Research

The lessons learned are firmly grounded in the research conducted within ADELIE. For the purpose of informing policy and strategy, these lessons can be summarised as follows:

ADELIE’s success is based on an incremental approach to institutional change, based on timed interventions with small, discipline-specific course teams.

A change agenda deeply grounded in a research agenda, as exemplified by ADELIE, is effective and appropriate to an academic institution. It generates credibility and buy-in from colleagues across disciplines.

Interventions are not limited to Carpe Diem events. The engagement and scaffolding process for course teams starts long before Carpe Diem and continues until several weeks after the workshop. Thus, a fruitful partnership between the ADELIE and the course teams develops, which can be conceptualised as shown in the Framework for Intervention (JPG).
In designing for e-learning, staff attitudes to learning and knowledge of pedagogy proved more important than interest in or competence with technology.

The factors that differentiated one subject team from another were not disciplinary but attitudes to and knowledge of teaching and learning.

In order for the interactive functionality of the technology to be used to the full, more institutional provision for teaching is needed so that student-to-student on-line interaction is supported as a key lever for effective learning.

Institutional encouragement for changes in assessment practices is needed to support active and participatory learning, and more specifically, formative assessment.

There is a lack of commonality in attitudes within teams, leading to difficulties in planning courses as teams. Staff need extensive support in collaboratively designing their courses and planning their teaching.

Participants learned a lot from Carpe Diem. Observation and interview data indicate that the design of the workshop was successful and its impact on course design and teaching practice was significant.

Institutional and departmental support are central to promoting team planning.
A robust, constructively critical Steering Group is key to the success of a project like ADELIE. Regular contact with SG members, both in the form of meetings and electronic correspondence has been invaluable for ADELIE.

Outcomes

Documents, models and other outcomes of the ADELIE project are available at Outcomes
Links - Websites, blogs and projects that ADELIE has found useful or forged partnerships with.

Capacity building

Stated outcome	Achievement in Year 1 (to Sept 2007)					Evidence
	1	2	3	4	5
Improvement of University’s benchmarking scores				X		New benchmarking scores show significant improvement.
Wider use of learning technologies and online activities				X		Courses being re-designed across 11 departments. Sharp increase in the usage of the Media Zoo since ADELIE began.
Improved staff capability in learning technologies & pedagogical design					X	Staff much more aware, capable of making autonomous decisions and willing to engage in team-redesign of their courses. Almost 200 academic colleagues reached through ADELIE.
Increased awareness of small course teams working together			X			Benefit of ADELIE on small course teams recognised and acknowledged across university.
Enhanced familiarity with technologies & access to good sample material				X		Staff able and willing to justify the use of a range of technologies. Exemplars made available online for peer collaboration.
Increased likelihood that individual staff will contribute to the field				X		Staff more interested in pedagogical innovation using learning technology, willing to showcase, blog and publish their experiences.

Table: ADELIE capacity building outcomes

1 = not achieved; 2 = achieved to a limited extent; 3 = achieved to minimum requirements; 4 = achieved in full; 5 = exceeded expectations.

Confirmation of the new benchmarking scores are not yet available