11. Conclusions
A version of these is in this report’s executive summary, phrased in less technical language.
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Whatever the likely range of pedagogic strategies, business models and market demographics for the UK e University, there are e tools (software systems) that can deliver the required pedagogic and business strategies.
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For most approaches, there are a good variety of vendors; they are keen to offer solutions; and in some cases they have already have large-scale reference sites relevant to the e University.
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A critical mass of vendors are closely in touch with pedagogic issues – they often seem to be those who derive from, or are closely linked to, universities. Many other vendors are not in touch with such issues.
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At present only a few vendors have HEI sites in the UK making large-scale use of their products. It could be unwise to choose vendors who do not have a track record of large-scale implementation in situations similar to the e University.
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The UK university sector is now not the most advanced user of e tools in all ways – sectors such as FE, training and schools are in specific ways moving faster. Thus tools developed for those sectors – knowledge management, easy development of content, performance support, competence testing – may be relevant also to the e University.
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Most of the insights from research are steadily working their way through into products or pedagogic practice (among vendors who are early adopters).
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The e University should build on a basis of Web-based learning. There should be no overall dependence on storage media (such as CD-ROM and DVD) for delivery of e University courses; but these media will be relevant as an adjunct to the Web (as will text-books and face-to-face teaching).
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The issues of how, and to what extent, to move face-to-face teaching towards online teaching are now reasonably well understood by experts. (See section 10 in particular.) One can expect to reduce the proportion of face-to-face teaching in the e University as technology advances and social conditions change. With diffidence, some specific suggestions might be as follows. In the first three years of operation, face-to-face tutorials (1 hour in length) should also be offered via a network of learning centres; this policy to be reviewed at the end of that period.
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All e University systems should be oriented to supplying services to PCs. It is accepted that there are a number of “rivals” to PCs emerging on the market – interactive television, mobile devices, “Internet appliances”, etc. – but their penetration is still at the niche level in terms of relevance to e learning. Students of the e University should be assumed to have a PC of the general standard sold today for home or multimedia educational use, including a modem and printer. (Such PCs in the UK cost less than £1,000 including VAT.) PCs bought today should be able to adapt to higher bandwidth connections, which will be available in the next year or two in some countries. In technical terms, we recommend that the target user is assumed to have a PC which can render Web pages delivered “flat out” over a 56 kbps link. By “higher bandwidth” we mean the capability to deliver full-motion video, both in real time and as file attachments for later replay.
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All e University systems should be capable of delivering material in English and also the top 10 other languages in the world, measured in terms of likely student numbers for the UK e University.
Commercial Conclusions
This was not a procurement, and thus we have not provided detailed feature-by-feature comparison across all the vendors who responded. We have actually left out much material from vendors which we judged did not add anything useful to our understanding.
Indeed, the survey was not even a pre-procurement to provide a short-list of organisations who might later tender – the aim was to find out the state of the art in pedagogic and technological aspects of e-learning in HE and FE and identify trends, not a beauty contest between vendors.
However, inevitably some conclusions can be drawn about which vendors appear – at this point in time – to be suitable for consideration for e-tools in the e-University.
These conclusions are not given in this public version of the report.
Appendix A: Vendor Survey Methodology – The Survey Letter
The following is a typical letter to a vendor.
Attention: XYZ Company
Re: ABC product
Dear X
The survey is being sent out to vendors [and some others] who, in the view of the Study Team and their advisors, have systems that are likely to be relevant to the UK e University. Currently this is envisaged as being a world-wide mainly Web-based operation oriented to learners at home (but not excluding other locations), which may grow to around 100,000 learners. If you are interested in replying, please read on…
The deadline for receipt by email of completed survey forms is 2300 hours UK time on Friday 30 June – please email replies to p.bacsich@shu.ac.uk
As soon as you receive this email, please confirm receipt to p.bacsich@shu.ac.uk – in this email you may wish to nominate the particular person who will provide your final response.
Please also in this email alert us to any issues of non-disclosure.
Thank you for your help.
Professor Paul Bacsich
on behalf of the Higher Education Funding Council for England
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Attachment 1: e-tools-survey2.doc – the survey form.
Attachment 2: e-tools-briefing2.doc – a briefing to vendors.
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Appendix B: Vendor Survey Methodology – The Preamble HEFCE e-Tools Survey (Pedagogic, Assessment and Tutoring) Preamble Purpose of the Survey
The purpose of this survey is to provide input to a report on e-tools to inform the planning of the UK e-University. (A separate document gives more details.)
The survey is going out to those vendors who, in the views of the Study Team, have systems that are likely to be relevant to the UK e-University as currently envisaged.
The deadline for receipt of this survey is midnight UK time on Saturday 17 June.
Description of the Report
The report that the Study Team will create, based on the vendor survey and their other desk work, will contain the following sections:
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A description of the current technological developments and options that are relevant to the virtual delivery of the UK e-University. This will include activities in the public and private sectors in UK, Europe, North America, Australia and beyond.
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Commentary on likely future developments and the timetable for these.
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Commentary on the state of play in testing or using such technologies in real world situations (UK and non-UK), including any evaluation reports.
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A summary of the content (for example, by subject) already available.
Size of the e-University
A number of vendors have asked about the expected size of the UK e-University. This is not the topic of this survey and is under study by another team which has not yet reported; however we appreciate the need for vendors to have guidance. As a working assumption, the UK e-University may grow over 5 years to have 100,000 students online.
A Note on How to Fill in the Survey
As soon as you receive this survey, please confirm receipt to [email address]
Completed surveys must be sent in Word format (or a format readable by Word) to [email address] by Saturday 17 June.
From now on the parts in blue italic should be replaced by your text. Wherever possible give URLs to provide extra information. If you have to, you may attach additional files to your reply, but the Study Team will focus on the main reply file. Any additional information sent by email should arrive by Saturday 24 June.
Please also send by “snail mail” a full set of literature on your product to:
Professor Paul Bacsich
e-tools survey, c/o Virtual Campus Programme
Sheffield Hallam University
City Campus, Sheffield, S1 1WB
United Kingdom
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