area.
Content development for the social work degree

A content development programme in support of the social work degree needs to provide the kinds of flexible materials that support educators in their own teaching approach: overly prescriptive course-based materials are not well received in the higher education context.
A development programme must incorporate a scoping and auditing function to assess what materials currently exist. The programme could have both an originating and an enabling role. This would involve both direct commissioning of materials and funding others to develop theirs, subject to quality assured standards. All supported and developed materials should be freely accessible - careful consideration must be given to issues of intellectual property rights management and commercial exploitation.
We also need to ensure that the content addresses clearly defined learning needs. We will therefore aim to:
- develop learning objects and other flexible resources addressing specified learning outcomes, rather than entire e-learning courses
- ensure educators are involved in commissioning and drawing up specifications
- ensure both educators and learners are involved in testing/trialling
- design resources to solve particular educational problems
- accompany each resource with educator/tutor documentation.
An e-learning strategy for social care must support both quality and innovation in learning content. Quality assurance processes need to take account of technical standards and specifications supporting interoperability, accessibility (so that resources are accessible to students with special needs as far as possible) and usability. The strategy must also support pedagogical innovation in e-learning in both content provision and assessment. Different specialist areas will call for different forms of learning and teaching resources; in particular, a focus on quality content should go hand in hand with the development and support of learning communities and communication networks - teacher to learner, teacher to teacher and learner to learner.
Negotiating the interfaces and barriers between learning systems within higher education and systems within the wider workforce will be a significant challenge for this strategy. The PLTF and the TopssEngland-led Learning Resource Centres have potential roles to play in supporting learning networks that span both higher education and workplace environments, including e-learning networks.
Skills development: students and educators

The requirements of the social work degree for students to be competent in ICT skills to the level of the ECDL or equivalent (GSCC 2002) are a significant step in preparing social workers not only for the use of ICTs in social work practice but also for the use of ICTs in further learning. Additional information literacy and 'soft' communication skills using electronic means are also required by the degree. The development of these skills should be done in a framework that is specific to social work. Institutions are taking a variety of approaches to addressing these requirements, although it is too early to assess their impact overall on student skills.
Enhancing the skills and understanding of social work educators and trainers in effectively embedding digital learning resources into the social work degree curriculum is key. Some initiatives within higher education generally seek to do this, but only the Social Work and Policy (SWAP) subject centre of the Higher Education Academy has a social work-specific remit.
SCIE is planning to commission training programmes for HE educators in England. These programmes should include training in:
- developing and using high-quality content
- inclusive learning
- planning and managing online events and places (e-moderating)
- planning and managing online assessment (e-assessment).
The Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education is currently developing a programme of educator support for the nine Scottish institutions offering the degree (Stor Curam 2004).
Delivery platforms and systems for the social work degree

Well over 80% of HE institutions have VLEs or MLEs. Take-up and use of these environments for teaching is by no means uniform between institutions and between faculties and departments. We do not have detailed data on how many social work departments currently use VLEs/MLEs as an integrated part of their provision. Nonetheless, institution-wide teaching and learning and ICT strategies are increasingly converging in all subject areas, including social work.
The programme will support educators in the use of the systems already existing in their institutions, and ensure that the content we develop is readily available to educators for import into those systems. This is likely to require the use of a learning object repository/ies, purpose-built databases that allow the storage, cataloguing, searching and retrieval of items of learning content that can be seamlessly integrated into institutions' own learning management systems.
We need to recognise the limitations of institution-specific learning management systems in higher education. As one example, practice-based educators and assessors are a critical part of the education partnership for the social work degree. Two hundred days of practice-based learning are required for all social work students, managed and supported by practitioners. However, in many instances, practitioners cannot easily access the VLEs hosted by the HE institution, often due to restrictive licences and/or terms of use from the commercial suppliers.
A strategic approach to e-learning across the sector must support a strong commitment to joining up and non-duplication wherever possible, to facilitate communication between organisations and to open up access to and re-use of learning materials.

SCENARIO: Teaching social work degree students about genograms

Nigel

Nigel is a lecturer in social work teaching the social work degree. His first-year students need to learn about genograms. Genograms are family diagrams - similar to family trees. They are used by social workers to show an overview of service users' family relationships.

