Nottingham Trent University

At Nottingham Trent University (NTU), we see elearning not as a separate activity but as a feature of how we learn in the 21st Century. It was important to us to embed online learning throughout the University. We want to help students to benefit from excellent open access materials from across the world; and, increasingly, to make our own teaching materials and lectures available electronically. We believe that online learning will progressively break down the distinctions between full-time and part-time study, between on-campus and off-campus students; this will help us not only to broaden the NTU university community but also to build and strengthen our lifetime engagement with alumni.

Our approach was both top-down and bottom-up. Before embarking on the change programme, we considered who would resist change and their motivations for resistance. We recognised that some staff would resist the move to online learning because they lacked confidence with the new technology and, from the outset, we trained staff to overcome this hurdle.

The top-down drive was led by the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Neil T Gorman, who had led the massive change programme at NTU that had transformed most aspects of the university’s work – including teaching, research, estate and IT infrastructure - and by the then Director of Libraries and Knowledge Resources, Professor Sue McKnight. Professor McKnight had been recruited from Australia which had long ago embraced e-learning and she was known for her determined approach to change in learning resources.

The bottom-up drive came from the enthusiasm and ingenuity of committed academics and developers. One of the first early projects was the Institutional Repository which encouraged staff to showcase their work to the world. The next university-wide project – the move from the in-house virtual learning portal (VLP) to the new VLE was a major initiative which initially attracted strong opposition. Many staff were anxious about the abandonment of the in-house VLP with which they were familiar and comfortable. They were also concerned that the transition to the new VLE would result in additional work. There was a strong effort on communication and training and the Desire to Learn VLE – now known as Nottingham Trent University Online Workspace (NOW) – went live in September 2008.

The benefits of NOW proved to be numerous. Academics took the opportunity to create teaching materials from scratch rather than transferring old material from the VLP. New tools were introduced – e.g. the Learning Object Repository where academics can share content, and the e-Portfolio where staff and students can store materials which showcase what they have achieved. The VLE consultative process built an e-learning community across the University. A Technical Information Literacy Induction (basic IT and VLE use) is now provided as part of the new student induction, and the university has provided e-learning secondments for staff.

An important aspect of NTU's strategic approach is that the university has set and enforced minimum standards for the online learning that it expects Schools to provide. An e-learning benchmark audit took place in 2006-07. This was the Pathfinder Project, and the follow-up audit took place in 2010.

In 2009, the Vice-Chancellor set the Schools a challenge and set the pace for change. Within a year, each School should showcase their online learning to him. Deans were supported in their preparations by the Learning and Teaching Coordinators, and staff took pride in presenting the latest developments to the Vice-Chancellor.

The change programme was supported by initiatives that encouraged senior managers to gain hands-on familiarity with the technology – e.g. the systems that supported the E-learning Steering Group were all web-based.

The Vice-Chancellor made presentations directly to many different staff groups about the importance of online learning, including deans, professors and academic team leaders.

2010-11 will see a number of major online learning initiatives across NTU including development of a university-wide system to facilitate e-assessment. From our experience, we are convinced that online learning will drive up quality in every aspect of learning and teaching and enrich the experience of all students.