Welcome to the ucisa VLE Review Toolkit

Envisioning Specifying  Procuring  Implementing 

 

Delivering the benefits All resourcesAbout this toolkit
decorative image

 

 

Welcome to the ucisa VLE Review Toolkit

 

"The virtual learning environment is at the heart of the student learning experience, and making sure that you have the right VLE platform for your institution is of critical importance. There is now an incredible level of VLE review activity taking place in the sector - and much collective wisdom and experience has been gained by those who have been involved.

Over the years pedagogies change, technologies change, and student learning preferences change. But for many the VLE has remained static and choices made years ago may no longer be felt to be the right ones. Many institutions embark on VLE reviews in the hope that a new platform will be a magic bullet, and may learn the hard way that they should have done things differently.

Thankfully, we are able to draw on the experience of those who have been involved in reviews and avoid repeating mistakes.

The aim of this Toolkit is to distil the experience, insight and hard lessons learned into a digestible and practical form. It has been developed with input from heads of technology enhanced learning (TEL), project managers, change managers, procurement professionals and commercial VLE providers. Anyone considering running a VLE review should find much of interest - it is full of invaluable insights into the challenges, potential pitfalls, and the ways to achieve a successful outcome. As someone who is about to embark upon a review, I for one will be drawing on it heavily!”

Fiona Strawbridge | Head of Digital Education, University College London

 

About this Toolkit

When ucisa conducted its biennial survey into technology enhanced learning in UK higher education in 2016 it found that around half of the respondents had conducted VLE reviews over the last two years and a further 44% were planning reviews within the next two years.

Discussions on mailing lists, such as that for the Heads of e-Learning Forum (HeLF) also reveal that significant numbers of institutions undertaking VLE reviews are looking to learn from the experiences of others.

We have produced this Toolkit so you no longer need to reinvent the wheel.

The Toolkit is based on a series of interviews with people who have played a key role in conducting VLE reviews recently or who have been through this process a number of times, often in different institutions.

We look at topics such as the rationale for undertaking a review, how to run a review project, the technicalities of conducting procurement and making sure that you actually achieve benefit from all of this.

You can learn from the real-life experiences of institutions like your own and there are plenty of crib sheets and templates to take away and reuse.

Project Team

  • Julia Darnell, Former Director of IT Services, University of Sussex
  • Gill Ferrell, Lead Consultant, Aspire Ltd (Management and Innovation Consultancy for Education)
  • Sally Jorjani, Programme Management Office (PMO) Manager, University of Stirling
  • Farzana Latif, Technology Enhanced Learning Manager, University of Sheffield
  • Fiona Strawbridge, Head of Digital Education, University College London
  • Julie Voce, Head of Educational Technology, City, University of London

Fiona Strawbridge, Head of Digital Education at University College London led the project to develop this resource. The lead author was Gill Ferrell of Aspire Ltd, who also conducted the interviews with the institutions and suppliers listed below.

Anna Mathews, former Head of Policy and Projects at ucisa, was the project manager, with assistance from Sarah Martin, former ucisa Projects Administrator. Fiona Maclean, former ucisa Programme/Project Manager, led on the creation of the website.

The project was initiated by the ucisa Digital Education Group with support from the ucisa Corporate Information Systems Group and the ucisa Project and Change Management Group.

 

Toolkit Contributors

  • Andy Beggan, Dean of Digital Education, University of Lincoln
  • Rob Howe, Head of Learning Technology, University of Northampton
  • Sally Jorjani, Programme Management Office (PMO) Manager, University of Stirling
  • Farzana Latif, Technology Enhanced Learning Manager, University of Sheffield
  • Correy Murphy, Blended Learning Co-ordinator, Glasgow School of Art
  • Mark Pountney, Head of Business Technology and Innovation, London Business School
  • Andy Raistrick, Business Analyst and Project Manager, University of Huddersfield
  • Chris Turnock, Interim Director, Learning and Teaching Enhancement Directorate, University of Hull
  • Julie Voce, Head of Educational Technology, City, University of London
  • Richard Walker, Head of E-Learning Development, University of York
  • David Walker, Head of Technology Enhanced Learning, University of Sussex
  • Cyril Bedel, President, Edunao
  • Jeremy Cooper, Vice President Europe, Blackboard
  • Lise Grønvold, Head of Communications, Aula
  • Anders Krohn, Founder and CEO, Aula
  • Bas Ten Holter, Director, Higher Education Europe, Instructure
  • John Usher, Senior Manager, Global Proposal Team, Blackboard
  • Stewart Watts, Director of Sales, Europe, D2L (Desire2Learn)
  • Coles Wilkinson, Commercial Director International, ITS Learning

We would like to thank the following colleagues who have provided materials for the Toolkit, who were involved in early discussions about the Toolkit or who have acted as reviewers:

  • Melanie Barrand, e-Learning Support Officer, University of Leeds
  • Athina Chatzigavriil, Learning Technologist, London School of Economics and Political Science
  • Wendy Drake, Principal Project Manager - Vision4Learning Project, University of Bournemouth
  • Michele Farmer, Disability IT Support Analyst, Client Platform Services, Information Services Division, University College London
  • Mark Johnson, Director of IT, University of Glasgow
  • Matt Lingard, Head of Learning Technology, University of West London
  • Lindsey Martin, Assistant Head (Learning, ICT and Media Technologies), Edge Hill University
  • Kathy McCabe, Director of Information Services, Heriot-Watt University
  • Hans Oeloff, Director Centre for Educational Studies (CES), University of Twente
  • Michelle Plimmer, Senior Procurement Manager, University College London
  • Derek Robertson, Learning and Teaching Support Team Manager, University of Stirling
  • Tessa Rogowski, Assistant Director IT Services, University of Essex
  • Phil Rothwell, Learning Technology Developer, Liverpool John Moores University
  • Steve Ryecroft, Head of Learning and Teaching Environments, Open University
  • Mike van de Steeg, Project Manager, University of Twente
  • Caroline Williams, Director of Libraries, Research and Learning Resources, The University of Nottingham
  • Gareth Wright, Director of IT Services, King's College London

This Toolkit was created by the ucisa Digital Education Group, who aim to identify areas of interest related to the use of technology in support of learning and teaching activities. The Digital Education Group provides a forum for the exchange of information on the development and use of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), primarily through events and best practice guides but also through a mailing list and informal discussions.

If you have some insight you would like to share, if you have any comments on how we could improve this resource, or if you think we could add anything, please get in email us

Copyright

This publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Subject to the source being appropriately acknowledged and the licence terms preserved, it may be copied in whole or in part and incorporated into another document or shared as part of the information given, except for use for commercial gain.

The publication also contains resources from institutions; where this material is copied or otherwise reused, both ucisa and the institution concerned should be acknowledged. The information contained herein is believed to be correct at the time of issue, but no liability can be accepted for any inaccuracies. The reader is reminded that changes may have taken place since issue, particularly in rapidly changing areas, such as internet addressing, and consequently URLs and email addresses should be used with caution ucisa cannot accept any responsibility for any loss or damage resulting from the use of the material contained herein.

Disclaimer

The information contained herein is believed to be correct at the time of issue, but no liability can be accepted for any inaccuracies. The reader is reminded that changes may have taken place since issue, particularly in rapidly changing areas, such as internet addressing, and consequently URLs and email addresses should be used with caution ucisa cannot accept any responsibility for any loss or damage resulting from the use of the material contained herein.

Availability

The contents of this ucisa Communications Toolkit website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. It is freely available for you to use for non-commercial purposes.