Nigel's teaching

Nigel locates a web site that provides teaching resources for the social work degree. He searches for 'genograms' and is pleased to find a specific learning object about them. The learning object is a series of animated pictures illustrating each of the elements and symbols in a genogram, their meaning and how they build up a picture of a family. The students then use a 'drag and drop' self-assessment about their understanding of the symbols and their use. Nigel downloads the object from the web site and places it within the university's own online learning environment.

Nigel decides to add two additional tasks. After students have worked their way through the learning object, they are then asked to develop a genogram of their own family and to place this on the online course discussion board. He also asks students to consider the issues of sensitivity and confidentiality they encounter when developing a diagram of their own family, and to think about how this might influence their practice. Finally, Nigel asks the students to consider a case study - which he had previously downloaded from the social work learning website - and to develop a genogram representing the family in the case study. These genograms are discussed in class, and are posted with comments on the class online discussion board, so that students can see how their peers have approached the task.

Benefits for Nigel

The genogram learning object provides Nigel with a much quicker route to giving students the basics on the topic, and enables him to spend more time thinking about tasks that help students put the techniques into practice and consider some of the contextual issues surrounding the genogram tool itself.

The sharing of the genograms online and the discussion surrounding them also enables students to learn from each other and to think critically about the genogram and its use.

This scenario is based, with permission, on an existing learning object under development by the Stor Curam project. For more information see www.storcuram.ac.uk

SCENARIO: Information literacy for the social work degree

John

John is a 28-year-old student who has enrolled for the social work degree. English is his first language, and he has good speaking, reading and writing skills, as well as computer skills.

He used to work in a bank, but had often considered social work, and when he read about the new degree option, this persuaded him to make the change.

John's learning

As part of the social work degree, John is required to develop his information literacy skills. In his first term, he does a social work information literacy module, which has been developed jointly by his university social work and information management departments. The module assesses and develops the students' ability to locate, evaluate and use information for a task specific to social care - in this case, find information concerning a specific client group from a range of sources.

This module is conducted through a combined lecture series and web-based programme. First, John completes a 'diagnostic' test -a questionnaire that asks him to complete a number of tasks, such as basic word processing, sending of e-mails, basic web navigation, basic and advanced use of search engines, evaluation of the relevance of search engine results - in order to assess his ICT, searching and evaluative skills.

The results of this diagnostic test create a learning profile for John. He is interested to see that while he is competent in most areas of ICT use, he is less skilled in his use of search engines and in his ability to evaluate search results.

John pursues an online learning programme to address the skills gaps assessed in the diagnostic test.

At the same time as pursuing this individual programme, John is assigned to a group of fellow students who must jointly produce and electronically submit an essay. The group's task is jointly to explore and evaluate the social construction of specific service user groups using resources found online. The group must communicate only via e-mail and bulletin board in order to approach this task, and submit a single essay, jointly authored, for assessment.

Benefits for John

John gains valuable experience in the dynamics of group working, improves his ability to use search techniques on the world wide web, better understands some of the social skills needed for online communication, and has the satisfaction of helping some of his fellow students improve aspects of their information literacy skills.

This scenario is based, with permission, on an existing module at London Metropolitan University. For more information see www.ilit.org/level2/swil.htm

SCENARIO: Resources for service user teachers

Surinder

Surinder is a thirty-five-year-old woman who has used mental health services for fifteen years. She is a member of a network of mental health service users and their allies involved in teaching and research. Through the network, Surinder has been involved with the social work degree, jointly delivering sessions with social work teachers on mental health user perspectives. The social work programme is developing its online learning environment and wants to ensure that its service user teachers can play a full part in this development.

Surinder's learning

Surinder has the opportunity to acquire some basic skills in using computers, utilising an introductory module for students and staff devised by the programme's e-learning manager. This module is provided through a face-to-face basic introduction, followed by online opportunities to consolidate and build on basic skills. Surinder uses a computer in the user network office to do this, as she does not have facilities at home.

Benefits for Surinder

Surinder gains new knowledge and skills from the module. She finds that she is able to access information on social work programme modules and use a number of relevant websites to update her knowledge and prepare for her joint teaching on the programme.

She is also able to interact with students and colleagues online to help them develop their knowledge and understanding of service user issues outside of classroom hours.

Her CV as a trainer is enhanced, reflecting her successful completion of the introductory module and the new ways she has found of using her knowledge and skills. Because of her learning, she finds herself being used as a resource by other service user colleagues in the network, as well as with the students and staff that she is working with.

This scenario is based, with permission, on an existing module at the University of Birmingham School of Social Sciences. For more information see www.socialresearch.bham.ac.uk