One of the things that the UCL Life Learning team is trying to unravel is the complex issue of proof of learning.  Do Life Learners want credits, or is a simple UCL Certificate of Attendance enough?  Would they like their course accredited by a relevant institute?  Do they want all three??? And what about digital badging?

What seems increasingly obvious is that there is no one-size fits all approach here, with different groups of learners wanting different things.  The problem is complex as the “groups” are not necessarily distinguished by a single factor (e.g. profession), but also by their motivation for the learning, whether this is individual or driven by their employer.

The modular nature of any Masters programme makes the “unbundled” approach very attractive, where individual blocks of learning can be offered out as CPD to external learners and this can (and does) work very well in some cases.  Another option here is to split out the assessment costs, so that those who are not interested in gaining credits, can simply attend the learning at a slightly reduced cost.

Going forward, this may be the model that allows the flexibility required, particularly by large numbers of “mature” students, who simply cannot devote the time or financial resource to larger and more formal learning frameworks.  A recent article in the Times Higher entitled “Mature students: lifelong learning on life support?”, states that the number of mature students has declined by 37% between 2009 and 2013 and posits that tuition fees, global recession and real-term loss of earnings may be to blame.

What is interesting is that Universities offering more professional qualifications (often the post 92’s) do not seem to have suffered such a decline in numbers.  The statistics are interesting but probably only tell part of the whole story.  As we go forward with the UCL Life Learning strategy, we hope to gain more insight into what learners from different backgrounds and sectors really want and to be in a strong position to advise course developers on this.

To read the whole THE article, click here

In a recent article in The Guardian by Nancy Coleman, “Online learning: the UK’s scepticism is holding it back”, Ms Coleman states:

“The UK (meaning providers, learners and employers) needs to embrace online learning quickly if its higher education sector isn’t to be left behind on the international stage. Overcoming scepticism will, of course, require a clear basis of regulation and maintenance of standards for all online programmes and a clear sense of differentiation for students between the accredited and non-accredited. In the US that has meant all online providers needing to gain accreditation through one of the regional accreditation bodies or the Distance Education and Training Council in order to be taken seriously.”

It’s impossible to deny the demand for online learning courses.  Google recently published statistics ranking universities globally by the number of searches made for them.  The results do not mirror the traditional world rankings –  the fact that the University of Phoenix comes top is largely due to their broad portfolio of online learning proving that one of the most important things to those seeking education is access to the learning materials.  UCL come in at 12th in the search rankings, just below Mumbai.  The highest-placed UK university?  The Open University at number 3.

The article makes another interesting point about many of the US universities that are ahead of the game in offering online programmes.

“The other major perception barrier is student experience. In some ways, institutions can push at an open door. The digital basis of everyday interaction of any kind is second nature, and students quickly take to online opportunities for sharing, networking and exploring content. The issue is more of changing engrained university approaches to what works and being sophisticated about what they offer. A website with a message board isn’t going to cut it.”

This echoes the sentiments I recently heard expressed by Richard Noss, co-director of the London Knowledge Lab who said that it’s not enough just to recreate existing tools in a digital format (e.g. interactive Smart Boards instead of traditional whiteboards).  We should instead be thinking of how digital advances can uncover a whole new world of interaction that benefits learners and enhances their experience.

Read the whole Guardian article here

See the Google Search University rankings here

As we start to see autumn begin to arrive after a very welcome Indian summer, the UCL Life Learning team are ramping up activity around our new website which we are hoping will go live this side of Christmas, with a proper launch scheduled for early next year.  The new site will be THE place for interested learners to find out about short courses delivered by all UCL departments who have sent through information about their portfolio of activities.  The courses may be online, face to face or blended and could be week long intensive or once a week over 3 months.  We think UCL has something for everyone, whether they are professionals seeking training to help them do their job better or those simply interested in a subject for their own personal learning development.  We believe that the website will significantly improve discovery of courses by surfers and it will also provide a locked down staff site housing useful tools for UCL staff who are interested in developing and delivering learning activities under the UCL Life Learning title.

On that note, the Distance Learning and Life Learning Forum which we share ownership of with Matt Jenner in UCL E-Learning Environments will be held on 5th November from 14:00-17:00 in Chandler House.  We have a marketing expert from Google who will be hosting an interactive workshop showcasing all the Google insight tools (many of which are completely free) that can aid with researching the potential market when you have an idea for a course.  To sign up for this, please visit Identifying YOUR market- tips and tools 5/11/2014 

If you want any more information about how to include courses on the new website, or you would like UCL Life Learning to meet with you to give any more information about the service and assistance that we can offer to help develop your short course portfolio, please get in touch at a.pretlove@ucl.ac.uk

I got back yesterday from the World of Learning 2014 conference held at the NEC Birmingham.  Whilst there, I managed to meet with the UK Trade and Investment Officers for both India and Russia and also to meet with a Global Head of Training for the Portuguese equivalent of Tesco.  One thing they all had in common?  None of them had heard of UCL.  Now, for a University that is clearly top 20 worldwide (or top 5, depending on which rankings you believe), this is clearly a bit of a problem.  I’ve long suspected that the word “College” in the Institution’s title confuses the issue further and have heard that there is a drive towards the brand being simply “UCL”, itself not to be confused with the UEFA Champions League!

So the first 10 minutes of each meeting was spent explaining to my meeting partners just how brilliant and amazing UCL is and bringing them up-to-speed on developments to get our knowledge out there into the world through all sorts of Life Learning activities.  One of the key ways we can achieve some consistency regarding the kinds of offerings that the UCL Life Learning team is trying to promote, is to ensure that all of them are badged under our “brand”, UCL Life Learning, regardless of the faculty, department, Institute or format of the activity.   So for example we have been working closely with UCLC to ensure that all bespoke training provided by UCL and supported by them will be badged as UCL Life Learning.  In this way, we can ensure that employees who engage with training where the activity might be a tailored provision through UCLC will recognise the UCL Life Learning brand, if they decide to enrol on a course for their own personal development.

There is still some way to go before we manage to join up all the dots and some “dots” may resist – what I do know is that UCL has so much great stuff to offer in the world of lifelong learning and professional development.  We just need to get better at promoting ourselves.