Case Study
Using the WebBased e-ILP to raise the achievement of off-campus learners: The Tamar Valley Consortium experience.
"The Tamar Valley Consortium (TVC) has been in existence for over 20 years and enables 17 schools to extend their curriculum offer by using the facilities of three colleges of FE and 22 private training providers. Based in Plymouth and serving its 'travel to learn zone', the TVC creates opportunities for those in the 14-19 age group to access an additional 90 different work related learning qualifications. Currently 1,054 young people are learning with the TVC (January 2009).
The achievement rates for learners on the TVC programme had levelled off from 2004-2007 to around 65% and this level was proving difficult to exceed. During this time the TVC team explored many lines of attack to improve attainment. Partial success rates were running at 80% and this was taken as an indication that these young people had the potential to succeed.
The difficulty lay with the communication gap that followed the physical break when a learner went off-site. We had been using paper-based methods for registering students and reporting progress. Absences were telephoned through to schools on a daily basis but there was often a delay in the information reaching the right person. The providers were frustrated that poor attendance and other reported concerns were not acted upon with sufficient urgency. We needed a more immediate means of communicating so that targeted support could be provided without delay.
Plymouth was introducing the WebBased e-ILP and we discovered there was a linked attendance and progress tracking module under development. It offered online registration, reporting and instantaneous communication of learner progress between all partners in TVC learning. We immediately agreed to pilot these extensions of the e-ILP, introducing the module in September 2007. Consequently, we soon had everyone registering online.
The success exceeded our expectations. School staff soon valued being able to view individual and group attendance on screen at any time, and the TVC office had full overview of all registers and could check that these had been completed on schedule.
At the end of the year we introduced the progress monitoring tool (eProgress Books) which we would be using to track progress. This was kept simple at first: what had the learner achieved and what were they intending to do next year? The providers completed this during the summer break and by September 2008 we had accurate results for every TVC learner. All records were broken; 79.8% of post-16 students gained full awards, 90.4% gained units towards their award and retention was held at 91%.
We are convinced that online attendance reporting has enabled us to shortcut the communication delay between the schools and off-site providers. Absenteeism was often a sign of external problems and the immediate relaying of registers 'flagged this up' allowing intervention to be timely and advised. There is an important message here for all types of collaborative delivery.
Online registering is now routine for all TVC partners and we are eagerly piloting online progress tracking. The fruits of this development will be shared in September 2009."
Robert Mountjoy
TVC Director
January 2009
Click here to find out more about the Tamar Valley Consortium.
